PWLit Finals

• Literary criticism is the comparison, analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation of works of literature
• Literary criticism


  An opinion, supported by evidence, relating to theme, style, setting or historical or political context
• Literary criticism usually includes discussion of the work's content and integrates your ideas with other insights gained from research
• Literary criticism may have a positive or a negative bias and may be a study of an individual piece of literature or an author's body of work
• Literary criticism is NOT a plot summary, a biography of the author, or simply finding fault with the literature
• Researching, reading, and writing works of literary criticism will help you to make better sense of the work, form judgments about literature, study ideas from different points of view, and determine on an individual level whether a literary work is worth reading
• Biographical Criticism


  Focuses on connection of work to author's personal experiences
• The Sociological Approach focuses on man's relationship to others in society, politics, religion, and business
• Sociological Approach


  Examines literature in the cultural, economic and political context in which it is written or received, exploring the relationships between the artist and society
• Marxist criticism often argues that all art is political, either challenging or endorsing (by silence) the status quo, and is frequently evaluative and judgmental
• Lawrence Schimel has lived in Madrid since 1999 and has published over 100 titles as author or anthologist, in various genres and for all ages
• Chloe Banks is the creator of one novel (THE ART OF LETTING GO, 2014), a small handful of prize-winning short fiction and two young boys
• "Pride" is a micro-fiction (2016) by Lawrence Schimel
• The Psychological Approach focuses on the psychology of characters
• Psychological Criticism


  Reflects the effect that modern psychology has had upon both literature and literary criticism, including the theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung
• Padgett Powell is an American novelist in the Southern literary tradition
• Gender criticism


  Examines how sexual identity influences the creation, interpretation, and evaluation of literary works
• In 1960's, the gender criticism approach began when feminist criticism arose
• Gender Criticism


  Based on common conceptions of gender
• Feminist Criticism


  Takes as a central precept that the patriarchal attitudes that have dominated western thought have resulted, consciously or unconsciously, in literature "full of unexamined 'male-produced' assumptions"
• At its most basic level, reader-response criticism considers readers' reactions to literature as vital to interpreting the meaning of the text
• Reader-response theorists share two beliefs: 1) that the role of the reader cannot be omitted from our understanding of literature and 2) that readers do not passively consume the meaning presented to them by an objective literary text; rather they actively make the meaning they find in literature
• Literature of the 21st Century refers to innovative literary works produced in the last decade. Contemporary writers wrote them, as they reflect technological cultural values in their works and come to terms with current themes or issues. These literatures often break the rules of traditional writing.
• Major Literary Genres


  • Poetry
  • Drama
  • Fiction
  • Non-Fiction
• Poetry


  An imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound and rhythmic language choices to evoke an emotional response. It has been known to employ meter and rhyme.
• Drama


  A composition in prose or verse presenting in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict more contrast of character, especially on intended to be acted on a stage: a play. It may be any situation or series of events having vivid, emotional, conflicting or striking interest.
• Fiction


  Literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation. Types of literature in the fiction include the novel, short story and novella.
• Non-Fiction


  Based on facts and the author's opinion about a subject. The purpose of non-fiction writing is to inform and sometimes to persuade. Its examples are biographies, articles from textbooks and magazines and newspapers.
• Illustrated Novel


  Story through text and illustrated images. 50% of the narrative is presented without words. The reader must interpret the images to comprehend the story completely. Textual portions are presented in traditional form. Some illustrated novels may contain no text at all. Span all genres.
• Digi-Fiction


  Triple Media Literature. Combines three media: book, movie/video and internet website To get the full story, students must engage in navigation, reading, and viewing in all three forms.
• Graphic Novel


  Narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using a comic form. The term is employed in broadly manner, encompassing non-fiction works and thematically linked short stories as well as fictional stories across a number of genres.
• Manga


  Japanese word for comics. It is used in the English-speaking world as a generic term for all comic books and graphic novels originally published in Japan. Considered as an artistic and storytelling style. Ameri-manga- sometimes used to refer to comics created by American artists in manga style.
• Doodle Fiction


  Literary presentation where the author incorporates doodle writing, drawings and handwritten graphics in place of the traditional font. Drawing enhances the story, often adding humorous elements.
• Text-Talk Novels


  Blogs, email and IM format narratives. Stories told almost entirely in dialogue simulating social network exchanges.
• Flash Fiction


  A style of fictional literature of extreme brevity. There is no widely accepted definition of the length and category. It could range from word to a thousand.
• Chick Lit or Chick Literature


  Genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. Chick Lit typically features a female protagonist whose femininity is heavily thermalizing in the plot.
• Six-Word Flash Fiction


  • Ernest Hemingway: For sale: baby socks, never worn.
  • Margaret Atwood: Longed for him. Got him, Shit.
• Blog


  A weblog, a website containing short articles called posts that are changed regularly. Some blogs are written by one person containing his or her own opinions, interests and experiences, while others are written by different people.
• Science Fiction


  A genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, a parallel universe and extra-terrestrial life. Often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations and has been called a "literature of ideas".
• Hyper Poetry


  Digital poetry that uses links and hypertext mark-up. It can either involved set words, phrases, lines, etc. that are presented in variable order but sit on the page much as traditional poetry does, or it can contain parts of the poem that move and transform. It is usually found online, through CD-ROM and diskette versions exist. The earliest examples date to no later than the mid-1980's.