Fancy Me, Professor! - Chapter 280

As the conversation continued about their preparation for Shu Xian’s housewarming party at the new house, Shu Xian couldn’t help but think if they are really planning for a small one like they said, or if they are planning for a big one with how long they have been talking about it.

Because of that, she just left them to it, admitting that she’s not good at preparations like this and just proceeded to read the other parts of the research such as its theoretical framework.

***

Approaches to Literature

Described below are the common critical approaches to the literature. Quotations are from X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia’s _Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama_, Sixth Edition (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), pages 1790-1818.

Formalist Criticism

This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms.” All the elements necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself.

Of particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of form-style, structure, tone, imagery, etc.-that are found within the text. A primary goal for formalist critics is to determine how such elements work together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers.

Biographical Criticism

This approach “begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by actual people and that understanding an author’s life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.”

Hence, it often affords a practical method by which readers can better understand a text.

However, a biographical critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writer’s life too far in criticizing the works of that writer.

Historical Criticism

This approach “seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it a context that necessarily includes the artist’s biography and milieu.”

A key goal for historical critics is to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers.

Psychological Criticism

This approach reflects the effect that modern psychology has had upon both literature and literary criticism.

Fundamental figures in psychological criticism include Sigmund Freud, whose “psychoanalytic theories changed our notions of human behavior by exploring new or controversial areas like wish-fulfillment, sexuality, the unconscious, and repression” as well as expanding our understanding of how “language and symbols operate by demonstrating their ability to reflect unconscious fears or desires”; and Carl Jung, whose theories about the unconscious are also a key foundation of mythological criticism.

Psychological criticism has a number of approaches, but in general, it usually employs one (or more) of three approaches such as: (1) an investigation of “the creative process of the artist: what is the nature of literary genius and how does it relate to normal mental functions?”, (2) the psychological study of a particular artist, usually noting how an author’s biographical circumstances affect or influence their motivations and/or behavior, and (3) the analysis of fictional characters using the language and methods of psychology.

Mythological Criticism

This approach emphasizes “the recurrent universal patterns underlying most literary works.”

Combining the insights from anthropology, psychology, history, and comparative religion, mythological criticism “explores the artist’s common humanity by tracing how the individual imagination uses myths and symbols common to different cultures and epochs.”

One key concept in mythological criticism is the archetype, “a symbol, character, situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response,” which entered literary criticism from Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.

According to Jung, all individuals share a “collective unconscious,” a set of primal memories common to the human race, existing below each person’s conscious mind”-often deriving from primordial phenomena such as the sun, moon, fire, night, and blood, archetypes according to Jung “trigger the collective unconscious.”

Another critic, Northrop Frye, defined archetype in a more limited way as “a symbol, usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of one’s literary experience as a whole.”

Regardless of the definition of archetype they use, mythological critics tend to view literary works in the broader context of works sharing a similar pattern.

Reader-Response Criticism

This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that “literature” exists not as an artifact upon a printed page but as a transaction between the physical text and the mind of a reader.

It attempts “to describe what happens in the reader’s mind while interpreting a text” and reflects that reading, like writing, is a creative process.

According to reader-response critics, literary texts do not “contain” a meaning; meanings derive only from the act of individual readings.

Hence, two different readers may derive completely different interpretations of the same literary text; likewise, a reader who re-reads work years later may find the work shockingly different.

Reader-response criticism, then, emphasizes how “religious, cultural, and social values affect readings; it also overlaps with gender criticism in exploring how men and women read the same text with different assumptions.”

Though this approach rejects the notion that a single “correct” reading exists for a literary work, it does not consider all readings permissible: “Each text creates limits to its possible interpretations.”

***

Shu Xian realized that the research is not only focusing on the premise of Web Fiction, but also modern interpretations of Web Fiction with the use of literary criticism!

With her somewhat familiar of the theories to literary criticism, she furrowed her brows and tried her best to comprehend even though it’s not yet discussed in her major subjects.

“We should do something like backyard BBQ,” Shi Lian suggested, Zhang Ren arching a brow at her.

“When it comes to BBQ, you would just rely the boys to grill for ya.”

“Wha—” Shi Lian scoffed. “But we are the ones preparing the meat! Grilling is no big deal—besides we take turns and you still get to eat!”

Zhang Ren narrowed his eyes at her.

“Do you know how to grill meat?”

“I…”

Shi Lian blushed, now crossing her arms in front of her chest as their conversation distracted Shu Xian for a while, making her laugh as she listened to them bickering.

“Oh, what do you suggest we do for her housewarming, then!?”

And with that, the three of them continued talking about their housewarming, the Chief Librarian now getting out of the office and saw them together at the counter.