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
Literature is the reflection of the human experience; an anthology of the way we've felt and thought expressed through many different mediums. Robert Penn Warren discusses this in "Why
Think about life hundreds of years ago, think about their literature, and what their writings were based off. Society has a significant impact on art, music, and literature. Over the years American literature has evolved. This evolution is a reflection of history. Time periods reflect changes in society, politics, and religion. Each time period has a distinct characteristic. The evolution of literature is shown by
Literature is not only important to society, but is very important for each individual to read and understand. Literature can provide a way for people to learn more about what happened in the past and can even be a way for people to reduce stress in their lives. There are many different types of literature and each of them can be used for different reasons. You can use books to study specific topics, to relive the past, and to express yourself through writing. Literature can be written about the past, the future and even about present day society. Even if the book or novel is fiction, it still has some sort of theme that resembles a real world experience or problem. We need literature in our lives to help us develop and improve, not only as individuals, but as a society and to learn about the past.
There were authors who will write about literature and their work would be looked as if it had an influence on science. Derrida and Kuhn’s were a big influence on English professor because they open one mind that literature does not have essence and that literary criticism is not science. The author also believes that people outside the profession are not interested in literature and
Many people believe that material things will bring you peace and happiness. That is not always that case though.Everyone at some point in their life had gone through something that they thought would have a major positive impact on their life, but ultimately, it affected them very negatively. These can include anything from money, to power, even to women. Bernard Malamud explains these example in his book, The Natural, with his character, Roy Hobbs. Roy is the Knights star baseball player, when all goes wrong. He starts to chase different women, believing that those people will lead him to happiness in the end. Roy Hobbs is the main character in the book, The Natural, who finds himself in tough situations, and finally discovers that what he wanted from the start, won’t actually make him happy in the end.
Literature is defined as written works published on a particular subject. Literature can also be viewed as witness, because it can be a source of proof based on the events it was written on. Literature as witness allows readers to get a deeper understanding of the issues that have happened based off of what the books are about. Those who read literary texts such as historical novels, memoirs and novels are witness to historical events. These texts can be viewed as witness because the events mentioned are based off of true life events. Some may argue historical fiction is not real and therefore could not be viewed as a reliable source. Even though historical fiction is made up of fictional characters, the conflicts that are mentioned are based
Everyman, by the anonymous writer, is a play that can truly be analyzed under a literary theory lens. Everyman can be analyzed under a performance theory lens, not only because it is a play, but also that the actions of the character fall within the several categories of the theory. The play can be seen as following the structure of the religious ritual while following Everyman through his completion of the sacraments. Secondly, Everyman encounters many sacred characters, including, Death, God, and an Angel. The characters portray performing objects in which throughout the play these characters are personified. The characters are personified as human companies to Everyman, although they are actually a part of him taking on the role of seven deadly sins the characters portray different influences within Everyman’s life. The goal of these morality plays were to entertain the audience, which is an aspect of performance theory, but that these players were also used as a way of teaching the
Literature comes in all sizes. Literature doesn’t focus on a specific genre; it can be about anything from war, to violence, to race. Literature is made up of different histories from different eras with different writing styles. Literature is made of meaning and hidden messages. When you read literature, you will know it is literature because it’s about human experience. You have to read between the lines to decide what the hidden meaning is. Literature doesn’t explicitly tell us, instead uses our senses to reveal meaning. Literature deepens our thoughts. Literature evokes emotion, making us feel happy or sad about a specific event. We may feel sympathy for the characters. Literature really makes you feel like you’re actually in the
AS time passed on literature got evolved into various constituents such as naturalism, realism and modernism. People really believed in what they stood for and began bending literature based on their free will. What they found was right, was written down and published. People in the present generation has their desire towards
In The Chosen, the author Chaim Potok sets the story in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the 1940s where World War II and isolation have meaningful effects on the protagonists, Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter. Danny is the son of Reb Saunders, an important figure in the Hasidic Jewish community, while Reuven is the son of David Malter, a prominent Orthodox Jewish scholar. The story begins with a baseball game, kickstarting the book, as “Danny and [Reuven] would have never met if not for America’s entry into the Second World War and the desire this [breeds] on the part of some English teachers in the Jewish parochial schools in and around our area into competitive leagues” (Potok 12). Eventually, the atrocities of the Holocaust
Literature comes in all forms; its basically everything around us. Movies, books, newspaper, songs, posters, magazines, these are examples of literature. Like the many forms of literature, it also has many purposes; literature is used as a source of entertainment, it in forms people, and it also enlightens them with knowledge. Ever since we entered school, we have constantly been questioned, asked to reflect upon what we read and to analysis what we read, watch and see. All we have been doing since day one had been analysing literature. Don’t you think there must be a reason for all these years of analysing everything? I’ve finally come to the conclusion that all those years of analysing was to prove to us the power of literature. To some extent literature has the power to refute and/or reinforce our prejudice and bias. Literature is able to do this because it is able to open us to the different social and cultural standing around the world, we can always connect with literature, it comes in many forms and it’s composed of facts.
There are different forms of literature which can include essays, poems, novels, reports and more. The one thing all forms of literature have in common is that they all have meaning, purpose and form, but how it is expressed is all different, the question is how. Most of the times authors have a reason to convey such messages, and how the messages are delivered is up to the author as well. The author uses the form, it’s aesthetics to send the readers an image; what kind of literature it is. The authors also send the readers a blatant message, the message is sent through the text of the literature. Through the text on the literature the author portrays purpose, and with the form of the
Literature is an autonomous verbal art, independent from the context. A novel is “a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity,portraying characters and
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, literature is defined as being the body of written works of a language, period, or culture. An author of any specific type of writing or works can include certain details pertaining to language or other details, which allow the reader to develop a sensory image of that specific period or culture. If the reader had no prior knowledge to the language, period, or culture of the writing he or she would be reading, upon reading and analyzing
In the short story, “My Parents’ Bedroom,’ written by Uwem Akpan, the most defining role of literacy that sticks out is symbolism. The images that are engraved into readers brains are ones that have deeper meanings than what we initially see on the surface. The story is told through the eyes of a little girl named, Monique, who is only nine years old. It is told in first person point of view so that the reader feels as if he/she is actually experiencing the situations first hand. The symbolism in the story, “My Parents; Bedroom,” illustrates the day to day struggle of living in Africa during the genocide. Symbolism is