1. Part (5)

2. Objectives
• By the end of this part, you will be able to:
1. List the main modern schools of
interpretations.
2. Describe the main characteristics of each
school.
3. Differentiate between the strategies of
interpretations used in the schools.
4. Discuss some ideas in these schools.
5. Name some main critics in each school.

3. What do you think?
• Literary criticism is just to say if a literary work is good or bad.
• Agree
• Not agree

4. What do you think?
• What are the spheres (circles) of the
literary work?
?
?
?

5. The spheres (circles)
of the literary work?
Life
Author
Text

6. What are the ways to
analyze a work?

7. What are the ways to analyze a work?
Textual
Psychological
Social-
political-
historical

8. Which way do
you think is
more valuable or
appropriate?
• A - Textual analysis
• B - Psychological analysis
• C – Social/Political/Historical

9. Modern Schools of Interpretation
Textual
Analysis
Psychological
Analysis
Historical /Political
Analysis

10. Question • What are the schools of textual analysis?

11. Textual
Analysis
1. Russian Formalism (1915–1929)
2. Cambridge School (1920s–1930s)
3. Chicago School (1950s)
4. New Criticism (1930s–1960s)
5. Structuralism (1950s–1960s)
6. Post-structuralism (1960s–1970s)
7. Deconstruction (1967–present)

12. Question • What are the schools of psychological analysis?

13. Psychological
Analysis
1. Psychoanalytic criticism (c. 1900–present)
2. Freudian criticism (c. 1900–present)
3. Jungian criticism (1920s–present).
4. Lacanian criticism (c. 1977–present)

14. Question • What are the schools of
Social/Political/Historical analysis?

15. Social
Political
Historical
Analysis
1. Feminist criticism (1960s–present)
2. Marxist criticism (1910s–present)
3. New Historicism (1980s–present)
4. Queer/Gender theory (1980s–present)

16. Activity
(15 minutes)
Schools of Interpretation
1. Russian Formalism
2. New Criticism
3. Post-structuralism
4. Marxist Criticism.
Post on the Wiki:
1. One idea about one of these schools.
2. One critic in one of these schools (name
or picture).
• https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/literary_theory_and_school
s_of_criticism/index.html
• http://www.studentguide.org/the-major-schools-of-literary-theory/

17. Question
•Write about:
1. Structuralism
2. Deconstruction
3. Psychoanalytic criticism
4. Feminist criticism
5. New Historicism

18. Structuralism
• Structuralism (1950s–1960s) is a
school of literary interpretation.
Structuralist literary critics read
texts as an interrelated system
of signs that refer to one another
rather than to an external
“meaning” that is fixed either by
author or reader.

19. Structuralism
• Major critics
• Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913),
• Roland Barthes (1915–1980)
• Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908 – 2009).

20. Deconstruction
• Deconstruction (1967–present) is a school of
literary interpretation. It is a philosophical
approach to reading that attacks the assumption
that a text has a single, stable meaning. It
suggests that all interpretation of a text simply
constitutes further texts, which means there is
no “outside the text” at all. Therefore, it is
impossible for a text to have stable meaning.

21. Deconstruction
• Major critics
• Jacques Derrida (1930–2004),
• Paul de Man (1919 –1983)
• J. Hillis Miller (1928-present).

22. Psychoanalytic criticism
• Psychoanalytic criticism (c. 1900–
present) is a school of literary
interpretation. It refers to any
form of criticism that draws on
psychoanalysis, the practice of
analyzing the role of unconscious
psychological drives and
impulses in shaping human
behavior or artistic production.

23. Psychoanalytic
Criticism
• Major critics
• Jacques Lacan (1901–1981),
• Carl Jung (1875-1961)
• Karen Horney (1885-1952).

24. Feminist Criticism
• Feminist criticism (1960s–present) is a school of literary
interpretation. It is an umbrella term for a number of
different critical approaches that seek to distinguish the
female experience from the male experience. Feminist
critics draw attention to the ways in which patriarchal
social structures have marginalized women and male
authors have exploited women in their portrayal of
them. The writings of Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) are
considered pioneering in this approach

25. Feminist
Criticism
• Major critics
• Barbara Christian (1943-2000),
• Julia Kristeva (1941-present)
• Hélène Cixous (1937-present).

26. New Historicism
New Historicism is a school of historical analysis.
Stephen Greenblatt is the pioneer critic. It is an
approach that breaks down distinctions between
“literature” and “historical context” by examining
the contemporary production and reception of
literary texts, including the dominant social,
political, and moral movements of the time.

27. New
Historicism
• Major critics
• Stephen Greenblatt (1943-present),
• Stephen Orgel (1930-present)
• Peter Thornton (1925-2007).

28. Questions
(Part - 5)
1. What are the schools of textual analysis?
2. What are the schools of psychological analysis?
3. What are the schools of
Social/Political/Historical analysis?
4. Write about:
1. Structuralism
2. Deconstruction
3. Psychoanalytic criticism
4. Feminist criticism
5. New Historicism

29. Online Activity • Assignment (2)