reader-response criticism of young goodmanbrown

, i\ Critical Approaches Important

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the Study of Literature

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appendIX lJ,10
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Critical Approache~ Important

to the Study of Literature

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critics, the approaches are ~o subtle, sophisticated, and complex that they are not only critical stances bur also philosophies.
Although the various approaches provide widely divergent ways to study literature and literary problems, they reflect major tendencies rather than absolute straitjacketing. Not every approach is appropriate for every work, nor are the approaches always mutually exclusive. Even the most devoted practitioners of the methods do not pursue them rigidly. In addition, some of the approaches are more "user-friendly" for certain types of discov­ ery than others. To a degree at least, most critics therefore utilize methods that technically belong to one or more of the other approaches. A critic stressing the topical/historical approa~, for example, might introduce the close study of a work that is associated with the method of the New Criticism. Similarly, a psychoanalytical critic might include details about archetypes. In short, a great deal of criticism is pragmatic or eclectic rather than rigid.
The approaches to be considered here are these: moral/intellectual; topi­

cal/historical; New Critical/formalist; structuralist; feminist; economic determin­ ist/Marxist; psychological/psychoanalytic; archetypal/symbolic/mythic; Deconstruc­ tionist; and Reader-Response.

A number of critical theories or approaches for understanding and interpret­ ing literature are available to critics and students alike. Many of these have been developed during the twentieth century to create a discipline of literary studies comparable with disciplines in the natural and social sciences. Liter­ ary critics have often borrowed liberally from other disciplines (e.g., history, psychology, anthropology) but have primarily aimed at developing literature as a course of study in its own right.
At the heart of the various critical approaches have been many funda­ mental questions: What is literature? What does it do? Is its concern only to tell stories, or is it to express emotions? Is it private? Public? How does it get its ideas across? What more does it do than express ideas? How valuable was literature in the past and how valuable is it nqtV? What can it contribute to intellectual, artistic, and social history? To what degree is literature an art, as opposed to an instrument for imparting know~ge? How is literature used, and how and why is it misused? What theoretic;' and technical expertise may be ip.voked to enhance literary studies?
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Questions such as these indicate that crMcism is concerned not only with reading and in~erpretingstories, poems, a~d plays, but also with estab­ lishing theoretical understanding. Because of "ch extensive aims, you will understand that a full explanation and illustration of the approaches would fill the pages of a long book. The following descriptions are therefore intended as no more than brief introductions. Bear in mind that in the hands of skilled
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Following each description is a brief paragraph showing how
Hawthorne's story ''Young Goodman Brown" might be considered in the light of the particular approach. The paragraph following the discussion of structuralism, for example, shows how the structuralist approach can be applied to Goodman Brown and his story.

MORAUINTELLECfUAL
The moral/intellectual approach is concerned with content and values (see
Chapter 7). The approach is as old as literature itself, for literature is a tradi­ tional mode of imparting morality, philosophy, and religion. The concern in moral/intellectual criticism is not only to discover meaning but also to deter­ mine whether works of literature are both true and significant.
To study literature from the moral/intellectual perspective is therefore to determine whether an individual work conveys a lesson or ~~ge, and whether it can help readers lead better lives and iIll:.E!!>ve th~!r_u~~~rsta..nd­ ing oTthe world: What ideas does the work contain? How strongly does the work bring forth its ideas? What application do the ideas have to the work's characters and situations?- How may they be evaluated intellectually?
Morally? A discussion based on such questions does not necessarily require a position of command or exhortation. ideally, moral/intellectual criticism should differ from sermonizing to the degree that readers should always be left with their own decisions about whether they wish to assimilate the content of a work and about whether this content is personally or morally acceptable. "

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Sophisticated critics have sometimes demeaned the moral/intellectual pproach on the grounds that "message hunting" reduces a work's artistic alue by treating it like a sermon or political speech; but the approach will be aluable as long as readers expect literature to be applicable to their own ives. Ell ample fly Jung Goodman Brown" raises the issue of how an institution designed for human elevation, such as the religious system of colonial Salem, can be so ruinous. Does the failure result from the system itself or from the people who mi 5understand it? Is what is true of religion as practiced by Brown also true of sodal and political institutions? Should any religious or political philosophy be gi\ en greater credence than goodwill and mutual trust? One of the major virtues of ''Young Goodman Brown" is that it provokes questions like these but at the sar ne time provides a number of satisfying answers. A particularly important on ~ is that religious and moral beliefs should not'be used to justify the con­ de nnation of others. Another important answer is that attacks made from the ref Jge of a religion or group, such as Brown's puri~nical judgment, is danger­ ou ; because it enables the judge to condemn witho", thought and without per­ sOllal responsibility.
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OPICAUHISTORICAL

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's tra iitional approach stresses the relationship