Theory of the Literature

The theory of the literature is the erudite study of the Littérature as a cultural phenomenon. It acts of a discipline which raises at the same time with the Linguistique and with the Esthétique. The theory of the literary language is sometimes indicated under the poetic term of .

By preoccupation with a clearness, the article presents what concerns the literature in general (kinds, stylistic devices, comparative literature) and of the literary analysis concerning the techniques of study of individual works. Of course, a theory of the literature can be built only on the study of a Corpus of works. Reciprocally, the literary analysis, to be relevant, must be based on a theoretical reflection on the statute and the function of the literature.

Criteria of literality of a work

Internal criteria with work

  • Which concerns the shape of the texts. I.e. esthetics, the style, the lexical fields, the symbols, the Stylistic devices…
  • Which concern the contents of the texts, therefore the topics and values which make it possible to analyze the text according to the particular mode of representation of the life that insufflates him the author.
  • Which concerns the relations between the texts, is the Intertextualité. Indeed, a text exists only in a Littérature consisted of other texts. All these works are recut, that it is by stylistics, the set of themes, the ideas… New combinations can emerge, which makes work particular.

External criteria with work

  • Which concerns the author. work is the expression of a single me , with a particular vision.
  • Which concerns social environment where this one is exerted. There between concerned the élitiste vision of the literature. I.e. one establishes a link between the quality of work and his diffusion. More this one is widely diffused and easily included/understood of all, less it is appreciated by the literary critic, because a reading too carried out with the first degree implies less efforts on behalf of the reader.
  • Which concerns the reader. It is necessary that the reader invests himself in work in order to give his own interpretation of it.

The more there are these criteria in the same work, plus this one is arts person. It should however be noted that this vision of the literature is that of the literary Institution even, the literature can be perceived differently according to the vision which one has of this one and the criteria which constitute it. The concept of literature is not a concept of precision, it is necessary to consider the literature as a whole.

Literary theories

Several approaches can be considered when one studies the literature or a literary text:

Some theorists and their concepts

The literary Analysis

A analyzes literary consists of a study of a work drawn from the Littérature carried out according to a precise methodology.

The literary analysis proposes to study at the same time the shape and the bottom of a text, while attempting to show how this form serves this bottom.

The literary analysis is a traditional exercise suggested to the pupils of the colleges, like with the students of the literature sections of the Universities and/or the preparatory classes.

Types of compositions

Among the school exercises of interpretation of the texts, one can release those:

Method of the analysis

The literary analysis generally follows a step in several stages:

  • the reader sticks initially to a interprétion of the text beyond the elementary contents;

  • It carries out then the analysis of the proceeded stylistics and the Symbole S used, while endeavouring to underline the coherence of these elements:
  • the third stage consists in proposing a general direction of work being based on the topics present, indexed on the basis of lexical fields developed, without losing sight of the fact that several directions can be applied to the same work. The choice of the direction selected will be justified in theory, for example with L `assistance of Citation S.
  • this stage, it is possible to initiate a particular reflection on the Vie and the human in general, by studying from this point of view the context, social or history of the text, expressed by the particular vision of the author;
  • the last phase of the analysis endeavors to identify the shapes of Innovation ( a contrario of conformity) of the text, in other words to appreciate its true contribution with its kind of Littérature. The richness of this appreciation is of course very given by the literary Culture of the reader.

See too

External bonds

  • Confabulated, French-speaking gate of research in literature.
  • Vox poetica, gate of the theory and literary criticism.
  • Introductory course to the methods and problems of literature (University of Geneva)
  • International Dictionary of the Literary Terms
  • Literary analyzes of the novels of Jules Verne. Retranscription of literary analyzes on novels of Jules Verne where the interest is related particularly to dimensions of space and time in the Extraordinary Voyages

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