The Soulflakes

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Unit-IV READER RESPONSE CRITICISM Introduction As the name suggests this group of approaches focuses on the reader's role in interpreting the text. This is not always to say that meaning is dependent upon the reader's individual life experiences, which might generate a subjective appreciation or disapproval of a text, but that it is up to the reader to recognize the codes of a text which will establish its meaning. Meaning lies in the text but this must be completed by the reader. 1. Reader-response theory This approach in criticism focuses on the reader's role in interpreting the text, by attempting to describe what goes on in the reader's mind during the reading of a text. Hence, the consciousness of the reader produced by reading the work is the actual subject of reader-response criticism. These critics are not after a 'correct reading of the text or what the author supposed to be intended; instead, they are interested in the reader's Individual exper...

Unit-IV   DECONSTRUCTION Introduction A method of literary criticism developed by Jacques Derrida and characterised by multiple conflicting interpretations of a given work. Deconstructionists consider the impact of the language of a work and suggest that the true meaning of the work is not necessarily the meaning that the author intended. The Beginning: Jacques Derrida inaugurated Deconstruction in the 1960s which questions the fundamental conceptual distinctions or oppositions. Derrida questions sign and structure in his work “Structure, Sign and Play in the discourse of Humanities” (1969). The Theory: • It is a radical destabilization of movements of literature. • It is philosophy oriented. • It adds a clear understanding of literature with a critical sense. • For Derrida language is not a reliable mode of communication. Language is fluid and Slippery • One Signified is referring to a chain of signifiers. So, language consists of a chain of signifiers. •...

Unit-IV  NEW HISTORICISM Introduction Stephen Greenblatt, coined this term that has come to refer to a set of cultural practices seeking to priorities the historical and cultural context rather than solely text-based readings of literature. How do the new historicists approach history? Describe. 1. New Historicism/ Cultural poetics It was the American theorists who gave the term 'New Historicism', while the British, Jonathan Dollimore, Alan Sinfield and Catherine Belsey called it 'cultural poetics'. New Historicism and cultural poetics are more or less the same. New historicists approach history with the question, 'How has the event that happened been interpreted, and what do these tell us now? 2. New Historicism historicist than historical New historicists believe that we can at best only have access to the facts of the past. What we do is to interpret these facts from our own point of view, and create a history. There are only different interpretatio...

Unit-IV ECO-CRITICISM Introduction Eco criticism" was a term coined in the late 1970s combining "Criticism" with a shortened form of "ecology" the science that investigates the interrelations of all forms of plant and animal life with each other and with their physical habitats. 1. Write an account of ecocriticism and its environmental implications. 1. Introduction Ecocriticism is literary and cultural criticism from an environmentalist viewpoint. Ecocriticism identifies the critical writings that explore the relations between literature and biological and physical environment, conducted with an acute awareness of the damage being caused on that environment by human activities. 2. Development In America, an early instance of nature writing was William Bertram's Travels (1791); among its successors was a classic of this genre, Henry David Thoreau's Walden (7854). By the mid-nineteenth century, Thoreau and other writers in America and Englan...

Unit-III FEMINIST CRITICISM Introduction It is an approach to literature that seeks to correct or supplement what may be regarded as a predominantly male-dominated critical perspective with a feminist consciousness. Feminist criticism places literature in a social context and uses a broad range of disciplines including history, sociology, psychology and linguistics, to provide a perspective sensitive to feminist issues. Feminist theories also attempt to understand representation from a woman's point of view and to explain women's writing strategies as specific to their social conditions. 1. Describe the main theme of feminism. 1. Introduction Feminist literary criticism aims to study the ways in which cultural representations, like literature, undermine and reinforce the economic, social, political and psychological suppression and oppression of women in society. The 'women's movement' of the 1960s began in order to spread its ideals of freedom and equalit...

Unit-III Prose   AUTOBIOGRAPHY Autobiography: Definition The author of an autobiography presents a continuous narrative of the major events of his past. The autobiography differs from the diary or journal, which lacks continuity and is kept for the author's private purposes. (e.g. The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens) Features of an autobiography ●        An autobiography is a reflection of the author's inner life as well as his public achievements, set in the context of the time. ●        An autobiography is made interesting to read by presenting details in an artistic manner while remaining truthful. (e.g. Mahatma Gandhi's My Experiments with Truth.) ESSAY 1. Definition According to Shipley is the autobiography, "literature of personal revelation". The main interest of an autobiography resides in a conscious or unconscious self- portrayal by the author. It may be called a connected narrative of the aut...

Unit-III Prose  BIOGRAPHY Biography The history of the life of a particular person written by someone else. 1. Introduction Biography is a connection narrative that tells a person's life story. Biographies typically aim to be objective and closely detailed. James Boswell's 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' is a famous example of the form. 2. Origin and Growth There were very few biographies in the Early Middle Ages. The only works which came close to biography were 'hagiographies', or the lives of saints. In the typical saint's life, for example, the subject was reduced to an illustration of the qualities of a Christian saint. 3. Plutarch's 'Lives' In the late Middle Ages, the biography became more secular, and books on the lives of Kings, knights and soldiers began to appear. Plutarch's Lives describes the lives of Greeks and Romans. The work later became an important source of plots for dramatists like Shakespeare. The most popu...

Unit-III Prose Short Story Introduction A short story is prose narrative briefer than the short novel, more restricted in characters and situations, and usually concerned with a single effect. Unlike longer forms of fiction, the short story does not develop character fully; generally, a single aspect of personality undergoes change or is revealed as the result of the conflict. Within the restricted form, there is frequently concentrations on a single character involved in a single episode. The climax may occur at the very end and need not involve a denouement, though many other arrangements are possible. Because of limited length, the background against which the characters move is generally sketched lightly. The short story is a separate literary form. It must not be regarded as a shortened novel. The short story contains all the major elements of fiction, such as plot, characters, dialogue and setting. The short story tends to focus on a single plot, concentrates on one charact...