Term
|
Definition
| Art/literature as a timeless object; focus on words on the page; "close reading" to arrive at a "correct" meaning. Any tensions in the poem are ultimately resolved. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Consistent and convenient, you don't have to know the sociohistorical background of a text |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Ignores different perspectives; psychology, history, etc. can and do impact writers and their works; overly rigid in its definition of a "good" text |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Language is THE focus, but also arbitrary. However, there is a perspective outside of language, and you can identify its underlying structures: signs refer to something in the world |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Language is all there is. There is no reality or referent outside of it. We can't step outside of language to examine it. Interpretation of text is not neat, tidy, obedient, or stable. Literary/textual deconstruction method: perform "close reading" of texts to identify binary oppositions and privileged/marginalized term of the oppositions |
|
|
Term
| Psychoanalysis weaknesses |
|
Definition
| requires a great deal of theoretical knowledge, emphasizing theory may detract from the text itself, Freud was a misogynist, this method may be too simplistic to understand human psyche completely |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| It was very influential for a lot of other theories/schools of criticism/etc |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Irrational, instinctual, unknown, and unconscious part of the psyche according to Freud |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Rational, logical, waking part of the mind according to Freud |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Internal censor that causes us to make moral judgments in light of social pressures, according to Freud |
|
|
Term
| Lacan's three orders of the psyche |
|
Definition
| Imaginary, symbolic, real |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Lacan, 0-6 months, pre-language, no boundaries, genderless |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Lacan, 6-18 months, growing awareness of "self" and others. Prepares way for the passage into the symbolic order. Children see themselves reflected in a mirror, or in others' reactions to them, and they mistake those seemingly holistic reflections of themselves as real. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Lacan, language, the law/father, expected gender roles. Language/cultural rules imposed. Girls become second-class citizens |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Lacan, most remote and unreachable part of the human psyche. We can never fully know it because nothing can ever fully represent it; it is beyond language. We can detect its effects in the nagging sense that we're missing the feeling of unity we must have once had. We spend our lives trying to recreate a unity that we cannot achieve. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Advocates for equal rights for women in every area of life; focus on patriarchal rule of society and culture; feminist critics, writers, activists, and theorists try to create social change--opposite of New Critics |
|
|
Term
| Showalter's 3 phases of female writing |
|
Definition
| Feminine, feminist, female |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Showalter, 1840-1880, accept prevailing male order; write under male name |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Showalter, 1880-1920, depict cruel and harsh treatment; women still often minor characters. Women's lit dismissed as "victim writing" |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Showalter, 1920-present, rejects the other two phases. Strong female understanding of female experience. Women, not men/male-biased society, define women. Feminine analysis of literary forms and techniques. Uncover stereotypes |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Showalter, don't adapt to male models and theories. Use female framework to analyze women's literature. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Biological (body), linguistic (women's discourse), psychoanalytic/female psyche, cultural (society's role in shaping women's lives) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Male voice so dominant for so long (power of pen and press) that women fear act of literary creation and writing |
|
|
Term
| How is Lacan useful to feminist critics? |
|
Definition
| Lacan "rescued" psychoanalysis from Freud's sexist theories. Lacan believed that language ultimately shapes and structures our self-identity/conscious and unconscious minds rather than the phallus. Language as it is structured and understood ultimately denies women the power of literature and writing. French feminists borrow and amend elements of Lacan's theory in their own theories |
|
|
