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Types of Literary Theories

            
             Is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. The word "theory" has become an approach to reading texts. The modern sense of "literary theory" dates only to approximately the 1950s, when the structuralist linguists Ferdinand de Saussure began strongly to influence English language criticism. .
             Critical Theories.
             Deal with knowledge through interpretation to understand the meaning of human text and symbolic expressions including interpretation of texts themselves interpret other texts.
             New Criticism.
             Was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. According to new criticism, the literary text contains its own meaning within itself. Text is unified whole. There is nothing outside the text, everything is within the text. So for reader, there is no need to look outside the text. It doesn't require any elaborate process of placing it within a context. So it emphasized close reading of the text. According to new criticism, in order to understand text we have to detach the text from context. We should put our prior knowledge aside and the focus should be on close analysis of text. This movement belongs to an American critic John Crow Ransom, he introduce new criticism in 1941. He focused on the unity of text.
             Another new critic is W.K.Wimsat gave two ideas:.
             - Intentional fallacy.
             - Affective fallacy.
             New criticism discarded both terms. Intentional fallacy means there is no need to find out the intension of the author because text is unified. On the other hand Affective fallacy means there is no need to find out the affect on reader because we can't find out the stable meaning or universal meaning, if we look at the affect on reader. New criticism want to become objective in the nature instead of subjectivity. On the other hand, traditional critics focus on intention of the author.


Essays Related to Types of Literary Theories

1. Literary Genres

"It is not the quantity of observations but the logical coherence of a theory that finally matters."" ... Tomahevsky wrote: Works are divided into large classes which are subdivided into types and species. ... He summarizes his study on genre as follows: (1) Every theory is based on a hypothesis concerning the nature of literary works (2) A preliminary choice must be made as to the level on which to locate literary structures (3) The concept of genre must be qualified. ... However, more current theories of meaning take the view that definitions are based on prototypes T...

  • Word Count: 1508
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Research Methods for English and Literary Studies

The result of the analysis is then used to build or construct a theory. From the theory that is built, a new hypothesis emerges to explain the concept. ... Functions of Linguistic and Literary Research Linguistic and literary research exists to achieve the following 1. ... Improvement of knowledge: The present knowledge in linguistic and literary studies is very far removed from what it used to be in the past. ... It means that the fewer the statement, the better the theory principle of occamism must be applied in research. ...

  • Word Count: 10367
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3. Formalism

Many types of literary criticism abound, formalism plays on the theory that the pieces form is what composes its persona. ... Formalisms utmost priority is how certain aspects of literary works construct differing things by their nature. Interpretation of the literary material ought to be limited to the structural meaning of the piece. Formalism generally regards literature as an object, whereas other types of literary criticism see it as "text". ... Formalism, 5though criticized for unwarranted exclusion of history and context from literary analysis, has been very useful to many things, e...

  • Word Count: 455
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. The Development of Naturalism

This theory suggested that the sole purpose was based on scientific beliefs and reasoning. ... The publication of his literary work, On the Origin of Species, made the rest of the naturalistic world pause and consider the superlative points that were brought up through this literary masterpiece. ... His work offered extensive evidence supporting his theory and, ultimately, his beliefs. ... The poverty and immigrant filled cities and towns posed a new type of influence on the writers and their works. ... Naturalism in the 1800s was the most influential literary movement of the time. ...

  • Word Count: 910
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

5. The History and Theory of Anglo-American Literature

What is literary study? ... On the other hand, literary study is knowledge about literature itself. ... But these efforts only make literature and literary study come to a very complicated relation. ... But this effort replaced the pure literary criteria. ... Traditional literary works fulfill this nature. ...

  • Word Count: 5585
  • Approx Pages: 22
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. THE BRITON AND THE BRITISH TEXT

They marked the waning of the popular religious tract as a dominating presence on the meagre literary scene. ... Most of these articles visualised a new type of reader: the citizen of an independent state and not just the enlightened member of an ethnic community. ... His was the most popular British literary name in the period discussed. ... The Bulgarian literary milieu very often transformed totally the material from abroad according to its current uses. ... Carlyle appeared twice on the Bulgarian literary scene, both times as a point of reference . ...

  • Word Count: 1720
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Literary Definitions

For example the ultimate of these types of paradox lies at the heart of the Christian faith: that the world will be saved by failure. ... Some critical theory goes so far as to suggest that the language of poetry is the language of paradox. ... Queer Theory adopted a term of stigmatization ("queer" being a derogatory name for gay or lesbian individual). ... Gender studies, Gay/Lesbian Studies and the Queer Theory have delineated three broad areas of work in literary and cultural theory. ... It is an accepted theory in popular psychology that essentially every human in infact bi-sexual. ...

  • Word Count: 1750
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. Language, World in Western Lit

Western critical theory has got rapid development in the 20th century. Following the full development of Russian Formalism in the early 20th century, other literary theories, such as new criticism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, reception theory, structuralism, deconstruction, come into being. Although all the theories have their specific concerns, they concentrate on a number of questions, such as the locus of literary meaning, the status of the text, the role of the reader, the function of language in the text, the relation between literary and society (history). It is certain that all theorie...

  • Word Count: 3510
  • Approx Pages: 14
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. Ikhwan Us Safa (Brethren Of Purity)

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: The Monotheistic conquests brought the Arab Muslims into contact with various types of people and cultures that challenged their assumed Monotheistic method of thinking. ... How can we incorporate the philosophical theories into religion? ... These were the prevailing theories of Epistemology pertaining to the beliefs of mentioned groups. ... The literary translations that were taking place at that time created many 'Ifs' and 'Buts' in the pre conceived notions on different subjects amongst which the philosophical branch "Epistemology" was o...

  • Word Count: 1323
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography

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