Unit+2+Lierary+Theory+and+Criticism.doc

Unit 2 Literary Theory and Criticism The practice of literary theory has historical roots that run as far back as ancient Greece and it became a profession in the 20th century. This unit will give you a brief introduction to literary theory and some of the major schools of literary criticism, which is often informed by literary theory. Part I Text A Lead-in What is literary theory? What is literary criticism? And why do we need them? Write down your answers before reading Text A. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Now read Text A and compare your answers with the author’s analysis. The reading process and literary theory1 Charles E. Bressler The relationship between literary theory and a reader’s personal worldview is best illustrated in the act of reading itself. When reading, we are constantly interacting with the text. According to Louise M. Rosenblatt2’s text The Reader, the Text, the Poem (1978), during the act or event of reading, A reader brings to the text his or her past experience and present personality. Under the magnetism of the ordered symbols of the text, the reader marshals his or her resources and crystallizes out from the stuff of memory, thought, and feeling a new order, a new experience, which he/she sees as the poem. This becomes part of the ongoing stream of the reader’s life experience, to be reflected on from any angle important to him or her as a human being. Accordingly, Rosenblatt declares that the relationship between the reader and the text is not linear, but transactional; that is, it is a process or event that takes place at a particular time and place in which the text and the reader condition each other. The reader and the text transact, creating meaning, for meaning does not exist solely within the reader’s mind or within the text, Rosenblatt maintains, but