Q3: Literary Approaches

Question 1

This is also known as pragmatic or affective theory.

Answer 1

reader-response theory

Question 2

This theory allows a range of interpretations of a text coming from numerous readers.

Answer 2

reader-response theory

Question 3

True or False

Reader-response theory acknowledges the fact that literature is used to produce or to create a particular impact or emotion as an effect to its readers.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that “literature” exists not as an artifact upon a printed page but as a transaction between the physical text and a reader’s mind.

Answer 4

reader-response theory

Question 5

It aims to describe what happens to the reader’s mind while interpreting a text.

Answer 5

reader-response theory

Question 6

This theory attempts in making literary criticism a scientific study.

Answer 6

new/formalist criticism

Question 7

It emphasizes the form of a literary work to determine its meaning, focusing on literary elements and how they work to create meaning.

Answer 7

new/formalist criticism

Question 8

This theory believes that every piece of literature such as style, structure, tone, imagery, and other literary devices must work in unity and should exhibit a unified meaning.

Answer 8

new/formalist criticism

Question 9

True or False

The impact of the reader’s experiences is significant in formalist criticism.

Answer 9

False

Question 10

This criticism believes that all the elements necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself.

Answer 10

new/formalist theory

Question 11

It examines a text as independent from its time period, social setting, and author’s background.

Answer 11

new/formalist theory

Question 12

Two emerging principles in performing a formalist criticism approach:

Answer 12

1. A literary text exists independent of any particular reader and, in a sense, has a fixed meaning.
2. The greatest literary texts are “timeless” and “universal.”

Question 13

It focuses on how human behavior is determined by social, cultural and psychological structures.

Answer 13

structuralism

Question 14

The belief that “things cannot be understood in isolation, they have to be seen in the context of larger structures which contain them.

Answer 14

structuralism

Question 15

It views a text as a revelation of its author’s mind and personality.

Answer 15

psychological/psychoanalytic criticism

Question 16

He founded pyschoanalysis, a theory of how the mind works and a method of helping people in mental distress. This criticism is based on his work.

Answer 16

Sigmund Freud

Question 17

It focuses on the hidden motivations of literary characters.

Answer 17

psychological/pyschoanalytic criticism

Question 18

True or False

Psychological criticism looks at literary characters as a reflection of the author.

Answer 18

True

Question 19

According to Guerin et al. (2005), this theory is the most controversial, most abused, and for many readers—least appreciated.

Answer 19

psychological/pyschoanalytic criticism

Question 20

Freud’s Three Theories

Answer 20

• conscious vs. unconscious
• three psychic zones
• phallic symbols

Question 21

Three psychic zones and their definition

Answer 21

1. id - desire
2. superego - prevents ID from fulfilling its desire
3. ego - negotiating between the ID and the superego and allowing the desires of the ID to be fulfilled in a socially accepted manner

Question 22

It means or resembles a penis. It is associated with sex or sexual desire.

Answer 22

phallic

Question 23

A complex of stories—some no doubt fact, and some fantasy—which, for various reasons, human beings regard as demonstrations of inner meaning of the universe and of human life.

Answer 23

myth

Question 24

True or False

Mythology reveals the mind and character of an individual.

Answer 24

False

people

Question 25

One of the foremost mythologist.

Answer 25

Carl Gustav Jung

Question 26

# **True or False** Psychology reflects the dreams and desires of an individual, while mythology projects (through symbols) people’s hopes, values, fears, and aspirations.

Answer 26

True

Question 27

It transcends time as it unites the past and the present (traditional modes of beliefs) and reaches towards the future (spiritual and cultural aspirations).

Answer 27

mythological

Question 28

# **True or False** Psychology is speculative and philosophical while mythology is experimental and diagnostic.

Answer 28

False | vice versa

Question 29

It is the expression of a profound sense of togetherness of feeling and of action and of wholeness of living.

Answer 29

myth

Question 30

It binds a tribe or a nation together in common psychological and spiritual activities.

Answer 30

mythological

Question 31

These are similar motifs and images found among many different mythologies that carry meaning.

Answer 31

archetypes

Question 32

This imagery symbolizes creation, fertility, rebirth (birth-death-resurrection), purification and redemption, unconscious.

Answer 32

water

Question 33

This imagery symbolizes rising (birth, creation, enlightenment) and setting (death).

Answer 33

sun

Question 34

# **True or False** Red symbolizes chaos, mystery, darkness, death, evil, melancholy.

Answer 34

False | black

Question 35

This color symbolizes truth, positive, religious, purity, security.

Answer 35

blue

Question 36

This color symbolizes growth, hope, sensation, fertility.

Answer 36

green

Question 37

An approach that has been evolving and argues that we must take an author’s life and background into account when we study a text.

Answer 37

historical/biographical

Question 38

# **True or False** Historical/biographical criticism sees literary work exclusively as a reflection of the author’s life and times or the life and times of the characters in the work.

Answer 38

False | not exclusive

Question 39

It argues that social contexts (the social environment) must be considered when analyzing a text.

Answer 39

sociological criticism

Question 40

Two sub-approaches of sociological criticism

Answer 40

* feminist criticism * marxist criticism

Question 41

The core belief in this approach is that “Literature is a reflection of its society.”

Answer 41

sociological criticism

Question 42

# **True or False** Marxism focuses on the values of a society and how those views are reflected in a text.

Answer 42

False | sociological criticism

Question 43

This approach believes that men and women should have equal rights.

Answer 43

feminist criticism

Question 44

Three types of feminism

Answer 44

* liberal or pragmatic feminism * radical feminism * cultural feminism

Question 45

A type of feminism that involves concrete change at an institutional or government level.

Answer 45

liberal or pragmatic feminism

Question 46

It is non-hierarchical and antiauthoritarianism approaches to politics and religion.

Answer 46

radical feminism

Question 47

It replaces the notion that men and women are intrinsically the same.

Answer 47

cultural feminism

Question 48

Differentiate the three types of feminism

Answer 48

* **liberal feminism** - integrates women into power structure * **radical feminism** - eliminate male supremacy in all social and economic contexts * **cultural feminism** - celebrate qualities associated with women

Question 49

It is concerned with understanding the role of power, politics, and money in literary texts.

Answer 49

marxist criticism

Question 50

Marxism is based on the political theory of ________________ and ________________.

Answer 50

* Karl Marx * Friedrich Engels

Question 51

It is the belief that the social classes should be abolished because they create a force in the history and society.

Answer 51

marxism

Question 52

This approach aims to discover the meaning of the literature and check the truth and significance of the literary work.

Answer 52

moral/ethical

Question 53

It determine whether a work conveys a lesson or message and whether it can help readers lead better lives and improve their understanding of the world.

Answer 53

moral/ethical

Question 54

It is the act of closely examining and judging the media.

Answer 54

media criticism

Question 55

The perception that the media is reporting the news in a partial or prejudiced manner.

Answer 55

media bias

Question 56

It occurs when the media seems to push a specific viewpoint, rather than reporting the news objectively.

Answer 56

media bias

Question 57

9 types of literary approaches

Answer 57

1. reader-response theory 2. new/formalist theory 3. structuralism 4. psychological/psychoanalytic criticism 5. mythological-archetypal 6. sociological criticism 7. historical/biographical 8. moral-ethical 9. media criticism