Four Major Types of Criticism

1. Social Criticism – man does not write in an intellectual vacuum. He is affected by politics, economics, philosophy, and religion of his world. Thus, the work bears the imprint of the author (Abrams’ Expressive)

Hippolyte Taine (1828-1893) cites three factors that influence the work:

1. Biology of author (race)
2. Culture author lives in (environment)
3. Historical time of author (epoch)

Three approaches to social criticism:

1. Sociology of the author

2. Social context of the work

3. Society for which the work is written

2. Formalism (New Criticism, Structuralism, contextualism) – is concerned with the text of the work – NOT social issues. The text is linked, unified by literary devices to yield meaning. This type of criticism was big in the 20^th century as it influenced generations of teachers and redefined standards of quality. Certain authors’ work (Conrad, Joyce, Keats) adapts well to the formalist approach. Because of this, the works, and authors, grew in importance. (Abrams’ Objective Criticism)
3. Psychological (from Sigmund Freud, thus also called Freudian Criticism)—this type examines the work either as an explanation of the author’s unconscious mind, or on the author’s creation – the character’s unconscious. (Abram’s Expressive)

Five Basic Ideas from Freud (that affect literary criticism)

1. Primacy of the unconscious
2. Id, ego, superego
3. Dreams express desires of the unconscious
4. Infantile behavior is sexual
5. Relationship between neurosis and creativity

Two approaches to Psychological Criticism

1. Focus on the writer (work expresses his unconscious desires)

2. Focus on characters in the work (characters’ actions express unconscious)

4. Archetypal—like social criticism, believes work is the product of a cultural climate, but one of mythic time (i.e., work is the product of the collective experience of man as a species). An archetype is an original pattern or model. Carl Gustav Jung is credited with this type of critical approach. In it, the work follows recognizable patterns or categories.

Three Major Categories:

1. Character: hero, scapegoat, outcast, devil figure, woman figure, temptress, platonic ideal, unfaithful spouse, star-crossed lovers
2. Situations: quest, task, initiation, journey, a fall, death and rebirth
3. Symbols: light-dark, water-desert, Heaven-Hell

Benefits of Archetypal Criticism – it includes other three types (concerns work, author’s background, culture, psychology).