Twentieth-Century Literary Theories
© Deborah Rudd, revised Bill Stifler, 1997

The following theories are found in your text. They include ideas of literary critics that can help you evaluate and understand literature in a new light. Remember: "No single literary theory offers the 'right' way of approaching what you read" (Kirszner and Mandell 1777).

Formalism : The formalist critic believes that readers can find meaning within the individual story, poem, or work that they read. These critics ignore the author's history, letters, diaries, and social era. The American formalist movement is called "new criticism." Students would look specifically at what is in the literary work and disregard all historical influences.

Structuralism : These critics look for underlying patterns which they believe are common to all literature. Some critics focus on the conventions of various genres; others look for mythic patterns of initiation, rebirth, salvation, sacrifice, and so on.

Deconstruction : These critics take issue with the structuralists and argue that every text is unstable and "depends on the conclusions of a particular ideology." These critics look for inconsistencies in a text, places where the "text falls apart" or deconstructs (Kirszner and Mandell 1795)

Reader-Response Criticism : The reader-response critics do not believe that works can be studied in isolation; they feel that the readers must draw on their own knowledge and experiences in order to interpret a story, poem, etc. They feel that all readers apply their own meanings to the work(s) from their own experiences. They also believe that they may re-read a work and find entirely different interpretations than they did the first time.

Psychoanalytic Criticism : These critics believe that specific principles from Freud can help readers to understand the characters' inner lives and how they react to situations. These include: (1) Oedipus complex (attachment to parent of opposite sex); and (2) Aggressive phase (attacks those who exercise authority over others: (a)internal reactions include psychotic withdrawal; psychosomatic illness; (b) external reactions include behavior against society (crime). Freud felt that " . . . literature could often be interpreted as the reflection of our unconscious life" (Kirszner and Mandell 1796).

Sociological Criticism : These theorists believe, unlike the formalist critics, that we must know and understand the social forces and historical influences that have molded and shaped the authors' writings. They feel that literature is a reflection of society and that it derives its existence from social issues and historical eras. For students to understand works, then, they must look at what was occurring during a particular author's historical and social era.

Feminist Criticism : These theorists feel that women authors have been deliberately ignored through the centuries; therefore, it is essential that critics engage in the process of rediscovery and dissemination of writing by women. Since they believe our culture and literature is basically patriarchal, they endorse a transformation of the literary canon, which should include more works by women writers.

Marxist Criticism : These theorists look for evidence of ideologies (networks of concepts) that support the main culture over a sub-culture; evidence of class conflicts, subjugation, economic/social repression; or social commentary.

New Historicism : These critics see the history and culture which existed at the time a work was written or interpreted as a part of the text. For the new historicists, history is not objective fact but is itself a fiction. Both the work and the reader are part of a socio-historical world containing conflicting beliefs both within the work itself and between the reader and the work.

Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Minneapolis: UP Minnesota, 1983.

Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. Literature: Reading , Reacting, Writing. 2nd. ed. Orlando, FL: Holt, Inc., 1991.