Knowra Literary theory Literary theory Literary theory studies the concepts and methods used to interpret literature, examining how texts produce meaning and relate to language, society, and history.
Hermeneutics : The theory and practice of interpreting texts, actions, and other meaningful expressions. Literary theory draws on hermeneutics to ask how interpretation can produce and justify meaning.
Structuralism : An approach that studies cultural meaning through systems of relations and underlying structures. It treats literary meaning as shaped by structures such as genres, signs, and narrative patterns.
Aristotle's Poetics : An ancient Greek treatise that analyzes tragedy, epic poetry, plot, and imitation. Its account of plot and imitation became an enduring starting point for literary analysis.
Literary criticism : The interpretation and evaluation of particular literary works or bodies of literature. Criticism applies judgments and readings to works, while theory examines the assumptions behind such practices.
Intentional fallacy : The claim that an author's intention is not a sufficient standard for judging a literary work's meaning. It challenges interpretations that treat an author's stated purpose as decisive evidence.
Close reading : A method of analyzing a text through careful attention to its language, form, and details. It offers a practical method for tracing how literary effects arise from words and form.
Post-structuralism : A movement that questions stable meanings and examines how systems of signs unsettle them. It challenges the idea that a text's structures can secure one final interpretation.
Russian Formalism : A movement that analyzed literature through its devices, forms, and distinctive use of language. It helped make literary technique, rather than biography alone, a central object of study.
Literary history : The study of literature's development across periods, places, movements, and institutions. Literary history emphasizes change over time; theory supplies concepts for interpreting that change.
Death of the Author : Roland Barthes's argument that authorial intention should not govern a text's meaning. It recasts meaning as a product of language and reading rather than authorial authority.
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