Literary_Criticism_Module_VIII for many.ppt

Special ppt

1. 
Practical Criticism

2. Practical criticism

‘Applied Criticism’

A way of discussing particular works of literature

It does not give importance to
the biographies of authors,
the social context of literature,
literary history and
the psychological or moral effects of literature on the
reader.

Practical Criticism -- the detailed analysis of the individual
work itself.

It is held that each work has the “organic unity” of overall
structure and verbal meanings.

Words, images, and symbols in the work are organized
around a central and humanly significant theme.

3. Close Reading

“Close reading” of single texts -- the detailed
and subtle analysis of the complex
interrelations and multiple meanings of the
components within a work.

Analysis of the meanings and interactions
of words, figures of speech, and symbols

I.A. Richards’ Practical Criticism (1929)

William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity
(1930)

4. The Process

Practical criticism is an attempt to analyze
and explain the effects of a literary work
such as a poem, a play or a novel by
reference to its
theme
subject
organization
techniques
style

5. 
The question “What is the poem about?”
leads us to the content or subject matter of
the poem

The question “How is the poem organized?”
makes us discuss the form of the poem.

6. Theme

A general concept or doctrine used in a poem.

The theme of Milton’s Paradise Lost is: “assert
Eternal Providence,/And justify the ways of God
to men.”

“Carpe Diem”, a Latin phrase which means “seize
the day” --life is short and time is fleeting -- an
appeal to the beloved to make the most of
present pleasures.
Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins to Make Much of
Time” (“Gather ye rosebuds, while ye may”)
Edmund Waller’s “Go, Lovely Rose.”
Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress.”

7. Imagery

All the objects and qualities of sense
perception
visual (sight)
auditory (hearing)
tactile (touch)
thermal (heat and cold)
olfactory (smell)
gustatory (taste)
kinesthetic (sensations of movement)

8. A Poem

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove,

A Maid whom there were none to praise

And very few to love:

 

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye!

Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

 

She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and oh,

The difference to me!

9. Practical Criticism

The second stanza of the poem includes such visible objects
as “violet”, “stone”, “star”, and “sky”.

Lucy’s natural charm, like that of the violet, was derived from
her modesty. She, too, was “half-hidden from the eye,”
obscure and unnoticed.

Lucy is then compared to the star. Lucy was completely
obscure to the world as the modest flower in the shadow of
the mossy stone. However, to the eye of her lover she was
the only star in his heaven.

In this poem, the imagery is the poem.

The imagery is not something “additional”—merely
decorative.

The poem renders the experience of love dramatically in
concrete terms.

10. Figurative Language

The language of a poem is often figurative.

It is a departure from the standard meaning of
words, or the standard order of words, in order
to achieve some special meaning or effect.

“Figures of Thought” or Tropes enable the poet
to achieve a departure in the meaning of
words.

“Figures of Speech” or Schemes help him
achieve a departure in the syntactical order or
pattern of the words.

11. “Figures of Thought” or
Tropes

Simile: a comparison between two different things
using the word “like” or “as”

Metaphor: a word or expression applied to a
distinctly different kind of thing or action

Metonymy: one thing applied to another with which
it is closely associated

Synecdoche: a part of something is used to signify
the whole

Personification: an inanimate object or an abstract
concept is spoken of as though it were endowed
with life or with human attributes or feelings

12. 
Kenning: a descriptive phrase in place of the
ordinary name for something

Conceit: a striking parallel between two very
dissimilar things or situations

Hyperbole: bold overstatement, or the
extravagant exaggeration of fact or of
possibility

Irony: a statement in which the meaning that a
speaker implies differs sharply from the
meaning that is directly expressed

13. 
Paradox: a statement which seems on its face
to be absurd yet turns out to make good sense

Periphrasis: circumlocution

Pun: a play on words that are either identical
in sound or very similar in sound, but are very
diverse in meaning

Understatement: something represented as
much less in magnitude or importance than it
really is

14. Figures of Speech or
Schemes

Apostrophe: a direct or explicit address either
to an absent person or to an abstract or
nonhuman entity

Invocation: a direct or explicit address to a
god or muse or some other being to assist the
poet in his composition

Rhetorical Question: a question which is not
asked in order to request information or to
invite a reply, but to function as a forceful
alternative to the assertion

15. 
Alliteration: the repetition of consonants at
the beginning either of a word or of a
stressed syllable within a word

Consonance: the repetition of a sequence
of two or more consonants, but with a
change in the intervening vowel

Assonance: the repetition of identical or
similar vowel sounds—especially in stressed
syllables-in a sequence of nearby words

16. 
Parallelism: a similar order and structure in the
syntax

Rhyme: the repetition of the stressed vowel and of
all the speech sounds following that vowel
End rhymes: such repetition at the end of a verse line
Internal rhymes: such repetition within a verse-line

Rhythm: stressed or unstressed syllables produce
a recognizable though variable pattern in the beat
of the stresses in the stream of sound.