Literary Theory Assignment and Othello

Literary Theories:

A Sampling of Critical Lenses

Formalist Criticism:

This is the criticism we have used to analyze stories, poems, and other literature this semester. Formalists use literary devices present in the work to analyze and create meaning.

This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms.” All the elements necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself. Of particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of form—style, symbolism, allusion, structure, tone, imagery, diction etc.—that are found within the text. A primary goal for formalist critics is to determine how such elements work together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers.

Question to ask when using Formalist Criticism: How does the author use literary devices to create meaning in the text?

Feminist Criticism:

In brief: Feminist Theory explores how gender is portrayed in literature. Because most literature that has traditionally been studied was written from a male point of view, much of Feminist Theory focuses on examining the power relationships between male and female characters, whether female characters are as well-developed as the male characters, or whether there is deliberate or unintentional sexism throughout the book.

A feminist critic sees cultural and economic disabilities in a "patriarchal" society that have hindered or prevented women from realizing their creative possibilities and women's cultural identification as a merely negative object, or "Other," to man as the defining and dominating "Subject." There are several assumptions and concepts held in common by most feminist critics:

1. Our civilization is pervasively patriarchal.

2. The concepts of "gender" are largely, if not entirely, cultural constructs, effected by the omnipresent patriarchal biases of our civilization.

3. This patriarchal ideology also pervades those writings that have been considered great literature. Such works lack autonomous female role models, are implicitly addressed to male readers, and leave the woman reader an alien outsider or else solicit her to identify against herself by assuming male values and ways of perceiving, feeling, and acting. This is somewhat like Marxist criticism, but instead of focusing on the relationships between the classes it focuses on the relationships between the genders. under this theory you would examine the patterns of thought, behavior, values, enfranchisement, and power in relations between the sexes.

***Questions for a Feminist Reading: 1. What stereotypes of women are present? Are female characters oversimplified? Weak? Foolish? Excessively naïve? Example: 2. Do the female characters have any power? What kind is it—Political? Economic? Social? Psycholgical? Example: 3. How do the male characters talk about and with female characters? Example: 4. Are the female characters as well developed as the male characters? Are they believable?