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Absurdist Theatre (or
Theatre of the Absurd)
Works of the
mid-twentieth century apparently dramatizing the idea that human life is absurd
and lacks meaning. Influenced by existentialism, such works, in
reality, hint at human responsibility in that absurdity, i.e. if life is absurd
and meaningless it is so because humans fail to exercise their own reason and
independence, to take charge of their own lives and create their own meanings.
Instead, characters in absurdist works are often seen caught in meaningless
routines and/or hopelessly expecting help from imaginary outside forces,
putting their faith in empty beliefs and problematic traditions. Representative
authors include Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, and Jean Genet.
Deconstructionism An approach to literature which suggests that literary works do not yield fixed, single meanings, because language can never say exactly what we intend it to mean. Deconstructionism seeks to destabilize meaning by examining the gaps and ambiguities of the language of a text. Deconstructionists pay close attention to language in order to discover and describe how a variety of possible readings are generated by the elements of a text. See also new criticism.
A
philosophical movement of the 19th and 20th centuries stressing individual
freedom and human choice; existentialism is based on the idea that human beings
shape their own existence and give meaning to it through their own choices and
actions. The main figure in existentialism was the French philosopher Jean-Paul
Sartre (1905-1980).
Existentialism / Existential
A European movement in philosophy which became particularly influential after the Second World War. Some of the leading proponents were Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Albert Camus (1913-1960), and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). The existentialist world-view sees human existence as ultimately meaningless - a situation which causes ‘angst’, or dread - but at the same time emphasises the importance of each individual taking responsibility for his or her own choices concerning decisions and actions. Existentialism was a direct influence on the dramatists of the Theatre of the Absurd, such as Samuel Beckett, and on the British novelists Iris Murdoch, John Fowles, and Muriel Spark.
Feminist / womanist
Feminist writing and criticism highlights
the position of women in literature, society, and world culture, emphasising
that the roles and experiences of women tend to be marginalised by patriarchal
societies. Feminist writers and critics attempt to redress the balance by
writing literature and criticism from the point of view of women. A key
feminist work from the modern period is A Room of One’s Own (1929) by Virginia
Woolf.
Feminist criticism An approach to literature that seeks to correct or supplement what may be regarded as a predominantly male-dominated critical perspective with a feminist consciousness. Feminist criticism places literature in a social context and uses a broad range of disciplines, including history, sociology, psychology, and linguistics, to provide a perspective sensitive to feminist issues. Feminist theories also attempt to understand representation from a woman’s point of view and to explain women’s writing strategies as specific to their social conditions. See also gay and lesbian criticism, gender criticism, sociological criticism.
Gender Crticism
The term ‘womanist’ is sometimes used to refer to black feminists, to distinguish their approach from that of mainstream white middle-class feminism. Gender criticism An approach to literature that explores how ideas about men and women—what is masculine and feminine—can be regarded as socially constructed by particular cultures. Gender criticism expands categories and definitions of what is masculine or feminine and tends to regard sexuality as more complex than merely masculine or feminine, heterosexual or homosexual. See also feminist criticism, gay and lesbian criticism.
Formalism
An artistic and critical sensibility in
American and British literature and criticism which reached its greatest
influence between 1930 and 1950, and which promoted a view of art as
‘objective’ - that is, that the work in itself was more important than the
subjective contexts of its artistic production. In formalism, the proper focus
of artistic creation and criticism is the art object itself, rather than the
author or artist’s thoughts, intentions, or other personal sensibilities. In
the case of literature, formalism assumes that well-wrought form (the structure
of the literary piece, its constituent images, metaphors, and other ‘building
blocks’) can carry the most important dimensions of content from the author to
the reader without reference to contextual elements. Much of post-war
literature in both Great Britain and the United States can be seen as a
reaction to this extreme view, as poets and writers actively sought to
reintroduce subjectivities into literary production and study as a way of
reclaiming the ‘personal’ in literary experience. [
Formalist criticism An approach to literature that focuses on the formal elements of a work, such as its language, structure, and tone. Formalist critics offer intense examinations of the relationship between form and meaning in a work, emphasizing the subtle complexity in how a work is arranged. Formalists pay special attention to diction, irony, paradox, metaphor, and symbol, as well as larger elements such as plot, characterization, and narrative technique. Formalist critics read literature as an independent work of art rather than as a reflection of the author’s state of mind or as a representation of a moment in history. Therefore, anything outside of the work, including historical influences and authorial intent, is generally not examined by formalist critics. See also new criticism.
Intertext
A
term used to denote a text referred to within a text. The Bible, the works of
Shakespeare, and Classical myths, for example, are frequently found as
intertexts in works of literature. [Julie Ellam]
Intertextuality
A
term which can refer to a text’s inclusion of intertexts, but is also a concept
introduced by philosopher and semiotician Julia Kristeva, and used in
poststructuralist criticism, according to which a text is seen as not only
connecting the author to the reader, but also as being connected to all other
texts, past and present. Thus there is a limit to the extent to which an
individual text can be said to be original or unique, and a limit to the extent
to which an individual author can be said to be the originator of a text.
[Julie Ellam]
Irish Cultural Revival / Irish Literary Revival
Also
called Irish Literary Renaissance, Celtic Renaissance, or Celtic Revival. A
revival of Irish literature in the late nineteenth century, driven primarily by
W. B. Yeats. The aim was to create a
distinctive Irish literature by drawing on Irish history and folklore. In the
1880s the Gaelic League attempted to revive the Irish language, but the use of
Gaelic was not a requirement of the revival led by Yeats in the 1890s. The movement
developed simultaneously with a rise in Irish nationalism, and a growth of
interest in Gaelic traditions.
Modern
Sometimes
called ‘continuous monologue’. Literary technique developed in the 1920s, as
part of Modernism which attempts to reproduce the moment-to-moment flow
of subjective thoughts and perceptions in an individual’s mind. The technique
was used by Dorothy Richardson, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf.
The term was originally coined by the American philosopher and psychologist
William James in Principles of Psychology (1890).
n’
can apply to a wide variety of different historical periods in different
contexts. In the context of ‘modern literature’ it is generally taken to refer
to the period from 1914, the outbreak of the First World War, to the present
day. When capitalised, ‘Modern’ can refer to Modernism.
Modernism / Modernist
A
movement in all the arts in
Some
of the characteristic features of modernist literature are: a drawing of
inspiration from European culture as a whole; experimentation with form, such
as the fragmentation and discontinuity found in the free verse of ‘The Waste
Land’ by T. S. Eliot; the radical approach to plot, time, language, and
character presentation as seen in Ulysses by James Joyce and the
novels of Virginia Woolf; a decrease in emphasis on morality, and an
increase in subjective, relative, and uncertain attitudes; in poetry, a move
towards simplicity and directness in the use of language.
Dada,
Surrealism, The Theatre of the Absurd, and stream of consciousness are all
aspects of Modernism.
Stream of consciousness
Sometimes
called ‘continuous monologue’. Literary technique developed in the 1920s, as
part of Modernism which attempts to reproduce the moment-to-moment flow
of subjective thoughts and perceptions in an individual’s mind. The technique
was used by Dorothy Richardson, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf.
The term was originally coined by the American philosopher and psychologist
William James in Principles of Psychology (1890).
The New Criticism
A
movement in literary criticism which developed in the
Postcolonial literature
Literature
written in the language of former colonisers by natives of their colonies.
Usually, literature written in English by writers from former colonies of
Postcolonial criticism
Branch
of literary criticism which focuses on seeing the literature and experience of
peoples of former colonies in the context of their own cultures, as opposed to
seeing them from the perspective of the European literature and criticism
dominant during the time of the Empire.
Postcolonialism
A cultural, intellectual, political, and literary movement of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries characterized by the representation and analysis of the
historical experiences and subjectivities of the victims, individuals and
nations, of colonial power. Postcolonialism is marked by its resistance to
colonialism and by the attempt to understand the historical and other
conditions of its emergence as well as its lasting consequences.
Postmodern / Postmodernism
In
a general sense, literature written since the Second World War, i.e. after the
Modernist era. In a more specific sense the concept of postmodernism as a
subject of study emerged in the 1980s, applying across many disciplines,
encouraging inter-disciplinary studies, and being interpreted in many ways.
The
postmodern outlook is associated with the erosion of confidence in the idea of
progress, as a result of such phenomena as the holocaust, the threat of nuclear
war, and environmental pollution.
In
literature one of its manifestations is the attempts by some writers to examine
and break down boundaries involved in such issues as race, gender, and class,
and to break down divisions between different genres of literature. Other
aspects of the postmodernist outlook are: a spirit of playfulness with the fragmented
world, the awareness of fiction as an artifice, and the creation of works as a
pastiche of forms from the past. Postmodern writers include Thomas Pynchon, John
Fowles, Angela Carter, and Salman Rushdie.
In
literary criticism such approaches as structuralism, poststructuralism,
deconstruction, and postcolonial criticism are postmodern methods.
Poststructuralism
A
postmodern approach to literary criticism, and other disciplines, growing out
of structuralism. Like structuralism, it questions the relationship between
language and reality, and it sees ‘reality’ as something socially constructed.