critical strategies for reading - · pdf filereplaced by approaches that had more political...
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Critical Strategies for Reading
Notes and Finer Points
![Page 2: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Formalist
● Popular from WWII to the 1970s, then replaced by approaches that had more political tendencies.
● The best formalist readers are those who examine HOW the text is constructed.
![Page 3: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Formalist: Examples
● A formalist critique of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham may examine the limited vocabulary and rhyme scheme as didactic tools used to teach about food choice and nutrition.
● A formalist critique of Sandra Cisneros’s novel The House on Mango Street may examine the author’s use of metaphor and simile to convey the desperation of poverty.
![Page 4: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Biographical
● Considering aspects of the author’s life.
![Page 5: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Biographical: Examples
● A biographical critique of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird may examine her childhood friendship with Truman Capote and how their relationship is reflected in the friendship of Scout and Dill.
![Page 6: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Psychological
● Sigmund Freud is the author of the structural model of personality. In this theory, Freud explains that each person’s personality is formed of three parts: the Ego, the Superego and the Id.
● Psychoanalysis is the process of using what we know about these three parts of someone’s personality to analyze the ways that person behaves.
![Page 7: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Psychological
● Oedipus Complex – male’s instinctual desire to possess the mother, leading to inevitable conflict with the father, derived from Oedipus Rex.
● Repression – suppression from consciousness of painful or uncomfortable ideas, memories, impulses
![Page 8: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Psychological: Applications
● Applied to author by examining the text to reveal his/her hidden urges or motivations.
● Applied to the character by examining his/her behaviors to reveal motives and desires.
● Applied to the reader by examining his/her interpretation of the book and how that reveals hidden impulses, desires, or urges.
● Critics using this strategy may examine images to reveal latent content.
![Page 9: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Psychological: Examples
● Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may examine Shakespeare’s sexualization of Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, and the Oedipal tension between Hamlet and Gertrude.
● Example: A psychological critique of Emily Dickinson’s poetry may examine the author’s spinsterhood and the latent sexual imagery in her works.
![Page 10: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Historical●Encompasses the examination of past
events, influences, movements, etc.
●Considers the influence of the past on author, characters and reader.
![Page 11: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Historical: Examples
● Example: A historical critique of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried may examine the counterculture of the 1960s and how it is reflected in the novel.
![Page 12: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Historical: Examples
● Example: A historical critique of Elie Weisel’s Night may examine the novel in the context of modern-day genocide that occurred in Rwanda.
![Page 13: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Marxist
● Emphasizes the “false consciousness” of the dominant group; because one is part of the majority, one tends to ignore or deny the marginalization of the minority.
● Employs the concept of “objectification,” wherein people are turned into commodities. For example, a Marxist critique of the media might examine how tragedies (ie. the deaths of JFK and Princess Diana) are exploited for financial gain.
![Page 14: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Marxist
● Ideology – the shared beliefs and values held unquestioningly by a culture.
● Examines the concept of “base vs. superstructure.” The “base” is the economic foundation of a culture, and the “superstructure” is the law, politics, philosophy and religion that are derived from the “base.” In other words, ideology is determined by economics.
![Page 15: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Marxist: Examples
● Example: A Marxist critique of Native Son by Richard Wright might examine the objectification of Bigger Thomas as he is used by his lawyer as a symbol for black struggle and strife.
![Page 16: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Gender/Feminist
● Became popular in the post-WWII feminist boom and continues today.
● Patriarchy – ideology that privileges masculine behaviors and ways of thinking.
● Often includes the argument that language itself is patriarchal and examines the ways in which the author’s use of language either stifles or supports the feminist ideal.
![Page 17: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Gender/Feminist: Examples
● Example: A gender/feminist critique of Frankenstein may examine Shelley’s portrayal of women as weak characters showing little substance used simply to reflect the male characters.
● Example: A gender/feminist critique of the Star Wars series may examine how George Lucas attempts to subvert patriarchal values by creating female characters (like Princess Leia) who wield political and social power.
![Page 18: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Mythological
● Emphasizes deep, instinctual symbolism (archetypes).
● Archetype- Literary critics believe that archetypes, which have common and recurring representation in a particular human culture/entire human race, shape the structure and function of a literary work.
![Page 19: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Mythological
● According to psychologist Carl Jung the root of an archetype is in the “collective unconscious” of mankind.
● Collective Unconscious – that part of a human’s unconscious self that is common to all human beings.
![Page 20: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Mythological
●Common Archetypes – water, darkness/light, sun/moon, heat/cold, seasons, “the path,” death/resurrection, initiations, quests, mentors, shapes, colors, geographical elements.
![Page 21: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Archetypes
● Archetypes in 70 Seconds!● The Hero’s Quest!
![Page 22: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Mythological: Examples
● Example: A mythological critique of Cinderella may examine the archetypes of the hero’s quest and the guide/mentor, and their function in the tale.
![Page 23: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Reader Response
● Assumes that the text acts upon or influences the mind of the reader.
● Meaning = Text + Reader● May examine how rhetorical choices affect
the reader, ie. building tension through plot devices.
![Page 24: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Reader Response
● May examine how codes or paradigms that are used to acquire meaning change, thus changing interpretations of the text.
● May examine how the mind processes a text.
● May examine the personal, emotional effect of a text on a reader. (This is the most subjective, least useful tactic.)
![Page 25: Critical Strategies for Reading - · PDF filereplaced by approaches that had more political tendencies. ... Biographical: Examples ... Example: A psychological critique of Hamlet may](https://reader031.vdocuments.site/reader031/viewer/2022030416/5aa2461d7f8b9ada698cb010/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Reader Response: Examples
● Example: A reader’s response critique of The Hunger Games may examine the strength and intelligence of Katniss as a character who continues to work through challenges and difficulties- characteristics applicable to individual readers.