LIT01 | 21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD

TOPIC Literary Criticism: Post-Modernism and Psychoanalysis

Module
Designed by Vanessa Francesca G. Lasala
4 Nasrullah, M. (n.d.). Post Modernism. Literariness.Org. Retrieved August 16, 2022, from
https://literariness.org/2016/03/31/postmodernism/
MasterClass. (2021, June 8). Postmodern Literature Guide. MasterClass. Retrieved
Source/s
August 16, 2022, from https://www.masterclass.com/articles/postmodern-
literature-guide
Delahoyde, M. (n.d.). Psychoanalytic Criticism. Introduction to Literature. Retrieved
August 16, 2022, from https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/psycho .crit

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain the frameworks of various approaches to literary
criticism, specifically: Post-Modernism and Psychoanalysis. Furthermore, you will be able to analyze and
interpret meanings in given literary texts using the theories, principles, and guide questions of the post-
modernist and psychoanalytic approaches to literary criticism. Through this lesson, you will evaluate literary
texts with clearer objectives, and more defined methods of criticism and interpretation, thus, being able to
appreciate the entirety of the text.

Overview

Essential Questions:
How do postmodern texts break conventions and universal truths
in the literary canon?
How does a text reveal the unconscious mind of its author?

POST-MODERNISM

Postmodernism emerged in the second half of the 20th century. In this approach, literature takes on
new qualities and characteristics that it did not have in earlier decades; it is considered to be a reaction
against the beliefs and methods of modernism (one must first be familiar with modernism in order to better
understand post-modernism). Postmodernist writers sought to undermine and break established literary
conventions as a way to explore their own intense feelings surrounding the major events that had occurred
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in the world during their lifetimes. This approach is important as it indicates a departure from earlier genres;
it attempts to express the deep paranoia and sense of meaninglessness as a result of the Second World
War and other major, catastrophic historical events.

Post-modernism is known for breaking apart many literary standards and conventions, paving way
for new genres that have emerged in recent decades. It is also considered an important exploration of the
human
psyche and an unusual, creative form of artistic expression, not just in literature, but also in arts, music,
and other fields.

These are the common characteristics and techniques used in Post-modern literary texts:

• Intertextuality- the acknowledgment of previous literary work within another literary work. It does
not require citing or referencing punctuation—it is often mistaken as plagiarism
• Metafiction- The act of writing about writing or making readers aware of the fictional nature of
the very fiction they are reading
• Magical realism- introducing impossible or unrealistic events into a narrative that is otherwise
realistic
• Faction- mixing actual historical events with fictional events without clearly defining what is factual
and what is fictional
• Pastiche-taking various ideas from previous writings and literary styles and putting them together
to create a new style
• Temporal distortion- a narrative within a non-linear timeline; a story that does not follow a
chronological order
• Playfulness- While modernist writers mourned the loss of order, postmodern writers revel in
it, often using tools like black humor, wordplay, irony, and other techniques of playfulness to
dizzy readers and muddle the story.
• Fragmentation- significant jumps in character, time, and place; disintegrating themes, genres,
narratives; moving away from concepts of wholeness and diving into instability and interruptions
• Unreliable narrators- embracing randomness and disorder; this technique is used to further
muddy the waters with extreme subjectivity and prevent readers from finding true meaning with
their narratives.

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The following guide questions are typically answered to evaluate the text using this approach:
1. How is language thrown into freeplay or questioned in the work?
2. How does the work undermine or contradict generally accepted truths?
3. How does the author (or a character) omit, change, or reconstruct memory and identity?
4. How does the work fulfill or move outside the established conventions of its genre?
5. How does the work deal with the separation (or lack thereof) between writer, work, and reader?
6. What ideology does the text seem to promote?
7. What is left out of the text that if included might undermine the goal of the work?
8. If we changed the point of view of the text - say from one character to another, or multiple
characters - how would the story change? Whose story is not told in the text? Who is left out and
why might the author have omitted this character's tale?

PSYCHOANALYSIS

Psychoanalytic literary criticism is built on Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychology. It argues that
literary texts are like dreams—they reflect the secret, unconscious desires, and anxieties of the author; that a
literary work is a manifestation of the author’s own neuroses. This approach to literary criticism seeks evidence
of unresolved emotions, psychological conflicts, guilts, ambivalences, and so forth within what may well be a
disunified literary work. The author's own childhood traumas, family life, sexual conflicts, fixations, and such
will be traceable within the behavior of the characters in the literary work. But psychological material will be
expressed indirectly, disguised, or encoded through principles such as "symbolism" (the repressed object
represented in disguise), and "displacement" (anxiety located onto another image by means of association).

In general, there are four ways to focus a psychoanalytical interpretation:

1. Analyzing the author’s life

2. Analyzing the thematic content of the work, especially the motives of the characters and the
narrators
3. Analyzing the artistic construction of the text
4. Analyze yourself and what your reactions or interpretations of the text reveal about your own mind

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These are some essential questions to answer in using the psychoanalytic approach to literary criticism:
1. How do the operations of repression structure or inform the work?
2. How can characters' behavior, narrative events, and/or images be explained in terms of
psychoanalytic concepts of any kind (for example, fear or fascination with death, sexuality - which
includes love and romance as well as sexual behavior - as a primary indicator of psychological
identity or the operations of ego-id-superego)?
3. What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its author?
4. What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the psychological motives of
the reader?
5. Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or hidden meanings? Could there
be a subconscious reason for the author using these "problem words"?

Tasks

ACTIVITY 4: Analyzing Patterns in Postmodern and Psychoanalytic Texts (to be done in groups of 8-10)

Exercise your understanding of the lesson by following the instructions below:

1. Select group members among your block mates to work with in this activity.
2. During an asynchronous session, you will be assigned to read 2 short stories pre-selected by your teacher.
Read each story carefully and note down your thoughts/reactions about them.
3. After reading the texts, share your thoughts and reactions with your groupmates and discuss what you
have understood from the stories.
4. Classify the texts according to which approach to literary criticism is best to use to better understand them.
(Postmodernist criticism or psychoanalytic criticism)
5. Review the guide questions provided for each criticism in the module and try to answer each question
according to how you understood the texts. (For postmodern criticism, identify the postmodern
characteristics/techniques present in the text and explain how they were utilized by the author to create a
unique reading experience; for psychoanalytic criticism, review the author’s background and relate it to
your interpretations of the text)
6. Organize your answers and present them to the class: retell the stories with your own criticism and
evaluation.
(Rubrics will be indicated in the module attachment along with the short story selections)

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You may find these links helpful in enriching your knowledge on Postmodernism and Psychoanalysis:

Post Modern Literary Texts

A Psychoanalytic Reading of Hamlet
Postmodernism and Its Critics
How to Write A Psychoanalytic Criticism Paper

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