Critical Approaches

Critical Approaches to Literature
Formalist, Biographical, Historical, Psychological, Gender, Sociological, ReaderReader-Response, Deconstructionist

Approaching Literature Critically
This is something that you do ALL of the time!! You may not know it, but you do it. Literary critics do it more formally than you, borrowing concepts from philosophy, history, linguistics, psychology, and anthropology. Most literary critics assume that you have read a piece of literature, assume that you know the piece is worth reading. The criticism is analytic in that it helps us better understand a literary work

Some Types of Critical Approaches

Formalist Biographical Historical Psychological Mythological

Sociological Gender Reader-Response Deconstructionist Cultural Studies

The Approaches That Concern You
DEFINITELY POSSIBLY

Formalist Biographical Historical Sociological

Reader-Response Mythological Psychological Deconstructionist Gender

The Biographical Approach
Begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by actual people and that understanding an author’s life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend a work. Reading a biography will change, deepen, illuminate our response A savvy biographical critic will remember to base an interpretation on what is in the text itself; biographical data should amplify the meaning of the text, not drown it out with irrelevant material.

Cont’ The Biographical Approach Cont’d Two Weaknesses That Should Be Avoided
Avoid equating the work’s content with the author’s life (or the character with the author). They are not necessarily the same. You might ask, “How does the text reflect the author’s life? Is this text an extension of the author’s position on issues in the author’s life? Avoid less-than-credible sources of information, particularly works that tend to be highly speculative or controversial. Make sure that you can verify the information in several sources.

Cont’ The Biographical Approach Cont’d Biography vs. Biographical Criticism
Biography Branch of history Written account of a person’s life. Establishes & interprets the facts of a writer’s life. Uses all available information, not just personal document (letters, diaries), but other writing as well
Biographical Criticism Concerned with recreating the record of an author’s life. Focuses on explicating the literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the author’s life. Biographical critics will examine the drafts of a poem/story to see how both the work came into being and how it might have been changed from its autobiographical origins

Art” “One Art” By: Elizabeth Bishop
1. What things has the speaker lost? Put together a complete list in the order she reveals them. What does the list suggest about her experience with loss? 2. Bishop varies the repeated lines that end with the word disaster. Look only at those lines: what do they suggest about the story being unfolded in the poem? 3. What effect does the parenthetical comment in the poem’s last line create? Would the poem be different if it were omitted?

The Mythological Approach
Look for the recurrent universal patterns underlying most literary works Explores the artist’s common humanity by tracing how the individual imagination uses symbols and situations—consciously or not—in ways that transcend its own time and resemble the mythology of other cultures or epochs

Cont’ The Mythological Approach Cont’d.
Archetypal images (i.e. sun, moon, fire, blood), patterns (birth, growth, sexual awakening, family, generational struggle, death) and figures (trickster, cruel stepmother, rebellious young man, beautiful but destructive young woman) trigger the collective unconscious (Carl Jung) Provide the individual a link of the text to a broader context of works that share an underlying pattern (in Hamlet, the prince avenges the death of his father, like in Orestes from Greek myth)

Stay” “Nothing Gold Can Stay” By: Robert Frost
1. To what myth does this poem allude? Does Frost sound as though he believes in the myth or rejects it? 2. When Frost says, “Nature’s first green is gold,” he is describing how many leaves first appear as tiny yellow buds and blossoms. But what else does this line imply? 3. What archetype (symbol, character, situation, image) is evoking the “universal response” in this poem?

The Formalist Approach
Literature is a unique form of human knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms. A piece of literature is not primarily a social, historical, or biographical document. It can be understood only by reference to its intrinsic literary features. Areas of focus are words of the text rather than facts about the author’s life or the historical milieu in which it was written

Cont’ The Formalist Approach Cont’d.
Critics using this approach pay special attention to the formal features of the text (style, structure, imagery, tone, genre) These elements are not examined in isolation Formalist critics explore the relationship of these elements through “close reading” (careful, step-by-step analysis &explication)

Cont’ The Formalist Approach Cont’d.
Probably more evaluative than some of the other critical approaches. A “scientific” approach to literary analysis in that it focuses on “facts amenable to verification”
X.J. Kennedy & Dana Gioia

Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama

Duchess” “My Last Duchess” By: Robert Browning
Who is the Duke addressing? What is this person’s business in Ferrara? What is the Duke’s opinion of his last Duchess’s personality? Do we see her character differently? If so, how do we see her and what causes us to feel this way? If the Duke was unhappy with the Duchess’s behavior, why didn’t he make his displeasure known? Cite a specific passage to explain reticence. How much do we know about the fate of the last Duchess? Would it help our understanding of the poem if we knew more? Does Browning imply any connection between the Duke’s art collection and his attitude towards his wife?

The Sociological Approach
Examines literature in the cultural, economic, and political context in which it is received “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 a community if which he is an important, articulate part (Wilbur Scott).” Explores the relationship between the artist and the society Examines literature as either a document reflecting social conditions or a product of those conditions.

Cont’ The Sociological Approach Cont’d.
Sometimes looks at the sociological status of the author to evaluate how the profession of the writer in a particular milieu affected what was written Analyzes the social content – what cultural, economic or political values a particular text implicitly or explicitly promotes Examines the role that the audience has in shaping literature

The Historical Approach
Seeks to understand a work by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it This context includes the artist’s biography and milieu Historical critics are more concerned with helping us understand the work by recreating, as nearly as possible, the exact meaning and impact it had on its original audience. Not much concern is placed with giving an explanation about how a work’s literary significance applies to today’s readers Includes exploring the possible ways in which the meaning of the text has changed over time

Use” “Everyday Use” By: Alice Walker
1. What is the basic conflict in the story? 2. What is the tone of the story? By what means does the author communicate it? 3. From whose POV is the story told? How/Why is this choice effective? 4. How does reading the historical criticism, enhance your overall understanding/enjoyment of the piece.

Psychological Approach
A strategy of examining literature based heavily on the idea of the existence of a human unconscious – those impulses, desires and feelings about which a person is unaware but which influence emotions and behavior Critics explore the motivations of characters and the symbolic meaning of events Describes and analyzes the reader’s personal responses to a text

Cont’ Psychological Approach Cont’d.
Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Ernest Jones, Marie Bonaparte & Bruno Bettelheim endorse the belief that great literature truthfully reflects life Diverse type of criticism that employs three categories 1) investigates the creative process of the arts 2) psychological study of a particular artist and 3) analysis of the fictional characters Even though this approach carefully examines the surface of the work, it customarily speculates on what lies underneath the text

The Gender Approach
Examines how sexual identity influences the creation and reception of literary works Began with the feminist movement Belief that the culture has been so completely dominated by men that literature is full of unexamined “male-produced” assumptions Feminist criticism corrects this imbalance by analyzing and combating patriarchal attitudes

The Gender Approach and Jane Eyre
1. Read, in the textbook (the book you took home last night), the “definition” of Gender Criticism on pg. 2231. As you are reading, add to your notes on literary criticisms the characteristics of this approach to literature. 2. After you have finished, read “The Creation of a Feminist Myth” by Helene Moglen. 3. Annotate the criticism paying special attention to ideas that substantiate what you previously believed about the novel as well as those ideas that you find completely erroneous. 4. Be prepared to discuss this article tomorrow at the beginning of class.