sociological and political

Sociological and Political

Literary Criticism

Literature

•“It is an enduring expression of significant human experience in words well-chosen and arranged”

•Human experience= Life of the people-members of the society

•Words=symbolic language- culture of the people

“Fiction is a metaphoric reenactment of affairs. It requires of the writer a

profound understanding of his society and a sincere

desire to change it.”

•- Cirilo Bautista

SOCIETY

•It is a group of people occupying a geographical territory, with a common culture, and interacting with each other.

Culture

•It is is the total and distinctive way of life or designs for living of any society. It encompasses learned behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, values, and ideals characteristics of certain societies.

Sociological Criticism

•It starts with the conviction that art’s relation to society is vitally important and that these relationships may organize and deepen one’s aesthetic response to a work of art.

Sociological Criticism

•Art is not created in a vacuum; it is the work not simply of a person, but of an author fixed in time and space, answering to a community to which he is important

“Literature is the consequence of the

moment, the race and the milieu”

•Taine (1863), History of English Literature

“Literature is not only the effect of social

causes, but also the cause of social effects”

Tasks of Sociological Critics•“Sociological critics argue that literary

works should not be isolated from the social contexts in which they are embedded” (DiYanni 1571).

•They focus on the values of the society and how these values are reflected in literary works.

•They emphasize the ways power relations are paved out by varying social forces and institutions.

Social Forces:• I. External Conditions of the Physical

Environment affecting man's impulses, feelings, thoughts, and actions.

• (a) Climate; (b) Soil; (c) Physical configuration,— mountains, valleys, etc; (d) Water supply; (e) Flora; (f) Fauna.

• II. External Social Factors affecting man as a social being.

• (a) Presence or absence of other groups.• (b) Attitude of other groups, — hostility or

friendliness.• III Forces in Man's Psychical Nature.• (a) Appetitive, hunger, thirst, and sex appetite.• (b) Hedonic, aversion to pain, love of warmth, ease,

and sensuous pleasure.

• (e) The welfare interests, — centering on measures intended to conserve the group and contribute to its welfare.'

• (c) Egotic, ambition, shame, envy, pride, vanity, love of liberty, of power, and of glory.

• (d) Affective, — sympathy, sociability, love, hate, spite, jealousy, anger, revenge.

• (e) Recreative, — play impulses, desire for self-expression.

• (f) Religious, desire for relationship with the Unknown either through ecstasy or through relations of patronage and submission.

• (g) Ethical, — love of fair play, sense of justice.• (h) Aesthetic, desire for enjoyment of the pleasures

of perception, or the beautiful.

• (i) Intellectual,— curiosity, love of knowing, learning, and teaching.

• IV. Interests growing out of combinations of human desires in large part socially conditioned and directed towards the objects presented by physical stimuli and the external social factors.

• (a) The wealth interests, — directed towards securing wealth.

• (b) The political interests, — looking towards protection in the exercise of complete, individual self-expression.

• (c) The religious interests, — looking toward alliance with the Unknown for release, protection, or advantage.

• (d) The intellectual interests, — yearnings for diversified experience, for interpretation of the mysterious, release from fear and control through understanding.

Tasks of Sociological Critics

•“Sociological critics argue that literary works should not be isolated from the social contexts in which they are embedded” (DiYanni 1571).

•Sociological critics attempt to analyze literature from one of these two lenses: ▫Conditions of production, such as schools,

magazines, publishers, and fashions.▫The applicability of a given work—fiction

especially—in studying the dynamics of a given society.

What do Sociological Critics Study? Sociological critics examine expressions of

specific areas in literary works, including:

•Economic conditions during which a piece was written

•Political arena and popular political beliefs

•Cultural issues

Types of Sociological Criticism Feminist Theory: What are the women

doing in the story? How do they interact with men? What is the woman’s role in society?

Marxist Theory: developed in the 1930s and often advocates Marxism. In what social class does each character belong? How does the assigned social class impact the character? How do characters of different social classes interact?

The basic precepts & most important considerations of socio-political criticism:

•Sheldon Grebstein (1968), Prespectives in Contemporary Criticism

•Literary work cannot be fully understood apart from the milieu or culture or civilization in which it was produced.

•Society can impinge upon a work in two ways: either as a specific material factor or a force or as a tradition of collective spiritual and cultural trends- conventions.

•The critic is responsible to the literature of both past and present- because the need of each generation needs various emphasis; a critics work is simultaneously transient and unending.

Questions a sociological critic may ask:•What socio-political constructs evolve out

of the events in the novel?•How did the author utilize these socio-

political constructs in the novel?•How do the characters delineate their

social and political roles in the novel?•What social forces and institutions are

represented in the work? How are these forces portrayed?

Questions a sociological critic may ask:•What political and economic elements

influence the lives of the characters?•What economic issues appear in the piece

of work? To what extent are the lives of the characters influenced by these issues?

•To what extent are the decisions of the characters influenced by social, political and economic forces?

• This is a story of how wrong decisions become greater burdens to a family. Mario’s family happens to be in the lower bracket of society. He cannot even provide for his family’s basic needs. Albeit all this hardships, his wife Gloria, still manages to keep her good virtuous. She insists that the way they are living is a much better than the one they will have if they do wrong acts.

By Alberto S. Florentino

•But Gloria’s entire constant reminder to Mario did not prosper. Mario decided to come back to his old life of crime when he lost his job when he tried to steal an apple for his daughter. He keeps on insisting that his priority is to provide what his wife and daughter needs. He left with Pablo, his old crime buddy, even if Gloria pleaded very hard for him not to go with the man.

By Alberto S. Florentino

A. What are the social problems reflected in Alberto S. Florentino’s

“The World is an Apple” ?

•1. Poverty “Mario: Yes, she did. (Pause) Do you

remember that day I took her out for a walk? On our way home we passed a grocery store that sold “delicious” apples at seventy centavos each. She wanted me to buy one for her, but I did not have seventy centavos. What I did is to buy her one of those small, green apples that they sell on the sidewalk but she just threw it away, saying it was not a real apple. Then she cried. So when I saw this apple roll out of the broken crate, I thought that Tita would love to have it.



•2. Unemployment

Mario: (Stares at the ground): Gloria, I’ve lost my job.

Gloria: (Rises shocked) Oh No!Mario: (Looks up at her) It is true, Gloria.Gloria: What about your pay for the whole week?Mario: I lost my job a week ago.Gloria: And you never even told me!



•3. Malnutrition Pablo: See what happened to your

daughter. This is what honesty has done to her. And how can honesty help her now? She’s not sick and she needs no medicine. You know that. You know very well what she needs: food. Good food. She’s undernourished, isn’t she?



•4. Crime Mario (Turns around and holds her arm,

stammering): Gloria, … you…. You must try to understand… I tried… I tried long and hard… but could not lift us out of this kind of life…

b. How did the author portray the socio-political problems using the following elements?

1. Setting

SCENE: An improvised home behind a portion of the Intramuros walls. Two boxes plan the doorway. At left is an acasia tree with a wooden bench under it.

1950-1960 the play was written


2. Characters

Gloria (Pulls away from him): You’re going! I can see that you want to go with him. Ohhh… (cries) You’ll leave me here again, wondering weather you’ll be shot in the head or sent to jail.

b. How did the author portray the socio-political problems using the following elements?2. Characters

Mario: Why did God create apples for the rich alone? Didn’t he create the world for everyone? That’s why I tried to bring apple for Tita. When we brought her into the world, we sort of promised her everything. She had a right to have life.

b. How did the author portray the socio-political problems using the following elements?2. Characters Gloria: That’s the trouble with you, when

you think of your own stomach, you think of nothing else!

Mario: I was not thinking of myself!Gloria: Whom were you thinking of- me? Did I

ever ask you to bring home apples? I am not as crazy as that.

Mario: I was thinking of our child.

b. How did the author portray the socio-political problems using the following elements?2. Characters Pablo: How can you be sure? When he and I

were pals we could go to first-class air-conditioned movie houses every other day. I’ll bet all the money I have here now that he has not been to one since you “liberated” him from me. And that was four years ago.

Pablo: You call this living? This, Gloria, is what you call dying- dying slowly- minute by minute.

b. How did the author portray the socio-political problems using the following elements?2. Theme• DishonestyGloria: What about your pay for the whole week?

Mario: I lost my job a week ago.Gloria: And you never even told me!

• Faith in GodGloria: I knew God won’t let us down. He never

lets anybody down. I’ll pray tonight and ask him to let you have that job.


2. Theme• Love for family

Mario: They’ll do anything to keep me out. But don’t worry. I’ll find another job. It isn’t really so hard to look for a job nowadays. (From this point he avoids her eyes) You know, I’ve been job-hunting for a week now. And I think I have found a good job.

The Socio-Political Constructs in Azucena Grajo-Uranza’s

Bamboo in the Wind

by Shiela Perez Amparo (March1997)

1. The social and political constructs that led to the declaration of martial law in the Philippines

•No continuity of presidential policies•The foregoing scenarios in the Philippine

history brings about a certain socio-political issues

2. The socio-political constructs in Bamboo in the Wind•Social injustice- Larry with the military

when he was unjustly incarcerated in Camp Crame after a quarrel with Wilfred Teodico.

“ You may come out now, he said to the young man. As you can see, the door is open.”

“Is there one set of rules for senators and another set for ordinary people? “He asked again sarcastic.

“You should be thankful you’ve got a senator to speak to you,” said the lieutenant.

And if I didn’t? He challenged. You’d let me rot here invoking your suspension of the privilege of the writ?

2. The socio-political constructs in Bamboo in the Wind•Prison cell scene- inequality

“Look Ramon… I’ve been thinking over what you just said about losing the fight from sheer indifference. And yet, we’re letting Teotico go scot-free… What was uppermost in my mind while I was being hauled off was what if I had no one influential to help me? I was brave- cocky, even-only because I know that safety was just a phone call away. And I thought of all the youngsters caught in demos and spirited away, and all those who had crossed the military or the powerful and had no one to help them… You’re right, Ramon, help must be made available to them. “

3. Character delineation of social and political roles in the novel• Larry Esteva- most significant major

character• “…Larry plodded ahead, eager to finish what

he had come to say. They are not influential people, Benny like you are. The police3 had them tied up in technicalities Benny they are underpaid and they are not your enemies.”

• “ Benny.. these people work with their hands and have very little opportunities. It becomes our duty to protect them and see that they get just compensation for their labor.

• “We are the squatters of the land papa. And it is the tenats who have a real right to it?”

3. Character delineation of social and political roles in the novel• Ramon- “ My idea is to establish a 24 hr, round

the clock aid office which anyone victimized by the military or the police may call…It seems to me… that because of the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, people changed with anything from subversion to jay-walking are held incommunicado by the authorities, invoking the suspension of the privilege of the writ.

• when he was offered by American friend of Sylvia in her party, a research grant, an offer with an apparent hidden agenda “You son of a bitch!”

3. Character delineation of social and political roles in the novel

• Connie- activist• “What have you got to do with this business in

Sapang Bato? Her father sized her up as she stood frowning before him.” Don’t gloss over it, father…I already know the facts. I just want to find out whether you’re going to pull my leg, or you’re going to be honest with me—and she added meaningfully, for once.

• “ Now, just wait a minute, young lad, her father spoke indignantly. And when did I start owing you an explanation for my actions?

• “ Starting right now, father, because I will not be embarrassed and I will not be ashamed, and I refuse to feel guilty for what you do with people who are too helpless to defend themselves against you.

• “He rose, livid with rage. Are you calling me a bully?

• “Worse, her daughter answered, a scoundrel.• Father- government needs the land• “ The government father, or the people running

the government ? People like you. That is what makes this country so rotten. People like you have consistently confused you personal interest with the interest of the nation.

4. The evolved concept of the new Filipino Identity

•Characters- search for identity in the order of things during the martial law

•Filipino character showed in the lines by Larry - “ We have been used to an abusive colonial government, Kevins. And we have to pretend meekness in order to survive… I guess we’re really like the bamboo. We don’t fight the wind. We bend with it- but…we never break.”

•Every literary piece that is set in socio-political perspective yields some constructs that help define the new Filipino identity.

•Human dimensions presented in Uranza’s novel sustain the hypothesis and the new Filipino identity emerges in the order of things as treated in the novel.

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