Literary Theory

Here is a brief overview of the interpretive principles of each school of literary theory. It appears as though the main divide consists of those strands of thought associated with structuralism (modernism) and those associated with post-structuralism (postmodernism). The former finds its bearings within the Platonic, scientific, and ordered tradition while the latter within the Nietzchean, chaotic, and creative tradition.

Modernism:
(1) Structuralism: Concerned with the forms of literary expression, and the meanings these forms convey. Less concerned with authorial intent or background, or biographical history, of the author. Less concerned, moreover, with the cultural or historical circumstances of the writing. Therefore, structuralism is anti-historicist since the meaning of the text can be understood by the words and forms used independent of anything else. The main principle binding structuralist thought is its focus on plots and values rather than on the specifics of how the plot is developed or how the values are endorsed. New Criticism and formalism is a strand within formalism that similarly focuses on the text. (Claude Levi-Strauss and Ferdinand Saussere)

Post-Modernism:
(2) Post-Structuralism: Advocates believe that forms of expression and words are inherently unclear as well as the intentions of the author. It relies on the idea posited by W.V.O Quine, which is the indeterminacy of translation. Meaning of words are typically established by observable behavior or, in literary theory, common usage of words. Since these can't be known with certainty, meaning itself can't be certain. The 'structure' of literature, furthermore, must be interpreted by structuralists as meaning something; otherwise, it wouldn't have any cognitive significance, or it wouldn't be worth noticing and evaluating. Consequently, post-structuralists attack the structuralists' notion that meaning can be gathered from the structure of a text since the concept of meaning is itself indeterminate.

Post-Structuralism also attacks the fundamental principles, values, or morality expressed and furthered in a text by attacking those principles, values, or morality directly. It's to attack the motives of the author, while attempting to reveal the shaky foundations upon which those principles or values rest. Post-Structuralism has often been seen as providing the intellectual origin for New Historicism since the latter simply focuses their criticism on their belief that ideas about fundamental values and morality are ultimately limited within the horizon that they are thought. For instance, the self-evident proposition that men have inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property is merely a prejudice of our current, liberal age that may appear antiquated to future generations, which may have their own self-evident truths. Reader Response theory is also a natural extension of post-structuralism. The former has the principle that there is no true or correct interpretation of a text, but that each interpretation relies on the reader and his interpretive community, which involve its values, customs, and methods of interpretation. It's thus apparent that post-structuralism finds its philosophic home in relativism about values and principles taken to be eternal truths by platonic realists, which may include structuralists. (Jacques Derrida)