Literary Theory 2019

Systematization, abstract, detachment, general traits, big picture, extrinsic, reflection / contemplation

close reading of a particular text, concrete, immersion, singular cases, small job, intrinsic, explication /evaluation

the concrete steps undertaken and tools used in the activity of theory

the whole set of these tools and steps and their organization

• The humanist concept of the individual presupposes ‘man’ as human essence that remains untouched by historical or cultural circumstances. 
• In the Renaissance this essence was called ‘reason’; in the twentieth century it is generally called ‘consciousness’.

…marks a radical departure from this philosophical tradition of consciousness by giving a more central place to the unconscious and to cultural overdetermination than it does to consciousness.

The two main theorists responsible for this departure are Freud and Marx.

literature only plays a secondary role as it cannot change the base, it can only have a mimetic function (is a passive recording) and it cannot transgress

but: good literature shows how things actually are

“It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.”

-> Sein bestimmt Bewusstsein