LITERARY CRITICISM

• Literary Criticism


  The comparison, analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation of works of literature
• Literary criticism is essentially an opinion, supported by evidence, relating to theme, style, setting or historical or political context
• Various literary theories or approaches are developed as a means to understand the various ways people read texts
• Approaches in Literary Criticism

  • Formalist
  • Historical
  • Inter-textual
  • Reader-Response
  • Mimetic
  • Archetypal
  • Marxist
  • Feminist
  • Humanist/Moralist
  • Psychosexual
  • Biographical
  • Queer
• Formalist Approach


  Meaning is inherent in the text, all the elements necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself, the reader looks into the overall composition of the literary work as it is presented, the author and the conditions as to how it was written are all deemed irrelevant
• Historical Approach


  Seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it, relies heavily on the author and his world, the work is informed by the author's beliefs, prejudices, time, and history
• Inter-textual Criticism


  Seeks relationship or similarities of the main text to other available bodies of literature, compares the work in question to other literature to get a broader picture
• Reader-Response Criticism


  Literature exists as a transaction between the physical text and the mind of a reader, reading is a creative process, literary texts do not "contain" a meaning, meanings derive only from the act of individual readings
• Mimetic Approach


  Places primary importance on how well a literary work imitates life, often asks how well the literary work conveys universal truths and teaches the reader positive moral values and modes of personal conduct
• Archetypal Approach


  Assumes there is a collection of symbols, images, characters, and motifs (i.e. archetypes) that evokes basically the same response in all people, relies heavily in identifying symbols or connotations expressed by the words within literary works
• Marxist Approach


  Concerns with the analysis of the clash of opposing social classes in society, the ruling class (bourgeoisie) and the working class (proletariat), literature reflects class struggle and materialism, literature can work as a force for social change or as a reaffirmation of existing conditions
• Feminist Approach


  Assumes that literature both reflects and shapes stereotypes and other cultural assumptions, examines how works of literature embody patriarchal attitudes or undercut them, has as its ultimate goal to change the world by prompting gender equality
• Humanist Approach


  Examines poetry and art works against standard ethical and civil criteria, adheres to the humanistic and civil element in poems, dramas and other art work and evaluates the impact and influence of works of literature in a stringent moral context, believes that man is essentially rational, being gifted with intellect and freewill
• Psychosexual Approach


  Associates particular elements to be representations of the male and female genitalia, explains that anything longer that the wide represents the male phallus, anything wider that the long is the female reproductive organ
• Biographical Approach


  Begins with the insight that literature is written by actual people and that understanding an author's life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work, the biographical critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writer's life too far in criticizing the works
• Queer Criticism


  Rejects essentialism in favor of social construction, breaks down binary oppositions such as "gay" or "straight", follows postmodernists who declared the death of the self, attempts to rehabilitate a subjectivity that allows for sexual and political agency
• Philippine Poetry Diaspora


  • Soledad by Angela Manalang Gloria
• The poem Soledad by Angela Manalang Gloria is an example of Philippine Poetry Diaspora
• The poem Soledad by Angela Manalang Gloria is about a scandal where a girl loved too well and found her heaven in the depths of hell
• The poem The Gods We Worship Live Next Door is another example of Philippine Poetry Diaspora
• The poem The Gods We Worship Live Next Door is about the gods we worship living next door, being brown and easily catching cold, and dying one by one as we outlive them all
• The guide questions provided are to help understand the literary works using the various literary theories and approaches