The concepts of Literature are derived from its theoretical base. This is a highly complex area and the course here is designed to offer a baseline suitable for Secondary education. Concepts of Literature introduces theoretical perspectives, theory-derived language and cultural enquiry. These concepts are shared across many subjects and so students of History, Sociology, Politics and Psychology might be familiar with them.
The many theoretical perspectives are grouped into a few key fields:
- 21X Dramatic Appeal
- 22X Political / ideological
- 23X Human Nature
- 24X Structuralism
- 25X Representation
These field groups are referred to as the Conceptualised Essentialism for Critical Analysis (CECA). They are conceptualised because the content is derived from a theoretical base; they are essential because they are applicable to a wide range of Cultural Study subjects, not limited to Literature; they are critical because the vocabulary provides tools to access significant meanings; they are analytical when they are applied to cultural material.
Texts are built through a standard set of components; components shared so regularly across texts that we have names for these components. These components make up the ‘form’. The form is constructed to be engaging for the audience; to impact us so that we feel, think or behave differently because of the text. In this section, students will learn some of those shared conventions and the way they work.
Authors are aware and are often commenting on the political systems around them. Political or ideological concerns engage with issues of power; who has power, how is it obtained, what purposes it serves. The texts allow us to see into political and ideological issues by following the lives of people impacted by these systems.
Concerns of human nature engages with how to define ‘humans’, understanding what we are capable of and what we need.
Concerns of structuralism extends the studies done by facts; the historical nature of literature is already a structuralist concept but the way meaning is constructed is explored here in more detail.
Concerns of representation deals with the way texts are always a process of selection and exclusion. What makes the text is ultimately at the behest of the author and their bias, a bias that leaves some people, groups or ideas to be stereotyped and prejudiced against, whilst others are favoured and glorified.