Script of Footnote to Youth

1. Literature and Literary Theory * Today with the impact of literary theory to the study of literature, the latter is seen as an are in a state of flux. * Literature as a body of writing together with it’s moral and aesthetic qualities, can be seen as a site of struggle where meanings are contested rather than regarded something possessing timeless and universals values and truths. * Theories aim to explain or demystify some of the assumptions or beliefs implicit in literature and literary criticism.
2. Literary criticisms and Literary theory * Literary criticism involve the reading , interpretation and commentary on the specific texts which have been designated as literature. * Two assumptions tend to be inherent in it’s practice: a. Criticism is secondary to literature itself and dependent on it b. Critical interpretations and judgement seem to assume that the literary text which they are addressing is unquestionably literature * Literary theory should do two things: a. provide the readers with a range of criteria for identifying literature and awareness of these criteria b. aware of the methods and procedures in the practice of literary criticism. * Literary criticism-involves the understanding and appreciation of literary texts. * Two primary questions of the literary criticism: 1.) How does it work? 2.) What is the value of the literature?
Literary theory has an account for: * The nature of representation in the text * The nature of reality and it’s relation to representation * How the representation of reality is accomplished and denied * What convention or codes particulars writers, literary schools or periods might employ to achieve representation

3.) Developments in Literary Theory and the Practice of Literary Criticism * In 1950’s,a number of critics argued that the