ENG4U Final Exam Reflection & Analysis - Literary Lenses TVO ILC

ENG4U Final Exam Reflection & Analysis - Literary Lenses TVO ILC Feminist theory - ANS-- extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical grounds. It aims to understand the nature of inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations, and sexuality. The Feminist Literary Theory - ANS-- Some theorists examine the language and symbols that are used as well as how that language and use of symbols are "gendered." Others remind us that men and women write differently, and analyze how the gender of the author affects how literature was written. Many feminist critics look at how the characters, especially the female characters, are portrayed and ask us to consider how the portrayal of female characters "reinforces or undermines" sexual stereotypes (Lynn, 1998). Patriarchy: - ANS-- a social system where the father is the head of the family and men have authority over women and children Domesticity - ANS-- -A woman's traditional place is within the home, she lives in the domestic, private sphere; while men live in the public sphere of work and commerce. There is a dominant idea that women's "real" job is that of wife and mother, the home is constructed as a place where men relax after work, and therefore, work that is done in the home is devalued. (Phallocentric viewpoint). Female Dichotomy - ANS-- -Women are represented in the text in binaries such as the Angel (organized and right) vs. the Crazy woman in the attic (disorganized and evil). In these binaries, the lustful "fallen" woman is always a negative character and is often punished. Women as Nature - ANS-- -Women are often compared to nature. The comparison is that they can both be nurturing and/or destructive and wild. It is "up to men" in both cases to tame, control, or conquer nature and women. Hysteria and Weakness - ANS-- -The idea that wombs make women crazy. Women are the "weaker sex" and therefore more emotional. Many medical issues women faced were shrugged off as hysteria. Hysteria conveniently enforced the idea that women are incapable decision makers (especially when is came to politics or economics). As hysteria was directly linked to uteruses, men were immune. When men began to 3 experience a similar illness, it was named "shell shock" whether or not the men affected had been to war. 6. Female Competition - ANS-- -All women are in competition with each other for men. The myth that women cannot get along, helps enforce the idea that if women did get together to form a feminist group, all they would do is "gossip and b[*]tch". This reinforces the notion of a husband and family as the ultimate goal. As well, it reinforces the need for "female vanity" and competition among women over sexual attractiveness. 7. The Importance of Appearance and the Aging Woman - ANS-- -Women's appearance and beauty is more important than men's appearance. Women's beauty is associated with youthfulness more so than men. As men age, the have job success, and gain wisdom and experience; all things which are not traditionally important for women. A woman's "real job" is motherhood, but when women age they experience menopause and become "empty nesters"; and are thus, no longer "productive" members of society, so they "depreciate" as they age. Male Gaze - ANS-- -Female characters (in poetry, prose, paintings, plays, and especially films) are objects for the "male gaze". This can be seen as the objectification of women where they no longer are subjects in their own bodies, but are objects of others' appreciation based entirely upon physical traits. John Berger in his book, Ways of Seeing, observed that in art "Men do, while women are watched". In a written work, this gaze comes from the audience/readers, authors, and narrators. The Need for Masculine Protection - ANS-- -The idea that women are passive, vulnerable victims to be protected, suppresses and subordinates those it protects. There is a dichotomy where "good girls" accept protection, "bad girls" do not; therefore, these girls are fair game for aggressors and violators. The scorned male protector sometimes becomes the aggressor. Women must allow themselves to be oppressed to qualify for protection. Marxist theory: - ANS-- involves the representation of class conflicts as well as the reinforcement of class distinctions through the medium of literature. Marxist texts/literature is sympathetic to the working class and work that challenges economic equalities found in capitalist societies. Marxist literary theory - ANS-- focuses on the ideological content of a work. It discusses assumptions and values such as culture, race, class, and power. Along with clarifying ideological issues, it also aims at correcting social injustices and using literature to show how money and power take priority over social interests such as morality and justice. These critics believe works of literature are political because they either challenge or support economic oppression. Therefore Marxist critics focus on the content and themes rather than the form. 1. Historical Materialism - ANS-- the central concept of Marxism is the idea of progression of materialism over time and within history; people make their own history, but people can't just decide what sort of history they want to make. This comes down to the way that we interact with our environment. Humans obtain their subsistence by interaction with nature through physical labour. In order to understand history, it is necessary to understand the material conditions under which people live at a given point. People are the ... result of the interaction between self (creative powers) and nature (material conditions). 2. Mode of Production - ANS-- the way society is organized in order for humanity to interact with nature to subsist [in order to produce goods and services to survive]. Class struggle - ANS-- The proletariat and bourgeoisie are part of a class struggle in a capitalist economy. Those with power (and money) exploit workers (those with less money) and workers try to resist this exploitation, resulting in a class struggle. Alienation and Exploitation - ANS-- People are exploited if they perform more labour than is necessary to produce the goods they consume for themselves. Communism - ANS-- - A philosophy or system derived from Marxism, advocating state ownership of land and property. Marx saw this as the synthesis or the highest state that is achieved after the underclass in society fight against the ruling class. Capitalism - ANS-- - An economic system in which the means of production, such as land or factories, are for the most part privately owned by individuals or corporations which compete with one another to produce goods and services that are offered on a free market for whatever profit may be made. Socialism - ANS-- A political and economic system in which the means of production and distribution are owned, managed, or controlled by a central democratically elected authority. False Consciousness - ANS-- - the Proletariat does not know that it has no vested interest in perpetuation of the status quo because it lives in a state of "False Consciousness". People in this state believe that the way to get on in life or achieve progress is by working harder and, thus, get more money. However, ironically, the harder the worker labours, the bigger the differential between the worker and the boss (labour and capital) becomes. Creativity and Cultural Production - ANS-- - the Hungarian theorist, Georg Lukacs, contributed to an understanding of the relationship between literature and historical materialism. He and others from the Frankfurt School of philosophers became associated with what is known as "Critical Theory" and used reason to question the representations of texts. Critical theory sees in the structure of mass cultural forms (such as jazz, Hollywood film, advertising, etc.) a replication of the factory, the workplace. Ideology: - ANS-- A body of doctrines or concepts, especially about social, political, or economic systems. Class: - ANS-- A rank or division of society. Bourgeois: - ANS-- Middle class, ordinary. Proletariat: - ANS-- The lowest class in economic and social status. Conspicuous consumption: - ANS-- Buying expensive services and products in order to flaunt wealth. Commodification: - ANS-- the attitude of valuing all things by their ability to impress others and for possible resale. Dialectical materialism: - ANS-- The concept of reality in which material things are in the constant process of change brought about by the tension between conflicting or interacting forces, elements, or ideas. Superstructure: - ANS-- the mode of production gives rise to a legal and political superstructure (how the state is organized)- this produces certain forms of social consciousness (social behavior, and how people think) The Unconscious - ANS-- "the storehouse of those painful experiences and emotions, those wounds, fears, guilty desires, and unresolved conflicts we do not want to know about because we feel we will be overwhelmed by them" (Tyson, 2006, p.12). Beginning in childhood, unhappy and painful events are repressed into the unconscious mind so that the person is not overcome by those disturbing experiences. Psychoanalysis uncovers information that has been repressed and allows one to understand how behavior has been influenced by the repression of events and memories from one's past. Id, Ego, Superego - ANS-- Freud maintained that our desires and our unconscious conflicts give rise to three areas of the mind that wrestle for dominance as we grow from infancy, to childhood, to adulthood: id - "...the location of the drives" or libido -developed/exists at birth; unconscious; operates on the pleasure principle; seeks immediate gratification 2 ego - "...one of the major defenses against the power of the drives..." and home of the defenses listed above - it mediates the demands of the id, superego, and reality; develops in the first 3 years of life, operates based on the reality principle superego - the area of the unconscious that houses judgment (of self and others) and "...which begins to form during childhood as a result of the Oedipus complex" (Richter ) -suppresses the id/urges or desires that are considered wrong or socially unacceptable; forces the ego to act more morally than realistically; strives for moral perfection; morals, values (right/wrong) govern this part of your mind -develops last (begins to develop around age 5) -2 parts: ego ideal (rules for good behaviour), conscience (rules for which behaviour is considered bad) The Oedipus and Electra Complex - ANS-- Freud believed that the Oedipus complex was "...one of the most powerfully determinative elements in the growth of the child" (Richter 1016). Essentially, the Oedipus complex involves children's need for their parents and the conflict that arises as children mature, realizing that they are not the absolute focus of their mother's attention. Freud argued that both boys and girls wish to possess a parent. In the Oedipus Complex, boys want to possess their mothers, but as they grow older "...they begin to sense that their claim to exclusive attention is thwarted by the mother's attention to the father..." (1016). Children connect this conflict of attention to the intimate relations between mother and father, relations from which the children are excluded. Freud believed that "the result is a murderous rage against the father...and a desire to possess the mother" (1016). The Electra complex is the equivalent in girls, who wish to possess their father. Defense Mechanisms/Repression - ANS-- Defense mechanisms are tools of the unconscious that our minds use to avoid anxiety and unpleasant emotions. "...repression doesn't eliminate our painful experiences and emotions...we unconsciously behave in ways that will allow us to 'play out'...our conflicted feelings about the painful experiences and emotions we repress" (Tyson, 15). To keep all of this conflict buried in our unconscious, Freud argued that we develop defenses: selective perception, selective memory, denial, displacement, projection, regression, fear of intimacy, and fear of death, among others. Dreams - ANS-- Dreams are mental constructions which are understood to be the hallucinatory fulfillment of irrational wishes which originated in childhood. These wishes are expressed as being fulfilled when our conscious control is weakened, as in the case of sleep. Elements in dreams often stand for their opposites, and dreams are not coherent narratives, but a series of disconnected images that represent states of mind or emotions. The Collective Unconscious - ANS-- - Jungian criticism, closely related to Freudian theory because of its connection to psychoanalysis, assumes that all stories and symbols are based on mythic models from mankind's past. Based on these commonalities, Jung developed archetypal myths, the Syzygy: "...a quaternion 1 composing a whole, the unified self of which people are in search" (Richter 505). These archetypes are the Shadow, the Anima, the Animus, and the Spirit: "...beneath...[the Shadow] is the Anima, the feminine side of the male Self, and the Animus, the corresponding masculine side of the female Self" (Richter 505). In literary analysis, a Jungian critic would look for archetypes in creative works: "Jungian criticism is generally involved with a search for the embodiment of these symbols within particular works of art." (Richter 505). When dealing with this sort of criticism, it is often useful to keep a handbook of mythology and a dictionary of symbols on hand. Archetypes - ANS-- Archetypes are figures or patterns recurring in works of the imagination, and can be divided into three categories. Archetypal characters include (but are not limited to): the hero, the villain, the outcast, the femme fatale, and the star-crossed lovers. Archetypal situations include (but are not limited to): the quest, the journal, death and rebirth, and the task. Archetypal symbols and associations include polarities: light/dark, water/desert, height/depth, spring/winter. Individuation - ANS-- the psychological process of integrating opposites. Sublimation - ANS-- - to shift the instinctual drives from their original goals to "higher" goals such as artistry or a profession. Displacement - ANS-- - the substitution for an object of desire, by one that is acceptable to the conscious mind. Projection - ANS-- subconscious denial of one's own attributes and the process of imagining or projecting those onto others. Often this is manifested in blaming others for one's own failings. Libido - ANS-- "denotes a desire or impulse which is unchecked by any kind of authority, moral or otherwise. Libido is appetite in its natural state. From the genetic point of view it is bodily needs like hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex, and emotional states or affects, which constitute the essence of libido"("The Concept of Libido," CW 5, par. 194.) The Shadow - ANS-- - repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, instincts and shortcomings in the unconscious mind. This archetype is often described as the darker side of the mind representing wildness, chaos and the unknown. The Anima and the Animus - ANS-- - the anima is a feminine image in the male mind and the animus is a male image in the female mind. Having both represents the "true self" rather than the image we present to others and serves as the primary source of communication with the collective unconscious. Denial - ANS-- Denial is the refusal to accept reality or fact, acting as if a painful event, thought or feeling did not exist. It is considered one of the most primitive of the defense mechanisms because it is characteristic of early childhood development. Many people use denial in their everyday lives to avoid dealing with painful feelings or areas of their life they don't wish to admit. For instance, a person who is a functioning alcoholic will often simply deny they have a drinking problem, pointing to how well they function in their job and relationships. Regression - ANS-- Regression is the reversion to an earlier stage of development in the face of unacceptable thoughts or impulses. For an example an adolescent who is overwhelmed with fear, anger and growing sexual impulses might become clingy and start exhibiting earlier childhood behaviors he has long since overcome, such as bedwetting. An adult may regress when under a great deal of stress, refusing to leave their bed and engage in normal, everyday activities. Acting Out - ANS-- Acting Out is performing an extreme behavior in order to express thoughts or feelings the person feels incapable of otherwise expressing. Instead of saying, "I'm angry with you," a person who acts out may instead throw a book at the person, or punch a hole through a wall. When a person acts out, it can act as a pressure release, and often helps the individual feel calmer and peaceful once again. For instance, a child's temper tantrum is a form of acting out when he or she doesn't get his or her way with a parent. Self-injury may also be a form of acting-out, expressing in physical pain what one cannot stand to feel emotionally. Dissociation - ANS-- Dissociation is when a person loses track of time and/or person, and instead finds another representation of their self in order to continue in the moment. A person who dissociates often loses track of time or themselves and their usual thought processes and memories. People who have a history of any kind of childhood abuse often suffer from some form of dissociation. In extreme cases, dissociation can lead to a person believing they have multiple selves (" multiple personality disorder"). People who use dissociation often have a disconnected view of themselves in their world. Time and their own self-image may not flow continuously, as it does for most people. In this manner, a person who dissociates can "disconnect" from the real world for a time, and live in a different world that is not cluttered with thoughts, feelings or memories that are unbearable. Compartmentalization - ANS-- Compartmentalization is a lesser form of dissociation, wherein parts of oneself are separated from awareness of other parts and behaving as if one had separate sets of values. An example might be an honest person who cheats on their income tax return and keeps their two value systems distinct and un-integrated while remaining unconscious of the cognitive dissonance (conflicting beliefs that plague your mind). Projection - ANS-- Projection is the misattribution of a person's/one's undesired thoughts, feelings or impulses onto another person who does not have those thoughts, feelings or impulses. Projection is used especially when the thoughts are considered unacceptable for the person to express, or they feel completely ill at ease with having them. For example, a spouse may be angry at their significant other for not listening, when in fact it is the angry spouse who does not listen. Projection is often the result of a lack of insight and acknowledgement of one's own motivations and feelings. Reaction Formation - ANS-- Reaction Formation is the converting of unwanted or dangerous thoughts, feelings or impulses into their opposites. For instance, a woman who is very angry with her boss and would like to quit her job may instead be overly kind and generous toward her boss and express a desire to keep working there forever. She is incapable of expressing the negative emotions of anger and unhappiness with her job, and instead becomes overly kind to publicly demonstrate her lack of anger and unhappiness. Repression - ANS-- Repression is the unconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts, feelings and impulses. The key to repression is that people do it unconsciously, so they often have very little control over it. "Repressed memories" are memories that have been unconsciously blocked from access or view. But because memory is very malleable and ever-changing, it is not like playing back a DVD of your life. The DVD has been filtered and even altered by your life experiences, even by what you've read or viewed. 9. Displacement - ANS-- Displacement is the redirecting of thoughts feelings and impulses directed at one person or object, but taken out upon another person or object. People often use displacement when they cannot express their feelings in a safe manner to the person they are directed at. The classic example is the man who gets angry at his boss, but can't express his anger to his boss for fear of being fired. He instead comes home and kicks the dog or starts an argument with his wife. The man is redirecting his anger from his boss to his dog or wife. Naturally, this is a pretty ineffective defense mechanism, because while the anger finds a route for expression, it's misapplication to other harmless people or objects will cause additional problems for most people. Intellectualization - ANS-- Intellectualization is the overemphasis on thinking when confronted with an unacceptable impulse, situation or behavior without employing any emotions whatsoever to help mediate and place the thoughts into an emotional, human context. Rather than deal with the painful associated emotions, a person might employ intellectualization to distance themselves from the impulse, event or behavior. For instance, a person who has just been given a terminal medical diagnosis, instead of expressing their sadness and grief, focuses instead on the details of all possible fruitless medical procedures. - ANS-- Rationalization is putting something into a different light or offering a different explanation (often excusing it) for one's perceptions or behaviors in the face of a changing reality. For instance, a woman who starts dating a man she really, really likes and thinks the world of is suddenly dumped by the man for no reason. She reframes the situation in her mind with, "I suspected he was a loser all along." Undoing - ANS-- is the attempt to take back ("un-do") an unconscious behavior or thought that is unacceptable or hurtful. For instance, after realizing you just insulted your significant other unintentionally, you might spend then next hour praising their beauty, charm and intellect. By "undoing" the previous action, the person is attempting to counteract the damage done by the original comment, hoping the two will balance one another out. Sublimation - ANS-- Sublimation is simply the channeling of unacceptable impulses, thoughts and emotions into more acceptable ones. For instance, when a person has sexual impulses s/he/they would like not to act upon, they may instead focus on rigorous exercise. Refocusing such unacceptable or harmful impulses into productive use (- to +) helps a person channel energy that otherwise would be lost or used in a manner that might cause the person more anxiety. Compensation - ANS-- Compensation is a process of psychologically counterbalancing perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strength in other arenas. By emphasizing and focusing on one's strengths, a person is recognizing they cannot be strong at all things and in all areas in their lives. For instance, when a person says, "I may not know how to cook, but I can sure do the dishes!," they're trying to compensate for their lack of cooking skills by emphasizing their cleaning skills instead. When done appropriately and not in an attempt to over-compensate, compensation is defense mechanism that helps reinforce a person's self-esteem and self-image. Assertiveness - ANS-- Assertiveness is the emphasis of a person's needs or thoughts in a manner that is respectful, direct and firm. Communication styles exist on a continuum, ranging from passive to aggressive, with assertiveness falling neatly in between. People who are passive and communicate in a passive manner tend to be good listeners, but rarely speak up for themselves or their own needs in a relationship. People who are aggressive and communicate in an aggressive manner tend to be good leaders, but often at the expense of being able to listen empathetically to others and their ideas and needs. People who are assertive strike a balance where they speak up for themselves, express their opinions or needs in a respectful yet firm manner, and listen when they are being spoken to. Becoming more assertive is one of the most desired communication skills and helpful defense mechanisms most people want to learn, and would benefit in doing so.