The primary question regarding contemporary literary interpretation is
"what is theory?" Although this is a seemingly straightforward question, it can
honestly be said that there are no easy answers. The broad definition can be
understood as something like this: theory is determining what type of written
work is considered valuable and why, based on the things that a society values.
The practice of theory removes all preconceived notions of truth and reality.
For example, the sky is no longer simply blue: we must question the color of
the sky and found out why it is blue, how it is blue, and if the sky being blue
is even a matter of importance to us. In short, nothing is certain and
everything is up for debate.
While theory and interpretation are rather subjective, these things cannot be considered a free-for-all. Questioning the color of the sky does not make it all right to state that the sky is zebra-striped with pink polka dots; there are certain rules that must be followed, or:
"Pirate Code" YouTube
As Captain Barbosa explains in the above clip, theory can be seen as a set of guidelines for literary interpretation. Stanley Fish, a well-known and celebrated theorist, puts it this way in his article “Consequences,” stating that “a rule is formalizable: it can…be followed by anyone who has been equipped with explicit (noncircular) definitions and equally explicit directions for carrying out a procedure. A rule of thumb…cannot be formalized…its application varies with the contextual circumstances of an ongoing practice; as those circumstances change, the very meaning of the rule (the instructions it is understood to give) changes too” (Fish “Consequences” 435). In certain cases, there are rules, namely that any interpretation you come up with must be founded on theoretical principles and be backed up with evidence (in short, good luck trying to persuade your friends that the sky is zebra-striped with pink polka dots).
Another important question to ask is that of “what is literature?” This brings up a host of other questions, but as before we will focus on the simple definition. Literature, in essence, is the texts that societies consider to be valuable. This value can take into consideration a multiplicity of variables, including but not limited to the way language is used in a text, how a text makes people feel, what a text does for a certain aspect of society, and even whether or not a text is interpretable at all. Returning to Fish in his book titled Is There a Text in this Class?, he defines literature as “the product of a way of reading, of a community agreement about what will count as literature, which leads the members of the community to pay a certain kind of attention and thereby to create literature” (Fish “Text” 97). By this definition, literature is what we as readers and users of theory call literature. A text is not literature simply because it is written down and readable; a text is literature because we make it so.
What we do with literature, however, is where literary theory becomes important. Theory, as a nearly limitless set of guidelines for interpreting texts, can be (and often is) a huge concept to grasp. Fish states in his article “Literature in the Reader: Affective Stylistics” that while theory is sometimes difficult and a cause for major headache, it has its redeeming points. It is a useful tool, “a process; it talks about experience and is an experience; its focus is effects and its result is an effect” (Fish “Literature” 161). These processes and experiences can be done by looking at the different schools of thought that have come into being by theorists and students of literature. Each school has their own way of classifying literature and, in turn, their own process for interpreting it. Having a basic understanding of these methods is important for success in literary study; the following list will give you a basic rundown of each major school (there are more) and what they do:
- New Criticism, arguably the most detail oriented school, focuses on the art form of poetry. This school looks at only the text for interpretation. The author has no claim on the work once the work is defined as literary. New Critics look for tension in the text, allusions and symbolism, and the exact definitions of words at the time of the poem’s publication. Though not commonly used in literary interpretation today, New Criticism has contributed to modern theory by the idea of close reading, or heavily scrutinizing a text.
- Structuralism takes more into consideration than the New Critics. Structuralists look not only at the text, but at the text’s involvement inside larger structures (such as a text’s relation to other texts or literature itself). They seek unity in the text and with the outside structures surrounding the text. For a structuralist, language makes our world.
- Poststructuralism is the expansion of structuralism. Rather than searching for unity between a text and the outside structures, poststructuralists look for tension and disharmony. The world is decentralized, meaning that we have no point of reference for language or meaning. There is no single system, but many systems of thought (such as religion, literature, education, government, family, etc.).
- Deconstruction followed Poststructuralism but did not stem from that particular school. Deconstruction unravels a text and puts heavy emphasis on the unsaid of a text. The act of utterance, or the act of writing about something, causes a person to not write utter or write about something else. The unsaid is just as important as what is said, and in this way deconstructionists find meanings in a text.
- Feminism poses questions about the relationship between men and women in texts. They examine the misrepresentation of women or the lack of representation and what it tells us about the author or audience of the time the text was written. Feminism is somewhat limited in its approach because it focuses on masculinity and femininity, but it is less restricted than the New Critics because feminism is easily applied to any kind of text, not just poetry.
- New Historicism places just as much emphasis on non-literary texts as it does on literary texts. They have equal weight. In order to gain an accurate interpretation, New Historicists try to distance themselves from what they already know, or “defamiliarize” themselves to avoid presuppositions when reading. For a New Historicist, the actual past is lost, but a text serves as a replacement for the past and allows us to study it.
- Marxism focuses on ideology, or how people think and why. Marxists believe that nothing exists in isolation and that everything in reality is definable. They privilege texts above other works and claim to have an answer for everything. A Marxist critic reads with the idea that people have bought into certain systems and that this is reflected in a text by the way the author wrote, how the characters act, and how people respond to the text.
- Reader-Oriented Criticism considers the many different ways people read and interpret a text. These critics believe that there is no single interpretation of a literary work. However, they are not of the mindset that anything goes just because someone read it that way (again, no zebra-striped, polka dotted skies). Instead, reader interpretation is based on personal experience and values.
As you can see, these schools have practices for determining what they believe is valuable in a text, and what a text reveals about the value and belief systems of those who experience literature. Theory and literary interpretation are, in essence, ways of studying an object to decide whether or not the object is valuable; whether or not is has important meanings to us.
You will probably not be surprised to find that there are many other schools and methods of literary interpretation. These listed above are a few of the most discussed and most used (except for New Criticism) methodologies. Having an understanding of the main points of these schools is crucial in being able to navigate your way through literary theory.
Literary interpretation isn’t quite so hard to grasp once you know what questions to ask. Knowing what theory is and how we define literature are important keys for getting through all of the information that you will learn. A general knowledge and understanding of the main schools of thought makes finding the answers easier as well. The great thing about these schools is that, though you may find one to your liking (or even if you dislike them all), you don’t have to rely on a single method to interpret a text. When you try your hand at these methods, try doing several readings using different approaches. Your interpretation will be more interesting and almost explosive with meanings you never imagined were there.
