MODULE 2

LITERARY APPROACHES
PREPARED BY: MICHAEL B. MOLINA

1. HISTORICAL APPROACH

The study of the time of a work, both the time period during which it was written
and the time period depicted in the work, uses history to inform literary understanding;
literature can also be used to inform historical understanding. War and peace, the great
chain of being, the rediscovery of the classics, the development of capitalism, slavery, the
emancipation of women, the Industrial Revolution – historical events and movements
inform, illuminate, and redefine literature. Some literature – satire, for example – may
depend greatly on historical knowledge for a clear interpretation, thus one may misread a
literary piece if one knows nothing of its time.
Further, the historical approach is important not only because history influences
writers but also because writers use historical events as sources for their work. When this
approach emphasizes the study of historical ideas, some critics treat it separately as the
history of ideas. Certainly the ideas prevalent during a writer’s time (referred to as the
zeitgeist or spirit of the times) influence his or her work. When literature is read in
conjunction with contemporary events, ideas, and traditions, reading becomes more
informed.

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. What are both the author’s time period and the time period depicted in the work?
2. From what period of time are most of the allusions in the work drawn?
3. What significant events were taking place at this time? Are they reflected in the
work?
4. What ideas or philosophies were most dominant?
5. Does the work reflect or oppose these ideas? How?
6. If you have read other works written during this same time period, how does this
work compare in its treatment of subjects, events, or ideas?

2. SOCIOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL APPROACH

The sociological approach, while similar in ways to the historical approach, is

more specialized because it centers on the social environment of the work – the culture,
politics, economics, mores, customs, fashion, manners – to use the French term, the
milieu. To use this approach you might consider either the ways the forces of society
influence a writer or the ways these forces operate in the work. Clearly, literary works
reflecting or commenting on social reality (the utopian novel, for example) can validly be
 approached sociologically, and your understanding of most literary works could be
enhanced by this approach because the culture to which writers belong helps determine
their understanding of life and even the language they use to express that understanding.
Knowledge of contemporary economic and social theory is important for your
understanding of how some works attempt to reflect or even reform their society.

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. What class (or classes) of society is represented in the work?

2. What are the prevailing manners customs, habits, dress, etc. of that class?
3. Do these manners and mores directly influence the behaviour of characters in the
work? If so, how?
4. Could the work have been written about any other milieu and still have the same
impact?
5. What economic (e.g. Marxist) or social (e.g. women’s liberation) movements were
taking place either in the time period depicted in the work or in the period in which
the work was written?
6. Is the writer making a statement about social reality? If so, what?
7. If the writer describes a social problem, does he or she seem to offer a solution for
that problem?

3. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APPROACHES

Since most literature reflects and comments on life, it is logical that reading may
have an effect on how readers live their lives. The Roman writer Horace stresses that the
purpose of literature is to instruct as well as to delight. (Works written primarily for
instruction are termed didactic.) To use the moral approach to literature, you might
examine the beliefs and behaviors upheld and opposed by the work or evaluate the work
for its moral content.
If either you or the writer espouse the beliefs of a particular religion, then the
approach can be termed a religious one. (Moral and religious are not synonymous.)
Although you might examine any work for its religious content (or lack of it), you can
best examine works which form the basis of religious beliefs (the Koran, the Bhagavad-
Gita, the Bible, sacred tribal myths), works which express personal religious statements
(St. Augustine’s Confessions, Edward’s sermons, Hopkins’ poems), and works with
religious content (Beowulf, the Greek tragedies, Sartre’s No Exit).
If you explore either the religious or the moral approach, avoid appreciating and
applauding only those works with whose religious viewpoint or expressed moral you
agree and attacking those works with whose expressed values you disagree.

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

 1. Are any religious or moral beliefs overtly espoused by the work or specifically
criticized by it?
2. Is the work written primarily for didactic purposes? Does the work have an explicit or
implicit moral? If explicit, is it thoroughly integrated into the work?
3. What religious imagery or symbolism do you find in the work? Is there a pattern of
religious imagery?
4. Are there allusions to any sacred texts in the work? What is the effect of these
allusions?
5. Is the structure of the work reminiscent of any religious event?

4. BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH

Studying the author’s life can provide valuable insight into a work of literature.
Readers are often fascinated by the lives writers have led – their loves, losses, successes,
failures, incomes, and various occupations. In your biographical approach, you may want
to study what writers themselves have said, written, and felt about their works, during the
composition process and afterwards, and how they have reacted to the critical response to
their works. Letters to and from writers are considered part of the biographical approach.
If you use the biographical approach, remember that the persona or speaker of an author’s
work is not necessarily the author himself or herself. Do not confuse the writer’s life with
the lives of his or her fictional creations, or necessarily think of the writer as holding the
convictions depicted in his or her works. Even when a writer seems to be speaking
autobiographically, do not expect details identical with the biographical record.
Second, make certain that you refer to an authoritative biography. Some
biographies have been written to solely glamorize their subjects or even discredit their
subjects or their works. A biography authorized by the family or estate of the writer may
be the most accurate one available. (That is may because if families exercise a right of
censorship, the biographer may have to present a purified version of a life.) Lastly, view
autobiographies skeptically. Writers are not necessarily the best commentators on their
own lives.

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. Does the writer seem to draw from his or her life in the work? What biographical
knowledge seems necessary for a fuller understanding of the work?
2. If any key episodes from the writer’s life are reflected in the work, to what extent do
the literary events resemble biographical ones?
3. Did any controversies surround the writer in his or her lifetime?
4. How did contemporaries regard the writer and how did that influence the work?
5. Did the writer have any important friendships or other relationships important to a
full understanding of the work?

5. PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH
 When you relate the behaviour of characters in a literary work to relationships of
people you know, you are applying an intuitive understanding of psychology (as well as
sociology). The psychological approach may also include a more formal application of
psychological theory, perhaps beginning with the Freudian aspects of the human mind.
Freud’s division of the mind into the id (the mental image of biological instinct, the
primarily unconscious source of desires and aggression), the ego (which bridges the gap
between mental image and external reality by restraining the desires of the id within
social and moral boundaries and the superego (the mental representation of morality, the
conscience) has provided many critics with a convenient schema for discussing
characters, as has his analysis of dreams.
Freudian critics steer toward the sexual implications of symbols and imagery
(phallic symbols), since Freud theorized that all human behaviour (drives) derives from
libido/sexual energy i.e. concave images (ponds, flowers, cups, caves, etc.) are female
symbols; convex/straight images (skyscrapers, submarines, obelisks, surfboard etc.) are
male symbols; actions (dancing, riding, flying, etc.) are sexual pleasure; water (birth,
female principle, maternal, womb, death wish); Oedipus and Electra complex; and the
child development (oral, anal, and genital stage).

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. What is your immediate response to the work? What single word best describes that
emotional response?
2. What is the emotional condition of each of the characters?
3. Would you like to know any of the people in the work? Why or why not?
4. Do any characters display perceivable psychological problem?
5. Do any psychological theories seem particularly applicable to the work?
6. How do these theories illuminate in the work?
7. How does the literary work – its images and other linguistic elements – reveal the
psychological motivations of its characters or the psychological mind-set of its
author?

6. FEMINIST APPROACH

Feminist criticism includes several strands: examining works for bias in their
portrayal of women; rescuing from oblivion the works of some women writers; analysing
works written by women for specifically “feminine” language and images; developing
new standards of evaluation for literature to include more works by women; and looking
at literature from social and political standpoints. Feminist criticism is historical when
relating women’s suffrage to contemporary literature, sociological and political when
discussing the position of women in the society, and archetypal when examining
universal images of women. Another intent of the feminist approach is to examine all
literature, men’s and women’s, for portrayals of women. For example, consider whether a
work accepts or defends, implicitly or explicitly, a social structure which elevates men
and devalues women. If it devalues women, examine the strategies used. Ask how a
particular work treats self-expression and self-realization.

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. How are women portrayed in the work? (Consider such roles as virgins, temptress,
witch, monster, mother, nurse, wife, and servant.)
2. What are their relationships with men? With each other? With their children? With
themselves?
3. Do you detect any specifically female images or symbols such as nets, wombs, traps,
vases, the earth, the moon? How are these images used?
4. Is the writer male or female? If female, has she used a male pseudonym? Why?
5. Is the subject “typically” feminine? How?

COMPREHENSIVE ACTIVITY

Choose from amongst the literary pieces which were discussed only one (1) you
will have to apply literary criticism considering the different approaches to understanding
literature e.g. Loverboy by Lilia Pablo Amansec – Psychological Approach or Feminist
Approach, Rice by Manuel Arguilla – sociological and political approach, etc. One piece
may have to apply several approaches but just center on one approach.

1. Words be limited to 700 as maximum and 500 as the minimum, Times New Roman
12, single-spaced.
2. Cite your references as copied and pasted literary criticism will automatically receive
no grades.
3. Observe the elements of writing such as the unity, coherence, and emphasis.
Grammar check your composition as ruined grammatical construction sacrifices the
message.
4. Title your work such as e.g.
Literary Criticism on Loverboy by Lilia Pablo Amansec (Psychological Approach).