Literary Theory

Series I; Handout #1

FAQs without Definitive Answers:

What is “theory”?

· Fashion, jargon, posing, careerism, and inescapable.  Scary and difficult.  Unlimited.

· It is a form of knowledge that applies to topics beyond single disciplines. 

· It’s self-consciousness about the air we breathe.  The water in our goldfish bowl. 

· It’s showing how common sense is a not necessarily “reality.”

· Set in opposition to the Enlightenment idea of a single, objective, universal, and knowable truth.

· Reality is a construct; Truth is a Construct; Everything is Political; Everything goes in quotation marks for interrogation and problematization.  (We can’t talk about evil, good, or bad—except for tendency to expand individualism and personal liberty).  Ultimately part of the liberal, progressive tradition.

· Rebellious against received wisdom (romantic tradition of genius)

· Easily caricatured (see Crew’s Postmodern Pooh)

· Born out of the tragedies of the 20^th century (Holocaust), but also expanding freedoms (Civil Rights, Women’s Rights).

· Think of it as a “Toolkit.”  Or a set of “Moves.” See the schools of thought on syllabus.

· Remember, that to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  The risk of reductive thinking. 

What is “literature”?

· We, most of all, learn to apply theory to literary texts.  But what are they?

· Narrative, Lyric, and Dramatic forms of writing. Imaginative Writing.

· What forms of Imaginative Writing Count as “Literature”?

o See Examples.  Literary or not?  Why?

· What is “literariness”?  (Weeds vs. Plants—subjective difference)

o Foregrounding of Language (calls attention to itself)

o Complex use of language; needs analysis to be sully understood. 

o Fiction, not based on factual or merely descriptive. Not context-dependent.

o Aesthetic value: valued because it has no specific value. 

Intertextual or self-reflexive construct.