Structuralism: Literature, Language, and the Primacy of Universal Structures

Introduction The twentieth century witnessed a profound transformation in literary theory and human understanding, often referred to as the linguistic turn, emerging from the work of Ferdinand de Saussure and his linguistic insights. Structuralism reframed literature not as an autonomous creation of individual consciousness or as a reflection of social or psychic determinants, but as […]

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Psychoanalytic Literary Theory: The Unconscious in Literature

Introduction The advent of psychoanalytic literary theory marked a profound shift in the way literature, creativity, and the author were understood. Where traditional criticism positioned the author as an autonomous moral, aesthetic, or divine authority, psychoanalysis reframed the author—and the literary work itself—as deeply enmeshed within the human psyche. Consciousness, far from being a coherent,

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Marxist Literary Theory: Literature Between Determinism and Autonomy

Introduction Marxist literary theory offers a framework for understanding literature and the author not as autonomous creators, but as products of historical, social, and economic conditions. Within this perspective, the literary work is embedded in society’s superstructure, arising from and reflecting the material and economic base. This positioning challenges traditional notions of literature as an

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New Criticism: The Transition Between Traditional and Modern Literary Theory

Introduction Literary criticism, like literature itself, evolves alongside the cultural and intellectual currents of its time. From the classical musings of Plato and Aristotle to the moral and aesthetic guidance of early modern critics, the field has always grappled with questions of value, meaning, and truth. Traditional criticism, broadly speaking, presumes the existence of an

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Revisiting Literary Theory & Criticism

Literary Theory and Criticism: From the Metaphysics of Presence to Its Discontents Literary theory and criticism occupies a peculiar yet crucial position within the domain of literary studies. It is not literature per se—it does not tell stories, compose poems, or dramatize human experience in the imaginative mode. Rather, it is a meta-genre, a form

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Modernism: A Spiritual Inquiry after the Loss of God

Modernism in English literature is often described as a radical aesthetic rupture—a rebellion against Victorian confidence, linear narratives, stable meanings, and inherited forms. While this description is not incorrect, it remains incomplete. At a deeper level, modernism can be understood as a profound spiritual and epistemological inquiry: an attempt to investigate whether the religious traditions’

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Postmodernism and the Turn Toward No-Thingness

Postmodernism is often misunderstood as an intellectual posture of relativism, frivolity, or even cynicism—an attitude summed up in the careless claim that “anything goes.” Such readings miss its deeper philosophical seriousness. Postmodernism does not arise from hostility toward truth but from a profound realization: truth cannot be reduced to a thing, an object, a fixed

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Postmodernism and the Turn Toward No-Thingness

Postmodernism is often misunderstood as an intellectual posture of relativism, frivolity, or even cynicism—an attitude summed up in the careless claim that “anything goes.” Such readings miss its deeper philosophical seriousness. Postmodernism does not arise from hostility toward truth but from a profound realization: truth cannot be reduced to a thing, an object, a fixed

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Plato, Aristotle, and the Divergent Philosophies of Poetry

IntroductionThe debate over the nature and significance of poetry has occupied philosophers and writers since antiquity. At its core lies a tension between reason and inspiration, imitation and intuition, direct knowledge and gradual understanding. Plato and Aristotle, teacher and student, offered profoundly different orientations toward poetry, shaping subsequent literary traditions and influencing Western thought from

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From Modernism to Postmodernism: The Shifting Landscape of Literary Consciousness

IntroductionThe evolution of Western literature reflects a profound shift in how humans understand themselves, society, and the cosmos. From the Renaissance to the postmodern era, writers and thinkers have grappled with the tension between permanence and flux, sacred authority and secular inquiry. Modernism and postmodernism, two defining literary movements, represent contrasting responses to this tension.

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