Humanity Oedipus

  1. Psychoanalytic theory

The psychoanalytic theory is a theory about the dynamics of the personality development which guides the psychoanalysis and personality organisation. The theory is useful in investigating and in the treatment of various personality disorders. The method is based on the idea that things that happen to people during their childhood may contribute significantly to how they may function when grown up. Psychoanalytic theory shows that the mind has two parts- the unconscious and the conscious part. The unconscious part is believed to prompt people to make decisions which they may not recognise at a conscious level.

  1. Reader-response theory

The theory focuses on how the audience reacts to a given text and maybe more than on the text. The reader-response theory emphasis on the role of the reader or the viewer in the active construction of texts instead of being a passive consumer. In reader-response theory, the audience plays an active role as well. The method illustrates that a text bears no meaning before the readers experience it. The approach examines readers reactions and analyses them based on personal responses or cultural conditions.

  1. Structuralist theory

Structuralist theory considers language as a signification and signs system. The elements in the language can only be understood only through a relation to the system and each other. In structuralist theory, the text is constituted of various linguistic conventions, and it is situated within other texts. This method helps in analysing materials by examining the underlying structures and developing conclusions on the individual work as well as the system it emerges from. The structuralist theory regards language as a stable closed system.

  1. Historicism theory

The primary goal of historicism theory is understanding intellectual history through literature. It also tries to explain literature through cultural context. Historicism theory assumes that each expressive act is usually embedded within a network of some material practices. It also assumes that each act of critique, unmasking and opposition which uses the tools it condemns, and it may fall prey to the exposed methods. Another assumption is that non-literary and literary circulate in inseparable ways. The theory also assumes that no discourse, archival or imaginative which expresses the inalterable nature of humans.

  1. Feminist theory

It is an extension of the feminism to fictional, theoretical or even into philosophical discourse. Feminist theory tries to understand the nature of various forms of gender inequality. Feminist theory examines both men’s and women’s social roles, interests, experiences and feminist politics in multiple fields. The theory focuses on the process of analysing gender inequality. The themes which are explored in this theory include objectification, discrimination, stereotyping, oppression and art history among others.

  1. Reductionist theory

Reduction theory asserts that the entities of a particular kind are combinations or collections of a more straightforward basic type or the expressions which denote definable objects. The reductionist approach shows that the idea of a various kind exists throughout the entire literature. Reductionist argument significantly represents a particular perspective of causality.

  1. Queer theory

It is a critical theory which entails fields of women studies and queer studies. It involves both theorisation of queerness as well as queer readings. The idea of queer theory shows that gender is also part of the essential self and lesbian/gay studies give a close examination of social, sexual nature, and it’s identities. The queer theory focuses on any and sexual activity which falls into deviant and normative categories.

 

References.

Allen, A. (2018). The power of feminist theory: Domination, resistance, solidarity. Taylor and       Francis.

Kolbas, E. D. (2018). Critical theory and the literary canon. Routledge.