Hey, Hypothetical Reader! Wanna talk about Literary Theory?
No! Why would I want to talk about Literary Theory?
Because you appreciate discussions about books and their place in society.
Well, I do appreciate those things, yes. But Theory is more than a little pretentious, don't you think?
Yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about it.
Fine. Where should we start?
Well, maybe with a rough definition.
That's easy, Literary Theory is when you take a discussion about Literature and turn it into a discussion of something else.
Hmmm.
C'mon, tell me I'm wrong.
Well, I'd say it's more when you take a discussion of something else and turn it into a discussion about Literature.
Hmmm.
Are we being too joke-y?
Maybe a little.
Well, let's be more straightforward and define Theory as a series of analytical frameworks that you can apply to the discussion of literary texts.
That's pretty sweeping.
Well, you know.
So, it's really just about new ways of looking at Literature.
Exactly. After all, while the study of rhetoric and aesthetics in Classical prose and poetry goes back centuries, the serious academic study of works written in many modern languages is relatively recent. For example, the study of English Literature essentially began in the 19th Century as a subject to teach girls in lieu of teaching them Greek and Latin so that they could study the Classics. Over time, boys were taught English Literature as well, and there was a sort of warm and fuzzy sense of the study of Literature as a humanizing process.
Oh, like one of those turn-of-the-last-century utopian movements like the Olympics or Esperanto.
Yeah, the idea was that reading books and appreciating art would help to make you a more empathetic person. But the major conflicts of the 20th Century sort of made that view obsolete, turns out that you can both appreciate fine art and commit atrocities. But in the meantime, the serious consideration of vernacular Literature gave rise to multiple schools of thought when it comes to interpreting it. You might look at Russian Formalism or New Criticism as movements that foreground the study of literary texts to examine how they work.
Well, that makes sense.
Yeah, and it's really not until the Post World War II period that things start getting strange.
Like Post-Modernist strange?
Well, kind of. See, a lot of Theory now is the result of taking academic work from other fields and applying the underlying ideas to the study of literature. Prominent examples include: Phenomenology, Psychoanalysis, and Structural Linguistics, all of which have formed the basis of different schools of literary interpretation.
See this is what I meant about Theory just being a means of turning a discussion of Literature into a discussion of something else.
I get that argument. but when is Literature ever just about itself? I mean, we don't just read stories and poems just because they're there. We read them because they mean something. Because they speak to something in our being. Theory just provides different tools for talking about that meaning.
Okay, but don't we run the risk of projecting contemporary ideas onto pre-modern texts?
Well, I think that argument is a little disingenuous.
Oh?
Yeah, while there wasn't a direct equivalent to modern Feminist discourse in Ancient Greece, a Feminist critique of Lysistrata wouldn't be premised on faulting Aristophanes for being insufficiently woke, it would be about examining the ways in which the play portrays gender roles and power dynamics. Theory is more about being descriptive than prescriptive. The same could apply to Postcolonialism, Queer Theory, or Marxism.
So, you're saying that Theory is more about looking at a text and seeing how it reflects these ideas than it is about projecting the ideas onto the text?
Well, that's the best case scenario. Nobody's perfect and that means that there are imperfect critiques. But, overall, I'd say that the development of Literary Tbeory over the past century or so has largely been a positive one. A movement away from the idea of Literature as a tool for improving the self and society towards the idea of Literature as a tool for examining the self and society.
That's a little cheese-y.
I guess so.
Do you have any recommendations for people who'd like to know more about Literary Theory?
Sure. you can google "Literary Theo—
Be serious.
Fine, if you want to know the basics Jonathan Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction from Oxford University Press's "A Very Short Introduction" series is a good round-up, as is Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory: An Introduction from The University of Minnesota Press. Given that I haven't taken an introductory Lit class in over ten years, I'll admit that there could be a better introduction, but these aren't bad places to start.
Because you appreciate discussions about books and their place in society.
Well, I do appreciate those things, yes. But Theory is more than a little pretentious, don't you think?
Yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about it.
Fine. Where should we start?
Well, maybe with a rough definition.
That's easy, Literary Theory is when you take a discussion about Literature and turn it into a discussion of something else.
Hmmm.
C'mon, tell me I'm wrong.
Well, I'd say it's more when you take a discussion of something else and turn it into a discussion about Literature.
Hmmm.
Are we being too joke-y?
Maybe a little.
Well, let's be more straightforward and define Theory as a series of analytical frameworks that you can apply to the discussion of literary texts.
That's pretty sweeping.
Well, you know.
So, it's really just about new ways of looking at Literature.
Exactly. After all, while the study of rhetoric and aesthetics in Classical prose and poetry goes back centuries, the serious academic study of works written in many modern languages is relatively recent. For example, the study of English Literature essentially began in the 19th Century as a subject to teach girls in lieu of teaching them Greek and Latin so that they could study the Classics. Over time, boys were taught English Literature as well, and there was a sort of warm and fuzzy sense of the study of Literature as a humanizing process.
Oh, like one of those turn-of-the-last-century utopian movements like the Olympics or Esperanto.
Yeah, the idea was that reading books and appreciating art would help to make you a more empathetic person. But the major conflicts of the 20th Century sort of made that view obsolete, turns out that you can both appreciate fine art and commit atrocities. But in the meantime, the serious consideration of vernacular Literature gave rise to multiple schools of thought when it comes to interpreting it. You might look at Russian Formalism or New Criticism as movements that foreground the study of literary texts to examine how they work.
Well, that makes sense.
Yeah, and it's really not until the Post World War II period that things start getting strange.
Like Post-Modernist strange?
Well, kind of. See, a lot of Theory now is the result of taking academic work from other fields and applying the underlying ideas to the study of literature. Prominent examples include: Phenomenology, Psychoanalysis, and Structural Linguistics, all of which have formed the basis of different schools of literary interpretation.
See this is what I meant about Theory just being a means of turning a discussion of Literature into a discussion of something else.
I get that argument. but when is Literature ever just about itself? I mean, we don't just read stories and poems just because they're there. We read them because they mean something. Because they speak to something in our being. Theory just provides different tools for talking about that meaning.
Okay, but don't we run the risk of projecting contemporary ideas onto pre-modern texts?
Well, I think that argument is a little disingenuous.
Oh?
Yeah, while there wasn't a direct equivalent to modern Feminist discourse in Ancient Greece, a Feminist critique of Lysistrata wouldn't be premised on faulting Aristophanes for being insufficiently woke, it would be about examining the ways in which the play portrays gender roles and power dynamics. Theory is more about being descriptive than prescriptive. The same could apply to Postcolonialism, Queer Theory, or Marxism.
So, you're saying that Theory is more about looking at a text and seeing how it reflects these ideas than it is about projecting the ideas onto the text?
Well, that's the best case scenario. Nobody's perfect and that means that there are imperfect critiques. But, overall, I'd say that the development of Literary Tbeory over the past century or so has largely been a positive one. A movement away from the idea of Literature as a tool for improving the self and society towards the idea of Literature as a tool for examining the self and society.
That's a little cheese-y.
I guess so.
Do you have any recommendations for people who'd like to know more about Literary Theory?
Sure. you can google "Literary Theo—
Be serious.
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| Very creative titles. |
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