RUSSIAN FORMALIZM
school of literały criticism in Russia from 1910s-30s. interested in method, wanted to establish scientific basis for the theory of literature. 2 movements: Opojaz and Linguistic Circle
SHKLOVSKY was the leader of Opojom. He is an author of “Art as device”. The art is a sum of literary and artistic devices that the artist manipulates to craft his work.
NARRATIVE PLOT-arrangement of the incidents, not chronological order, STORY-raw material awaiting the organizing hand of the writer (chronological order)
MOTIVATION BORIS TOMASHEVSKY called the smallest unit of plot the MOTIF and divided in 2 parts: BOUND MOTIF-required by a story FREE MOTIF-inessential
THE BAKHTIN SCHOOL combined Formalism and Marxism. FORMALISM-was concerned with the linguistic structure of literary texts. MARXISM-assumed that language couldn't be separated from ideology
STRUCTURALISM
LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND F. DE SAUSSURE LANGUE-the social aspect of language; it's the3 shared system which we draw upon as speakers. PAROLE-the individual realization of the system in actual instance of language. SINGS-words that are divided into: SIGNIFIER-written or spoken sound, image or its graphic equivalent SIGNIFIED-the concept of meaning what is thought when the work is made.
SEMIOTICS CH. PEIRCE made distinction between 3 types of sign: ICONIC-where the sign resembles its referent e.g. a picture of ship INDEXICAL-where the sign is associated with its referent e.g. clouds as a sign of a rain SYMBOLIC-where the sign has an arbitrary relation to its referent e.g. language.
NARRATOLOGY V. PROPP he analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest narrative elements. SYNTAX-the rules of sentence construction
R. JACOBSON figures of speech METAPHOR-a word or phrase used to describe sb/sth else, in a way that is different from its usual use, in order to show that two things have the same qualities and to make the description more powerful METONYMY-it's a substitution of one word by another that is closely connected to it
STRUCTURALIST POETICS J. CULLER-he agrees with Chomsky's theory that we can determine only the rules that govern the interpretation of texts, not the rules governing the writing of texts. Culles sees the structure not in system underlying the text but in the system underlying the reader's act of interpretation
FROM STRUCTURALISM TO POST-STRUCTURALISM
T.TODOROW the units of narrative:propositions: 1. Equilibrium (Peace) 2. Force (Enemy invades) 3. Disequilibrium (War) 4. Force (Enemy is defeated) 5. Equilibrium (Peace on new terms).
C.LEVI-STRAUSS he is not interested in the narrative sequence but in the structural pattern which gives the myth its meaning: 1. Subject/Object 2. Sender5/Receiver 3. Helper/Opponent
A.J. EREIMAS: The Semiotic Square - way of classifying concepts which are relevant to a given opposition of concepts: S1+S2=opposition S1+~S1/S2+~S2-contradition S1+~S2/S2+~S1= complementarily
POST-STRUCTURALIST THEORIES
1966 CONFERENCE AT JOHNS HOPKING UNIVERSITY the interest of structuralism lead to this conference, invited scholars: Derrida, Barthes, Lacan. Derrida's lecture: “Structure, Sign and Play in the Human Sciences” as a manifesto against structuralism.
R. BARTHES THE DEATH OF THE AUTHOR-in this essay he made a strong, polemical argument against the centrality of the figure of the author in literary study. S/Z-masterpiece of post-structuralist literary criticism. In S/Z Barthes introsuces the concept of: lisible (made to be written=read), scriptable (made to be written=produced). 5 codes: Hermeneutic, Semic, Symbolic, Proairetic, Cultural.
J. LACAN his central idea was that the human subject is a creation of its use of language. THE REAL-the unspeakable reality medicated through the imaginary and symbolic THE IMAGINARY-no distinction between subject and object THE MIRROR-he emphasizes the process of identification an article image or entity induced THE SYMBOLIC-fundamental to acquire the ability to use language
M. FOUCAULT DISCOURSE-usually a learned discussion, spoken or written on a philosophical, political, literary or religious topic DISCOURSIVE PRACTICES-of knowledge are not independent of the objects that are studies and must be understood in their social and political context. HISTORY OF SEXUALITY-he argued that the rise of medical and physical science has created a discourse of sexuality as a deep, instinctual and mysterious.
J. DERRIDA deconstruction-an attempt to open a text, to a range of meanings and interpretations. Speech and writing share certain writerly features: both are signifying processes which lack presences. Speech is a species of writing=deconstruction