Marxist literary theory is built on the premise that literature is not autonomous aesthetic production but a historically embedded ideological practice, shaped by material conditions, class struggle, and modes of production. 1. KARL MARX — Historical Materialism and Ideology Dimension Position Core focus Mode of production, class struggle, ideology Orientation Historical materialism Key concept Base […]

Feminist theory is not a single doctrine but a plural intellectual tradition that reconfigures knowledge, subjectivity, language, and power through the lens of gendered structures of domination and resistance. 1. MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT — Enlightenment Feminism and Rational Equality Dimension Position Core focus Education, rational equality, women’s rights Orientation Enlightenment liberal feminism Key concept Reason as

This chart maps literary movements as coherent intellectual-aesthetic systems, each defined by a distinct conception of reality, language, and the function of art. 1. CLASSICISM — Order, Proportion, and Rational Harmony Dimension Position Core principle Order, balance, imitation of classical models Worldview Stable, hierarchical universe Aesthetic logic Harmony, proportion, clarity View of human nature Rational

Literary history can be understood not simply as a sequence of authors, but as an evolving system of forms (structural modes of writing) and movements (historical-aesthetic ideologies). The chart below maps their dominant logic, worldview, and narrative organization. 1. EPIC FORM — Mythic Totality and Heroic Cosmos Dimension Position Core function Totalizing narrative of collective

Epic poetry is one of the most foundational literary forms in the Western canon. It constructs vast narrative architectures in which heroism, divine order, historical consciousness, and metaphysical meaning are dramatized through long-form poetic narration. 1. HOMER — Iliad — Heroic Conflict and the Economy of Glory Dimension Position Core focus War, honor, rage, mortality

Greek drama (5th century BCE primarily) emerges as a civic-artistic institution embedded in the Athenian polis, where theatre becomes a medium for negotiating fate, divine law, ethical action, and human limitation. 1. AESCHYLUS — Cosmic Justice and Divine Order Dimension Position Core focus Justice, divine order, cosmic law Orientation Theological-tragic worldview Dramatic form Tragic trilogy

A structural overview of dominant aesthetics, worldviews, and literary consciousness 1. MIDDLE AGES — Sacred Order and Allegorical Worldview Dimension Position Core orientation Theocentric (God-centered universe) Dominant worldview Fixed divine order (Great Chain of Being) Literary function Didactic, moral, religious instruction Form Allegory, epic, mystery plays, morality plays Language model Symbolic + doctrinal Selfhood Subordinate

Renaissance poetry (late 15th to early 17th century in English literature) emerges at the intersection of classical revival, Christian theology, courtly culture, and expanding humanist psychology. It produces a rich spectrum ranging from devotional lyric to philosophical metaphysical poetry. 1. EDMUND SPENSER — Allegory, Moral Vision, and Epic Idealism Dimension Position Core focus Virtue, morality,

1. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE — Total Humanism, Psychological Depth, and Dramatic Universality Dimension Position Core focus Human psychology, power, love, ambition, identity Orientation Renaissance humanism Dramatic form Tragic, comedic, and historical synthesis Key innovation Complex interiority of characters Reality model Fluid, unstable human experience Character model Deeply contradictory, self-reflective subjects Style principle Linguistic richness, metaphorical density

1. HENRIK IBSEN — Social Realism and the Crisis of Bourgeois Order Dimension Position Core focus Bourgeois hypocrisy, gender roles, social illusion Orientation Critical realism (proto-modernist) Dramatic form Linear realism with psychological depth Key innovation Domestic realism as ideological critique Reality model Social order built on repression and illusion Character model Individual trapped in social