Dr.M.Mazumdar

Definition : It began in the mid 1800s with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. They observed how the Industrial Revolution was changing society, creating vast wealth for factory owners while workers lived in poverty. Class Struggle, history as a series of struggles in between social classes is their study in the joint books. The two sections are called the bourgeois and the proletariat.  Marxism is a theory where society is shown divided into two halves which create tensions and inequality and may lead to revolution.  Socialism is a system where the government and a rich section control assets and industries and justify equality. Communism is the goal which Marxism aims at for a classless and stateless society where everything is equally shared in a utopian way. The private property is absent. USSR and China tried it.

Practical Criticism Definition: The focus is on text itself.  In the 1920s, Cambridge faculty, Richards experimented with undergraduate students by giving them a writing to comment. The poem's writer was hidden from the students so that the students had no prejudice. He experimented this to find out that students are not forced to accept our thoughts on the poem or any other writing. Paradox, Irony, Structure and Tension are the tools used while evaluating. As a result, the students remained completely depended on themselves. Reading is a private experience without effects of history, politics, etc. Empson said that writing should be separated from science. He then extended it to New Criticism. It was the fire from the extended spark of Practical Criticism. Key Persons: I. A. Richards  William Empson John Crowe Ransom Cleanth Brookes

Accept=to include Except= subtracting Access= approach Excess= extra Bare= hardly Bear= animal Course= subject related Coarse=rough Cast= throw Caste= social class Due= unfinished Dew= weather related Die= expire Dye= colour Heal= to embalm Heel= body part Meddle= mix Medal= token of award Paper= used for writing  Pepper= spice

Def: It is a literary theory and movement and which reacted to Structuralism and came in 1960s. It challenged fixededness of texts.  Key Persons: Derrida, Foucault, Barthes Key Ideas: Derrida, Focault, Barthes started Deconstruction in 1960s & 70s in France reacting to Structuralism. To Structuralists, all meanings are stable and believed in binary oppositions which was structural relation. For example:- Hot vs. Cold. But Post Structuralists think that there is no stable meaning and no binaries. They believe in hierarchy, not opposites. There is a chain of signifiers. For example:- King to Crown to Lion to forest to hunter to.... Meaning depends on the interpretor. There can be multiple interpretations. It believes in subjective realism. Favourism decides the words as per post-structuralists. It explores that how texts meaning through relationship, cultural ethos, and  reader's interpretation. Applications: It is informant with Marxism, Cybernetics, Knowledge economy, etc ...

Definition: This theory was preceded by Practical Criticism. It focuses on the reader as active interpreters. Until interpreted, the text has no meaning. Fish interprets this as "interpretive communities". What is horror book for one may be hilarious for another. "The Scarlett Letter" is about puritan society or a story of personal redemption. The individual reader and their reaction or response is the observant factor in this theory. The readers create the meanings. Reading is a transaction. They have their ideologies. Reader must be active and pay attention. But it can't be personal response but belong to collective response.  There is the Implied Author who hypothetically thinks of an Implied Reader. Key Figures: Stanley Fish Norman Holland Wolfgang Iser Roland Barthes Jauss

Feminism is the movement or  belief in the social, economic and political quality and rights of all genders. The social life was only reserved for the men. There were no economic or political rights given to women. Men could sell their wives in some parts of the world, eg- Germany. Even countries like UK and USA denied such rights. Thinkers like Rousseau thought women as idiots. Aristotle and Kautilya described women on similar lines. French Revolution witnessed women's participation too. But, no rights were declared for the same women. French author, Olympe de gouges's book "Declaration of the rights of Women" (1791) was the first to remind that women were equal partners with men. Mary Wollstonecraft's book came the next year. Soujourner Truth's book "Ain't i a woman?" talked about the equal rights of the black woman. Feminism is used in two premises: 1. Gender difference is the foundation of a structural inequality between men and women due to ...

T.S.Eliot's (1888-1965) "The Metaphysical Poets" (1921) Unification of Sensibility: It is combining of two things. Eliot used it for Metaphysical poets because his poetry combines intellect or thoughts and feelings. Whereas Dr. Samuel Johnson criticised the same poets for the same reason. His "Life of Abraham Cowley" states that where he rejected the metaphysical poets.  Eliot's essay popularised the genre which was rich with conceits. A conceit is an elaborate comparison between two very unlike things to create an imaginative connection between them.  Dissociation of Sensibility: It is the separation of two things. Eliot used it for 17th century writers. Their writings had either intellect as dominant or feelings were dominant. The amalgamation is not possible. The language in the essay is simple but elegant.

Alvarez Group of Poets: 20th Century category of Poets like Ted Hughes, Thom Gunn & Geoffrey Hill. Edward Alvarez has been the anthologist of the Alvarez company. They are a new group of The New Poetry of 1962. Sylvia Plath, Peter Porter and John Berryman were included too. Huges and Gunn are the most important in the list. Martian Group of Poets: These British poets supernaturalise or sensualise, use surprise imagery, defamiliarise or use alien-like descriptions of the common themes in their poetry. 1970s to 80s was the time span they have been runged. Craig Raine, Christopher Reid, Oliver Reynolds and David Sweetman are the Martian poets. They make everyday objects look strange. It started with Craig's publication of a poem "A Martian sends a Postcard Home" gave them the name. For eg, he calls books the 'mechanical birds with many wings.' So, this was an unconventional and unfamiliar way of describing a mundane or common thing like book. This also looks meta...

Michel Foucault: 1926-1984 French Philosopher, Historian, Social Theorist, Transdisciplinary Post-Structuralist (Rejected Structuralists' fixed meanings and accepted multiple interpretations) Postmodernist Essentialist Controversial Theorist. Also, known for his childhood traumas and certain perversions.  Criticised power, knowledge, discourse, institutions, social practices, etc. "Madness and Civilization" (1961): Traces the historical evolution of Madness in the Middle Ages through the 18th century. It was more a social construct.  "The Birth of the Clinic" (1963): Shows the development of modern medicine in the 18th and 19th centuries. It created a new way of looking at human bodies which he called the medical gaze which was a dehumanizing and sinister way of looking at the patient. The doctor saw the human body just as a set of organs, not a person.  "The Order of Things" (1966): Explores the underlying traditions that make knowledge possible durin...

Mikhail Baktin (1895-1975) Russian Philosopher, Anthropologist, Historian Mainly analysed Novels "Problems of Dostoyevsky's Poetics" (1929), revised in 1963: Introduces 'Polyphony' in Dostoyevsky's novels. Argues that Dostoyevsky created a new novelistic form where characters possess independent voice consciousness. Explores how characters are not subordinated. "Rabelais and His World" (1965) : Concept of 'Carnivalesque' as a literary mode that subverts and liberates from dominant styles structures. Examines how folk humour and carnival traditions influenced Renaissance literature. Speech Genres: Explores speech genres as recurring patterns of language use. Discusses the relationship between primary (simple) and secondary (complex) speech genres. Examines how utterancces relate to their contexts.   4 essays in "The Dialogic Imagination" 1975. "Discourse in the Novel", "Chronotope" (time-space coordinates), "...

Recurring symbols, patterns and narrative structures form the Archetypal world. Northorp Frye and Carl Jung (Jung's Collective Consciousness (eg: doctor wearing a white coat) influenced the Archetypal explanation with its psychological narrative. Frye talks about ' Modes ', if the Archetypes are high or low mimetic, romantic, mythic, etc. Joseph Campbell's introduces 'monomyth' in "The Hero with a Thousand Myth" (1949) influenced this theory too. Monomyth is about characters going through certain patterns. Anima and Animus (male and female) and Displacement Theory (mythic patterns become displaced and becomes underlying structure) of Frye emboldens the theory further. Shadow Archetype represents the dark aspects a bit more. It is suppressed or annihilated but comes out. Maud Bodkin's of 1930s is Jungian and Frye's Theory of Symbols upheld the theory. James Fraser influenced the criticism a lot. He talks about the patterns in storytelling. An...

Formalism The study or school of literary theory of the text by looking at its formal devices or form, its structure, language, and style (syntax, figures of speech, rhyme, rhythm, meter, narration technique, intrinsic features, choice, imagery, symbolism, etc) is called Formalism. The context is looked at to understand the text. Emphasis is on Form over Content. Objective Analysis: Personal biases are removed. Literary Devices Use: Metaphor, Similie, Symbolism, Irony and Imagery Focus on Language: Words, Sound Patterns, Multiple Meanings are used. Autonomy of the Text: Work should be independent of author's biography, historical period, social or political conditions.  Major Figures:- Victor Shklovsky Boris Echenbaum Yuri Tynyanov Roman Jacobson

Old Historicism is mainly related to the writers. It emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s. It was reaction against New Criticism which only focussed on the work without taking historical context in consideration. Louis Montrose stresses in the history of times. He scrutinises Mary Shelley's work "Frankenstein" saying that such genre evolved when there were some political or other social turmoils were ongoing. New Historicism is about the power structure and discourse that is propagated in the work. If a work is supporting the people in power or going against it. Stephen Greenblatt, Havard Professor is the founding figure and popularised it. He wrote "The Forms of Power in the Renaissance" (1982). His "Renaissance Self-Fashioning" (1980) is another endorsing work. He also won Pulitzer Prize. He was co-founder of a literary journal called "Representations". He wrote "Will", the biography of William Shakespeare. "Shakespearean Nego...