| UNIT 422-1: INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY LITERARY THEORIES |
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| 422.1.1: INTRODUCTION: MANY APPROACHES |
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| Interpretation and appreciation of literature, as everyone knows well, is at present so much multifarious that it is neither possible nor desirable to refer to all of its actions and reactions. We could, however, briefly mention some of its important dimensions which go under the following names: |
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| 1) |
Literary criticism: Different approaches |
| 1a) |
Moral approach |
| 1b) |
Psychological approach |
| 1c) |
Sociological approach |
| 1d) |
Formalistic approach |
| 1e) |
Archetypical approach |
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| 2) |
Classical Marxist Criticism; |
| 3) |
Modernist positions; |
| 3a) |
Subaltern studies for literary criticism; |
| 3b) |
Literary criticism through deconstructing historiography; |
| 3c) |
Literary criticism and the Feminist Perspective. |
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| 4) |
Linguistic / Stylistic approach: Criticism based on ideas of Structuralism & Semiotics |
| 5) |
Postmodernist positions; |
| 6) |
Literary criticism emanating form the concept of Indian position on postmodernism, better known as the 'Uttar Adhunikataa' concept in a number of Indian literatures. |
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| Many other actions and reactions operating through contemporary literary criticism are worthy of extolled references. When one is going through the various subdivisions as have been mentioned here, at times, it may appear that there could be other ways of classification of positions on literary theory-building where the names mentioned above would probably belong to different categories and sub-categorizations. There is no doubt that a more comprehensive study is needed to understand them in total. For a full understanding of their functions (inclusive of the modernist's and decadent modernist's dissimilation), the interested reader would have to go through a number of available books and monographs on this subject, some of which have been named at the end of the unit. |
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| The concluding part of this introductory unit would contain, along with exemplifications, atleast one theoretical position in a little detail, based essentially on the Indian response to the western attitudes towards literary criticism today. It may also be noted that a number of examples here are form Bengali literature but they are possible to find parallels in other Indian literatures as well. Wherever possible and necessary, such parallels would be mentioned. |
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