Tuesday January 24th LEQ: How can one text be

interpreted by the reader in multiple ways?

Journal: Think of something you’ve read, heard, or seen outside of class that particularly struck you as worth thinking about, perhaps a billboard, commercial, newspaper article, movie, etc. What did it make you think about? Was it shocking, entertaining, odd, etc?

Introduction to Literary Criticism

English vs. Other Subjects

Math is concrete. History is verifiable. Science is testable. English is . . .

the encounter with problems that don’t have agreed upon solutions.

never-ending, reasoned argument.debate, discussion, and thousands of

viewpoints.

Literary Criticism/Theory Literary Criticism: The

interpretation / explanation of a text.

Literary Theory: The examination of the interpretation / explanation and the ideologies that created them.

Understand HOW people arrive at different conclusions.

Why Study? Changes the way you look at

literature. No longer is your interpretation

the most important thing. What you think is almost

irrelevant – we want to analyze WHY you think it.

Look at the reasons for your interpretation and how someone else could be interpret it.

Why Else? After high school, the world will

judge you on your ability to think critically.

Literary theory helps develop this ability.

By opening your eyes, you open your mind.

You don’t even know what you’re looking at until you’ve tried on different lenses.

Literary Theory No single theory is necessarily

correct or true above any other Critical approaches usually derive

from personal discretion or applicability

Some approaches naturally lend themselves to particular works

It would be tough to talk about Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried without understanding the historical context.

Basic Techniques

Reading “with the grain” Reading “against the grain”

Basic Lenses We’ll cover these literary theories:

Formalist Biographical Cultural Historical Feminist Marxist Psychoanalytic/Freudian Mythological There are many more for you to

explore.

Formalist Sees the reader as essential to the

interpretation of a work. Each reader is unique, with different

educations, experiences, moral values, opinions, tastes, etc.

Therefore, each reader’s interaction with a work is unique.

Analyzes the features of the text that shape and guide a reader’s reading.

Emphasizes recursive reading—rereading for new interpretations.

Formalist Overly impressionistic and guilty of

the affective fallacy (too focused on the emotional effect of the work).

Not “intellectual.” Now called reception theory.

Formalist Reception theory is applied to the

general reading public rather than an individual reader.

Each generation has different experiences, values, issues, etc.

Each generation will read a work differently.

art for art's sake," "content = form," and "texts exist in and for themselves."

Biographical Criticism Analyzes an author’s life in regard to

their work Can enhance the understanding of a

work Author’s experience SHAPES the

creation of the work Must be used carefully

Feminist Criticism Grew out of the women’s movement that

followed World War II. Analyze the role of gender in works of

literature. Recover neglected works by women

authors through the ages and creating a canon of women’s writing.

World is saturated with “male-produced” assumptions

Seek to correct imbalance by battling patriarchal attitudes

Marxist Criticism Based on the social and economic theories

of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Their beliefs include the following: Value is based on labor. The working class will eventually overthrow

the capitalist middle class. In the meantime, the middle class exploits the

working class. Most institutions—religious, legal,

educational, and governmental—are corrupted by middle-class capitalists.

Marxist Criticism Apply these economic and social

theories to literature by analyzing: Ideologies that support the elite and

place the working class at a disadvantage

Class conflict Marxism strongly influenced fiction,

particularly American fiction, in the 1930s.

Marxist Criticism Literary work cannot be separated from

the social context in which it was created. Social status of author Social content of a work (values presented) Role of audience in shaping literature

Examines one of these two aspects: Conditions of production, such as schools,

magazines, publishers, and fashions. Applicability of a given work—fiction

especially—in studying the dynamics of a given society.

Cultural Historical View literature as part of history,

and as an expression of forces on history.

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.

Cultural Historical 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.

Literature does not exist outside time and place and cannot be interpreted without reference to the era in which it was written.

Psychoanalytic Analyzes literature to reveal insights

about the way the human mind works.

Based on the work of Sigmund Freud and his disciples.

Works well as a method of analyzing characters’ actions and motivations, the artist’s motivations, and/or the effect of the reading on the reader.

Basic Freudian Concepts All actions are influenced by the

unconscious. Human beings must repress many of

their desires to live peacefully with others.

Repressed desires often surface in the unconscious, motivating actions.

Basic Freudian Concepts The mind has three major areas of

activity: Id: Area in the unconscious that works

for gratification through the pleasure principle

Superego: An internal censor bringing social pressures to bear on the id.

Ego: Area in the consciousness that mediates among demands of social pressure, the id, and the superego.

Mythological Criticism Analyzes what in a work evokes a similar

response in people, regardless of culture Concerned with enduring patterns and

how they are reflected in literature THE ARCHETYPE

A symbol, character, situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response

“collective unconscious” Set of primal memories common to the human race

(existing below conscious mind) Archetypal images (like sun, moon, fire, night, blood)

trigger the “c.u.”

Sample ArchetypesCommon Themes: Stories of quest

and initiation Descents into

the underworld Ascents into

heaven Search for

father/mother Fall from

innocence

Characters: Scapegoat Hero/Villain Outcast Temptress Mother/Father Mentor

Sample Student Analyses http://www.teachingliterature.org/te

achingliterature/chapter10/Chapter10Deblinks.pdf