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Literary Criticisms:, Othello Literary Criticism, English Literary…
Literary Criticisms:
Marxist Theory:
- Examines attitudes to social class, class differences and interactions between classes.
- Looks at how the lower class are oppressed; how those in power maintain power.
- Looks for the consequences of capitalist society.
Othello
- Marxist theory is presented through Iago's desire to outrank Othello. Brabantio's inability to accept Desdemona and Othello's marriage is due to race AND social ranking.
Revolutionary Road.
- Every character is obsessed with social standing, money and reputation.
- In a similar way to Gatsby, Frank is critical of his lower class upbringing.
- The only character who is not obsessed with it is John, but he is the physical embodiment of everything wrong with society.
Gatsby
- Jay would be criticised by a Marxist - mostly due to him being overly critical of his middle class roots.
- Jay uses/works alongside criminal means to make money, entering the ruling class.
A Streetcar named Desire
- Blanche is critical of Stanleys working class lifestyle and is also 'aware' of Mitch's social standing in comparison to her.
New Historicist Theory:
- They believe that the context surrounding when the texts written influences the content of the text (social, political, historical influences)
- Literature is seen as the product of a particular cultural movement.
- A New Historicist perspective simply looking at 'context' (e.g a New Historicist may argue that Othello's behaviour is in keeping with the Elizabethan Great Chain of Being)
The Great Gatsby
- The Roaring Twenties
- Gluttony, Glamour
- Revolutionising what it means to be an American - connected to the old country, educated, rich.
A Streetcar Named Desire
- The Deep South, being a Southern Belle.
- New Orleans, a progressive city for 'lost souls' and an intersection for culture (can be seen in the play with characters of many races being present - Black, Mexican, Polish.
Othello
- Disrupted Great Chain of being, havoc caused in a civilised society.
- Perceptions of race and perception of Italians
Revolutionary Road
- The bleak 'American Dream' post war - everyone struggling with understanding their identities
Psychoanalytic Theory:
- Focuses on the characters desires and psychological states (emotional conflict between characters)
The Great Gatsby
- all of the characters appear 'happy' in their indulgences but are very unhappy deep down - psychoanalytic theory would be interested in WHY Daisy presents the way she does and WHY Jay is so stuck on her
Revolutionary Road
- Bleakness of post-war America
America! Fuck yeah! Coming again to save the motherfuckin day yah!!
- societal place and individual relationships
Othello
- Othello's hamartia would be a focal point - what led him to his downfall is the main topic of the text.
- The relationships between the characters would be psychoanalysed.
Streetcar
- Blanche is really fucked up - Psychoanalytic's would argue that maybe her Southern Belle attitude has caused her cognitive dissonance - traumatic lifestyle, diathesis stress??
Feminist Theory:
- Examine the idea of patriarchal society, women's lives dictated by the dominance of men.
- Explores how men dominated the history of literature and created their own ideas of women, therefore looks at how women are presented.
- The power balance between genders.
- Ecriture feminine literature (1970's France) writes from the position of female body using metaphors; empowering to female.
- You may contrast a RADICAL FEMINIST perspective compared to a Liberal Feminist Perspective
:check:
The Great Gatsby
- The lifestyle and comments Daisy makes would have been heavily criticised but her mothering was not - where was her child's father?
- Nick's relationship with Jordan would also be very criticised, it was not love - it was a transition that benefitted him socially - he was also ridiculously critical of her and his own concept of femininty.
Revolutionary Road
- Aprils abortion storyline would have been heavily criticised by radical feminists, as they would have argued that April should not have had to die in her attempt to have reproductive rights.
- Frank's treatment of Maureen would be an example of why feminists called for less of a power imbalance between men and women.
- Franks perspective on what makes a man manly is directly related to how attractive/womanly/desired his wife and life are. He does not want to be viewed as less than a man, making him deeply unlikeable for feminist theorists
Othello
- All the relationships show clear evidence of Shakespeare writing from a patriarchal viewpoint - use of 'Strumpet'
- As soon as a woman is presented outside of regular gender expectations (Desdemona being viewed as Othello's partner) they quickly meet a sticky end.
Streetcar
- Stanley is just a bit of a douche to all the women - has a specific way he thinks they deserve to be treated - smacks Stella, then shouts STELLLAAAAAAAAA
Postcolonial Theory:
- Explores power and economics
- Looks at how European capitalists have exploited other races/ethnicities.
- Explores injustice, oppression, and questions of racial discrimination.
- May examine how those who have been colonised have been misrepresented in literature by prejudice.
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Literary Criticism
Feminist Theory
Explores how texts are influenced by (in the planning, writing, and consuming stages) men and how the presentation of women should be looked upon critically and objectively
Radical feminists wish to dismantle the patriarchy and rebuild society in an equal manner where equal voices are heard
Liberal feminists wish to rid society of sexual discrimination, as well as changing the lack of equality in the workplace, home, and other areas of society
For most of literary history, texts were written in a way that was heavily influenced by the patriarchy or a society that was heavily influenced by the patriarchy
Othello
In Othello, all of the relationships (romantic and Familial show clear evidence of Shakespeare writing from a patriarchal viewpoint, i.e. strumpet
As a theme in Shakespeare's plays, as soon as a woman is presented outside of regular gender expectations (like Desdemona being viewed as Othello's partner) they meet a dangerous fate (in his tragedies)
The Great Gatsby
In Gatsby, the lifestyle and comments Daisy makes would have been heavily criticised, but her ‘mothering’ would not have been – where was her child’s father?
Also in Gatsby, Jay’s relationship with Jordan would be criticised, as he didn’t view it for love as much for a transaction that benefitted him socially; he was also very critical of her and HIS OWN concept of femininity
Revolutionary Road
In RR, April’s abortion storyline would have been heavily criticised by radical feminists, as they would have argued that April should not have had to die in order to get an abortion
Also in RR, Frank’s treatment of Maureen would be a great example of why feminists called for less of a power imbalance between men and women
In RR, Frank’s perspective on what makes a man a man is directly related to how womanly/ attractive/ desired his life and his wife are; he does not want to be viewed as less than a man, and his inner monologue/ our insight into this challenge for him, would make him deeply unlikeable for feminist theorists
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Explores how men dominated the history of literature - created own ideas of woman; therefore looks at how women are presented
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Ecriture feminine literature (developed in in 1970's France) writes from the position of female body using metaphors; empowering to female
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Marxist theory
- within marxist theory, Literature would be veiwed as within the superstructure
Karl Marx held the belief that literature was a form of propaganda
- this view was further criticised by Italian Antonio Gramsci who claimed that the consumption of literature (and other forms of media) require consent from the consumer - questioned how 'forced' it was upon society
In addition to this, Raymond williams claimed that different time periods had different hegemonies (dominant forces):
- dominant hegemony: ruling class
- residual hegemony: defends culture and beliefs from a previous era
- emerging hegemony: revolutionary ideas
Othello
Also , in othello, Brabantio's inability to accept his daughters marriage to othello is due to his race, yes, but also due to his social ranking.
In Othello, Marxist theory is presented through Iago's desire to outrank othello
Examines attitudes to social class, class differences & interactions between classes
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key words
reification - treating something complex and immaterial as a material thing -> for example looking at the gender pay gap now compared to the 1970's would be redundant because of all of the changes in social and economic context it oversimplifies it and ignores all of the confounding factors
class dichotomy - a division into two mutually exclusive or contradictory groups, so much so that one can be defined by the other
The Great Gatsby
Also in Gatsby, Jay uses/works alongside criminal means to make money in and, in turn enter the ruling class
Finally, Gatsby puts on airs of being some sort of 'white knight' for damsel Daisy (this concept of winning or earning another being)
In Gatsby, Jay would be criticised by a Marxist in several ways: the first and foremost being that he is very critical of his middle class roots
Revolutionary road
In RR, the entire community and every character is obsessed with social standing -£££=reputation/honour/normalacy
The only character not obsessed is John, but he is the physical embodiment of what's wrong in that society
In RR frank can be viewed in a similar manner as Jay, for being critical of how he grew up
A Streetcar named desire
Also it can be argues that Stanley can be criticised as he uses the reputation that comes from Blanche's social standing as a way to ruin her current image and prospects
In streetcar, Blanche is critical of Stanley and his working class lifestyle; she is also 'aware' of Mitch's social standing in comparison to her, and never lets him forget this
Psychoanalytic Theory
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For this way of evaluating a text, you consider the characters as people with emotions, feelings and thoughts
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Should/ can have a grasp on some psychological theories to help understanding of these characters as people
Othello
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the relationships between the characters and the perceptions they have of each other would be psychoanalysed
The Great Gatsby
all of the characters appear ‘happy’ in their indulgences, but very, very sad deep down – psychoanalytic theory would be interested in WHY Daisy presents the way she does and WHY Jay is so ‘stuck on her’
Revolutionary Road
the bleakness of post-war America and the confusion over how these characters identified themselves, and also identified their place in society and their place in their individual relationships
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New Historicist Theory
They believe that the context surrounding when the text was written influences the content of the text (social, political, historical influences)
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A New Historicist perspective simply looking at 'context' (e.g a New Historicist may argue that Othello's behaviour is in keeping with the Elizabethan Great Chain of Being)
This is how MOST of your GCSE texts were studied: the Elizabethan Era and The Great Chain of Being and the Renaissance and Reformation; the Victorian Era and the Industrialisation Period; the Edwardian Era and the Poor Law)
Othello
Great Chain of Being (disrupted, causing havoc in ‘civilised’ society), perception of Italians and race
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Deep South, a Southern Belle, New Orleans being a city for lost souls and also an intersection for different cultures (French, Creole, Carribean) coming together in one unique place, at one unique time; also heavily influenced by theatre of the time being expressionistic
The Great Gatsby
The Roaring Twenties, Gluttony, Glamour, Revolutionising what it means to be an American and to be connected to the ‘old country’ and to be educated and with money
Revolutionary Road
The bleak ‘American Dream’ post war where everyone was struggling to understand their own identities
Postcolonial Theory
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Explores injustice, oppression, and questions of racial discrimination
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