Humanism Through deconstruction
Theoretical Foundations Major Branches of Critical Theory
Intrinsic Criticisms Extrinsic Criticisms Humanist Critical Theory(Classical Civ. 20s) New Criticism (formalism) (1920s 40s) Structuralism (emerged 60s 70s) Deconstruction (peaked in the late 70s) Psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan, Jung) New Historicism (White, Foucalt) Sociological Criticisms Feminist Critical Theory Queer Theory Political Criticisms Marxism Post Colonialism Intrinsic vs. extrinsic? Pants on the ground, pants on the ground.
What socio cultural niches do these two fashionchoices represent? how do these choices define themselves inopposition to societal norms? What are thesocietal norms in terms of jeans? A formalist/new critic would write about tight orbaggy jeans, exploring the symbolic meanings,ambiguity, paradox, etc. A structuralist would write about tight and baggyjeans, focusing on how the two ideas define eachother via a system of binary opposition.Hemight then write about the larger systems of whichthese pants are just a part (fashion, music, race,socio-economic class). A deconstructionist would start off focusing on thebinary and then expose that its a falsedichotomy shifting his interest to the full range ofpossible jean tightnesses and the people whowear them, possibly even why they wear them andwhen they wear them. Humanist Critical Theory
It only lasted 2000 years Humanism In broad, philosophical terms,humanism is a world view orperspective that rejects anythingsupernatural as an explanationfor existing phenomena. Everything that we can observewith our senses can be explainedby human investigation andthought Humanist Critical Theory focuses onthe study of literature because ofits enriching value. What does it teach us? Plato (c 427-347 BCE) Begins tradition of didactic moral criticism
What does this work teach us? Part of what we call Humanist criticismrevolves around this question With this central question, the best literature isthat which informs our morality Plato was not a fan of art and literature Plato gave us the theory of forms non-material abstract forms (or ideas), andnot the material world compose the highestand most fundamental reality. Things in the material world are reproductionsof these ideals Art is then a reproduction of a reproduction Platos lasting influence
The material world we perceive through our senses isnot the real world, but an imperfect copy of an ideal Art works to reproduce or represent that perceivablematerial world The world is organized into binary opposites:rational/irrational, good/evil, male/female, publicprivate (For Plato, Art was the binary opposite ofReason) Literature is important and needs to be regulated orsupervised, because it has a powerful effect on itsreaders Content (which causes the effect) is more important thanform Aristotle (c BCE) Aristotle's understanding of the nature of realitywas different than Platos For Aristotle, reality does not reside in a staticworld of ideal forms, our world is not an imitation;rather, reality is our ever-changing world ofappearances and perceptions. Did not believe that art was a reproduction ofnature, and thus was not inherently inferior. Further, art doesnt lie, rather it reveals truths in adifferent way than rational deduction. Art, for Aristotle, is not the binary opposite of reason Aristotles Poetics is the first work of literarycriticism in the western tradition Less interested in content, more interested in form The role of hamartia, pathos and catharthsis intragedy were concerns of Aristotle Aristotle treats poetry the same
Aristotle's work was todiscover similarities anddifferences in form and todeduce general principalsof organization Kingdom, phylum, class,order, family, genus,species? This is an Aristoteliansystem of organization Aristotle treats poetry thesame His Poetics investigateswhat poetry is rather thanwhat it does New Criticism The text, the whole text, and nothing but the text New Criticism Peaked in the 1930s and 40s Focus on the text itself
Symbolism + Ambiguity + Irony + Patterns +Paradox + Tension = Organic Unity (the signof quality literature) Grew out of the Humanist approach (someeven lump New Criticism/Formalism in withHumanist Critical Theory) Replaced biographical/historical criticismthat dominated the 19th century No more combing the authors letters anddiaries trying to find authorial intent Authorial intent is unknowable! The Intentional Fallacy its fallacious (false)to think that you can know what the authorintended The author doesnt even know what theyintended They could be influenced by their unconsciousminds The New Critic Asks What single interpretation of thetext best establishes its organicunity? In other words, how do thetexts formal elements, and themultiple meanings those elementsproduce, all work together tosupport the theme, or overallmeaning, of the work? a great work will have a theme ofuniversal human significance When we cover post-colonialism, this ideaof universal human significance will bebrought into question Historically, universal human significanceusually means appeals to western whitemales Organic Unity how the texts formal elements, andthe multiple meanings those elements produce, allwork together to support the theme, or overallmeaning, of the work. Structuralism The science of signs Structuralism Its a methodology
you are engaged in structuralist activity ifyou examine the physical structures of allthe buildings built in urban America in to discover the underlyingprinciples that govern their composition,for example, principles of mechanicalconstruction or of artistic form. You are also engaged in structuralistactivity if you examine the structure of asingle building to discover how itscomposition demonstrates the underlyingprinciples of a given structural system. System and Instance, Langue and Parol
In the first example of structuralist activity, youregenerating a structural system of classification In the second, youre demonstrating that an individualitem belongs to a particular structural class. Structuralism is about using instances to define thesystems of which they are a part or about exploringinstances through the systems that define them Langue Structuralist term for the system Parole Structuralist term for individual instances In terms of literary study, the same model of structuralistactivity holds true.
You are not engaged in structuralist activity if you describe the structure(order of events, sentence composition) of a short story to interpret whatthe work means or evaluate whether or not its good you are engaged in structuralist activity if you examine the structure of alarge number of short stories to discover the underlying principles thatgovern their composition, for example, principles of narrative progression(the order in which plot events occur) or of characterization (the functionseach character performs in relation to the narrative as a whole). Examples from the audience? If all noir stories or westerns share general patterns of diction (style of speaking), this isof structuralist interest in structuralist activity you describe the structure of a singleliterary work to discover how its composition demonstrates theunderlying principles of a given structural system (of all theworks like it). Generally, structuralists are not interested in
individual buildings individual literary works individual phenomena of any kind They are interested only in what those individual items can tellus about the structures that underlie and organize all items ofthat kind. Structuralism sees itself as a human science whose effort is tounderstand, in a systematic way, the fundamental structures thatunderlie all human experience and, therefore, all humanbehavior and production. Structuralism isnt a field of study. Its a method of systematizing human experience that is used inmany different fields of study: for example, linguistics,anthropology, sociology, psychology, and literary studies. Where do these structures come from?
Structuralists believe they are generated by the human mind,which is thought of as a structuring mechanism. This is an important and radical idea because it means that theorder we see in the world is the order we impose on it. Our understanding of the world does not result from ourperception of structures that exist in the world. The structureswe think we perceive in the world are products of humanconsciousness Key Structuralist Vocab
Differance (say it like youre French) simply means that our ability toidentify an entity (such as an object, a concept, or a sound) is basedon the difference we perceive between it and all other entities. binary oppositions: two ideas, directly opposed, each of which weunderstand by means of its opposition to the other. we understand up as the opposite of down, female as the opposite of male,good as the opposite of evil, black as the opposite of white, and so on. a linguistic sign consisting, like the two sides of a coin, of twoinseparable parts: signifier + signified. A signifier is a sound-image (a mental imprint of a linguistic sound); the signified is the concept to which the signifier refers. Thus, a word is not merely a sound-image (signifier), nor is it merely aconcept (signified). A sound-image becomes a word only when it is linkedwith a concept. the relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary Sign, Signifier, Signified I just told you that the connection between the wordswe use and what they mean is totally arbitrary
anyone think thats crazy? Anyone want to shout out the obvious counter example? But Mr. Hayworth. a rooster says Cockadoodledo
But Mr. Hayworth! a roostersays Cockadoodledo! Surely inthis case signifier=signified! In French it goes: cocorico In Dutch it's: kukeleku In German it's: kikeriki Sapir-Whorf Learning a new languagecarries with it the potentialto learn to see the world innew ways. If native speakers ofEnglish learn to speakan Eskimo language,they may learn to seesnow quite differently, there are manydifferent words forwhat English callssnow, depending onthe size and textureof the flake, thedensity of thesnowfall, the angle atwhich it falls, thedirection from whichthe storm originates,and so on. Eskimo Snow Lexemes Snow particles Fallen snow Snow formations
Snowflake - qanuk Fallen snow on theground - aniu Snow bank qengaruk Frost -kaneq Soft, deep fallensnow on the ground muruaneq Snow block utvak Fine snow/rainparticles -kanevvluk snow (formation)about to collapse navcite Crust on fallen snow qetrar Drifting particles -natquik Fresh fallen snow onthe ground nutaryuk Meterologicalevents Clinging particles nevluk Blizzard pirtuk Fallen snow floatingon water qanisqineq Severe blizzard - cellallir structuralism does not attempt to interpret what individual textsmean or even whether or not a given text is good literature. Issues of interpretation and literary quality are in the domainof surface phenomena, the domain of parole. This lack of interest in quality is what separates thestructuralist approach to literature from, say, thehumanist/neoclassicists who hold a text up to Aristotle'sdefinition of tragedy and evaluate it against it Structuralism seeks instead the langue of literary texts, thestructure that allows texts to make meaning, often referred toas a grammar or even poetics because it governs the rules bywhich fundamental literary elements are identified (forexample, the hero, the damsel in distress, and the villain) andcombined (for example, the hero tries to save the damsel indistress from the villain). The monomyth or heros journey isnot an explicitly structuralist concept
But Structuralist Claude Levi-Strauss focusedon myths, breaking them down tomythemes. Phoneme smallest unit of sound Morpheme smallest unit of meaning in alanguage Grapheme smallest unit in writtenlanguage Mytheme smallest unit in mythology Vladimir Propp took this approach withfolktales Meme Structuralism and I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy has its own langue thathas helped to shape the langue ofsitcoms in general Suppose a long-lost episode of ILove Lucy was discovered, we startto watch it, full of suspense At the 13 minute mark, Lucy gets lost! What happens next? Each episode stages aproblem before themidpoint commercialand resolves thatproblem before theepisode ends. We know the formulaso well we hardly haveto think about it, butthinking about it helpsus to know it better Now lets try somethingdifferent We hit the 13 minutemark, Lucy dies! Since we have an adept competence as readers ofsitcoms, we know that Lucy cant die.
Its not in the form, its not part of the langue, its notpart of the poetics of classical form sitcoms. If she did die, of course, itd turn out that she wasnt reallydead, she was only playing, some other character had madea terrible mistake but would the poetics, the conventions ofthe form, even allow that? At the end of the episode, nothing can be any differentthan at the start of the episode Take three, we hit the thirteen minute mark, Lucydiscovers shes pregnant, and thenLucy has anabortion! What, why not? Its TV in the Eisenhower Administration
Even though women had abortions in thefifties, not TV characters, and certainlynot national idols, not Lucy. No problem can arise that cant besolved and fully resolved by the end ofthe hour. There are unspoken rules or codes ofsocial decorum and censorship If we were to list those rules, wed learna great deal about sitcoms, theirevolution, and the cultures that theyexpress and repress Later sitcoms defined themselves by including what theearlier, classic sitcoms excluded
All in the Family ( ) Roseanne ( ) Seinfeld ( ) Family Guy (1999- ) The Office (2005- ) After all in the family, things that were unimaginablein I Love Lucy many of the same crises of social,political, and cultural strife that fill the daily news-shape the routine plots while still harkening back tothe form they inherited. The dialogue between earlier and later sitcoms isintertextuality, which simply means understanding one textby comparing it to another. With Peter Pan or Hamlet
Of what systems is PeterPan/Hamlet an instance of? How does it help to define thatsystem? How is it defined by it? What systems of binaries are atplay within the novel? Deconstruction Meaning is slippery In Review, Structuralism
All meaning is imposed upon reality by the human mind throughlanguage. It is impossible to know reality but through language. While this is a huge idea, structuralists themselves did very little with it. Thefull potential of this approach was most effectively realized by variouspoststructuralist movements such as deconstruction Structuralism is a method not a field of study, most famously it hasbeen applied to literature, anthropology, and linguistics Structuralists seek to define systems by their instances and instancesby the systems of which they are apart Deconstruction Initiated by Jaques Derrida in 1967 Deconstruction is at the heart of everything thats followed it. Deconstruction relies on disunity and decentering In their definition of a system, structuralists are finding a centerand seeing how it organizes everything around it into a secure,stable, unified order. Deconstructionists do not believe in perfect systems or singleexplanations. To a deconstructionist, everything is multiple, unstable, and withoutunity. For Derrida, the realization that the centers of the structureswe make to understand the world around us are arbitrary isa revolutionary thing He calls this the Rupture Rupture Prior to this rupture, the history of western civ hasbeen the continual substitution of one center foranother God/s, Rational Human Mind, The Unconscious Tyranny, Monarchy, Democracy, Communism? With structuralism and deconstruction came therealization that the center is merely a construction deconstruction has a good deal to offer us:
Critical thinking and exposing hidden ideologies they are built into our language. Not just binaries, but hierarchical binaries By finding the binary oppositions at work in acultural production and by identifying whichmember of the opposition is privileged, onecan discover something about the ideologypromoted by that production and about theculture that made it useful tool for Marxism, feminism, and othertheories that attempt to make us aware of theoppressive role ideology can play in our lives. What binaries are at the heart of Marxism?Feminism? GLBT Theory? Queer Theory? Post- Colonialism? Race? Language is Fluid President Bush says the Marines do not have to go to Iran (implying that heslying).
President Bush says the Marines do not have to go to Iran (implying that hescorrecting a false rumor). President Bush says the Marines do not have to go to Iran (implying thatsome other group has to go). President Bush says the Marines do not have to go to Iran (implying thatanother important person had said that the marines have to go to Iran). President Bush says the Marines do not have to go to Iran (implying that theycan go if they want to). President Bush says the Marines do not have to go to Iran (implying that theyhave to go somewhere else). How to Write a Deconstructionist Paper
Deconstructionist interpretation tends to follow whatwe call a double reading. In the first stage, the critic identifies a confidentlysingular interpretation of a text, either based on thestructuralist or new critics model. This should not be a paper tiger Then, in the second stage, the critic finds things thatundermine the first reading, things that break downthe binary or explode the binary or a moment ofundecidability which you may pretentiously call aporia The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough. Old Approaches The New Critic might A Structuralist could
seek out how each word is a symbol Find a paradoxical, ambiguous tension between theabstractness of the first line and the concreteness of the second resolve thatconflict into a balance that provides organic unityto the poem A Structuralist could pursue a similar reading, finding a binary opposition betweenthe opening abstraction and the concreteness that it gives way to the first line acting as a signifier to the second lines signified Define the poem as an instance in the genre of modernist poetryand relay what meaning being a part of that system holds for thepoem Deconstructing In a Station of the Metro (1913)
The deconstructionist Begins with the old readings and sets up a double reading If the first lines abstractness can act as a signifier to the concreteness of thesecond lines signified, then the second line might as well be signifier to the firstlines signified What makes one line more concrete than the other? Definitive Articles and Demonstrative Pronouns Specific ghostliness? Specific but undescribed faces in a specific but undescribed crowd? The title works as a line unto itself, interrupting the potential binary between theother two lines In the early 20th century, perhaps the metro was abstractly a signifier ofmodernity at large and especially of mechanized modernityand an urbanfuture, a future both suggested and undermined by the petals in the second line The petals can suggest nature, antithesis (opposite) to the modernity of the metro Implicit vs. Explicit Ideologies
Explicit Ideology The stated ideology expressed by atext Implicit Ideology An ideology expressed throughactions or structure that is not explicitly stated Another way of deconstructing something is toexplore how the implicit ideology undermines theexplicit. Pyschoanalytic critics explore something similar whenthe talk of conscious and unconscious elements of a text. In Review, Deconstructionists
Read the text against itself, so as to expose where meanings are expressedwhich might be contrary to the surface meaning Implicit vs. Explicit ideologies How does TEWWG undermine its feminist message? How does Barrie erode his own idealization of women and mother? What are 1984 and BNW really saying about the value of the Proletariat? Fixate upon surface features of words to expose the fluidity of meaning in agiven text, destabilizing relationship between signifier and signified Bush and Time Flies examples but when at last she really came, I shot her Seek to show that a text is categorized by disunity rather than unity Concentrate on a single passage and analyze it so intensively that it becomesimpossible to maintain a single reading Pounds In a Station at the Metro Undermine binaries