Listed below are some of the most commonly identified schools of literary theory, along with their major authors. Text can be read as an author’s unresolved issues in life, resulting in his/her evident work. Those who have come to this article directly and want to read the previous article, introduction to literary theory, can click the link to the previous one below: Previous article in the series (introductory): Literary Theory, Next article in the series: Structuralism: Literary Theory, Written by Alok Mishra for English Literature Education, Proudly serving literature students. For some theories of literature (especially certain kinds of formalism), the distinction between "literary" and other sorts of texts is of paramount importance. [citation needed] Some scholars, both theoretical and anti-theoretical, refer to the 1970s and 1980s debates on the academic merits of theory as "the theory wars". Their theories of reading derive from vastly different intellectual traditions: the New Critic bases his work on an East-Coast American scholarly and religious tradition, while the Marxist derives his thought from a body of critical social and economic thought, the post-structuralist's work emerges from twentieth-century Continental philosophy of language, and the Darwinian from the modern evolutionary synthesis. The next step will be understanding different kinds of literary theories one by one with their definitions, applications and relevance today. His approach, laid out in his Anatomy of Criticism, was explicitly structuralist, relying on the assumption of an intertextual "order of words" and universality of certain structural types. [citation needed] By 2010, the controversy over the use of theory in literary studies had quieted down, and discussions on the topic within literary and cultural studies tend now to be considerably milder and less lively. Looks either at the psychological motivations of the characters or of the authors themselves. However, the modern sense of "literary theory" only dates to approximately the 1950s when the structuralist linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure began to strongly influence English language literary criticism. [2] Consequently, the word theory became an umbrella term for scholarly approaches to reading texts, some of which are informed by strands of sociology and Continental philosophy. Every student of literature needs to understand how to use literary theory to analyse and interpret the text. The New Criticism was the first school to disavow the role of the author in interpreting texts, preferring to focus on "the text itself" in a close reading. You can help us in our purpose of offering an Indian perspective of English literature by joining us - contact@englishliterature.education, Best Books to Study Literary Theory and Criticism – List by Alok Mishra, Difference between literary criticism and literary theory, Ecocriticism as a literary theory – Questions & Answers. In many cases, such as those of the historian and philosopher Michel Foucault and the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, the authors were not primarily literary critics, but their work has been broadly influential in literary theory. Keep in mind that literary theories are established by critics from time to time. This will be best for you if you are a beginner and good for you if you know the basics already. [citation needed] During this span of time, literary theory was perceived as academically cutting-edge, and most university literature departments sought to teach and study theory and incorporate it into their curricula. Other schools (particularly post-structuralism in its various forms: new historicism, deconstruction, some strains of Marxism and feminism) have sought to break down distinctions between the two and have applied the tools of textual interpretation to a wide range of "texts", including film, non-fiction, historical writing, and even cultural events. However, some theorists acknowledge that these texts do not have a singular, fixed meaning which is deemed "correct". Mikhail Bakhtin argued that the "utter inadequacy" of literary theory is evident when it is forced to deal with the novel; while other genres are fairly stabilized, the novel is still developing.[6]. [4] Some scholars do draw heavily on theory in their work, while others only mention it in passing or not at all; but it is an acknowledged, important part of the study of literature. Though the chapters in the famous books on literary theories and criticism date back to the days of Plato and even Socrates, I will suggest you all read the book by Peter Barry. Searle, John. [5], Since theorists of literature often draw on a very heterogeneous tradition of Continental philosophy and the philosophy of language, any classification of their approaches is only an approximation. His approach held sway in English literature programs for several decades but lost favor during the ascendance of post-structuralism. This will be best for you if you are a beginner and good for you if you know the basics already. Another crucial distinction among the various theories of literary interpretation is intentionality, the amount of weight given to the author's own opinions about and intentions for a work. Even among those listed below, many scholars combine methods from more than one of these approaches (for instance, the deconstructive approach of Paul de Man drew on a long tradition of close reading pioneered by the New Critics, and de Man was trained in the European hermeneutic tradition). We write articles for the students and scholars of English Literature. In the late 1950s, the Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye attempted to establish an approach for reconciling historical criticism and New Criticism while addressing concerns of early reader-response and numerous psychological and social approaches. Specific theories are distinguished not only by their methods and conclusions, but even by how they create meaning in a "text". Is `` what is literature? in a `` text '' theory or the types. Favor during the ascendance of post-structuralism, some theorists acknowledge that these texts not. Written about the basics already even by how they create meaning in a `` ''. 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