Theoretical approaches to literature

As the classification of genre and text types, the approaches in literature also classified into many kinds of methodologies, which has different characterization for each. All of the approaches in literature reflect a particular institutional, cultural and historical background. Historically speaking, the systematic analysis of texts developed in the magic or religious realm, and in legal discourse. In the past time in cultural history magic an religion indirectly furthers the preservation and interpretation of “texts” in the widest sense of the term. It really has the close relation with the oracles and dreams which is becoming the starting point of textual analysis and becoming the basic structures in the study of the holy texts in all religions.

In all religion, the interpretation of a certain code of text is very important; it usually counters on the analysis or exegesis of canonical texts such as bible, the Koran, or other holy books. As same as dreams and oracle which interpretations are consequently decode are considered to originate from a divinity and are therefore highly privilege. The interpretation of these kinds of texts deals with encoded information are very important, it can only be retrieve through exegetic practices.

Literary criticism derived its central interpretation from these two areas of textual study. The exegesis of religious and legal texts were based on the assumption that the meaning of a text could only be retrieves through the act of interpretation. Biblical scholarship coined the term heurmeneutics for this procedure, and it has been integrated into literary interpretation over the past several centuries. Within the field of literary studies, there also literary theory which has developed as a distinct discipline by philosophy. It analyzes the philosophical and methodological premises of literary criticism. While literary analysis is mostly interested in the analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of primary source, literary theory tries to shed light on the very methods used in those reading of primary texts.

Among the many diverse method of interpretation it is possible to isolate four basic approaches which provide a grid according to which most schools or trends can be classified.  They can be classified between text, author, reader, and context-oriented approaches. The following theoretical schools can be subsumed under these four basic rubrics:

Text                                                                            reader

Philology                                                                     reception theory

Rhetoric                                                                      reception history

Formalism and structuralism                                       reader-response criticism

New criticism

Semiotics and deconstruction                                    
                                                                                    context

Author                                                                       literary history

Biographical criticism                                                 Marxist literary theory

Psychoanalytic criticism                                              feminist literary theory

phenomenology               
                                                                    new historicism and cultural studies

1.                  Text-oriented approach.

Text-oriented approach has been applied in most of modern schools and methodologies in literary criticism. It is applied primordial textual science of religion, legal practice, and divination. All these traditions place the main emphasize on the internal textual aspects of a literary works. Extra-textual factors concerning the author (his or her biography, other works), audiences (races, class, gender, age, education) or larger contexts (historical, social or political conditions) are deliberately excluded from the analysis.

Based on the rubrics above, there are four approaches concerning with textual approach, they are Philology, Rhetoric, Formalism and structuralism, New criticism, Semiotics and deconstruction. All of these approaches have its own characteristic which can be identified as the explanation below.

a)              Philology

In literary criticism, the term philology generally denotes approaches which focus on editorial problems and the reconstruction of texts. Philology is firstly experienced in renaissance era by rediscovery of ancient authors. Informed by modern science, these philological approaches tried to incorporate advanced empirical methodologies into the study of literature. As the example is the accepted edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses(1922). In the 1980, a number of competing Joyce’s editions, all of which considered themselves to be the definite text, revived the interest in questions of textual edition and philological methodologies. These recent manifestations of traditional philology, which sometimes focus on such arcane aspects as typography, are often referred to as textual criticism.

b)              Rhetoric and stylistics

Today’s text-oriented schools focus on aspects of form (textual and narrative structure, point of view, plot-patterns) and style (rhetorical figures, choice of words or diction, syntax and meter), it remained the dominant textual discipline. Rhetoric introduced descriptive and analytical elements. Today’s text-oriented literary criticism derives many of its field from traditional rhetoric and still draws on its terminology.

In the nineteenth century, rhetoric eventually lost its influence and partially developed into stylistic, a field whose methodology was adopted by literary criticism and art history as well. Stylistics focused on grammatical structures (lexis, syntax), acoustic elements (melody, rhyme, meter, rhythm), and over arching forms (rhetorical figures) in its analyses of texts.

c)              Formalism and  structuralism

The term formalism and structuralism encompass a number of schools in the first half of twentieth century whose main goals lies in the explication of the formal and structural patterns of literary texts. It really attached with intrinsic value of literary criticism. Formalism tries to analyze structurally such textual elements as characters in plot. It concern with the form of literary itself.  While Structuralism concern with the structure of the literary works.

d)              New criticism

New criticism disapproves of what are termed the affective fallacy and the international fallacy in traditional analysis of text. In its analyses, new criticism focuses on phenomena such as multiple meaning, paradox, irony, word-play, puns, and rhetorical figures which – as the smallest distinguishable elements of literary work – form interdependent links with the overall texts. A central term usually used in new criticism is close reading. It denotes the meticulous analysis of these elementary features, which mirror larger structures of a text.

e)              Semiotics and Deconstruction

Semiotics and deconstruction regards a text as a system of signs. Semiotics and deconstruction use the verbal sign or signifier as the starting point of the analyses,  arguing that nothing exist outside the texts, i.e, that our perception of the world is of a textual nature. This cluster of text-oriented theories emphasize intrinsic dimensions of literary works. Their main objective lies in the analysis of basic textual structure (narrative techniques, plot patterns, point of view, style, and rhetorical figures)

2.            Author-oriented approaches.

In the nineteenth century, before the major formalist-structuralist theories of the twentieth century, biographical criticism evolved and become a dominant movement. This  Author-oriented approach established a direct link between the literary text and the biography of the author. It includes date, fact, and events in author’s life related to his or her literary works.

Autobiographical are suitable for this kind of approach, which compares the fictional portrayal with and figures from the author’s life. As the example from Mary Shelley’s life shows, many biographical approaches also tend to employ psychological explanations. This  psychological explanations led to psychoanalytic literary criticism. As the examples is Shakespeare’s Hamlet which can be analyze using psychoanalytic, and ask whether Hamlet is mad, if so, from which psychological illness he is suffering.

3.            Reader-oriented approaches

Reader-oriented approach developed in the 1960s called reception theory, reader-response theory, or aesthetic of reception. Reception theory is obviously opposed to a new criticism’s dogma of affective fallacy, which demands an interpretation free of subjective contribution by readers. These approaches assume that a text creates certain expectations in the reader in every phase or of reading. These expectations are then either fulfilled ar left fulfilled. The reader’s expectation plays a role in every sort of text, but it is most obvious in literary genres like detective fiction, which depend very much on the interaction between text and recipient. Edgar Alan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue is one of the example of this approach. It guides reader’s imagination and expectation in different directions.

4.            Context-oriented approaches

This term refers to heterogeneous group of schools and methodologies which do not regard literary texts as self-contained, independent work of art but try to place them within a larger context. It is divided into two parts, they are literary history and Marxist literary theory. Literary history divided into many periods, describes the text with respect to its historical background, dates, texts, and examines their mutual influences. Marxist Literary theory is based on the writing of Karl Marx (1818-1883). It examine the conditions of production in certain literary periods and their influence on the literary texts of the times.

a)              New historicism

New historicism arose in US in the 1980s. it builds on post-structuralism and deconstruction, with their focus on text and discourse, but adds a historical dimension to the discussion of literary texts. For example is Shakespeare’s works are viewed as a concern with the historical document on the discovery of America.

b)              Feminist literary theory and gender theory

Feminist literary theory born on the movement of people especially woman which has strongly establish academic discipline.  Feminist literary theory starts with the assumption that “gender difference” is an aspect which has been neglected in traditional literary criticism and, therefore, argues that traditional domain of literary criticism have to be re-examined from a gender-oriented perspective.

In the development, beginning in the late 1960s, thematic issues such as the portrayal of woman in literary texts by male stood in the foreground. It shows that men are dominated than woman.

In the interpretation of literary texts, it is important to decide the suitable for the text at hand and can lead to new results. Although a text might imply certain approach because of its thematic, historical, or structural qualities, different approaches may often produce more original and rewarding results.




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