How they analyze

Question 1

British Romanticism

Answer 1

emphasizes the expression of emotions, imagination, and individual experience in poetry. Analyzing poetry through this lens involves examining how poets convey their emotions, beliefs, and experiences through language, imagery, and symbolism. Focus on the relationship between the poem and the poet. See poetry as the reflection of internal realities. Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats.

Question 2

Modernism

Answer 2

encompass a range of approaches developed in the early 20th century, characterized by skepticism toward traditional forms and conventions. Analyzing poetry from a modernist perspective often involves exploring fragmentation, experimentation with form, and a focus on individual consciousness. T.S. Elliot, V. Woolf, Arnold.

Question 3

The New Criticism

Answer 3

emerged in the mid-20th century and emphasizes close reading of the text itself, focusing on form, structure, and language rather than external factors. Analyzing poetry through New Criticism involves examining literary devices, imagery, symbolism, and themes within the poem to derive meaning. Wimsatt, Brooks, Beardsley.

• Text is an imminent structure (self-sufficient)
• Aesthetic values -> autonomous, unsullied by social life.
• The reader has to be disinterested, unbiased.
• Canonical literary texts
• Makes a distinction between what is literary and non-literary
• Believes in analytical objectivity
• Tends to reiterate and reinforce established values.

Question 4

Russian Formalism

Answer 4

developed in the early 20th century, focuses on the formal elements of literature, such as plot, characters, and narrative technique. Analyzing poetry through Russian Formalism involves studying how literary devices function within the text to create meaning and effect. Shklovsky (seminar), Roman Jakobson

Question 5

French Structuralism

Answer 5

influenced by Ferdinand de Saussure’s linguistics, emphasizes the underlying structures and systems that govern language and literature. Analyzing poetry from a structuralist perspective involves examining the underlying binary oppositions, codes, and structures that shape meaning in the text. Levi-Strauss, Barthes, de Saussure.

Question 6

Poststructuralism

Answer 6

Poststructuralism challenges the stability of meaning and emphasizes the fluidity and instability of language and interpretation. Analyzing poetry through a poststructuralist lens involves examining how language constructs meaning, the play of language, and the deconstruction of binary oppositions. Derrida, Foucault.

Question 7

Feminist, Queer, Postcolonial theories

Answer 7

these theories examine literature through the lens of gender, sexuality, and colonial power dynamics. Analyzing poetry from feminist, queer, or postcolonial perspectives involves exploring how gender, sexuality, and colonialism intersect with themes, imagery, and representations in the poem.

Question 8

Phenomenology

Answer 8

Phenomenology focuses on the study of consciousness and subjective experiences, emphasizing how individuals perceive and interpret the world. Analyzing poetry through phenomenology involves examining the reader’s subjective experience and interpretation of the poem, as well as the poet’s intentions and the poem’s effect on the reader. Husserl, Heidegger

Question 9

Hermeneutics

Answer 9

Hermeneutics is the theory and practice of interpretation, particularly of written texts. Analyzing poetry through hermeneutics involves interpreting the meaning of the poem within its cultural, historical, and literary context, considering both the author’s intentions and the reader’s interpretations. Heidegger, Gadamer.

Question 10

Reader-response theories

Answer 10

Reader-response theories emphasize the role of the reader in interpreting and creating meaning in literature. Analyzing poetry from a reader-response perspective involves considering how different readers interpret and respond to the poem, as well as the ways in which the poem invites reader participation and engagement. Iser, Fish, Eco.

Question 11

New Historicism

Answer 11

• Text is embedded in social history (they think in Marxist terms).
• Aesthetic values -> are social values (what we value in art, speaks on what we value in society)
• Reader has to be socially engaged, ideologically aware.
• NH is interested in cultural margins, as well as the cannon.
• Work with both literary and non-literary, because everything contains cultural significance.
• Places emphasis on cultural complexity
• Reflects on established values.