Assignment of paper no. 7: Literary terms: Postmodernism, Structuralism, New Historicism, Post colonial criticism
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Paper No: 7
According to dictionary,
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Name: Rudrika Gohel
Course: M.A. English
Sem: 2
Batch: 2017-2019
Roll No: 31
Enrollment No: 2069108420180015
Enrollment No: 2069108420180015
Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English MKBU
Email Id: rudrikagohel97@gmail.com
Paper No: 7
Topic:- Literary terms: postmodernism, Structuralism, New historicism, Post colonial criticism
➤ Post modernism:-
According to dictionary,
a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and
conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.
The term postmodernism is often applied to the literature and art after World War II (1939-45), when the effects on Western morale of the first war were greatly exacerbated by the experience of Nazi totalitarianism and mass extermination, the threat of total destruction by the atomic bomb, the pro-gressive devastation of the natural environment, and the ominous fact of over-population.
It interrogates any notion, philosophy or ideal of a general,universal and overarching nature. It rejects the claim of any universal or totalizing theory (such as the Marxist idea of the ultimateem
ancipation of all mankind, the idea of science as the creator of truth for all
humans). It celebrates plurality,
heterogeneity, and the small, local,
innovative, marginalized and unfinished narratives that respect differences and specificities of cultures, individuals and regions. Meaning is seen as differential
contingent and purely arbitrary. The process of representation seeks not to offer any insights into reality or Truth. Rather, it
only calls attention to itself. That is, it is self-referential.
Postmodernism questions certain forms are projected as 'good taste'. Postmodernism becomes visible in art, architecture, music, film, literature, sociology, communication, fashion and other fields. Postmodernism borrowed from modernism disenchantment, what it givens the society. Modernism presents the fragmented view of human history, like in Eliot's Wasteland,
and it seen as tragic.
and it seen as tragic.
Postmodernism is "post" because it is denies the existence of any ultimate principles, and it lacks the optimism of there being a scientific, philosophical, or religious truth which will explain everything for everybody - a characterisitic of the so-called "modern" mind. The paradox of the postmodern position is that, in placing all principles under the scrutiny of its skepticism, it must realize that even its own principles are not beyond questioning.
Jean-François Lyotard characterizes the postmodem as a disbelief and resistance to metanarratives (narratives that seek to explanation and address universal conditions while assuming that these
explanations suit all contexts and locations).
The disbelief towards metanarratives is the disillusionment with totalizing explanations of reality, and it includes the narrative of science, philosophy and religion.
These knowledge and explanations are therefore tyrannical and oppressive because they ignore differences in order to impose a false unity on knowledge and reality.
Postmodernism acknowledges that all knowledge is fragmentary, partial and incomplete. One can only utilizes local knowledge to know a part of truth. Thus the individual's experience, knowledge and voice is to be retrieved as a resistance and delegitimation towards grand narratives that simply pass off one version of knowledge and reality as universal.
Jean Baudrillard and the Hyperreal, Baudrillard's central argument is that in the age of perfect reproduction and endless repetition of images, the distinction between the real and the illusion, original and copy.
Baudrillard suggests that a sign merelv refers to other signs. For Baudrillard, the postmodernism is characterized by the hyperreal, by the collapse of distinction between the private and public, like home, office and now homeoffice.
➤ Structuralism:-
Structuralism is an approach to analysing the narrative material by examining the underlying invariant structure. structuralism emphasizes how flims convey meaning through use of codes and conventions. We are living in society which has also one common structure. We can define structuralism with the example of some films and serials. Structuralism focuses on the study of literature with focusing upon work as self - organised linguistic structure, it analyse the narrative material and examine the underlying structure.
In literary theory, structuralism is an approach to analyzing the narrative material by examining the underlying invariant structure.
Gerald Genette defines structuralism as a method is based on the study of structures. The name “structuralism” given to Saussure apporch to language as a system of relationship. He also said about Diachronic and Synchronic ways of studying language. Structuralism is all about meanings words and perspectives. Words have not their own meanings but meanings given to words through different perspectives.
Gerard Genette writes at the outset in his essay ‘Structuralism and Literary Criticism’that methods developed for the study of one discipline could be satisfactorily applied to the study of other discipline as well. This is what he calls “intellectual bricolage", borrowing a term from Claude Levi-Strauss. This is precisely so, so far as structuralism is concerned. Structuralism is the name given to Saussure’s approach to language as a system of relationship. But it is applied also to the study of philosophy, literature and other sciences of humanity.
Ferdinand de saussure has given three terms on which structuralism based, They are
1] Langage- the entire human potential speech
2] Langue- the system that each of us uses to generate discourse that is intelligible to others
3] Parole - our individual utterance.
In his 'A Course in General Linguistics' he out line three fundamental assumptions:
Arbitrariness: The meanings we attribute to words are entirely arbitrary, and prescribed through usage and convention only. There is no inherent or 'natural' connection between the word and the meaning. The word has no quality that suggests the meaning, nor does meaning 'reside' in the word. Therefore language cannot be said to stand for, or reflect, reality or the world: language is a system in itself. Language refers only to itself, since all words lead to other words. To phrase it in its proper terminology the relation between the signifier and signified is purely arbitrary.
Relational: Every word makes sense because it is different from other words in the organisational chain. Thus 'cat' means cat only because of its difference from'cap' or 'hat'.
Systematic: Language constitutes our world, and our very existence. We need to analyse how meaning is produced through the acts of language. We need to understand the set of structures in language that enable us to speak and make sense. In short, we need to study signs and sign systems.
Structuralism seeks the processes of meaning--production that is, how the text constructs meaning. Anything that generates meaning through certain forms of representation is a text.
➤ New Historicism:-
A method based on the parallel reading of literary and non-literary texts.
The motto of New historicism is: “The is historical and the history is textual.” New historians see such cross-cultural phenomena as texts in themselves. The aim is not to repeat the past as it really was, but to present a new reality by re-situating it.
New historisists are Stephen Greenblatt, J. W. Lever, Johnathan, Dollimore, H. Aram Verder.
New Historicism focuses on the oppression in the society that has to be overcome in order to achieve change. Literary theory that involves the parallel reading of non-literary and literary texts of the same time.
Consider as anti-establishment and favours liberal ideas and personal freedoms. focus on the oppressive aspects of society people has to overcome to achieve change. claim that they are aware of : difficulties, limitations, contradictions and problems of trying to establish the truth; They believe in the truth of their work.
New Historicists situate a text within the political situation of its contemporary society. New historicism tends less than ideal circumstances in which cultural materialism do so, the ‘power of social and ideology structuralists which restrain them.
In an oft-quoted phrase, Louis Montrose described the new historicism as "a reciprocal concern with the historicity of texts and the textuality of history." That is, history is conceived not to be a set of fixed, objective facts but, like the literature with which it interacts, a text which itself needs to be interpreted. In an oft-quoted phrase, Louis Montrose described the new historicism as "a reciprocal concern with the historicity of texts and the textuality of history." That is, history is conceived not to be a set of fixed, objective facts but, like the literature with which it interacts, a text which itself needs to be interpreted.
➤ Postcolonial criticism:-
The critical analysis of the history, culture, literature, and modes of discourse that are specific to the former colonies of England, Spain, France, and other European imperial powers. Postcolonialism refers to a historical phase undergone by third world countries after the decline of colonialism: for example, when countries in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean separated from the European empires and were left to rebuild themselves.
Many third world writers focus on both colonialism and the changes created in a postcolonial culture. Among the many challenges facing postcolonial writers are the attempts both to resurrect their culture and to combat the preconceptions about their culture.
Postcolonial critics to accordingly study diasporic texts outside the usual Western genres, especially productions by aboriginal authors, marginalized ethnicities, immigrants, and refugees. Postcolonial literatures from emerging nations by such writers as Chinua Achebe and Salman Rushdie. We can see some powerful conflicts arising from the colonial past in Rushdie's Midnight's Children for example, which deconstructs from a postcolonial viewpoint the history of modern India.
Among the most important figures in postcolonial feminism is Gayatri Chakravorty Social, who examines the effects of political independence upon "subaltern" or subproletarian women in the Third World.
Work cited:-
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Historicism
Jean-François Lyotard characterizes the postmodem as a disbelief and resistance to metanarratives (narratives that seek to explanation and address universal conditions while assuming that these
explanations suit all contexts and locations).
The disbelief towards metanarratives is the disillusionment with totalizing explanations of reality, and it includes the narrative of science, philosophy and religion.
These knowledge and explanations are therefore tyrannical and oppressive because they ignore differences in order to impose a false unity on knowledge and reality.
Postmodernism acknowledges that all knowledge is fragmentary, partial and incomplete. One can only utilizes local knowledge to know a part of truth. Thus the individual's experience, knowledge and voice is to be retrieved as a resistance and delegitimation towards grand narratives that simply pass off one version of knowledge and reality as universal.
Jean Baudrillard and the Hyperreal, Baudrillard's central argument is that in the age of perfect reproduction and endless repetition of images, the distinction between the real and the illusion, original and copy.
Baudrillard suggests that a sign merelv refers to other signs. For Baudrillard, the postmodernism is characterized by the hyperreal, by the collapse of distinction between the private and public, like home, office and now homeoffice.
➤ Structuralism:-
Structuralism is an approach to analysing the narrative material by examining the underlying invariant structure. structuralism emphasizes how flims convey meaning through use of codes and conventions. We are living in society which has also one common structure. We can define structuralism with the example of some films and serials. Structuralism focuses on the study of literature with focusing upon work as self - organised linguistic structure, it analyse the narrative material and examine the underlying structure.
In literary theory, structuralism is an approach to analyzing the narrative material by examining the underlying invariant structure.
Gerald Genette defines structuralism as a method is based on the study of structures. The name “structuralism” given to Saussure apporch to language as a system of relationship. He also said about Diachronic and Synchronic ways of studying language. Structuralism is all about meanings words and perspectives. Words have not their own meanings but meanings given to words through different perspectives.
Gerard Genette writes at the outset in his essay ‘Structuralism and Literary Criticism’that methods developed for the study of one discipline could be satisfactorily applied to the study of other discipline as well. This is what he calls “intellectual bricolage", borrowing a term from Claude Levi-Strauss. This is precisely so, so far as structuralism is concerned. Structuralism is the name given to Saussure’s approach to language as a system of relationship. But it is applied also to the study of philosophy, literature and other sciences of humanity.
Ferdinand de saussure has given three terms on which structuralism based, They are
1] Langage- the entire human potential speech
2] Langue- the system that each of us uses to generate discourse that is intelligible to others
3] Parole - our individual utterance.
In his 'A Course in General Linguistics' he out line three fundamental assumptions:
Arbitrariness: The meanings we attribute to words are entirely arbitrary, and prescribed through usage and convention only. There is no inherent or 'natural' connection between the word and the meaning. The word has no quality that suggests the meaning, nor does meaning 'reside' in the word. Therefore language cannot be said to stand for, or reflect, reality or the world: language is a system in itself. Language refers only to itself, since all words lead to other words. To phrase it in its proper terminology the relation between the signifier and signified is purely arbitrary.
Relational: Every word makes sense because it is different from other words in the organisational chain. Thus 'cat' means cat only because of its difference from'cap' or 'hat'.
Systematic: Language constitutes our world, and our very existence. We need to analyse how meaning is produced through the acts of language. We need to understand the set of structures in language that enable us to speak and make sense. In short, we need to study signs and sign systems.
Structuralism seeks the processes of meaning--production that is, how the text constructs meaning. Anything that generates meaning through certain forms of representation is a text.
➤ New Historicism:-
A method based on the parallel reading of literary and non-literary texts.
The motto of New historicism is: “The is historical and the history is textual.” New historians see such cross-cultural phenomena as texts in themselves. The aim is not to repeat the past as it really was, but to present a new reality by re-situating it.
New historisists are Stephen Greenblatt, J. W. Lever, Johnathan, Dollimore, H. Aram Verder.
New Historicism focuses on the oppression in the society that has to be overcome in order to achieve change. Literary theory that involves the parallel reading of non-literary and literary texts of the same time.
Consider as anti-establishment and favours liberal ideas and personal freedoms. focus on the oppressive aspects of society people has to overcome to achieve change. claim that they are aware of : difficulties, limitations, contradictions and problems of trying to establish the truth; They believe in the truth of their work.
New Historicists situate a text within the political situation of its contemporary society. New historicism tends less than ideal circumstances in which cultural materialism do so, the ‘power of social and ideology structuralists which restrain them.
In an oft-quoted phrase, Louis Montrose described the new historicism as "a reciprocal concern with the historicity of texts and the textuality of history." That is, history is conceived not to be a set of fixed, objective facts but, like the literature with which it interacts, a text which itself needs to be interpreted. In an oft-quoted phrase, Louis Montrose described the new historicism as "a reciprocal concern with the historicity of texts and the textuality of history." That is, history is conceived not to be a set of fixed, objective facts but, like the literature with which it interacts, a text which itself needs to be interpreted.
➤ Postcolonial criticism:-
The critical analysis of the history, culture, literature, and modes of discourse that are specific to the former colonies of England, Spain, France, and other European imperial powers. Postcolonialism refers to a historical phase undergone by third world countries after the decline of colonialism: for example, when countries in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean separated from the European empires and were left to rebuild themselves.
Many third world writers focus on both colonialism and the changes created in a postcolonial culture. Among the many challenges facing postcolonial writers are the attempts both to resurrect their culture and to combat the preconceptions about their culture.
Postcolonial critics to accordingly study diasporic texts outside the usual Western genres, especially productions by aboriginal authors, marginalized ethnicities, immigrants, and refugees. Postcolonial literatures from emerging nations by such writers as Chinua Achebe and Salman Rushdie. We can see some powerful conflicts arising from the colonial past in Rushdie's Midnight's Children for example, which deconstructs from a postcolonial viewpoint the history of modern India.
Among the most important figures in postcolonial feminism is Gayatri Chakravorty Social, who examines the effects of political independence upon "subaltern" or subproletarian women in the Third World.
Work cited:-
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Historicism
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