Literary Theories

Traditional Literary Criticism Theory

Literally critics in academia regard this theory as one that projects a humanist perspective such that art, culture and literature are in essence considered as mirrored images of nature (Brewton). The traditional literary theory works under the assumptions that works of art, literature and culture are the products of highly intelligent artists. One can therefore comprehend that ascertaining the intent of such canonical authors as Shakespeare or Chaucer is fundamental to this theory. Such canonical authors rose above a variety of limitations towards creating a good degree of transparency with respect to eternal or universal truths with regard to humanity. Such as, “there is always good and evil in any given society.”What then is the use of traditional literacy criticism theory (Brewton)? Such works are thus studied for “intellectual or aesthetic reasons as opposed to learning them for ideological or social purposes”. For instance, one can get to understand how the works of “Shakespeare define the cultural aspects of Europe during his time”.

Formalism

This literary theory is concerned with interpreting the literary devices and literary forms found within a text (Brewton). Formalists tend to examine literature works from a scientific standpoint by employing objective analysis of literary techniques, devices, motifs as well as other functions found in literature. Formalists therefore do not look to canonize literature or the authors but rather the sensitivity of the literature as well as the different meanings projected therein. One can therefore comprehend that formalism as a literary theory seeks to examine the unique meaning of a given literary work as in “studying literature for literature’s sake” (Brewton). One can therefore query whether this literary theory is one which is employed in the study of literary devices in our school system? Is it the one that is used to enable students to discern the different ways with which literary styles are used?  Formalism thus enables one to question the manner of use of literary devices like “metaphors and similes.”

Works Cited

Brewton, Vince. “Literary Theory.” University of North Alabama. N.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2015. < https://www.library.cornell.edu/research/citation/mla>