Approaches Flashcards
The relationship between ‘English’ literature, Englishness, England and empire
Explains how contemporary debates and decolonisation bring English literature to a crisis.
What does English literature even refer to? (in light of debates relating to decolonisation)
A linguistic term only - e.g refers to literature written in English only.
An identity marker about English and British.
English and Empire
Does English literature mean the English ‘canon’ or should we develop a more open and pluralised understanding of what English literature is?
How have English literary texts (colonial and post-colonial) reflected and interrogated histories of empire and enslavement?
English literature ‘canon’ examples
Shakespeare
Milton
Wordsworth
Who or what governs meaning?
The author
The historical context
The text itself
The critic
The reader
How is meaning generated?
A question of methods and practices
Of what we do
Literary-critical movements/approaches
Authorial intentionalism
Biographical criticism
New criticism
Historical criticism
Authorial intentionalism
Refers to an author’s intent as it is encoded in their work
Biographical criticism
The life history of the author has an affect on the writing
New criticism
The concentration on the language, imagery, and emotional or intellectual tensions in literary works
Historical criticism
The historical context can determine the meaning of the work
Other examples of movements/trends
New historicism
Post structuralism
Post criticism
Plurality of approaches
Literary criticism is a history of debate.
Most literary criticism is a hybrid of things.
What is Englishness? (ideas)
A political identity?
A cultural identity?
A structure of feeling?
A chimera? (meaning an illusion)
How is Englishness inscribed in ‘English literature’?
An imperial legacy.
A neutral marker of the anglophone (meaning group of English-speaking nations that share historical and cultural ties with England).
Identities
To identify with/to be identified as.
Latin identitas - quality or creation of being the same.
Identity as a play of sameness and difference.
Identity as pertaining to innermost truths.
Latin identitas meaning…
Groups of ‘identical’ or ‘same’ people.
Logical impossibility of exact sameness.
Identity as pertaining to innermost truths
‘My identity’ as asserted and deeply felt (even if constantly re/negotiated) but also shared with others.
Identity implies social legibility.
Are identities?
Essential
Constructed
Performed
Is English identity?
Essential (something real to English people).
Constructed (a cultural product/myth/set of ideologies).
Self-identical (can somebody be English in a world without non-English people?)
Defined in relation (even in opposition to other identities)
Is identity?
Singular and monolithic?
Complex and multifaceted?
How does the concept of intersectionality help us understand the complexity of identity?
How might things like ethnicity, class, race, gender, sexuality meet to produce specific configurations of identity in individuals or communities?
What is Englishness? (cultural)
A national community.
A cultural identity.
Relating to a ‘structure of feeling?’ - something difficult to pin down.
Englishness as peculiarly problematic
A chimera.
An emptiness or void.
If we can grasp the style of at least one version of Englishness, what is its ‘content’?
Some critics have argued that Englishness is so problematic because of empire
Exclusionary Englishness and whiteness (the semiotics of the flag).
Amnesiac Englishness ((wilful) ignorance of history).
Belated Englishness (entirely identified with the expired/dying imperial project).
