6 - Formalism, Structuralism, Archetypal

FORMALISM OR NEW CRITICISM
• Once called New Criticism.

• Involves a close reading of the text.
• Espouses the belief that all information essential to the
interpretation of a work is found within the work itself
without outside information about history, politics of
that time, or author’s life.
• Focus is on setting, characters, symbols, and point of
view.
• Emphasizes the value of literature apart from context.
 New Criticism focuses on literary texts as formal works of art;
is a reaction against the topical / historical approach.
 The inspiration for the New Critical / formalist critical approach was the French
practice of explication de texte, a method that emphasizes detailed examination
and explanation.
 New Criticism is as its most brilliant in the formal analysis of smaller units such as
entire poems and short passages.
 Discussions of point of view, tone, plot, characters, and structure, for example are
formal ways of looking at literature that are derived from New Criticism.
Some thoughts about Formalism/New Criticism
 The aim of the formalist study of literature is to provide readers
not only with the means of explaining the content of works (what
specifically, does a work say?) but also with the insights needed
for evaluating the artistic quality of individual works and writers
(how well it is said?)
 A major aspect of New Critical thought is that content and
form—including all ideas, ambiguities, subtleties, and even
apparent contradictions—were originally within the conscious
and subconscious control of the author.
Some thoughts about Formalism/New Criticism
 Each literary work takes on its own existence and identity, and the
critic’s work is to discover a reading or readings that explain the
facts of the text.
 The New Critic does not claim infallible interpretations and does not
exclude the validity of multiple readings of the same work.
 New Critics tend to ignore relevant knowledge that history and

biography can bring to literary studies. In other words, the formalist
critic sometimes neglects the reason for which readers find literature
stimulating and valuable.
STRUCTURALISM
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE
 Ferdinand de Saussure, "Course in

General Linguistics" (1906-1911)
 Rejects mimetic theory of language (in
which discussion of language must
include reference in real world) for
structural view of language
 Language a system (la langue) that is
prior to any linguistic utterance (parole)
STRUCTURALISM
 Structuralism is a science that seeks to  Structure comes from the human mind as
understand how systems work. it works to make sense of the world.
 Structuralists look for patterns that  Language, not sense experience or
underlie human behavior, experience modes of consciousness, shapes who we
and creation, not just structures in a are, what we think, and what we
physical sense. understand reality to be.
Assumptions
 Structuralists are not concerned with  As with New Criticism, it is less

producing a "correct" interpretation. concerned with historical context.
They are more concerned with how  Treats literature almost as if it were an
meaning is generated or how a text fits organized, scientific body of
in within a system of possible discursive knowledge.
strategies.
 To know something you need to understand the underlying
system (structure) that makes meaning possible. This is true for
language as well as any other signifying system.
 In applying structuralist thinking to literature, we would assume
literature contains a structure from which individual texts
emerge; very often we would be less concerned with the
individual text on its own terms and more interested in the ways
in which it participates in a larger system.
 In any theory that focuses on system rather than individual text,
sometimes we lose sense of the uniqueness of a text (not a problem
in New Criticism).
 On the other hand, this approach forces us to think about how we
make sense of things; it gives us a vocabulary that helps us describe
the operations we make.
 Knowing the underlying rules to the game better helps us to find
meaning in convincing manner.
 Finally, gaining awareness of how codes operate to guide our
reactions we are better able to resist them, if we choose.
SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
 The text’s genre or conventions: is it a comedy or a tragedy?
Prose or poetry? What kind of poetry? Lyric, epic, or narrative?
What kind of fiction? Gothic, realist or magical realism? When
it comes to film is it: horror, fantasy, drama, or documentary?
What about sub-genre? Is it a slasher-film? A coming-of-age
film? A rom-com film?
 The use of binary opposition: light vs. dark, good vs. evil, nature
vs. culture, man vs. woman, rich vs. poor, etc.
 The plot structure which basically is beginning, middle, and end.
ARCHETYPAL CRITICAL APPROACH
 It is about the universal elements of human life common in all
cultures.
 Like ancient mythology, all literature is a window to creating
meaning for human life.
 assumes that there is a collection of symbols, images, characters,
and motifs (i.e. archetypes) that evokes basically the same
response in all people
 identifies these patterns and discusses how they function in the
works
Carl Jung: Archetypal Criticism
 1. Some of the unconscious is shared with all members of the
human species (collective unconscious).
 2. Parts of the human psyche: personal conscious, personal
unconscious, collective unconscious
 This approach focuses on connections to other literature,
mythological/biblical allusions, archetypal images, symbols,
characters, and themes.
SOME ARCHETYPES
 archetypal women - the Good  desert - spiritual emptiness, death,
Wife/Mother, the Terrible Mother, the hopelessness
Virgin (often a Damsel in Distress), and  red - blood, sacrifice, passion, disorder
the Fallen Woman.  green - growth, fertility
 water - creation, birth-death-  black - chaos, death, evil
resurrection, purification, redemption,
fertility, growth
 garden - paradise (Eden), innocence,
fertility
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ARCHETYPAL
CRITICISM
 Advantages:
 provides a universalistic approach to literature and identifies a
reason why certain literature may survive the test of time
 it works well with works that are highly symbolic
 Disadvantages:
 literature may become a vehicle for archetypes
 can easily become a list of symbols without much analysis
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
 How does this story resemble other stories in plot, character,
setting, or symbolism?
 What universal experiences are depicted?
 Are patterns suggested? Are seasons used to suggest a pattern
or cycle?
 Does the protagonist undergo any kind of transformation, such
as movement from innocence to experience, that seems
archetypal?
SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
 What archetypal events occur in the story? (Quest? Initiation?
Scapegoating? Descents into the underworld? Ascents into
heaven?)
 What archetypal images occur? (Water, rising sun, setting sun,
symbolic colors)
 What archetypal characters appear in the story? (Mother Earth?
Femme Fatal? Wise old man? Wanderer?)
 What archetypal settings appear? (Garden? Desert?)
 How and why are these archetypes embodied in the work?
REFERENCES
Bressler, C. E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and
Practice. New York: Prentice Hall, 2004.
Habib, M.A.R. A History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to Present
Oxford, Blackwell, 2008.
Leitch, Vincent B, Gen. Ed. The Norton Anthology of Literary Theory
and Criticism, New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company,
2001.
Roberts, Edgar V. Writing About Literature. New Jersey: Prentice Hall,
2003.

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FORMALISM OR NEW CRITICISM

• Once called New Criticism.

 New Critics tend to ignore relevant knowledge that history and

 Ferdinand de Saussure, "Course in

 Structuralists are not concerned with  As with New Criticism, it is less

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