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Sociological Criticism in Literature

The document outlines 11 different approaches to literary criticism: historical-biographical criticism examines literature through the historical context of the author; moral-philosophical criticism evaluates works based on their ethical messages; sociological criticism analyzes a work's relationship to society and its effects; psychoanalytic criticism examines the psychological desires in a work; practical criticism focuses only on the text itself without outside context; formalism judges based on technical elements; reader-response criticism values the reader's reaction; new criticism examines only structural elements; post-structuralism questions universal truths; deconstruction looks for contradictions; and feminist criticism emerged from gender studies.

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Gil Yuu
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104 views3 pages

Sociological Criticism in Literature

The document outlines 11 different approaches to literary criticism: historical-biographical criticism examines literature through the historical context of the author; moral-philosophical criticism evaluates works based on their ethical messages; sociological criticism analyzes a work's relationship to society and its effects; psychoanalytic criticism examines the psychological desires in a work; practical criticism focuses only on the text itself without outside context; formalism judges based on technical elements; reader-response criticism values the reader's reaction; new criticism examines only structural elements; post-structuralism questions universal truths; deconstruction looks for contradictions; and feminist criticism emerged from gender studies.

Uploaded by

Gil Yuu
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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1.

Historical-biographical criticism: Historical-biographical criticism


examines literature through the perspective of the author’s
historical context. This approach assumes that the significance
of a particular piece of literature is inextricably linked to its
historical context. For example, historical-biographical critics
evaluate Shakespeare’s work within the context of English
literature, history, and culture during the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries.

2. Moral-philosophical criticism: This literary criticism style


approaches literature based on its ethical merits. Moral-
philosophical critics evaluate literary works based on the moral
statements and judgments the characters and author express
throughout the literary text.

3. Sociological criticism: Sociological criticism evaluates literature


based on its relationship to society. The sociological criticism
method examines the author’s status in their society as well as
the effect that the literary work had on its audience within the
society. One form of sociological criticism is Marxist criticism,
which examines how a specific work of literature affirms or
rejects oppression within class systems.

4. Psychoanalytic criticism: This form of literary criticism examines


literature based on the psychological desires and neuroses of
the characters within a particular piece of literature.
Psychoanalytic critics believe that an author’s unconscious
thoughts are expressed through their work.
5. Practical criticism: This study of literature encourages readers to
examine the text without regard to any outside context—like the
author, the date and place of writing, or any other contextual
information that may enlighten the reader.
6. Formalism: Formalism compels readers to judge the artistic merit
of literature by examining its formal elements, like language and
technical skill. Formalism favors a literary canon of works that
exemplify the highest standards of literature, as determined by
formalist critics.

7. Reader-response criticism: Reader-response criticism is rooted


in the belief that a reader's reaction to or interpretation of a text
is as valuable a source of critical study as the text itself.

8. New criticism: New critics focused on examining the formal and


structural elements of literature, as opposed to the emotional or
moral elements. Poet T.S. Eliot and critics Cleanth Brooks and
John Crowe Ransom pioneered the approach in the mid-
twentieth century.

9. Post-structuralism: Post-structuralist literary criticism abandoned


ideas of formal and structural cohesion, questioning any
assumed universal truths as reliant on the social structure that
influenced them. One of the writers who shaped post-structuralist
criticism is Roland Barthes—the father of semiotics, or the study
of signs and symbols in art.
10. Deconstruction: Proposed by Jacques Derrida,
deconstructionists pick apart a text’s ideas or arguments, looking
for contradictions that render any singular reading of a text
impossible.

11. Feminist criticism: As the feminist movement gained steam in


the mid-twentieth century, literary critics began looking to gender
studies for new modes of literary criticism. One of the earliest
proponents of feminist criticism was Virginia Woolf in her seminal
essay, A Room of One's Own. Other notable feminist critics
include Elaine Showalter and Hélène Cixous.

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