New Lenses to See and Experience Literature

“Big Questions” about Literature

 What is “literature”?
 Does the author matter?
 What are the influences on how we read a text?
 How do we make connections to others in distant
lands and times through a work of literature?

 Literary Theories/Critical Theories are attempts to

answer some of these questions.
The Basic Idea
 The point of criticism is to argue your point of view
on a work of literature.
 You don’t have to “criticize” a text (but you can)
 You do have to analyze a text and support your
assertions with specific evidence from experts and
the text.
 It’s crucial to go beyond plot development and into
more abstract, higher-level thinking like theme,
tone, purpose, etc.
The Basic Idea
 A critical analysis is an in-depth
examination of some aspect of the literary
work
 you may examine any element of the text:
character development, conflicts, narrative
point of view, etc.
 Literary critical theories inform us of certain
ways to approach big ideas in the novel.
The Basic Idea
 There are many different approaches we can
take to critical analysis
 Literary theories provide a framework for
our discussion of a text
 We don’t have to identify the theory we’re
using, though.
 We use it as a starting point for our own
ideas and opinions
Biographical Approach
 views literature as the reflection of an
author's life and times (or of the characters'
life and times).
 it is necessary to know about the author and
the political, economical, and sociological
context of his times in order to truly
understand his works.
Advantages:
 works well for some which are obviously
political or biographical in nature.
 places allusions in their proper classical,
political, or biblical background.

Disadvantages:
 "the intentional fallacy"
 tends to reduce art to the level of biography
and make it relative (to the times) rather
than universal.
NEW HISTORICISM
 New historicist critics view literature as part
of history, and furthermore, as an
expression of forces on history.

 New historicism compares literary analysis

to a dynamic circle:
 The work tells us something about the
surrounding ideology (slavery, rights of
women, etc.)
 Study of the ideology tells us something
about the work.
 New historicism takes two forms:
 Analysis of the work in the context in
which it was created

 Analysis of the work in the context in

which it was critically evaluated.

 New historicists assert that literature “does

not exist outside time and place and cannot
be interpreted without reference to the era
in which it was written”
(Kirszner and Mandell 2038).
 Readers are influenced by their culture, so
no objective reading of a work is possible.

 Critics should consider how their own

culture affects their interpretation of the
historical influence on a work.
 How New Historicists
Look at a Text
• Analyzes texts while acknowledging its
historical context and the role history
played in shaping the piece of literature
• Examines psychology and social sphere of
author
• Acknowledges that bias and beliefs are
present in literary work
• Focus on power relationships depicted
within a work
Cinderella
 What can we infer about the society in
which this story—considering, especially,
the violence and vengeance in the Grimm
version—would evolve and be told to young
children?
 What can we infer about property and
inheritance laws in the society in which
“Cinderella” evolved? What can we infer
about the society’s view of royalty and
monarchic power?
Formalism / New Criticism
 involves a close reading of the text
 all information essential to the
interpretation of a work must be found
within the work itself
 focuses on analyzing irony, paradox,
imagery, and metaphor
 also interested in the work's setting,
characters, symbols, and point of view.
 no need to bring in outside information
about the history, politics, or society of the
time, or about the author's life
 does not view works through the lens of
feminism, psychology, mythology, or any
other such standpoint
 not interested in the work's affect on the
reader.
Advantages:
 can be performed without much research
 emphasizes the value of literature apart
from its context
 virtually all critical approaches must begin
here
Disadvantages:
 text is seen in isolation
 ignores the context of the work
 cannot account for allusions
FORMALIST CRITICAL QUESTIONS
• How is the work structured or organized?
• Who are the major and minor characters,
what do they represent, and how do they
relate to one another?
• What are the time and place of the work –
its setting? How is the setting related to
what we know of the characters and their
actions? To what extent is the setting
symbolic?
• What images, similes, metaphors, symbols
appear in the work? What is their function?
What meanings do they convey?
Psychoanalytical Approach
 views works through the lens of psychology
 looks either at the psychological
motivations of the characters or of the
authors themselves
 most frequently applies Freudian
psychology to works, but other approaches
also exist.
Freudian Approach to Personality
Three parts to an individual’s psyche:
 the id: the instinctual, pleasure seeking part
of the mind
 the ego: the part of the mind that controls
but does not repress the id's impulses,
releasing them in a healthy way
 the superego: the part of the mind that
represses the id's impulses
The theory of Dreams
Dreams represented unconscious desires,
thoughts, and motivations,
According to Freud’s psychoanalytic view of
personality, people are driven by aggressive
and sexual instincts that are repressed from
conscious awareness.
Sex is Everything
Freud believed that all human behavior is
motivated by sexuality
 Oedipus complex: a boy's unconscious
rivalry with his father for the love of his
mother
 Electra complex: a girl’s unconscious
rivalry with her mother for the love of her
father
Psychoanalytical Approach
Advantages:
 can be a useful tool for understanding character
development and conflict
Disadvantages:
 can turn a work into a psychological case study
 tends to see sex in everything, exaggerating this aspect
of literature
 some works do not lend themselves readily to this
approach.
Archetypal/Myth Approach
 assumes that there is a collection of symbols, images,
characters, and motifs (i.e. archetypes) that evokes
basically the same response in all people
 identifies these patterns and discusses how they
function in the works
 asserts that these archetypes are the source of much of
literature's power.
Archetypal Approach
 based on the theories of psychologist Carl Jung
 he states that mankind possesses a "collective
unconscious" that contains these archetypes and that
is common to all of humanity
Some Archetypes
 archetypal women - the Good Wife/Mother, the Terrible Mother, the
Virgin (often a Damsel in Distress), and the Fallen Woman.
 water - creation, birth-death-resurrection, purification, redemption,
fertility, growth
 garden - paradise (Eden), innocence, fertility
 desert - spiritual emptiness, death, hopelessness
 red - blood, sacrifice, passion, disorder
 green - growth, fertility
 black - chaos, death, evil
 serpent - evil, sensuality, mystery, wisdom, destruction
 seven - perfection
 hero archetype - The hero is involved in a quest (in which he
overcomes obstacles). He experiences initiation (involving a
separation, transformation, and return), and finally he serves as a
scapegoat, that is, he dies to atone.
Archetypal Approach
Advantages:
 provides a universalistic approach to literature and
identifies a reason why certain literature may
survive the test of time
 it works well with works that are highly symbolic
Disadvantages:
 literature may become a vehicle for archetypes
 can easily become a list of symbols without much
analysis
Feminist/Gender Approach
 concerned with the roles of female
characters within works
 Power structures between men and women
 The female experience
 What, exactly, is gender?
Stages of Female Identity
 Feminine: the female accepts the definitions and roles
male authorities have created for her
 Feminist: rebels against masculine authority and
intentionally challenges masculine definitions and
roles for the sake of gender equality
 Female: no longer concerned with male definitions or
restrictions; defines her own voice and values
 Cinderella
 Consider the misogynist theme of abused-girl-waiting-
to-be-rescued-by-prince.
 Can Cinderella save herself? Why in need of man? Can’t
woman exist independent of man?
 Consider the values conveyed in the portrayal of the
“good girl” as physically beautiful and the “wicked
girls” as physically ugly
 Are women only valuable to men as sexualized objects?
Marxist Approach
 Karl Marx perceived human history to have consisted
of a series of struggles between classes--between the
oppressed and the oppressing (“the haves” and “the
have-nots”).
 Marx thought that materialism was the ultimate
driving force in history
Marxist Approach
 Feudalism exploits workers to the point of revolt
 This leads to bourgeois capitalism
 In bourgeois capitalism, the privileged bourgeoisie
rely on the working proletariat
 Workers are exploited to the point of revolt
Marxist Approach
 The successful working class will then establish a
communist society
 In this ideal the labor, the means of production, and
the profits are shared by all
 This system is an attempt at complete social and
economic equality
 It’s a great theory but doesn’t work in reality
Marxist Approach
 Marxist criticism examines the nature of power
structures within a novel.
 It asks questions like: Who has power? Who lacks
power? Who is exploited by whom and why? How does
power remain constant or shift throughout a work of
literature? What makes certain characters powerful or
powerless?
Marxist Approach
 It also examines commodities, possessions that give
power
 Typical commodities are things like land and money
but can also be things like social position, knowledge,
or even a person
 Marxist criticism can also examine what commodities
bring power and why within a work of literature
Cinderella
 Consider Cinderella as a representative of the
proletariat:
 oppressed by her bourgeoisie stepmother and
stepsisters, who have stolen her rightful inheritance and
turned her into a servant in her own home;
 desiring to join the ranks of the bourgeoisie by marrying
the prince.
Reader Response Criticism
 analyzes the reader's role in the production of meaning
 lies at the opposite end of the spectrum from formalism
 the text itself has no meaning until it is read by a reader
 The reader creates the meaning.
 can take into account the strategies employed by the author
to elicit a certain response from readers
 denies the possibility that works are universal (i.e. that they
will always mean more or less the same thing to readers
everywhere)
 makes someone's reading a function of personal identity.
Reader Response Criticism
Advantages:
 recognizes that different people view works
differently and that people's interpretations
change over time.
Disadvantages:
 tends to make interpretation too subjective
 does not provide adequate criteria for evaluating
one reading in comparison to another
Cinderella
 How is the reader/audience meant to feel when
Cinderella finally wins over the Prince?
 Who is the most sympathetic character of the film?
Why are we drawn to these characters?
 CRITICAL APPROACHES RECAP
 Biographical
 Historical
 Biographical
Also helpful
 Cultural
 Formalism
 Psychological /Psychoanalysis- Freud
 Archetypal - Jung
 Feminist
 Marxist
 Reader Response