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The Pros And Cons Of Literary Theory In Literature

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Starting with famous philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, many philosophers, scholars or groups of people asserted ideas, talked about art through their assumptions on them. This led them to focus on certain things on literature, which caused the emergence of literary theory. The most basic thing one can say about literary theory is that they are tools assist us to understand literature. However, since literature has no fixed definition, it is more appropriate to say literary criticism consists of reading and commenting on what we assume or value as literature by means of theories. As Bressler stated, "by embracing literary theory, we learn about literature, but more important, we are also taught tolerance for other people's beliefs" …show more content…

And especially for trying to answer the question of literary theories are scientific or not, I believe, the principle theory is Formalism. Every literary theory has its own pros and cons, and Formalist approach has several advantages. Initially, it is easy to learn and use. It is teachable and applicable in schools. Normally, talking about literature or specifically poetry is complex and open to our unconscious ideas, whereas formalist approach makes it easier to critique and objective as possible. However, as Terry Eagleton suggested, "To think of literature as the Formalists do is really to think of all literature as 'poetry'" (5). Because what they apply is not convenient for every genre. Lenght is another factor regarding this flaw since it is almost impossible to evaluate long texts with this theory. Also, applying this theory to a text probably creates problems. It leads allusions, whereby misleads us. However, the utmost important hole in this theory is clearly, excluding the external factors such as moral, historical, psychological or gender. Yes, it is nice to separate text from distracting things, but they are part of their entity. Hence, ignoring this fact may also mislead us. Yet, some may think this factor is an advantage too. Generally, theories provide an explanation to facts. That's why theories are seen as scientific approaches. Regarding all these features, we know that these theories propound what literature can mean. If we think sketchily, they are the same thing. But to be scientific, an idea has to be proved. And for such a flexible concept like literature, it is almost impossible to prove something. And clearly, even the one uses science has flaws because it talks about

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