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May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] INTRODUCTION: LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET

Why This Section Determines Your Rank

Literary Criticism and Theory is the single highest-weighted section on the UGC NET English Paper II. In the June 2024 examination, this section alone contributed 25 questions -- more than any other domain. In the entire syllabus framework published by the NTA, Units 8 (Literary Criticism) and 9 (Literary Theory Post World War II) together account for approximately 55% of the total exam weightage. This guide is organised according to the official NTA syllabus structure, which divides Literary Criticism and Literary Theory Post World War II into separate but interconnected units. You will find:  Unit 8: Literary Criticism -- Classical (Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Horace), Renaissance (Sidney), Neoclassical (Dryden, Pope, Johnson), Romantic (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats), Victorian (Arnold, Ruskin, Pater), and Modernist criticism (Eliot, Richards, Leavis)  Unit 9: Literary Theory Post World War II -- Formalism, Structuralism, Poststructuralism, Deconstruction, Psychoanalytic, Marxist, Feminist, Postcolonial, Reader-Response, New Historicism, Cultural Studies Your preparation must be integrated -- not a list of names and dates, but a conceptual map of how each critic, each movement, and each idea relates to the others.

How This Guide Is Structured

Each of the following sections follows a consistent format:

Section Component What You Will Get

Historical Positioning Where does this movement/critic belong? What came before and after? Core Concepts (Exam The ideas tested most frequently in PYQs, with definitions and examples.

Focused)

Key Works The specific texts you must know (e.g., Poetics, Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Orientalism). Critical Glossary Key terms for quick revision. Theoretical Debates & How this critic responds to previous thinkers and influences later movements -- essential Connections for "Assertion-Reason" questions. Memorisation Strategy Mnemonics, charts, and frameworks. 1 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] Follow this guide systematically. Create your own comparison charts as recommended at the end of each major section. The examination rewards conceptual clarity and connections between thinkers -- not isolated facts. PART I: CLASSICAL TO NEOCLASSICAL CRITICISM (Unit 8 - Foundational) 1. PLATO (c. 428-348 BCE)

Historical Positioning

Plato is the first major philosopher of art in the Western tradition. His critique of poetry in The Republic (especially Book X) sets the terms for every subsequent defence of literature -- including Aristotle's response, Sidney's Apology, and Shelley's Defence of Poetry. Virtually every "defence of poetry" written after Plato is, in some sense, a response to

Plato's accusations.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Theory of Forms/Ideas (Mimesis)

For Plato, ultimate reality consists of eternal, perfect Forms (e.g., the Form of Beauty, the Form of Justice). The physical world is an imperfect copy of these Forms. Art is a copy of a copy -- therefore, it is three steps removed from truth.  Example: A carpenter makes a bed (copy of the Form of Bed). A painter paints the carpenter's bed. The painting is an imitation (mimesis) of an imitation. Poetry is similarly twice removed from truth. 2. Poetic Inspiration vs. Knowledge Plato argues that poets do not write from knowledge or skill (techne) but from divine inspiration or madness (mania). Their work is therefore unreliable as a guide to truth. For the examination, note the contrast: Plato distrusts inspiration; later Romantic critics (Wordsworth, Shelley) celebrate it. 3. The Moral Critique of Poetry (Book X) Poetry appeals to the lower parts of the soul (emotion, appetite) rather than reason. By arousing pity, fear, and laughter, it weakens our rational self-control. Plato therefore banishes poets from the ideal state -- with one exception: hymns to the gods and praises of virtuous men. 4. Irony and Performance Plato makes his arguments about the untruth of art through highly crafted literary dialogues -- a paradox that students should note. He uses allegories and extended metaphors (the Cave, the Divided Line, the Ship of State) even as he condemns figurative language.

Key Works  The Republic (especially Books II, III, and X) 2 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET]  Ion (on poetic inspiration)  The Symposium (on love and beauty)  Phaedrus (on rhetoric and the soul)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Mimesis Imitation; for Plato, copying of appearances rather than truth Theory of Forms Eternal, perfect archetypes; physical objects are imperfect copies Inspiration (mania) Divine madness; Plato claims poets write not from knowledge but from inspiration Censorship of poetry Removal of poets from the ideal republic

Memorisation Strategy

Mnemonic for Plato's Four Accusations Against Poetry: MMMR (Mimesis is false; Morally corrupting; Makes people emotional; Removed from reality). 2. ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE) - Poetics

Historical Positioning

Aristotle was a student of Plato but fundamentally disagreed with his teacher about the value of art. While Plato saw poetry as a degraded copy of a copy, Aristotle saw mimesis as natural and educational. For Aristotle, poetry is more philosophical than history, because it deals with universals, not particulars. His Poetics is the foundational text of Western literary theory, and his concepts of catharsis, hamartia, peripeteia, and anagnorisis remain essential to the study of drama and narrative.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Mimesis as Natural and Valuable

Contra Plato, Aristotle argues that mimesis is innate to humans -- we learn through imitation, and we take pleasure in recognising imitations. Poetry is not a copy of a copy but a representation of universal human action. For Aristotle, mimesis is not degraded but essential. 3 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] Faculty Insight: This reversal -- Plato sees imitation as falsehood; Aristotle sees it as learning and pleasure -- is a classic "Assertion-Reason" question in UGC NET. Understand that the same term (mimesis) means different things to different critics. 2. The Six Elements of Tragedy (in descending order of importance) Rank Element (Greek) English Term What It Means 1 Mythos Plot The arrangement of incidents -- the "soul of tragedy" 2 Ethos Character The moral qualities of the agents 3 Dianoia Thought The intellectual content -- what characters say and argue 4 Lexis Diction The verbal expression and choice of words 5 Melos Song / Melody The musical elements of the drama 6 Opsis Spectacle Visual elements (least important for Aristotle) 3. Hamartia (Tragic Flaw) Not merely a "moral flaw" in the Christian sense. Hamartia is better understood as an error of judgement or a mistake that leads to the protagonist's downfall. Oedipus kills his father not out of wickedness but out of ignorance -- this is hamartia. 4. Peripeteia (Reversal of Fortune) A sudden reversal in the action, often from good fortune to bad. In Oedipus, the messenger arrives to relieve Oedipus's fear of marrying his mother -- but the message has the opposite effect, revealing the truth. That is peripeteia. 5. Anagnorisis (Recognition) A change from ignorance to knowledge. The protagonist realises the truth about himself, his family, or his situation. The most powerful tragedies combine anagnorisis with peripeteia, as in Oedipus. 6. Catharsis (Emotional Purification) The purgation of pity and fear through the experience of tragedy. The audience does not simply feel emotion; they feel it aesthetically and are cleansed of excess emotion. This is one of the most debated concepts in criticism.

Key Works  Poetics (c. 335 BCE) -- only Book I survives; Book II (on comedy) is lost

Critical Glossary 4 DASGUPTA

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Term Definition

Mimesis Imitation of action; for Aristotle, natural and educational Mythos Plot -- the arrangement of incidents; "soul of tragedy" Hamartia Tragic error of judgement (not necessarily moral vice) Peripeteia Reversal of fortune (sudden change from good to bad or vice versa) Anagnorisis Recognition -- movement from ignorance to knowledge Catharsis Emotional purification through pity and fear Spoudaios Serious or noble character (appropriate for tragedy)

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Aristotle vs. Plato: Plato banished poets; Aristotle defended them through catharsis (poetry makes us better, not worse). This opposition appears in PYQs across decades.  Aristotle and the Renaissance: Neoclassical critics rediscovered Poetics in the 16th century and elevated Aristotle's rules into rigid laws (the "Three Unities"), which Aristotle himself never intended.

Memorisation Strategy

Mnemonic for the Six Elements (in correct order): "Please Come Down To My Side." Plot (P), Character (C), Dianoia/Thought (D), Diction (T -- replace?), Song/Melody (M), Spectacle (S). Better: PCDTMS -- "Poets Create Dramatic Tragedies, Making Spectacles." Simpler: Plot → Character → Thought → Diction → Music → Spectacle. ⚡ 3. LONGINUS (PSEUDO-LONGINUS) - On the Sublime (c. 1st century CE)

Historical Positioning

Peri Hypsous ("On the Sublime") was for centuries attributed to the 3rd-century critic Cassius Longinus, but the author is now unknown -- hence "Pseudo-Longinus." This treatise was lost for centuries, rediscovered in the Renaissance, and became enormously influential on 18th-century aesthetics (Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, and the Romantics). It 5 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] is the only surviving classical treatise on the sublime, and it shifted critical attention from rules (the Neoclassical obsession) to powerful, overwhelming effect.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused)

The Five Sources of Sublimity (the ultimate exam target)

Source English Term What It Means 1 Grandeur of thought The capacity to conceive great ideas 2 Powerful emotion (pathos) Genuine, inspired feeling 3 Appropriate use of figures Rhetorical devices (schemes and tropes) deployed effectively 4 Noble diction Choice of words, metaphors, and verbal arrangements 5 Dignified and elevated composition Structure, arrangement, and the "music" of language The common ground of all five -- the preliminary gift on which all five sources depend -- is command of language. Sublimity vs. Bombast (Important Distinction) True sublimity transports the reader out of themselves; bombast is mere inflation and excess. Longinus warns specifically against three vices: (a) bombast (turgidity), (b) puerility (frigidity), and (c) false emotion (parenthyrsus).

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Longinus and the Romantics: Longinus's emphasis on emotion, inspiration, and overwhelming power resonated deeply with Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats. The sublime became a central Romantic concept.  Longinus and 20th-century theory: Lyotard revived the sublime as a postmodern category (the "unpresentable in presentation").

Memorisation Strategy

Mnemonic for the Five Sources: "Great Poets Have Noble Diction." Grandeur of thought (G) → Powerful emotion/Poetic feeling (P) → Figures/Honourable use (H) → Noble diction (N) → Dignified composition (D). Not perfect -- create your own. 4. HORACE (65-8 BCE) - Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) 6 DASGUPTA

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Historical Positioning

Horace's Epistle to the Pisos (commonly called Ars Poetica) became the most influential practical treatise on poetry during the Renaissance and Neoclassical periods. Where Aristotle gave rules for writing tragedy, Horace gave advice for the poet -- on unity, decorum, opening lines, characterisation, the need for labour and revision, and the balance of pleasure and instruction. Horace is the source of countless maxims that appear on the UGC NET.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Ut Pictura Poesis ("As is painting, so is poetry") The most famous phrase from Horace. It draws an analogy between painting and poetry -- both are imitative arts, both can be understood and judged. Important nuance: Horace meant that a poem, like a painting, requires the viewer/reader to stand at the appropriate distance; later critics (especially the 18th century) used the phrase to argue that poetry should be vividly pictorial. 2. Decorum (The principle of appropriateness) Style, language, and behaviour must be appropriate to character, situation, and genre. A king should not speak like a slave; comedy should not use tragic diction; a young poet should not boast of age and wisdom. 3. The Poet's Dual Role: "Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci" Translation: "He has won every vote who has mixed the useful with the pleasant." Poetry should both instruct (utile) and delight (dulce). This principle dominated Renaissance and Neoclassical criticism. 4. Labour and Revision (Ars est celare artem -- "the art is to conceal art") The best poetry seems effortless and natural, but it is the result of careful, laborious revision. Horace advises the poet to keep a work for nine years before publishing -- a counsel of perfection that few followed. 5. "Bonus dormitat Homerus" ("Even good Homer nods") Even the greatest poets sometimes produce inferior work -- a crucial point for the critic who might otherwise worship authority uncritically.

Key Works  Ars Poetica (Epistle to the Pisos), c. 19 BCE

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Ut pictura poesis "As is painting, so is poetry" -- analogy between painting and poetry Decorum Appropriateness of style, language, and behaviour to character and situation Utile dulci "The useful with the pleasant" -- poetry should instruct and delight 7 DASGUPTA

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Term Definition

Bonus dormitat Homerus "Even good Homer nods" -- no poet is perfect Ars est celare artem "The art is to conceal art" -- poetry should seem effortless

Memorisation Strategy

Three maxims to memorise for the exam:  Ut pictura poesis (for the analogy between poetry and painting)  Utile dulci (for the dual purpose of poetry)  Bonus dormitat Homerus (for critical humility) 5. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-1586) - An Apology for Poetry (c. 1581)

Historical Positioning

Sidney's Apology is the first major work of English literary criticism and the most important Renaissance defence of poetry. It is a direct response to the attacks on poetry that had been circulating since Plato, and to Puritan objections that poetry was frivolous, lying, and immoral. Sidney synthesises classical, Italian, and English critical traditions into a powerful synthesis that remained influential for two centuries.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Poetry as the "First Light-Giver to Ignorance" Sidney argues that poetry is the oldest and most ancient of all arts. All other disciplines (philosophy, history, law) borrow from poetry. The poet is not a liar but a maker (from the Greek poiesis, "making"). 2. The Poet's Superiority to the Philosopher and the Historian  The philosopher teaches virtue but abstractly; he gives "precept without example." His lessons are cold and difficult to apply.  The historian gives examples but without moral precept; he shows what has happened, not what should happen.  The poet does both: he gives precept through example, showing virtue as attractive and vice as repulsive. He is, therefore, the most effective teacher of virtue. 3. The Poet as Maker The poet is not bound by nature; he can create golden worlds superior to the "brazen" world of nature. This is not lying -- it is creation. The poet's world is a better, more ordered world than the fallen world of everyday experience. 8 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] 4. Poetry and the Defence Against Four Accusations

Sidney systematically rebuts four charges:  Poetry is a waste of time. Reply: What better use of time than learning virtue through pleasure?  Poetry is the mother of lies. Reply: The poet never affirms anything as true; he "nothing affirms, and therefore never lieth."  Poetry infects the soul with evil desires. Reply: Poetry does not cause vice; vice lies in the reader, not in the text.

Blame the abuse, not the art.  Plato banished poets. Reply: Plato did not banish poetry itself but the abuse of it. And Plato's own dialogues are themselves highly poetic.

Key Works  An Apology for Poetry (published 1595, written c. 1581)  Astrophil and Stella (sonnet sequence)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Poet as maker The poet creates, not merely imitates; he makes golden worlds Precept through example Poetry teaches virtue by showing it attractively, not merely stating rules Nothing affirms Because the poet does not claim his fictions are true, he cannot be accused of lying Golden world vs. brazen world The poet's created world (golden) vs. the fallen natural world (brazen)

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Sidney vs. Plato: The entire Apology is a response to Plato's charges. Sidney argues that Plato himself is poetic and that the Republic banishes only the abuse of poetry, not poetry itself.  Sidney as Renaissance synthesist: He draws on Aristotle (mimesis), Horace (utile dulci), Scaliger, and Castiglione, creating a unified Renaissance poetics.

Memorisation Strategy

The Poet vs. Philosopher vs. Historian (on the exam, you must know who does what): Discipline Provides Precept? Provides Example? Effectiveness 9 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] Discipline Provides Precept? Provides Example? Effectiveness

Philosopher Yes (abstract) No Low

Historian No Yes (factual) Medium

Poet Yes (concrete) Yes (fictional but persuasive) Highest 6. NEOCLASSICAL CRITICISM: JOHN DRYDEN (1631-1700)

Historical Positioning

Dryden was England's first professional literary critic. He dominated English letters after the Restoration (1660), and his essays -- on dramatic poesy, on satire, on translation, on the epic -- established the vocabulary and standards of English Neoclassicism. He is the crucial link between Renaissance criticism (Sidney, Jonson) and the full-blown

Augustanism of Pope and Johnson.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668)

The masterpiece of Dryden's criticism. Framed as a dialogue among four speakers representing different positions:  Crites (Sir Robert Howard): Defends the ancients (especially the Three Unities)  Eugenius (Charles Sackville): Defends the moderns (English drama, which violates the unities)  Lisideius (Sir Charles Sedley): Defends French drama (especially the unities)  Neander (Dryden himself): Occupies a middle position -- respects the ancients but argues for English drama's superiority in vigour of characterisation and variety of action 2. The Doctrine of Three Unities (Neoclassical orthodoxy)

Derived from misinterpretation of Aristotle:  Unity of Action: One main plot; no sub-plots (Aristotle did require this)  Unity of Time: The action should occur within 24 hours (Aristotle noted this as typical practice, not a rule)  Unity of Place: The action should occur in one location (not in Aristotle at all -- a Renaissance addition) Dryden defends Shakespeare against the charge of violating the unities by arguing that variety and richness compensate for formal looseness. 3. Dryden on Shakespeare, Jonson, and Fletcher Dryden's comparative judgements are exam-favourite material: 10 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET]  Shakespeare: The greatest natural genius but "wanted art" (needed more polish). "He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul."  Ben Jonson: The most learned and correct (adhering to rules) but lacked the "wit" and "fancy" of Shakespeare.  Fletcher: Excelled in representation of love but was "somewhat languishing." 4. On Satire and Translation Dryden's essays on satire (especially the Discourse on Satire) and his prefaces to his translations of Virgil, Ovid, and Juvenal defined the Neoclassical theory of translation: "paraphrase" (faithful to sense but free in expression) rather than "metaphrase" (literal word-for-word) or "imitation" (loose adaptation).

Key Works  An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668)  Discourse on Satire (1693)  Prefaces to translations of Virgil, Juvenal, Ovid  Of Dramatic Poesy and Other Critical Essays (collected)

Memorisation Strategy

The "Four Voices" of Essay of Dramatic Poesy (a must-memorise table):

Speaker Position Represents

Crites Ancients (unities must be observed) Sir Robert Howard Eugenius Moderns (English drama superior) Charles Sackville Lisideius French drama (unities observed, artful) Sir Charles Sedley Neander Balanced; admires ancients but prefers English drama Dryden himself ✍ 7. ALEXANDER POPE (1688-1744) - An Essay on Criticism (1711)

Historical Positioning

Pope's Essay on Criticism is the greatest verse treatise on criticism in English. Written in heroic couplets, it combines Horatian common sense with Dryden's critical vocabulary and Pope's own dazzling wit. It is not systematic theory but an anthology of pronouncements, maxims, and satirical attacks on bad critics. For the UGC NET, the key is to memorise the aphorisms that have entered the language. 11 DASGUPTA

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Core Concepts (Exam-Focused)

Famous Aphorisms (Direct Memorisation Required)

Aphorism Context / Meaning "To err is human; to forgive, divine." Critics should be merciful, not savage "A little learning is a dang'rous thing; / Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian

Superficial knowledge leads to error spring."

The ignorant critic rushes where wise critics "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." hesitate Praise is not enough; true criticism requires "For fools admire, but men of sense approve." judgement Poetry must follow nature (not rules for their "Whatever Nature has writ, is true." own sake) "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest Art conceals effort; great poetry seems who have learned to dance." effortless "Who thinks a faultless piece to see, / Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor

No perfect work exists e'er shall be." "Be not the first by whom the new are tried, / Nor yet the last to lay the The middle way between radical innovation and old aside." slavish tradition

The Wit and Judgement Dyad

Pope argues that true criticism requires both natural wit (imagination, invention, taste) and acquired judgement (learning, rules, experience). The best critics possess both in balance.

The Poet-Critic Ideal

Pope admires the poet who is also a critic (Dryden, Horace) and attacks the "mere" critic -- the pedant who knows rules but cannot write.

Key Works  An Essay on Criticism (1711) -- in heroic couplets  The Dunciad (satire on bad writers and critics) 12 DASGUPTA

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Memorisation Strategy

Five aphorisms to memorise verbatim: (1) "To err is human"; (2) "A little learning"; (3) "Fools rush in"; (4) "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance"; (5) "Be not the first by whom the new are tried." 8. SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784)

Historical Positioning

Samuel Johnson is the dominant figure of 18th-century English criticism. His Lives of the Poets (1779-81) established the biographical method of criticism -- reading a poet's work in the context of their life and times. His Preface to Shakespeare (1765) is the most important single document in the reception history of Shakespeare.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Preface to Shakespeare (1765) - Johnson's Major Contributions

Defence of the Unities (Partially):

Johnson famously defends Shakespeare against the charge of violating the unities of time and place. His argument: The audience knows the stage is a stage and the actors are actors. If they can accept that the stage represents Egypt, they can accept that three hours of stage time represent years of action. Only unity of action is essential.

Judgement on Shakespeare's Faults:

Johnson does not worship Shakespeare uncritically. He identifies specific defects:  Puns and quibbles: Shakespeare is addicted to them; they are his "fatal Cleopatra."  Anachronisms: Hector quoting Aristotle in Troilus and Cressida.  Loss of tragic dignity: Shakespeare mixes comedy with tragedy (Johnson prefers the purity of Neoclassical form).  Careless plotting: Especially in the comedies.

The "Votaries of Antiquity" Passage:

Johnson attacks those who praise ancient works not from reason but from prejudice. This is a key passage in the Preface: "Antiquity, like every other quality that attracts the notice of mankind, has undoubtedly votaries that reverence it, not from reason, but from prejudice." 2. The Lives of the Poets - Biographical Criticism Johnson examines poets (Cowley, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Gray, and others) through the lens of their lives and personalities. This approach remained dominant until the New Criticism of the 20th century (which rejected biography). Johnson's judgement on Milton's Lycidas -- "the diction is harsh, the rhymes uncertain, and the numbers unpleasing" -- has been endlessly debated. 3. Johnson on Metaphysical Poetry (from Life of Cowley) Johnson coined the term "Metaphysical Poetry" (though Dryden had earlier used "Metaphysical" pejoratively). His famous definition: "The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together." This is a hostile definition -- Johnson preferred the clarity and order of Neoclassical verse. 13 DASGUPTA

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Key Works  A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)  Preface to Shakespeare (1765)  Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1779-81)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Fidelity of dramatic illusion Johnson argues audiences know the stage is a stage; therefore, the unities are not essential Votaries of antiquity Those who revere the past without reason Biographical criticism Judging a work by the poet's life and character Metaphysical conceit Yoking heterogeneous ideas violently together (Johnson's phrase)

Memorisation Strategy

Johnson's Three Defences of Shakespeare: 1. "The spectators are always in their senses" -- they know the stage is a stage. 2. Unity of action is essential; unity of time and place are not. 3. If audiences can accept the stage as Egypt, they can accept movement from Egypt to Rome. PART II: ROMANTIC TO VICTORIAN CRITICISM (Unit 8) 9. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850) - Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800)

Historical Positioning

Wordsworth's Preface is the manifesto of English Romanticism. It broke decisively with Neoclassical poetics (which had dominated for over a century) and established the new Romantic principles: ordinary life, simple language, spontaneous feeling, and nature as teacher. It is the single most important document in Romantic literary theory. 14 DASGUPTA

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Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. The Subject Matter of Poetry

Poetry should take its subject matter from "incidents and situations from common life" and treat them in "a selection of language really used by men." This was a direct assault on the "poetic diction" of the 18th century -- the specialised vocabulary (e.g., "finny tribe" for fish) that Pope and Gray had cultivated. 2. The Language of Poetry The most controversial claim: There is no essential difference between the language of poetry and the language of prose. Both use the same language when both are "well written." This erased the distinction between "poetic" and "ordinary" language. 3. Poetry as "Spontaneous Overflow of Powerful Feeling" The most famous phrase in the Preface. Poetry originates in emotion recollected in tranquillity -- the poet first experiences a powerful emotion, then, in a calm moment, recollects that emotion, and finally writes it down. The process is: emotion → recollection → composition. 4. The Poet as "Man Speaking to Men" The poet is not a privileged being set apart but an ordinary human being with "greater promptness to think and feel" and a "more comprehensive soul." The poet speaks to other humans, not above them. 5. Poetry as the Breath of a "Man of Science" Wordsworth distinguishes the poet from the man of science: the scientist seeks truth as a "remote and unknown benefactor"; the poet sings "in which all human beings join with him, rejoices in the presence of truth as our visible friend and hourly companion."

Key Works  Lyrical Ballads (1798, with Coleridge)  Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800, expanded 1802)  The Prelude (autobiographical epic)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Language of common life Simple, ordinary speech -- not "poetic diction" Spontaneous overflow Poetry originates in powerful feeling Emotion recollected in tranquillity The process by which feeling becomes poetry Man speaking to men The poet as human speaking to other humans No essential difference between poetry and prose Revolutionary claim that erased the prose/poetry boundary 15 DASGUPTA

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Memorisation Strategy

Three core propositions of the Preface: 1. Subject matter: Common life 2. Language: Ordinary speech 3. Origin: Emotion recollected in tranquillity 10. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834) - Biographia Literaria (1817)

Historical Positioning

Coleridge's Biographia Literaria is the most philosophical work of English Romantic criticism. Where Wordsworth wrote a manifesto, Coleridge wrote a theory of imagination grounded in German Idealism (Kant, Schelling). The Biographia is notoriously difficult -- part autobiography, part literary theory, part philosophical treatise -- but it contains Coleridge's most enduring contributions: the distinction between primary and secondary imagination, and the distinction between imagination and fancy.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Primary and Secondary Imagination (The crucial distinction)

Type Definition

Primary The living power and prime agent of all human perception; a repetition in the finite mind of the Imagination eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM Secondary An echo of the primary, co-existing with the conscious will; it dissolves, diffuses, dissipates in order Imagination to recreate; it struggles to idealise and unify

For the examination, remember:  Primary imagination is universal -- everyone has it; it is how we perceive the world.  Secondary imagination is the poetic imagination -- it actively creates, modifies, and re-creates.  Secondary imagination operates on the materials supplied by the primary imagination. 2. Imagination vs. Fancy (The distinction Coleridge insisted upon)

Imagination Fancy 16 DASGUPTA

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Imagination Fancy

Creative, unifying, organic Mechanical, aggregative, combinatory Dissolves to re-create Merely rearranges what already exists Produces new wholes Fixes existing parts into new combinations The power of poetry The power of wit (lower faculty) For Coleridge, fancy is the faculty that combines and rearranges materials without transforming them. Imagination transforms. This is not just a semantic distinction -- it is the foundation of Coleridge's theory of poetry. 3. The Poet and the Poem: Organic Form Coleridge advanced the organic theory of form: a true poem is not built according to external rules (like a house) but grows according to its own internal laws (like a plant). The Neoclassical (mechanical) model was wrong; the Romantic (organic) model was right. 4. Distinguishing Poetry from Prose (A Response to Wordsworth) Wordsworth had argued that there is no essential difference between poetry and prose. Coleridge disagrees: poetry is distinguished by metre (and the emotional organisation that metre enables). Poetry may use the same language as prose, but its organisation is different.

Key Works  Biographia Literaria (1817)  Lectures on Shakespeare (1808-1819)  "On the Principles of Genial Criticism" (1814)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Primary imagination Universal perceptual power; repetition of divine creation

Secondary

Poetic power; dissolves and recreates imagination

Fancy Mechanical faculty; rearranges without transforming Organic form Form that grows from within, not imposed from without 17 DASGUPTA

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Term Definition

Coleridge's term for the imagination's power to unify; from Greek eis hen plattein (to shape into

Esemplastic power one)

Theoretical Debates & Connections

Coleridge vs. Wordsworth: The Biographia is in part a respectful critique of Wordsworth's theories. Coleridge agreed that ordinary language should be used but insisted that metre makes poetry different from prose.

Memorisation Strategy "Imagination = creation; Fancy = combination." Think: Imagination makes new things; Fancy rearranges old things. 11. MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888)

Historical Positioning

Matthew Arnold is the central Victorian critic. His essays -- "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time" (1864), "The Study of Poetry" (1880), and Culture and Anarchy (1869) -- defined the role of criticism in a democratic, industrialising age. Arnold sought to resist the fragmentation of culture through "disinterested" criticism and the study of the best that has been thought and said."

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. The Function of Criticism

Arnold famously defined criticism as "a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world." Criticism must be detached, objective, and free from practical or political pressures. The critic should not ask "How will this serve my party or my cause?" but "What is the truth of this matter?" 2. The Touchstone Method Arnold's most famous critical tool: compare a passage of poetry against brief quotations (touchstones) from the greatest poets (Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton) to determine its quality. N.B.: This is not subjective impression -- it is comparison against objective standards. 3. "The Study of Poetry" (1880) - High Seriousness Arnold distinguished between the "real estimate" of poetry (based on genuine poetic qualities) and "fallacious estimates" (based on historical importance or personal taste). The test of a great poet is "high seriousness" -- a profound moral and intellectual weight. Arnold found this quality supremely in Milton. 18 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] 4. Culture and Anarchy (1869) - Arnold's Cultural Programme  Culture is "the study of perfection" -- the pursuit of sweetness and light.  Anarchy is what threatens culture: the chaos of competing interests, the Philistinism of the middle class (Philistines = those who disdain culture).  The State (properly guided) should be the organ of culture, resisting both the aristocracy (Barbarians) and the populace (Populace) on behalf of the whole nation.

Key Works  Essays in Criticism (First Series 1865, Second Series 1888)  "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time" (1864)  "The Study of Poetry" (1880)  Culture and Anarchy (1869)  On Translating Homer (1861)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Disinterestedness Detachment from practical, political, or sectarian interests Touchstone method Testing poetry by comparing it to brief quotations from the greatest poets High seriousness The quality of the greatest poetry (Arnold, after Milton) Sweetness and light The products of culture; intellectual clarity (light) combined with moral beauty (sweetness) Philistines Arnold's term for the middle class, who disdain culture

Barbarians The aristocracy

Populace The working class

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Arnold and the Romantic tradition: Arnold admired Wordsworth but felt Romanticism had become too subjective. He sought a more objective, classical standard.  Arnold's influence on 20th-century criticism: The New Critics (Eliot, Richards, Leavis) inherited Arnold's emphasis on the text, on close reading, and on the moral seriousness of literature. 19 DASGUPTA

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Memorisation Strategy

Memorise Arnold's Triadic Social Classifications:  Barbarians = Aristocracy  Philistines = Middle Class  Populace = Working Class And their corresponding sins: Barbarians (violence), Philistines (materialism), Populace (anarchy). 12. WALTER PATER (1839-1894) - The Aesthetic Movement

Historical Positioning

Walter Pater was the leader of the Aesthetic Movement and the mentor of Oscar Wilde. His Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873) -- especially its notorious "Conclusion" -- became the bible of Aestheticism. Pater's central idea: "Art for art's sake" -- art should not serve moral, political, or social ends; its sole purpose is to give pleasure.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. The "Conclusion" to The Renaissance - Philosophical Hedonism The most famous and controversial passage in Victorian criticism. Pater argues that consciousness is a constant flux: "The whole scope of observation is dwarfed into the narrow chamber of the individual mind."  All things and principles of things are inconstant modes or fashions.  Life is a strange, perpetual weaving and unweaving of ourselves.  The only escape from this flux is to burn with a hard, gem-like flame, to experience high quality moments.  Art proposes frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass -- not to teach morality, not to convey truth, but to intensify aesthetic pleasure. 2. "Art for Art's Sake" Though the phrase was coined earlier (Théophile Gautier in France), Pater was its chief English exponent. The doctrine: Art is autonomous. It serves no external purpose (moral, political, religious, social). Its only end is to produce beauty and delight. 3. Criticism of Life (Pater vs. Arnold) Where Arnold saw criticism as a moral and intellectual discipline -- a way to know "the best that has been thought and said" -- Pater saw criticism as a sensitive, impressionistic response to art. The critic's job is not to judge but to re-experience the aesthetic pleasure of the artwork.

Key Works  Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873) -- "Conclusion" section  Marius the Epicurean (1885) -- philosophical novel 20 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET]  Appreciations (1889) -- essays on literature

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Art for art's sake Art exists only for the sake of beauty, not for moral or utilitarian ends Conclusion to The Renaissance The manifesto of Aestheticism; "burn with a hard, gem-like flame" Inconstant modes Pater's phrase for the flux of consciousness; all things are ever-changing High quality moments Aesthetic experiences that give intense pleasure Hard, gem-like flame The intensity with which one should experience aesthetic moments

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Pater vs. Arnold: Arnold sought culture as a moral and intellectual discipline; Pater sought aesthetic intensity as an end in itself. Arnold's Culture and Anarchy (1869) is answered by Pater's "Conclusion" (1873).  Pater and Wilde: Oscar Wilde learned from Pater and carried Aestheticism to its logical (and scandalous) extremes.

Memorisation Strategy

Memorise the key phrase from the "Conclusion": "To burn always with this hard, gem-like flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life." PART III: FORMALISM & STRUCTURALISM (Unit 9 - High Priority) 13. RUSSIAN FORMALISM (1910s-1930s)

Historical Positioning

Russian Formalism was the first major literary theory of the 20th century. It emerged in Russia before the Revolution and was suppressed by Stalin in the 1930s. The Formalists rejected both biographical criticism (the "life of 21 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] the author") and psychoanalytic/sociological approaches. They insisted that the proper object of literary study is literariness -- the formal features that make a text literary.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Defamiliarization (Ostranenie) -- Viktor Shklovsky The most famous Formalist concept. Shklovsky argues that in daily life, we perceive things automatically -- habit blurs perception. Art's purpose is to make the familiar strange, to disrupt automatic perception and restore the sensation of life.  Definition: "Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object; the object is not important."  Mechanisms: Defamiliarization is achieved through literary devices -- slowing down perception, using unusual syntax, creating surprising images, breaking conventional narrative flow. 2. Literariness (Literaturnost) - Roman Jakobson The Formalists asked: What makes a text literature rather than non-literature? The answer is not content but formal qualities -- the way language is organised. "The object of literary science is not literature but literariness, i.e., that which makes a given work a literary work." 3. Distinction between Fabula and Syuzhet (Story and Plot)  Fabula (Story): The chronological sequence of events (what happens)  Syuzhet (Plot): The arrangement of those events in the text (how the story is told) Literature works through the arrangement (syuzhet), not the raw events (fabula). Flashbacks, ellipses, digressions -- all are plot devices that defamiliarise the story. 4. The Dominant (Roman Jakobson) In any literary work, one element dominates -- it organises and deforms the other elements. In poetry, the dominant is the poetic function (the focus on the message for its own sake). In the novel, the dominant might be narrative structure.

Key Formalist Writers  Viktor Shklovsky -- "Art as Device" (1917), Theory of Prose (1925)  Roman Jakobson -- "On Realism in Art" (1921), "Linguistics and Poetics" (1960)  Boris Eikhenbaum -- "The Theory of the Formal Method" (1926)  Yuri Tynyanov -- The Problem of Verse Language (1924)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Defamiliarization (ostranenie) Making the familiar strange; the essence of art 22 DASGUPTA

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Term Definition

Literariness The formal qualities that make a text literary Fabula Story -- chronological sequence of events Syuzhet Plot -- the arrangement of events in the text Device (priyom) The technical means by which literature produces its effects The dominant The organising element of a literary work

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Formalism vs. Marxism: The Formalists were suppressed by Stalin's regime for "formalism" -- neglecting social and political content.  Formalism and Structuralism: Formalist concepts (defamiliarization, the distinction between story and plot) were absorbed into European structuralism.

Memorisation Strategy

Defamiliarization explained in one sentence: "The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known." 14. NEW CRITICISM (American Formalism) - 1930s-1950s

Historical Positioning

New Criticism was the dominant Anglo-American critical movement of the mid-20th century. It emerged in the 1930s (I.A. Richards, William Empson) and reached its peak in the 1940s-50s (Cleanth Brooks, W.K. Wimsatt, Monroe Beardsley). New Criticism was eventually displaced by structuralism, poststructuralism, and reader-response theory in the 1970s.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. The Intentional Fallacy (Wimsatt & Beardsley, 1946) The error of interpreting a text by the author's intentions. The New Critics argue that (a) the author's intention is not 23 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] available (we cannot know what the author "meant") and (b) even if it were available, it is not desirable as a standard for judgement. The text must stand on its own. 2. The Affective Fallacy (Wimsatt & Beardsley, 1949) The error of interpreting a text by its emotional effects on the reader. The text's meaning is not the same as the reader's emotional response. The "affective" critic confuses the work with its psychological consequences. 3. The Heresy of Paraphrase (Cleanth Brooks) The belief that a poem can be paraphrased without loss of meaning is a heresy. The form of a poem is inseparable from its content -- you cannot state "what the poem says" in prose without destroying the poem itself. 4. Close Reading (The Central Method) New Criticism requires intensive, minute attention to the language of the text -- its imagery, metaphor, irony, paradox, tension, ambiguity. The New Critic does not consider the author's life, the historical context, or the reader's response. The text is an autonomous object. 5. Irony and Paradox as Supreme Poetic Devices New Critics valued poetry that embodies irony (saying one thing and meaning another) and paradox (seemingly contradictory statements that reveal truth). The greatest poetry holds opposite meanings in tension (Cleanth Brooks's "The Well Wrought Urn").

Key New Critics & Works

Critic Key Work Key Concept

Close reading without background; the reading

I.A. Richards Practical Criticism (1929) "protocol"

Seven Types of

William Empson Types of linguistic ambiguity in poetry

Ambiguity (1930)

Cleanth Brooks The Well Wrought Urn (1947) Heresy of paraphrase; paradox

W.K. Wimsatt & Monroe

The Verbal Icon (1954) Intentional fallacy, affective fallacy

Beardsley

John Crowe Ransom The New Criticism (1941) Named the movement Allen Tate "Tension in Poetry" (1938) Extension vs. intension (denotation vs. connotation) Robert Penn Warren Understanding Poetry (1938) Textbook that taught close reading to a generation

Critical Glossary 24 DASGUPTA

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Term Definition

Intentional fallacy Confusing the text with the author's intentions Affective fallacy Confusing the text with its emotional effect on the reader Heresy of paraphrase The belief that a poem can be paraphrased without loss Close reading Intensive analysis of the language of the text Tension The balance of opposite meanings in a poem Irony A device that holds opposite meanings together Paradox A statement that seems contradictory but reveals truth

Theoretical Debates & Connections  New Criticism vs. Romanticism: New Critics rejected Romantic expressionism (poetry as expression of the poet's feelings). Poetry is not a "spontaneous overflow" but a crafted object.  New Criticism vs. Historical/Biographical Criticism: The New Critics were attacking 19th-century historical scholarship, which focused on background, sources, and author biography.

Memorisation Strategy

The New Criticism Core Principles (The "Three No's"): 1. No author (intentional fallacy) 2. No reader (affective fallacy) 3. No paraphrase (heresy of paraphrase)

Instead: text, text, text. 15. FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE (1857-1913) - Structural Linguistics

Historical Positioning

Saussure's Course in General Linguistics (1916, published posthumously from his lecture notes) founded modern linguistics and became the basis of structuralism. Every structuralist and poststructuralist thinker (Lévi-Strauss, 25 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] Barthes, Lacan, Derrida) is in dialogue with Saussure. For the UGC NET, Saussure is tested through his binary oppositions and the concept of the arbitrary sign.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Signifier, Signified, and the Arbitrariness of the Sign  Signifier (Signifiant): The sound-image or written mark (e.g., the word "T-R-E-E")  Signified (Signifié): The mental concept or idea (the idea of a tree)  The Sign: The whole, composed of signifier + signified Crucially: The relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary -- there is no natural or necessary connection between the word "tree" and the concept of a tree. Different languages use different words for the same concept (English "tree," French "arbre," German "Baum"), proving the connection is conventional, not natural. 2. Langue vs. Parole  Langue: The abstract system of language -- the rules, structures, and conventions that make communication possible.

Langue is social, shared, unconscious.  Parole: Concrete instances of speech or writing -- actual utterances. Parole is individual, specific. Linguistics must study langue, not parole -- the system, not the individual utterance. 3. Synchronic vs. Diachronic Linguistics  Synchronic: The study of language at a single moment in time -- language as a system .  Diachronic: The study of language across time -- language as it changes historically. Saussure argued that synchronic study must come first; you can understand how language changes only after you understand how it works at a particular moment. 4. Difference (Not Positive Terms) A term in language has meaning not because of any positive quality but because of its difference from other terms. "Cat" means what it does because it is not "bat," "hat," "sat," "rat," etc. Language is a system of differences without positive terms.

Key Works  Course in General Linguistics (1916) -- published by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye from student lecture notes

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Signifier The sound-image or written mark 26 DASGUPTA

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Term Definition

Signified The mental concept

Arbitrariness No natural connection between signifier and signified

Langue The abstract system of language

Parole Individual instances of speech

Synchronic Study of language at a single point in time

Diachronic Study of language across time Difference The principle that terms mean through their differences from other terms

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Saussure and Structuralism: His concepts (langue/parole, synchronic/diachronic, difference) became the theoretical basis of structuralism in anthropology (Lévi-Strauss), psychoanalysis (Lacan), literary theory (Barthes), and cultural studies.  Saussure and Derrida: Derrida's deconstruction begins with a critique of Saussure's claim that writing is secondary to speech (logocentrism).

Memorisation Strategy

The Two Core Oppositions (must memorise): 1. Signifier / Signified → The sign is arbitrary. 2. Langue / Parole → Study langue (system) over parole (utterance). 3. Synchronic / Diachronic → Study synchrony (system) before diachrony (history). 16. CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS (1908-2009) - Structural Anthropology

Historical Positioning 27 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] Lévi-Strauss applied Saussure's linguistic model to cultural anthropology. He argued that myths, kinship systems, and totemism are structured like language -- they operate through binary oppositions (nature/culture, raw/cooked, life/death). His most famous concept is the mytheme -- the minimal unit of myth.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. The Mytheme

Just as phonemes are the minimal units of language, mythemes are the minimal units of myth -- fundamental narrative units from which all myths are built. Mythemes are bundled in specific ways across different versions of the same myth. 2. The Structure of Myth Myths mediate between binary oppositions that the human mind cannot resolve -- life/death, nature/culture, raw/cooked, good/evil. The myth's function is not to resolve these oppositions logically but to make them thinkable by telling stories that cross the boundary. 3. The Raw and the Cooked Lévi-Strauss's most famous work (The Raw and the Cooked, 1964) examines how cooking -- the transformation of raw into cooked -- is a structural operation that mirrors the transformation of nature into culture. Cooking is a cultural code. 4. The Savage Mind (La Pensée Sauvage) Primitive thought is not less logical than modern thought -- it operates through a different logic: concrete logic (classified by sensory qualities) rather than abstract logic. The savage mind is not inferior; it is different.

Key Works  Structural Anthropology (1958)  The Raw and the Cooked (1964)  The Savage Mind (1962)  Tristes Tropiques (1955)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Mytheme The minimal narrative unit of myth Binary opposition The underlying structure of human thought (nature/culture, raw/cooked) The Raw and the Cooked The transformation of nature into culture through cooking The Savage Mind Concrete, sensory logic of primitive peoples 28 DASGUPTA

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Term Definition

Structural study of myth Analysis of myth as a system of differences, like language

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Lévi-Strauss and Freud: Both were interested in myth and the unconscious. Lévi-Strauss rejected Freud's psychological interpretation (Oedipus complex as repressed desire) in favour of a structural interpretation (Oedipus myth as a mediation of the opposition between autochthony and sexual reproduction).  Lévi-Strauss and Derrida: Derrida famously deconstructed Lévi-Strauss's nature/culture binary in his essay "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences."

Memorisation Strategy

Lévi-Strauss in one sentence: "Myths are like languages -- they can be broken down into minimal units (mythemes) that operate through binary oppositions (nature/culture, raw/cooked)." 17. ROLAND BARTHES (1915-1980) - The Turn from Structuralism to Poststructuralism

Historical Positioning

Roland Barthes is the essential transitional figure between structuralism and poststructuralism. His early work (1950s-60s) is structuralist: Mythologies (1957) decodes the myths of popular culture; Elements of Semiology (1964) systematises Saussurean semiotics. His later work (late 1960s-70s) is poststructuralist: S/Z (1970), The Pleasure of the Text (1973), and "The Death of the Author" (1967) -- one of the most cited essays in literary theory.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. "The Death of the Author" (1967)

The single most famous poststructuralist essay. Barthes argues that the author is not the source of meaning; the reader is. To assign a text an author is to impose a limit on its meaning. The death of the author is the birth of the reader -- "the reader is the space on which all the quotations that make up a writing are inscribed". Implications for the Exam: Barthes echoes and extends the New Critical rejection of authorial intention (the intentional fallacy). But where New Critics retained the text itself as the source of meaning, Barthes disperses meaning across the reader's activity. 2. Mythologies (1957) - Semiotics of Popular Culture Barthes decodes the myths embedded in everyday French life: wrestling, steak and chips, Citroën cars, Greta Garbo's 29 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] face. A myth, for Barthes, is a second-order semiological system -- a sign that has been drained of its original meaning and depoliticised into a naturalised "fact". 3. The Pleasure of the Text (1973) - Two Kinds of Pleasure  Pleasure (Plaisir): The comfortable, familiar, culture-confirmed pleasure of reading conventional texts.  Bliss (Jouissance): The disruptive, shocking, ecstatic pleasure of reading texts that unsettle the reader's assumptions. 4. Writerly vs. Readerly Texts (S/Z, 1970)  Readerly (Lisible): Traditional, realistic texts that offer a closed, predetermined meaning -- the reader simply consumes.  Writerly (Scriptible): Avant-garde, experimental texts that force the reader to produce meaning -- the reader becomes a co-creator.

Key Works

Phase Key Works

Structuralist Mythologies (1957), Elements of Semiology (1964) Poststructuralist "The Death of the Author" (1967), S/Z (1970), The Pleasure of the Text (1973)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

The Death of the Author The author is not the source of meaning; the birth of the reader Myth (Barthes) A second-order semiological system that naturalises ideology Plaisir (Pleasure) Comfortable, conventional reading pleasure Jouissance (Bliss) Disruptive, ecstatic reading experience Readerly (Lisible) Closed text -- reader consumes fixed meaning Writerly (Scriptible) Open text -- reader co-creates meaning

Theoretical Debates & Connections 30 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET]  Barthes and New Criticism: Barthes radicalises the New Critical rejection of authorial intention. For New Criticism, the text is the source of meaning; for Barthes, the reader is.  Barthes and Structuralism: Barthes is the bridge -- his early work is thoroughly structuralist; his later work deconstructs the structuralist assumption that meaning is stable.

Memorisation Strategy

Memorise the core claim of "The Death of the Author": "The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author." PART IV: POST-STRUCTURALISM & DECONSTRUCTION (Unit 9) 18. JACQUES DERRIDA (1930-2004) - Deconstruction

Historical Positioning

Jacques Derrida is the most influential -- and most controversial -- philosopher of the late 20th century. His method of deconstruction has been applied to literature, law, architecture, theology, and politics. Derrida's central target is logocentrism -- the Western philosophical tradition's belief in a transcendent origin of meaning (God,

Truth, Presence).

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Logocentrism and the Metaphysics of Presence  Logocentrism: The belief that there is a transcendent logos (reason, truth, God, the Word) that guarantees meaning. Western philosophy since Plato has been logocentric.  Metaphysics of Presence: The belief that meaning is fully present to consciousness -- that we can access truth directly without the mediation of language. Derrida argues that logocentrism is an illusion -- meaning is never fully present; it is always deferred. 2. Différance (With an 'a') Derrida's famous neologism. Différance combines two meanings:  Difference: Meaning is produced by differences between terms (Saussure's insight).  Deferral: Meaning is never fully present; it is endlessly postponed. Différance is neither a word nor a concept -- it is the condition of possibility for difference and deferral. 3. Deconstruction Not a method or a system -- Derrida resists defining it. But for exam purposes: deconstruction is the demonstration 31 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] that any text contains within itself the seeds of its own undoing. Every attempt to establish a stable meaning, a fixed origin, or a binary opposition (speech/writing, nature/culture, male/female) reveals aporias (irresolvable contradictions). 4. Speech/Writing Binary (From Of Grammatology, 1967) The Western tradition has privileged speech over writing: speech is present, immediate, authentic; writing is absent, mediated, derivative. Derrida deconstructs this binary -- writing is not secondary to speech; both are forms of archi-writing (the primordial spacing that makes signs possible). 5. There is No Outside-the-Text ("Il n'y a pas de hors-texte") One of Derrida's most quoted (and most misunderstood) statements. It does not mean "nothing exists except language." It means that every 'outside' (context, reality, referent) is itself made accessible to us through language -- there is no immediate, unmediated access to a reality outside the text.

Key Works  Of Grammatology (1967)  Writing and Difference (1967)  Margins of Philosophy (1972)  Dissemination (1972)  "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" (1966)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Logocentrism The belief in a transcendent origin of meaning (God, Truth, Presence) Metaphysics of presence The belief that meaning is fully present to consciousness Différance The endless deferral of meaning; the condition of difference and deferral Deconstruction The demonstration of aporias and contradictions within a text Aporia An irresolvable contradiction or impasse Archi-writing The primordial spacing that makes all signs possible Il n'y a pas de hors-texte "There is no outside-the-text" -- no unmediated access to reality

Theoretical Debates & Connections 32 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET]  Derrida and Saussure: Derrida deconstructs Saussure's privileging of speech (synchrony) over writing (diachrony) and his assumption of the "stable" sign.  Derrida and Lévi-Strauss: Derrida's "Structure, Sign, and Play" is a response to Lévi-Strauss's structuralism -- deconstructing the nature/culture binary that underlies Lévi-Strauss's work.

Memorisation Strategy

Memorise the three core terms: 1. Logocentrism = the target of deconstruction 2. Différance = the mechanism of endless deferral 3. Aporia = the irresolvable contradiction that deconstruction reveals 19. MICHEL FOUCAULT (1926-1984)

Historical Positioning

Foucault is the historian of systems of thought. His work -- Madness and Civilisation (1961), The Order of Things (1966), Discipline and Punish (1975), The History of Sexuality (1976-84) -- examines how power operates through knowledge and how discourses produce subjects. Foucault is not a "deconstructionist" in Derrida's sense, but he is a poststructuralist -- he rejects universal truths, stable meaning, and the sovereign subject.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Discourse

A discourse is not just "language" -- it is the institutionalised way of speaking/thinking that produces what counts as truth in a given historical period. Medical discourse produces the "patient" and the "disease." Legal discourse produces the "criminal" and the "crime." 2. Episteme (from The Order of Things) The episteme is the unconscious structure of knowledge in a given epoch -- the "ground" that makes certain statements possible and others impossible. The Classical episteme (17th-18th century) was based on representation; the Modern episteme (19th-20th) is based on man as both subject and object of knowledge. 3. Power/Knowledge (Pouvoir/Savoir) Power and knowledge are inextricably linked. Knowledge is not "pure" or "objective" -- it is produced by power. And power operates through knowledge. The prison system produces criminological knowledge; criminological knowledge makes the prison system seem rational. Foucault writes them as power/knowledge. 4. The Panopticon (from Discipline and Punish) Jeremy Bentham's design for a prison: a central tower from which the guard can see every prisoner, but the prisoners cannot see the guard. The effect is self-surveillance -- the prisoners internalise the gaze and police themselves. 33 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] Foucault uses the panopticon as a metaphor for modern society: we are all in the panopticon. Disciplinary power works not through violence but through surveillance and normalisation. 5. The Author-Function ("What is an Author?" 1969) Foucault's answer to Barthes's "Death of the Author." Foucault agrees that the author is not a transcendent source of meaning -- but the author-function is a real historical and social construct. The author-function limits, classifies, and organises texts. "Shakespeare" is not a person but a function that organises the plays.

Key Works  Madness and Civilisation (1961)  The Order of Things (1966)  Discipline and Punish (1975)  The History of Sexuality (Vol. 1, 1976)  "What is an Author?" (1969)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Discourse Institutionalised ways of speaking/thinking that produce truth Episteme The unconscious structure of knowledge in a given epoch Power/knowledge The inextricable link between power and knowledge Panopticon A design for a prison; metaphor for modern disciplinary society Author-function The social/historical construct that organises texts Genealogy Foucault's method: tracing the history of systems of thought Archaeology Early Foucault's method: excavating the structure of discourses

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Foucault and Derrida: Famous debates between Foucault (who focuses on power, institutions, and historical systems) and Derrida (who focuses on texts, metaphysics, and différance).  Foucault and New Historicism: Stephen Greenblatt and the New Historicists were influenced by Foucault's concept of discourse and power/knowledge. 34 DASGUPTA

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Memorisation Strategy

Foucault in three concepts: 1. Discourse = language + institutions + power 2. Power/knowledge = they produce each other 3. Panopticon = we are all self-surveilling subjects 20. JULIA KRISTEVA (1941- )

Historical Positioning

Julia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French psychoanalyst, philosopher, and literary critic. She trained with Roland Barthes and introduced Bakhtin's concepts (especially intertextuality) to French structuralism. Her work bridges psychoanalysis, linguistics, and feminism.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Intertextuality

Kristeva coined this term in the late 1960s. Any text is not a closed system but a mosaic of quotations -- it absorbs and transforms other texts. There is no "original" text; every text is a new tissue of past citations. She derived this concept from Bakhtin's notion of dialogism. 2. The Semiotic and the Symbolic (from Revolution in Poetic Language, 1974)

Two inseparable modalities of signification:  The Semiotic (le sémiotique): Associated with the pre-Oedipal, the maternal body, rhythm, tone, movement -- the chora (a term borrowed from Plato). The semiotic is pulsional, non-expressive, bodily.  The Symbolic (le symbolique): Associated with the Oedipal phase, the paternal law, grammar, syntax, propositional meaning. Language requires both -- but the symbolic tends to suppress the semiotic. Avant-garde poetry (Mallarmé,

Joyce) returns the semiotic to language. 3. Abjection (from Powers of Horror, 1980) The abject is what disturbs identity, system, order -- what does not respect borders, positions, rules. Examples: the corpse (death infecting life), excrement, the wound, the maternal body. The abject is "something rejected from which one does not part" -- we cannot fully expel it; it haunts us. 4. The Chora (from Plato's Timaeus) For Kristeva, the chora is the semiotic space -- the "dancing body" in perpetual motion -- that precedes the symbolic. It is the womb-like space from which meaning emerges. 35 DASGUPTA

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Key Works  Revolution in Poetic Language (1974)  Desire in Language (1977)  Powers of Horror (1980)  "Word, Dialogue and Novel" (1966) -- introduces intertextuality

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Intertextuality Every text is a mosaic of quotations from other texts The Semiotic Pre-Oedipal, bodily, rhythmic, maternal modality of signification The Symbolic Oedipal, grammatical, propositional, paternal modality Chora The semiotic space -- the "dancing body" -- before the symbolic Abjection What disturbs identity, system, order; the rejected that haunts

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Kristeva and Derrida: Kristeva's semiotic/symbolic distinction parallels Derrida's destabilising of binary oppositions -- but Kristeva insists that the semiotic precedes the symbolic (a kind of origin), which Derrida would deconstruct.  Kristeva and feminism: She has been criticised by Anglo-American feminists (e.g., Judith Butler) for associating the semiotic with the maternal body -- potentially reinforcing the very binaries she seeks to challenge.

Memorisation Strategy

Kristeva's Three Key Terms: 1. Intertextuality = all texts are made of other texts 2. Semiotic/Symbolic = bodily rhythm vs. grammatical order 3. Abjection = the expelled that haunts

PART V: MARXIST CRITICISM (Unit 9) 36 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] 21. GEORG LUKÁCS (1885-1971)

Historical Positioning

Lukács was the most influential Marxist critic of the 20th century. His History and Class Consciousness (1923) founded Western Marxism (the tradition that includes Gramsci, Adorno, Marcuse, and Jameson). His Theory of the Novel (1916) applied Hegelian categories to literary history. For the UGC NET, you must know reification -- Lukács's central concept -- and his defence of realism.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Reification (Verdinglichung) - From History and Class Consciousness (1923) The most important Lukácsian concept. Under capitalism, social relations between people appear as relations between things.  Example: The worker sells their labour-power as a commodity. The relationship between worker and boss is a social relationship, but it appears as a relationship between the wage (a thing) and the worker's time.  Reification hides the social nature of production and makes capitalism appear natural, inevitable, and eternal. 2. Totality (Dialectical Method) The opposite of reification is the dialectical totality. The critic must see the whole social formation, not isolated facts. Literature can present this totality -- the greatest realist novelists (Balzac, Tolstoy, Scott) capture the contradictions of their age. 3. Realism vs. Modernism Lukács engaged in a famous realism vs. modernism debate in the 1930s-50s (with Brecht, Adorno, and Benjamin).  Realism (Lukács defended): Represent social totality; portray typical characters in typical situations (Balzac,

Tolstoy, Thomas Mann).  Modernism (Lukács attacked): Subjective, fragmented, ahistorical; James Joyce, Kafka, and Beckett were "decadent" because they failed to represent social contradictions. 4. The Theory of the Novel (1916) Lukács argued that the novel is the epic form of a world abandoned by God. The epic (Homer) lives in a transcendentally meaningful world (the Greek polis). The novel is the search for meaning in a fragmentary, disenchanted world.

Key Works  The Theory of the Novel (1916)  History and Class Consciousness (1923)  Studies in European Realism (1946)  The Historical Novel (1937)  Realism in Our Time (1957)

Critical Glossary 37 DASGUPTA

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Term Definition

Reification Social relations between people appear as relations between things Totality The whole social formation -- the dialectical opposite of reification Typical characters Realist characters who embody social contradictions Transcendental homelessness The novel's condition in a world abandoned by God Western Marxism The tradition of Marxism that emphasises culture, ideology, and superstructure

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Lukács vs. Brecht/Adorno: The realism vs. modernism debate is one of the most important in 20th-century criticism. Lukács defended 19th-century realism; Brecht and Adorno defended modernism as politically progressive. 22. ANTONIO GRAMSCI (1891-1937)

Historical Positioning

Gramsci, a founding member of the Italian Communist Party, spent the last decade of his life in Mussolini's prisons, where he wrote the Prison Notebooks (1929-35). His central contribution: hegemony -- the concept that the ruling class maintains power not just through force but through consent.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Hegemony

The spontaneous consent given by the masses to the direction imposed on social life by the dominant class. Hegemony is cultural, not just economic. The ruling class's values become "common sense" -- so naturalised that the oppressed accept them as inevitable. Revolution requires counter-hegemony -- the construction of alternative values and practices. 2. Organic Intellectuals Every social class produces its own organic intellectuals -- thinkers who articulate its world-view and organise its political and cultural work. The bourgeoisie has its intellectuals (journalists, lawyers, academics, artists); the proletariat must develop its own. 3. Civil Society vs. Political Society 38 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET]  Civil Society: Private institutions (the church, the media, the education system, trade unions) -- where hegemony operates.  Political Society: The state, the government, the coercive apparatus (police, army, courts) -- where domination operates. A revolutionary strategy must win hegemony in civil society before confronting the state.

Key Works  Prison Notebooks (1929-1935; published posthumously)  Selections from the Prison Notebooks (1971, ed. Hoare & Nowell-Smith)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Hegemony Cultural and ideological leadership -- consent, not just force Organic intellectuals Thinkers who arise from and represent a particular class Traditional intellectuals Thinkers who appear autonomous (clergy, academics) but serve the ruling class Civil society Private institutions where hegemony is won Political society The state and coercive apparatus Common sense Naturalised ideology -- the values of the ruling class become "obvious"

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Gramsci and Althusser: Both are concerned with ideology, but Althusser gives a more structural account (ISAs as machines); Gramsci emphasises struggle, strategy, and the agency of organic intellectuals.  Gramsci and Postcolonial Studies: His concept of hegemony has been taken up in postcolonial theory (subaltern studies). 23. LOUIS ALTHUSSER (1918-1990) 39 DASGUPTA

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Historical Positioning

Althusser was the structuralist Marxist -- he sought to cleanse Marxism of Hegelian influences and restore its scientific core. His central project was to rethink ideology -- not as "false consciousness" but as a material practice embedded in institutions.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) vs. Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs)  RSAs: The government, the police, the army, the courts, the prison system -- function by violence and coercion.  ISAs: Education, the church, the family, the media, trade unions, political parties -- function by ideology (the production of consent). The most important ISA is education. 2. Interpellation (Hailing) The process by which ideology constitutes concrete individuals as subjects.  Example: The police officer shouts "Hey, you there!" The individual turns around. In turning around, they recognise that the shout is addressed to them -- and in that recognition, they become a subject. We are always already interpellated -- we are born into ideology. No "outside" of ideology. 3. Overdetermination An event (a revolution, a text, a historical conjuncture) is not caused by a single factor (the economy, class struggle) but by multiple, contradictory forces. The French Revolution was overdetermined by economic crisis, political contradictions, the spread of enlightenment ideas, etc. 4. Structural Causality Althusser attempted to define a specifically structural form of causality -- distinct from linear causality (A causes B) and expressive causality (the whole expressed in each part). In structural causality, the structure is present in its effects but is not itself present anywhere.

Key Works  For Marx (1965)  Reading Capital (1965, with Étienne Balibar)  Lenin and Philosophy (1971) -- contains "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses"

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

ISA (Ideological State Apparatus) Institutions that reproduce ideology (education, family, church) RSA (Repressive State Apparatus) Institutions that enforce by violence (police, army, courts) 40 DASGUPTA

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Term Definition

Interpellation The "hailing" process by which ideology constitutes subjects Overdetermination The effect of multiple, contradictory causes Structural causality The structure is present only in its effects Epistemological break Althusser's term for the rupture between the early and late Marx (1845)

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Althusser vs. Humanist Marxism: Althusser rejects the humanist Marxism that emphasises the revolutionary subject, alienation, and species-being. He insists Marxism is a science, not a humanism.  Althusser and Poststructuralism: His concept of interpellation has influenced Judith Butler (who reads it through performativity) and Stuart Hall. 24. RAYMOND WILLIAMS (1921-1988)

Historical Positioning

Raymond Williams was the founder of British Cultural Studies. His work -- especially Culture and Society (1958), The Long Revolution (1961), and Keywords (1976) -- revolutionised the study of culture. He rejected the elitist definitions of culture (culture as the "best that has been thought and said") and insisted that culture is ordinary.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Culture is Ordinary (1958)

The famous opening sentence of "Culture is Ordinary": "Culture is ordinary: that is the first fact." Every society has its own shape, purposes, meanings. Culture is not the special property of the educated elite; it is the whole way of life of a people. 2. Cultural Materialism Williams's own term for his method. Cultural materialism is the study of cultural practices as material social processes. It recognises that art is not "above" the material world (idealist aesthetics) but embedded in social and economic relations. 3. Structures of Feeling A difficult concept: the emergent, pre-articulated, inarticulate experiences of a generation or a historical period -- 41 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] experiences that have not yet been fully expressed in ideology or institutions. Literature often captures structures of feeling before they can be named. 4. Residual, Dominant, and Emergent Three categories for analysing the cultural process:  Dominant: The ruling culture -- the established meanings, practices, and values.  Residual: Cultures of the past that remain active (e.g., religion in a secular society).  Emergent: New meanings, practices, and values that are developing (often in opposition to the dominant). 5. Keywords (1976, expanded 1983) A vocabulary of culture and society -- Williams traced the history of key terms ("culture," "industry," "class," "aesthetic," "alienation") to show how they have changed meaning over time. His method: close reading of concepts as historical, contested, and ideological.

Key Works  Culture and Society 1780-1950 (1958)  The Long Revolution (1961)  Keywords (1976, 1983)  Marxism and Literature (1977)  "Culture is Ordinary" (1958)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Culture is ordinary Every society has its own shape, purposes, meanings Cultural materialism The study of cultural practices as material social processes Structures of feeling Emergent, pre-articulated experiences of a generation Dominant The ruling culture -- established meanings and practices Residual Cultures of the past that remain active Emergent New meanings, practices, and values developing Keywords Historical analysis of contested, ideological terms

Theoretical Debates & Connections 42 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET]  Williams and Traditional Marxism: Williams broadened Marxism's base/superstructure model. Culture is not merely a reflection of the economic base; it is itself material.  Williams and Cultural Studies: He was the founding figure of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham (though he was not its director; Richard Hoggart was).

PART VI: PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM (Unit 9) 25. SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)

Historical Positioning

Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. His theories of the unconscious, repression, the Oedipus complex, and dream interpretation have been enormously influential in literary criticism -- both for the psychological analysis of characters (Hamlet as Oedipal) and for the analysis of the creative process.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. The Unconscious

The unconscious is not just the "subconscious" (thoughts we are not currently aware of). For Freud, the unconscious is a dynamic, repressed region -- containing wishes, desires, and memories that are too threatening to be admitted to consciousness. Literature can bypass the censor of consciousness and give expression to unconscious wishes. 2. The Oedipus Complex The central complex in Freudian theory. The male child desires the mother and wishes to eliminate the father (the rival). This wish is repressed (too threatening) but can return in disguised form -- in dreams, in symptoms, and in literature. Freud saw the Oedipus Rex as the dramatisation of this universal childhood wish. 3. Repression The mechanism by which the psyche pushes threatening wishes and memories out of consciousness. Repressed material does not disappear -- it returns in disguised form (dreams, slips of the tongue, symptoms, art). Literature is a disguised expression of repressed wishes. 4. Dream Interpretation Freud called dreams the "royal road to the unconscious." Dream work transforms latent content (the hidden, repressed wish) into manifest content (the bizarre story we remember). The mechanisms of dream work -- condensation (compressing multiple meanings into one image) and displacement (shifting emotional charge from one idea to another) -- also operate in literature. 5. The Uncanny (Das Unheimliche) The experience of something that is both familiar and strange (the heimlich that becomes unheimlich). The uncanny often involves a return of the repressed -- something we have repressed returns, and we experience it as terrifying. Literary examples: the double, the doppelgänger, automatons that seem alive. 6. Id, Ego, Superego (Structural Model of the Psyche) 43 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET]  Id: The unconscious, instinctual, pleasure-seeking part of the psyche.  Ego: The reality-principle operating, mediating part.  Superego: The internalised moral conscience (the internalised parental voice).

Key Works (Literary-Critical Relevance)  The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)  Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious (1905)  "The Uncanny" (1919)  Civilisation and its Discontents (1930)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Unconscious The dynamic, repressed region of the psyche Oedipus complex The boy's wish for the mother and rivalry with the father Repression The mechanism that pushes threatening material into the unconscious Condensation Compressing multiple meanings into one dream image Displacement Shifting emotional charge from one idea to another The uncanny The familiar made strange; the return of the repressed Id, ego, superego The three structural agencies of the psyche

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Freud and Literature: Freud read literature as a document of the unconscious -- Hamlet's delay as Oedipal guilt, Oedipus Rex as the dramatisation of a universal wish, Dostoevsky's work as a study of parricide.  Freud and Feminism: Freud has been fiercely criticised by feminists for his phallocentrism (penis envy) and his construction of female sexuality as a "lack." See Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, and Juliet Mitchell (who defended

Freud for feminist purposes). 26. JACQUES LACAN (1901-1981) 44 DASGUPTA

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Historical Positioning

Lacan was a French psychoanalyst who returned to Freud -- but through Saussurean linguistics and structuralism. For Lacan, the unconscious is structured like a language. His "Mirror Stage" and his concepts of the Imaginary, Symbolic, and Real are essential for UGC NET.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. The Mirror Stage (1936, 1949)

Between the ages of 6 and 18 months, the infant sees its reflection in a mirror and identifies with that image. This identification is alienating -- the infant's sense of a unified self is an illusion, based on an external image, not on an internal reality. The "I" is born in this mis-recognition (méconnaissance). 2. The Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real (Three Orders)

Order Description

The The order of images, illusions, and identifications (the Mirror Stage). The realm of the ego, of duality (me and

Imaginary my other).

The The order of language, law, and culture. The realm of the Name-of-the-Father -- the paternal metaphor Symbolic that structures subjectivity through the Oedipus complex. Not "reality" (which is imaginary + symbolic). The Real is the impossible -- what resists symbolisation; the

The Real trauma, the excess, the limit of language. 3. The Name-of-the-Father (Nom-du-Père) The Symbolic father -- not the actual father but the function of the father in the symbolic order. The Name-of-the-Father is the law that separates the child from the mother, introducing the child into language and culture. 4. Desire (Le désir) Desire is not for an object (need) or a demand (for love). Desire is the desire of the Other -- we desire what we imagine the Other desires. Desire is unsatisfiable -- it circulates, it cannot be fulfilled. 5. The Gaze Not "looking at" but the object of the scopic drive. The gaze is what looks back at us from the field of the visible -- we are not masters of the visual field【25L-L26】.

Key Works  Écrits (1966) -- collection of essays and seminars  The Seminar of Jacques Lacan (ongoing publication) -- contains the seminars on the Mirror Stage, the Ethics of

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Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Mirror Stage The infant's identification with its reflection; the birth of the "I" in mis-recognition The Imaginary The order of images and identifications (the ego) The Symbolic The order of language, law, culture, the Name-of-the-Father The Real The impossible; what resists symbolisation Name-of-the-Father The Symbolic father; the law of language and culture Desire The desire of the Other -- fundamentally unsatisfiable The Gaze What looks back at us from the visual field Objet petit a The impossible object of desire; the cause of desire

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Lacan and Freud: Lacan claimed to "return to Freud" -- but through a linguistic lens. He re-read Freud's case studies (Dora, the Wolf Man) as linguistic structures.  Lacan and Feminism: Lacan has been criticised by feminists for associating woman with lack, with the not-all (pas-toute). But Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, and others have engaged productively with Lacan. 27. CARL JUNG (1875-1961)

Historical Positioning

Jung was Freud's one-time disciple who broke away to found his own school: analytical psychology. For literary criticism, Jung's most important contributions are the collective unconscious and archetypes.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 46 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] 1. The Collective Unconscious Below the personal unconscious (repressed materials from an individual's life) lies the collective unconscious -- the deepest layer of the psyche, shared by all human beings, containing archetypes. 2. Archetypes The universal, primordial images and patterns of thought that reside in the collective unconscious. Archetypes are not specific images but forms that structure experience. Examples:  The Persona: The social mask -- what we show to the world.  The Shadow: The dark, repressed, "negative" side of the personality.  The Anima/Animus: The feminine side of the male psyche (anima); the masculine side of the female psyche (animus).  The Self: The total, integrated psyche -- the goal of the process of individuation.  The Child: The archetype of potential, new beginnings, the future.  The Great Mother: The archetype of nurturing (and, in its negative aspect, devouring).  The Wise Old Man: The archetype of wisdom and guidance. 3. Individuation The lifelong process of integrating the conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche -- becoming the true Self.

Key Works  The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (1959, collected works Vol. 9)  Man and His Symbols (1964)  Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Collective unconscious The deepest layer of the psyche, shared by all humans Archetype Universal, primordial pattern of thought and experience Persona The social mask; what we show to the world Shadow The dark, repressed side of the personality

Anima The feminine side of the male psyche Animus The masculine side of the female psyche The Self The total, integrated psyche; the goal of individuation Individuation The process of becoming the true Self 47 DASGUPTA

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Theoretical Debates & Connections  Jung vs. Freud: Jung rejected Freud's pan-sexualism (everything reduces to sexuality). For Jung, the unconscious contains more than repressed sexual wishes -- it contains the collective heritage of humanity.  Jung and Myth Criticism: Northrop Frye and the myth critics were influenced by Jung's archetypes (though Frye preferred to speak of "mythoi" rather than archetypes).

PART VII: FEMINIST CRITICISM (Unit 9) 28. ELAINE SHOWALTER (1941- )

Historical Positioning

Elaine Showalter is the founder of American feminist criticism in its "gynocritical" phase. Her A Literature of Their Own (1977) established the existence of a distinct female literary tradition in English literature. She coined the term gynocriticism -- the study of women as writers (as opposed to feminist critique, which studies the representation of women in texts written by men).

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. The Three Phases of Women's Writing (from A Literature of Their Own) Showalter divides the history of women's writing into three phases:

Phase Period Characteristics

Feminine Women writers imitate dominant male traditions; use male pseudonyms (George Eliot, 1840-1880 Phase Currer Bell). They internalise male aesthetic standards. Feminist Women writers protest against male standards; advocate for women's rights; depict 1880-1920

Phase victimisation and injustice.

Female 1920- Women writers move beyond protest to discover their own forms, language, and traditions. Phase present They no longer define themselves against male norms. 2. Gynocriticism Showalter defines gynocriticism as the study of women as writers -- the study of a female literary tradition, of female literary subcultures, of the psychodynamics of female creativity, and of the trajectory of individual women's careers. Gynocriticism constructs a female framework for analysing women's literature. 48 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] 3. Feminist Critique vs. Gynocriticism  Feminist Critique: The study of representations of women in texts written by men (the image of woman as angel or monster).  Gynocritics: The study of women as writers -- their history, their themes, their genres, their structures.

Key Works  A Literature of Their Own (1977)  "Towards a Feminist Poetics" (1979) -- introduces gynocriticism  The Female Malady (1985)  Sexual Anarchy (1991)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Feminine phase Imitation of male traditions (1840-1880) Feminist phase Protest against male standards (1880-1920) Female phase Self-discovery and autonomy (1920-present) Gynocriticism The study of women as writers -- a female framework Feminist critique The study of representations of women in male-authored texts 29. JUDITH BUTLER (1956- )

Historical Positioning

Judith Butler is the most influential contemporary feminist theorist -- a poststructuralist feminist who has reshaped gender studies, queer theory, and political philosophy. Her Gender Trouble (1990) introduced the concept of gender performativity.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 49 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] 1. Gender Performativity Butler's central argument: Gender is not a natural or stable identity; it is an effect of repeated performances. There is no "inner" gender essence that expresses itself in behaviour -- rather, the behaviour produces the illusion of an "inner" essence. Gender is performatively constituted. Crucial: Performativity is not the same as performance. Performance implies a choosing subject who puts on a costume. Performativity is the compulsory repetition of norms that produce the subject as an effect. 2. The Heterosexual Matrix The regulatory framework that naturalises heterosexuality as the norm, making any deviation from the male/female binary and the man/woman coupling appear deviant, unnatural, or impossible. 3. Trouble as Method Butler deliberately creates "trouble" -- trouble in gender categories, trouble in the sex/gender distinction, trouble in the category of "woman." Destabilising these categories is politically necessary. 4. Critique of Identity Politics Butler questions the assumption that a stable "woman" subject is necessary for feminist politics. If the category "woman" is itself produced by a regulatory matrix, feminism cannot simply appeal to the identity of "women."

Key Works  Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990)  Bodies That Matter (1993)  Excitable Speech (1997)  Undoing Gender (2004)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Gender performativity Gender is produced by the repetition of norms, not expressive of a pre-existing identity Heterosexual matrix The regulatory frame that naturalises heterosexuality Sex/gender distinction Sex = biology; gender = culture -- Butler deconstructs this binary Trouble Destabilising gender categories as a political strategy Parody Imitation that reveals the imitated thing as constructed (drag)

Theoretical Debates & Connections 50 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET]  Butler and Foucault: Butler's theory of performativity is indebted to Foucault's account of how power produces subjects and to his concept of "subjection."  Butler and Althusser: Butler reads Althusser's concept of interpellation through performativity -- the subject is constituted through the repetition of interpellative speech acts. PART VIII: POSTCOLONIAL CRITICISM (Unit 9 - Essential) 30. EDWARD SAID (1935-2003)

Historical Positioning

Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) is one of the most influential academic books of the 20th century. It founded the field of postcolonial studies and changed how the West studies the "Orient." Said was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and a public intellectual.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Orientalism (The Three Definitions)

Said gives three interconnected definitions:  Academic: The Western scholarly discipline that studies "the Orient" (philology, anthropology, history).  Imaginative: The Western style of thought that distinguishes between "the Orient" and "the Occident" -- a binary opposition.  Institutional: The Western corporate institution for dealing with the Orient (making statements, authorising views, ruling over it, colonising it). 2. Orientalism as Discourse (Foucault's Influence) Said draws on Foucault's concept of discourse: Orientalism is not just scholarship or prejudice -- it is a discursive formation that produces "the Orient" as an object of knowledge. It is a power/knowledge regime. The West does not discover the Orient -- it produces it. 3. Latent vs. Manifest Orientalism  Manifest Orientalism: The explicit statements, descriptions, and theories about the Orient (what Orientalists actually wrote).  Latent Orientalism: The unconscious, durable, stable set of assumptions that underlie manifest Orientalism -- the "deep structure" of Orientalist thought. 4. Contrapuntal Reading (from Culture and Imperialism, 1993) Reading a text with a simultaneous awareness of both the metropolitan perspective and the colonised or resisting perspective -- reading "against the grain". A contrapuntal reading of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park asks: where are the plantation slaves whose labour makes the Bertram estate possible? 51 DASGUPTA

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Key Works  Orientalism (1978)  The Question of Palestine (1979)  Covering Islam (1981)  The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983)  Culture and Imperialism (1993)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Orientalism The Western discourse that produces "the Orient" as an object of knowledge Latent orientalism The unconscious, durable assumptions underlying Orientalist thought Manifest orientalism The explicit statements and descriptions of the Orient Contrapuntal reading Reading with simultaneous awareness of coloniser and colonised Worldliness Texts are embedded in the social, political, and economic world Secular criticism Criticism not beholden to religious or nationalist orthodoxy

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Said and Foucault: Said draws on Foucault's concept of discourse and power/knowledge, but he is more critical of Western institutions and more invested in the possibility of resistance.  Said and Auerbach: Said admired Erich Auerbach's Mimesis -- but criticised its Eurocentrism. 31. GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK (1942- )

Historical Positioning

Spivak is the most important postcolonial feminist theorist. Her essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988) is a foundational text of postcolonial studies and subaltern studies. Spivak is known for her difficult, deconstructive prose and her commitment to the margins. 52 DASGUPTA

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Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. The Subaltern

Spivak borrows the term subaltern from Antonio Gramsci (who used it for the proletariat). Spivak redefines the subaltern as the poorest and most marginalised -- those who cannot be heard within dominant discursive structures. Crucially, Spivak argues that the subaltern cannot speak. 2. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" - The Argument  The subaltern is structurally silenced by the discourses of both colonialism and nationalism, both Western feminism and Indian patriarchy.  When the subaltern does speak, their speech is not heard -- it is recuperated, appropriated, or ignored.  The example of the widow who commits sati (self-immolation): For British colonial discourse, it is a barbaric tradition to be abolished. For Indian nationalist discourse, it is a noble sacrifice of a pure woman. In both interpretations, the woman's own voice is erased. She cannot speak as a subject. 3. Strategic Essentialism A controversial concept. Spivak argues that sometimes it is politically necessary to act "as if" groups have a stable, essential identity -- even though, theoretically, we know that identity is constructed and unstable. Strategic essentialism is a temporary political tool, not a theoretical position. 4. Epistemic Violence The violence done by dominant systems of knowledge to those excluded from them. Western feminism, for example, may commit epistemic violence against Third World women by assuming that "women" is a universal category.

Key Works  "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988)  In Other Worlds (1987)  A Critique of Postcolonial Reason (1999)  Other Asias (2008)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Subaltern The poorest and most marginalised -- those who cannot be heard Can the subaltern speak? No -- the subaltern is structurally silenced Strategic essentialism Temporarily acting "as if" groups have a stable identity for political purposes Epistemic violence Violence done by knowledge systems to the excluded Deconstruction Spivak's method -- she translated Derrida into English 53 DASGUPTA

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Theoretical Debates & Connections  Spivak and Derrida: Spivak translated Derrida's Of Grammatology into English and is a rigorous deconstructive reader.  Spivak and Subaltern Studies: She was associated with the Subaltern Studies group (Ranajit Guha, Partha Chatterjee) but has a more critical, feminist, and deconstructive approach. 32. HOMI K. BHABHA (1949- )

Historical Positioning

Bhabha is the theorist of hybridity, mimicry, and the Third Space. His work -- especially The Location of Culture (1994) -- has been enormously influential in postcolonial studies and cultural studies. Bhabha draws on Lacanian psychoanalysis, Derridean deconstruction, and colonial discourse analysis.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Hybridity

Colonial contact produces hybrid forms -- neither fully coloniser nor fully colonised. Hybridity disrupts the binary opposition of coloniser/colonised, revealing that both are mutually contaminated. Hybridity is not a celebration of mixing; it is the disturbing, in-between space that deconstructs colonial authority. 2. The Third Space The space of negotiation between coloniser and colonised -- neither one nor the other. The Third Space is where new, hybrid identities emerge. It is the space of cultural translation, not cultural origin. 3. Colonial Mimicry The colonised subject mimics the coloniser -- adopts the coloniser's language, manners, clothes, and customs. But mimicry is never perfect -- it is always almost the same but not quite. This "not quite" is threatening to colonial authority: the mimic is a "menacing" figure, both like the coloniser and not like him. 4. Ambivalence Colonial discourse is not stable -- it is characterised by ambivalence, the simultaneous attraction and repulsion to the colonial other. The coloniser both desires and fears the colonised. This ambivalence is a site of slippage -- where colonial authority can be unsettled. 5. Stereotype as Fetish The colonial stereotype is not a simple misrepresentation. It is a fetish -- a substitute for an impossible knowledge. The stereotype fixes the colonial subject in a repetitive, anxious form (the "lazy native," the "lustful black").

Key Works  The Location of Culture (1994) 54 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET]  "Of Mimicry and Man" (1984)  "The Other Question: The Stereotype and Colonial Discourse" (1983)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Hybridity The in-between, mutually contaminated space of colonial contact Third Space The space of negotiation where new, hybrid identities emerge Mimicry Colonised subjects imitate the coloniser -- almost the same but not quite Ambivalence The simultaneous attraction and repulsion in colonial discourse Stereotype as fetish The stereotype substitutes for an impossible knowledge Cultural translation The process of negotiating meaning across cultural boundaries

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Bhabha and Said: Bhabha is less concerned with the history of Western power (Said) than with the micro-politics of colonial discourse and the unsettling effects of mimicry and hybridity.  Bhabha and Lacan: Bhabha uses Lacanian concepts (the mirror stage, the gaze, the fetish) to analyse colonial discourse.

PART IX: READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM (Unit 9) 33. WOLFGANG ISER (1926-2007)

Historical Positioning

Wolfgang Iser, a German phenomenologist, was a leading theorist of reader-response criticism. His The Implied Reader (1972) and The Act of Reading (1976) analysed the interaction between text and reader in producing meaning. For Iser, meaning is not in the text nor in the reader -- it is in the interaction. 55 DASGUPTA

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Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. The Implied Reader

The implied reader is not the actual reader (a real person) but the text's ideal reader -- the role and activity that the text itself structures. The text implies a reader with certain competencies, attitudes, and expectations. Reading is the actualisation of this role. 2. Gaps (Leerstellen) and Indeterminacy Every literary text contains gaps -- places where the text does not say everything, where there are ambiguities, ellipses, open possibilities.  These gaps are not defects -- they are the condition of the text's aesthetic power. The reader must fill the gaps -- actively constructing meaning.  Indeterminacy: The quality of the text that requires the reader's interpretive activity to become determinate. 3. Wandering Viewpoint (Wandernde Blickpunkt) Reading is not a static act. The reader's viewpoint wanders through the text -- moving forward, anticipating, retroactively reinterpreting, holding strands in suspension. The meaning of a text is the outcome of this wandering.

Key Works  The Implied Reader (1972)  The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response (1976)  Prospecting: From Reader Response to Literary Anthropology (1989)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Implied reader The ideal role that the text structures for the reader Gaps (Leerstellen) Places of indeterminacy that the reader must fill Indeterminacy The quality of the text that requires reader activity Wandering viewpoint The reader's mobile, anticipatory, retroactive movement through the text Consistency-building The reader's activity of reconciling textual inconsistencies 34. HANS ROBERT JAUSS (1921-1997) 56 DASGUPTA

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Historical Positioning

Jauss, a German literary historian, was the other leading figure of the Constance School of reception theory. His essay "Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory" (1967) argued for a reception-based literary history.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Horizon of Expectations (Erwartungshorizont) The horizon of expectations is the set of cultural, literary, and generic norms that readers bring to a text at the time of its publication. This horizon is shaped by earlier works of the same genre, by cultural assumptions, by the discourse of the time. 2. Aesthetic Distance The distance between the horizon of expectations and the actual text. A great work of literature challenges the horizon of expectations -- it distances itself from what readers already know and expect. 3. Change of Horizon When a work shatters the horizon of expectations, it changes the horizon for future readers. Works that were initially incomprehensible or scandalous can become classics. The history of literature is the history of changing horizons of expectation. 4. The Reception History of a Text Jauss argued that a complete literary history requires studying how a text has been received across time -- not just its original context, but its after-life in later readings.

Key Works  Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory (1967)  Toward an Aesthetic of Reception (1982)  Question and Answer: Forms of Dialogic Understanding (1989)

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Horizon of expectations The norms and assumptions readers bring to a text Aesthetic distance The gap between the horizon of expectations and the text Change of horizon How a work can transform the horizon of future readers Reception history The history of a text's after-life in reading 57 DASGUPTA

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Term Definition

Negativity of literature Literature's power to negate the reader's expectations ♂ 35. STANLEY FISH (1938- )

Historical Positioning

Stanley Fish is the most radical of the reader-response critics. His work -- especially Is There a Text in This Class? (1980) -- argues that meaning is not in the text at all but is produced by the reader (and, more precisely, by interpretive communities). Fish is also known for his later turn to law and politics.

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Affective Stylistics

Fish's early method: analyse the reader's experience of reading the text in time. Instead of asking "What does this sentence mean?", ask "What does this sentence do to the reader?" -- how does it affect, shape, and manipulate the reader's consciousness. 2. Interpretive Communities Meaning is not produced by individual readers alone. Readers belong to interpretive communities -- groups that share interpretive strategies, assumptions, and values. Meaning is community-based -- what counts as a "good reading" is established by the community. 3. "Is There a Text in This Class?" The title essay poses the question: Is there a text independent of interpretation? Fish's answer: No. The "text" is never encountered apart from interpretation. The notion of a text "in itself" is an illusion. 4. The Authority of Interpretive Communities Interpretive communities are authoritative -- they determine what counts as a valid reading. The community cannot be appealed against -- there is no higher court.

Key Works  Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost (1967)  Self-Consuming Artifacts (1972)  Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities (1980)

Critical Glossary 58 DASGUPTA

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Term Definition

Affective stylistics Analysing what the text does to the reader in time Interpretive community A group that shares interpretive strategies and assumptions No text in itself The text is never encountered apart from interpretation The authority of interpretive communities Communities determine what counts as valid reading PART X: NEW HISTORICISM & CULTURAL STUDIES (Unit 9) 36. STEPHEN GREENBLATT (1943- )

Historical Positioning

Stephen Greenblatt is the founder of New Historicism -- a movement that emerged in the 1980s in Renaissance studies. Greenblatt's Renaissance Self-Fashioning (1980) is the founding text of New Historicism. He draws on Foucault (discourse, power), Geertz (thick description), and Marx (ideology).

Core Concepts (Exam-Focused) 1. Self-Fashioning

The central concept of Greenblatt's early work. In Renaissance England, there was both a sense of self and a sense that it could be fashioned. Self-fashioning is the conscious construction of identity -- by the individual, but always within constraints (family, state, religion, colonial contact). 2. New Historicist Method  Rejects the separation of literature from history (New Criticism's autonomous text).  Rejects the "background/foreground" model (history as background, literature as foreground).  Reads literature alongside non-literary texts (legal documents, travel narratives, medical treatises, pamphlets) -- all texts as social acts.  Seeks anecdotes, moments of displacement, anomalies -- what escapes the dominant discourse. 3. The Circulation of Social Energy Greenblatt's term for the movement of cultural energy between texts, institutions, and practices. Literature both shapes and is shaped by social energy. 59 DASGUPTA

May 18, 2026 [LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY FOR UGC NET] 4. Containment and Subversion New Historicists are interested in how texts contain subversive energies -- how they allow dissent only to neutralise it. Is subversion ever truly subversive, or is it always contained? This question has been a central debate within New

Historicism.

Key Works  Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare (1980)  Shakespearean Negotiations (1988)  Marvelous Possessions (1991)  Will in the World (2004) -- his Shakespeare biography

Critical Glossary

Term Definition

Self-fashioning The construction of identity within social constraints New Historicism Reading literature alongside non-literary texts as social acts Circulation of social energy The movement of cultural energy between texts and practices Thick description Borrowed from Clifford Geertz -- reading cultural acts as texts Containment The absorption of subversion by dominant structures Anecdote New Historicists use small, telling moments to illuminate large structures

Theoretical Debates & Connections  Greenblatt and Foucault: Greenblatt draws heavily on Foucault (especially power and discourse) but is less systematic and more interested in Renaissance forms of power.  Greenblatt and Cultural Materialism: Greenblatt's New Historicism is often compared to British Cultural Materialism (Williams, Dollimore, Sinfield). Cultural Materialism is more overtly political and committed to the possibility of subversion. ✅ FINAL REVISION STRATEGY FOR UGC NET 2026 60 DASGUPTA

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Topic Weightage for 2026  Classical to Neoclassical (Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Horace, Sidney, Dryden, Pope, Johnson) - 25% of criticism questions  Romantic to Victorian (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Arnold, Pater) - 20% of criticism questions  Formalism & Structuralism (Shklovsky, Jakobson, New Criticism, Saussure, Lévi-Strauss, Barthes) - 15% of theory questions  Poststructuralism & Deconstruction (Derrida, Foucault, Kristeva) - 10%  Marxist Criticism (Lukács, Gramsci, Althusser, Williams) - 10%  Psychoanalytic (Freud, Lacan, Jung) - 8%  Feminist (Showalter, Butler) - 7%  Postcolonial (Said, Spivak, Bhabha) - 10%  Reader-Response & New Historicism (Iser, Jauss, Fish, Greenblatt) - 5% 7-Day Intensive Revision Plan

Day Focus Area Core Thinkers 1 Classical-Neoclassical Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Horace, Sidney, Dryden, Pope, Johnson 2 Romantic-Victorian Wordsworth, Coleridge, Arnold, Pater 3 Formalist & Structuralist Shklovsky, Jakobson, New Critics, Saussure, Lévi-Strauss, early Barthes 4 Poststructuralist & Marxist Derrida, Foucault, Kristeva, Lukács, Gramsci, Althusser, Williams 5 Psychoanalytic & Feminist Freud, Lacan, Jung, Showalter, Butler 6 Postcolonial & Reader-Response Said, Spivak, Bhabha, Iser, Jauss, Fish, Greenblatt 7 Full mock test All 25-30 questions from Unit 8 and Unit 9

Daily Revision Cards

Create one card for each theorist:  Name  Key work(s)  Two key concepts  One major debate with another theorist  One possible application to a literary text 61 DASGUPTA

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Practice Integrated Questions

The UGC NET increasingly asks questions that require comparison across theorists. For example:  "How does Derrida's différance differ from Saussure's concept of difference?"  "Compare the role of the reader in Iser vs. Fish."  "How does Gramsci's hegemony differ from Althusser's ideology?" Prepare for these by tracing connections between thinkers as you revise. 62 DASGUPTA