Rehab Farouk Mohammed
Early Development
literary criticism since the late 19th century
has often made use of different “theories”
drawn from the social and natural sciences,
philosophy, and other scholarly fields,
strictly defined “schools” of literary theory
began to appear throughout European and
North American intellectual circles,
colleges, and universities in the middle part
of the 20th century.
The rise of literary theory during this
time
is owed to a number of social and cultural
factors:
*the development of post-structural philosophy in
American and European colleges and universities;
*the popularity of psychoanalysis, Marxism, and other
social and cultural theories throughout the
intellectual world;
*and the multi- and cross-disciplinary academic
ideology that began to pervade colleges and
universities during the last half of the 20th century.
What is Literary Criticism ?
What does a literary Critic
do
the act of interpreting and studying literature.
?
A literary critic is not someone who merely evaluates the
worth or quality of a piece of literature but, rather, is someone
who
 argues on behalf of an interpretation or understanding of
the particular meaning(s) of literary texts.
 The task of a literary critic is to explain and attempt to reach
a critical understanding of what literary texts mean in terms
of their aesthetic, as well as social, political, and cultural
statements and suggestions.

 A literary critic does more than simply discuss or
evaluate the importance of a literary text; rather,
 a literary critic seeks to reach a logical and
reasonable understanding of not only what a text’s
author intends for it to mean but, also, what
different cultures and ideologies render it capable
of meaning.
What is a Literary Theory
a particular form of literary criticism in which particular
academic, scientific, or philosophical approaches are followed
in a systematic fashion while analyzing literary texts.
Literary theory proposes particular, systematic approaches to
literary texts that impose a particular line of intellectual
reasoning to it.
For example, a psychoanalytic theorist might examine and
interpret a literary text strictly through the theoretical lens of
psychoanalysis and psychology and, in turn, offer an
interpretation or reading of a text that focuses entirely on the
psychological dimensions of it.
For example, a psychoanalytic literary theorist might take
the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung
and seek to reach a critical understanding of a novel such as
Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. A literary
theorist applying, perhaps, Sigmund Freud’s notions of
trauma to Hemingway’s novel might explore the protagonist’s
psychology, using Freud’s theoretical “tools,” and argue that
the protagonist suffers from what Freud termed “shell shock”
and that the novel, then, can reasonably be argued to be a
commentary upon the effects of war on the psychology of
individuals.
Schools of Criticism
Traditional
Though perhaps Edwardian in style, this approach —
essentially one of trying to broaden understanding and
appreciation — is still used in general surveys of English
literature. There is usually some information on the
writer and his times, and a little illustration, but no close
analysis of the individual work or its aims.
New Criticism
The poem (the approach works best for poetry, and
especially the lyric) is detached from its biographical or
historical context, and analyzed thoroughly: diction,
imagery, meanings, particularly complexities of
meaning. Some explanation of unfamiliar words and/or
uses may be allowed, but the poem is otherwise expected
to stand on its own feet, as though it were a
contemporary production.
Rhetorical
Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, and the rhetorical
approach attempts to understand how the content of the
poem, which is more than intellectual meaning, is put
across. How arguments are presented, attitudes struck,
evidence marshalled, various appeals made to the reader
— all are relevant.
Stylistic
Style is the manner in which something is presented,
and this approach concentrates on the peculiarities of
diction and imagery employed, sometimes relating them
to literary and social theory.
Metaphorical
Metaphor enters into consideration in most approaches,
but here the emphasis is deeper and more exclusive,
attention focusing on the ways that metaphors actually
work: metaphors are not regarded as supporting or
decorative devices, but actually constituting the
meaning.
Structuralism
Here the writing is related to underlying patterns of
symmetry which are held to be common to all societies.
Evidence is drawn from sociology and anthropology, and
the approach attempts to place the work in larger
context rather than assess its quality.
Post-structuralist
In contrast to the New Critics approach, which stresses
interdependence and organic unity, the Poststructuralist
will point to the dissonances and the non sequiturs ‫النتائج‬
‫الخاطئة‬, and suggest how the poem works by evading or
confronting traditional expectations.
Myth Theory
The approach derives from Northrop Frye and attempts
to place poems into categories or subcategories into
which all literature is divide by archetypal themes — e.g.
the myth of the hero, his subjugation of enemies, his
fall. The approach somewhat anticipated structuralism,
draws on various psychologies, and is less concerned
with isolating what is special than showing what it has
in common with works in a similar category.
Freudian
Not only is the diction examined for sexual imagery, but
the whole work is seen through Freudian concepts:
struggles of the superego, the Oedipus complex, with the
repressed contents of consciousness, etc. The aim is
illumination of psychic conflicts, not aesthetic ranking.
Marxist
The poem may be assessed on its political correctness —
on its support for workers against capitalist exploitation
— but most Marxists praise work that analyses or
describes the injustices which Marxist societies aim to
overcome.