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Literary Theory, 2002.
An overview of the different forms of literary theory
1,150 words (approx. 4.6 pages), 3 sources, $ 44.95
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Abstract
This paper is about literary theory. Literary theory in its varied forms from structuralism to post-structuralism, from feminism to post-modernism, and from psychoanalytic to liberalism, have made an array of critical evaluations about the links between language, the writer, the text and the reader.
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Marxist Literary Theories, 2002.
A look at "Marxist Literary Theories" by David Forgacs.
2,400 words (approx. 9.6 pages), 8 sources, $ 89.95
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Abstract
This paper summarizes an article entitled "Marxist Literary Theories" by David Forgacs, from a book entitled "Modern Literary Theory, A Comparative Introduction", edited by Ann Jefferson and David Robley. The article, and this paper, provide an explanation of the basic modes and underlying assumptions of Marxist literary theories.
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New Literary Theory, 2004.
This paper offers a description of new historicism and theories of the unconscious as the basis for literary criticism.
1,575 words (approx. 6.3 pages), 13 sources, MLA, $ 55.95
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Abstract
The paper provides a discussion of new historicism and theories of the unconscious as the basis for literary criticism. The paper explains new historicism as a theory of textual critique. The paper quotes Jung and Lucan.
From the Paper
"Among the literary and critical theories that gained currency over the course of the ?th century, two strands of thought in particular resonate new historicism and aspects of neo psychoanalytic theory that touch on unconscious processes that operate not so much at the individual as at the social level where experience is shared and unconscious processes are collectively enacted, via encounters between and among inmates of the community to shape human experience."
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Analysis of Barbara Christian's Literary Theory, 2002.
This paper explores the way in which Barbara Christian argues that theory has devolved into what she calls ?A Race for Theory.?
2,916 words (approx. 11.7 pages), 6 sources, MLA, $ 86.95
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Abstract
This paper refutes Christian's attacks on French feminism, Marxism, and post-structuralists, as well as her complaints that modern theories prevent third world literature from entering the literary canon.
From the Paper
"Barbara Christian argues that theory has devolved into what she calls ?A Race for Theory.? In this ?race? to produce theories, critics are more concerned with creating new philosophical strategies for analysis than with actually analyzing new texts. She feels that critics are spending more energy reading and responding to other critics, which is an egocentric attempt at self-advancement. ?The critic yearning for attention has displaced the writer and has conceived of himself as the center? (Christian, 225). These critics form an exclusive group that controls the academic advancement of other writers. Thus, the academic elite continually perpetuates itself by controlling what is read. Christian opposes this hegemony of thought, saying: ?Literature is not an occasion for discourse among critics but is necessary nourishment for their people and one way by which they come to understand their lives better? (Christian, 227). Christian argues that elitists have established a literary hierarchy that is trapped in classic texts, and which uses jargon and to ?mystify rather than clarify? (Christian, 229). Specifically, Christian attacks post-modernist Marxists and French Feminists for diverting critics from a ?reclamation and discussion of past and present Third World Literatures? (Christian, 230). Christian?s concern that important texts are being lost or overlooked is understandable, but her language indicates a paranoid suspicion of modern theory that is not entirely valid. Although she is addressing a problem that conceivably should apply to any type of literature, she continually stresses her own agenda, which she refers to as Third World Literature. Christian obviously feels a bias towards her specific area of study, but she also implies that discussion of her genre is being consciously suppressed by post-modern critics. She accuses these theorists of using exclusionary language to try and control the critical scene. She adds: ?That language surfaced, interestingly enough, just when the literature of peoples of color, of black women, of Latin Americans, of Africans, began to move to ?the center?? (Christian, 229). This statement implies that post-modernist critics deliberately tried to disrupt a natural process of emergence."
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The Lesbian Theory of Literary Critique, 2008.
This paper evaluates the definitional limitations within lesbian theory as a method of literary critique.
4,695 words (approx. 18.8 pages), 8 sources, MLA, $ 121.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that lesbian theory has struggled with definition. The author points out that, by its very nature, lesbian theory addresses the notion of the lesbian as 'an other', an entity marginalized beyond the dominant, patriarchal center of society. The paper stresses that, because the lesbian theory asserts its own ability to independently encompass the lesbian experience, this theory fails to acknowledge the complex and fluid nature of this otherness. The author relates that another more fundamental flaw is that, because it tries to empower the lesbian who finds her words relegated to the darker corners of the literary world, too often the theory tends toward a complete avoidance of exclusivity. The paper applies several existing modes of lesbian theory to Alicia Gaspar de Alba's book "Desert Blood" and to the poems of Emily Dickinson to reveal the extent to which these definitional flaws must be addressed.
From the Paper
"In "The Safe Sea of Women", Bonnie Zimmerman discusses the poem "I showed her Heights she never saw" by Emily Dickinson, calling it, "suggestively lesbian". Similarly, in "What is Lesbian Literature?", Lillian Faderman cites the poem "Her sweet Weight on my Heart at Night" as reason to include Dickinson's work in the canon of lesbian fiction even though, "there are no explicit suggestions of lesbian sexual relations in her poems." . Thus, both Zimmerman and Faderman assume the authority to label these poems as lesbian texts based entirely on personal assumptions made about Dickinson."
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The Possible Futures of Theory, 2004.
An examination of the future of literary theory, focusing on what is next in the realm of literary theory and how we can get there.
1,850 words (approx. 7.4 pages), 1 source, MLA, $ 59.95
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Abstract
This paper examines the future of literary theory and dissects the current shortcomings in the field. The paper challenges those in the field of literary criticism and theory to ask questions about what is an ideal future and prompts those outside the realms of literary theory to question why and how they are not part of that future.
From the Paper
"They say the future is an unwritten book, a blank page ready to be scrawled upon by those with the desire to provide the ink and quill. The future of literary theory seems to differ from this, blank page, analogy in several key ways that will help to define and shape its future. This future, as all futures, has several different and unique outcomes. Each is equally plausible and has its own merits and drawbacks, but perhaps there is an ideal future for literary theory and criticism that we, as a collective whole, can bring about."
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Fundamentals of the Marxist Theory, 2001.
A discussion of the basic economic, psychological, ideological and literary theories of Marxism.
1,830 words (approx. 7.3 pages), 13 sources, $ 58.95
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Abstract
This paper discusses the major theories of Marxism. The author focuses on core perspectives of Marxism as the belief that history is determined by economics and that economic crises will result in increased poverty, which in turn will inspire the working class to revolt, ousting the capitalists. The author analyzes these ideas and ideologies.
From the Paper
"Marxism is an economic and political philosophy named for its originator, Karl Marx (1818-83). Marx was a German social philosopher and revolutionary, who, in 1844, met in Paris another German philosopher, Fredrich Engels (1820-95), beginning a long collaboration. Four years later, they wrote the Communist Manifesto, laying the foundation for socialism and communism. Marx is most well know for Das Kapital (The Capital), which took him thirty years to complete and was published in three volumes?the first in 1867, and the second and third after his death in 1885 and 1894 (Mayo, 1960)."
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Deconstruction and "Church Going", 2004.
An overview of deconstructionalist literary theory followed by a corresponding analysis of Philip Larkin's poem "Church Going"
2,810 words (approx. 11.2 pages), 5 sources, MLA, $ 83.95
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Abstract
This paper examines Philip Larkin's poem "Church Going" from a deconstructionalist perspective. It also looks at how deconstruction is, a mode of literary criticism and how first advocated by Jacques Derrida, this literary theory has spread like wildfire throughout Western humanities departments. It begins with an overview of deconstructionalist theory, followed by a brief history of "The Movement" (the group to which Larkin was classified) and concludes with an extensive analysis of the poem.
From the Paper
"This poem is indicative of both Larkin and the poetry group categorized as ?The Movement? to which Larkin, albeit reluctantly, was assigned. Following World War II in Britain, there was a general sense of disillusionment that accompanied imperial decline. In its wake, a group of lower-middle-class white poets emerged that have since been labeled ?The Movement.? This group consisted of such poets as Kingsley Amis, Elizabeth Jennings, Philip Larkin, Donald Davie, Thom Gunn, Robert Conquest, John Halloway, and John Wain, among many disputed others. The poetry from these individuals tends to reflect everyday life, with a (at the time) newfound emphasis on clarity, democratic values, religious decline and intellectual detachment."
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Classical Marxist Theory and Literature, 2005.
This paper discusses the classical Marxist approach to literature, which views literature as essentially a social and cultural production.
8,870 words (approx. 35.5 pages), 85 sources, MLA, $ 185.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that in its classical sense, Marxist theory does not deal explicitly with literature and art and does not develop an aesthetic of culture or literature. However, the theoretical trajectory of Marxist thought has impacted radically on art and literature as aspects of societal and cultural discourse. The author points out that the concept of dialectic refers specifically to the methodology or method of analysis, which is peculiar to Marxist theory;. In this sense, literature and art, as cultural products, are analyzed in relation to their social and historical context. The paper analyzes specifically " Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, "A Passage to India" by E. M. Forster's and the writings of Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Overview
Foundation of Marxist Theory and Literary Criticism
Marxism - Extrinsic and Intrinsic Approaches to Literature
The Premises of Marxist Criticism
Base and Superstructure
The Dialectic
Ideology and Alienation
Semiology and Psychoanalytic Theory.
Reader - Response Theories
A Marxist Critique of Literature
Analysis of the Echo in "A Passage to India": A dialectical reading
" Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad
Dickens
Shakespeare
Conclusion
From the Paper
"From this perspective, literary works are essential structures of ideological formations. In other words, literature expresses and represents the ideals and aims of class formation that persist and maintain the society. "Literature is for Marxism a particular kind of signifying practice which tends to make up what can be termed an ideological formation". Therefore, Marxist critical perspectives will attempt to explain literature from within its social context and in relation to that particular historical time period. This in turn relates to basic strategies, such as the identification of class structures and class struggle within the literature of a certain historical period."
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Ethnic Literary Analysis, 2007.
This paper provides an African-American and ethnic literary analysis of the Novel 'Oroonoko: or The Royal Slave' by Aphra Behn and the Essay "How it Feels to be Colored Me" by Zora Neale Hurston.
2,048 words (approx. 8.2 pages), 4 sources, MLA, $ 64.95
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Abstract
This article discusses two works containing either African or African-American themes, Aphra Behn's novel 'Oroonoko: or The Royal Slave' (1633) and Zora Neale Hurston's essay "How It Feels to be Colored Me" (1928). The writer notes that when compared against one another, they reveal considerable differences in the perspectives of their authors: In the first case, a 17th century white Englishwoman; and in the second, a late 19th and early 20th century African-American woman folklorist descended from slaves. In this essay, using African American and ethnic literary analysis of both works, the writer explores and analyzes similarities and distinctions in the ways that both authors deal with the subjects of American or African-American identity and black-white relationships, within their respective literary works.
From the Paper
"Other key characters in the novel, again drawn from an obviously white European narrative perspective, include Oroonoko's treacherous grandfather the King of the tribe, who also lusts after his grandson's love interest Imoinda, thereby reinforcing two familiar African stereotypes: overweening lust and inter-tribal rivalry and treachery, even against one's own flesh and blood. Within Aphra Behn's portrait of the African environment inhabited at first by Oroonoko and Imoinda, then, family ties are brittle, and being sold into slavery is, by implication, less heart-rending than it might be for those with stronger family ties."
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Literary Movements, 2004.
An analysis of three 19th century American literary movements.
1,840 words (approx. 7.4 pages), 9 sources, MLA, $ 63.95
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Abstract
This paper analyzes three literary movements that emerged in the U.S. during the latter part of the 19th century: naturalism, realism, and local color/regionalism. It cites the work of several authors as examples of the literary movements.
From the Paper
"The latter half of the the century was a time of enormous change in American society. Such changes include the rebuilding of the South after the Civil War, the adjustment to the end of slavery, the increasing growth of urbanism .."
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Literary Realism and Poverty, 2008.
An analysis of the literary realism in Hamlin Garland's short story 'Under the Lion's Paw" from his book, "Main Travelled Roads" and Theodore Dreiser's work, "Sister Carrie".
733 words (approx. 2.9 pages), 2 sources, MLA, $ 26.95
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Abstract
The paper examines Chapter XLV of Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie" and describes the literary realism that depicts how the character of Hurstwood must survive the grim reality of poverty in the city. The paper also looks at Hamlin Garland's short story "Under The Lion's Paw" from his work "Main Travelled Roads", which uses literary realism to reveal the grim reality of farm life.
From the Paper
"The first reason why literary realism exists in the work of garland's "Under the Lion's Paw" is the way that he defines the life of farmer's, and the often brutal conditions that they must work within as poor workers of the land. The reality of the farmer's life is apparent in Mrs. Council's narrative:
""Yes, I do my own work," Mrs. Council was heard to say in the pause which followed. "I'm getting purty heavy t' be on m'laigs all day, but we can't afford t'hire (Garland, p.491)."
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Literary Nationalism, 2002.
An examination of the debate over American literary nationalism which began in the early nineteenth century.
705 words (approx. 2.8 pages), 3 sources, MLA, $ 25.95
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Abstract
This essay examines the main issues that were involved in the contentious debate over American literary nationalism at the beginning of the 19th century in the United States. The English critic Sidney Smith?s biting comment ?Who reads an American book?? is discussed, in terms of how it continued, and helped perpetuate, the debate about American literary nationalism. Further, this essay outlines how Washington Irving?s tales in "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon" helped to fulfill the need for a unique, American literature that was noted by the Englishman Sidney Smith.
From the Paper
"There were several main issues that fired the contentious debate over American literary nationalism at the beginning of the 19th century, in the United States. The debate surrounded the apparent inability of American authors to produce quality literature. Certainly, America had received its political independence from Britain long before the 19th century, but in terms of art and literature, America had failed to produce works that were equal (of better) in quality to those produced in Great Britain. Certainly, and most importantly, the major point of this debate was that there was no clearly unique style of American literature. Equally important was the perception that the American literature produced was inferior in quality to that produced by British authors (Early). Interestingly, this inability to produce quality literature was reflected in the lacklustre sense of American cultural identity. In Adventures in American Literature: Classic Edition, James Early suggests that a strong sense of American cultural identity needed to be rooted in a ?significant national literature?."
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Literary Relations, 2002.
An introduction to literary interpretation.
1,400 words (approx. 5.6 pages), 1 source, $ 53.95
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Abstract
A paper that presents the various literary relations that create the basis for literary interpretation.
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Literary Response to Computer Age, 2002.
A paper that examines the literary response to early technology and the computer age.
1,987 words (approx. 7.9 pages), 4 sources, MLA, $ 63.95
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Abstract
This paper shows how the literary response during the early days of technology and the computer was mixed. Many sources feared that communication skills and literary skills would be lost as a result of technology. The paper looks at several articles and points of view in which the writers predicted opinions which ranged from unforeseen disasters, to great successes, as a result of the technology revolution.
From the Paper
"Communication is a key element of our society and the ways that we communicate in the information age has become a challenge in the 21st century. During the early days of technology and the computer most people wondered what would encompass being ?literary ? in the information age. How would we take the old ritual of literary culture and transform that skill into the bits of data and information that characterize the information age. Tracy Kidder?s book, The Soul of a New Machine provides a glimpse into the world of early technology. Kidder provides an account of the work done by a group of Data General engineers who are creating a new innovative computer. The book chronicles the project throughout the course of a year and examines the changes that take place in the lives of the team during various phases of the project."
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