Literary Criticism: Questions for a Variety of Approaches

I. Formalistic Approach: This approach focuses on form. The analysis stresses items like symbols,
images, and structure and how one part of the work relates to other parts and to the whole.

This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human knowledge that needs to be examined on its
own terms.” All the elements necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself. Of
particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of form—style, structure, tone, imagery, etc.—
that are found within the text. A primary goal for formalist critics is to determine how such elements work
together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers.

A. How is the work’s structure unified?

B. How do various elements of the work reinforce its meaning?
C. What recurring patterns (repeated or related words, images, etc.) can you find? What is the effect of
these patterns or motifs?
D. How does repetition reinforce the theme(s)?
E. How does the writer’s diction reveal or reflect the work’s meaning?
F. What is the effect of the plot, and what parts specifically produce that effect?
G. What figures of speech are used? (metaphors, similes, etc.)
H. Note the writer’s use of paradox, irony, symbol, plot, characterization, and style of narration.
What effects are produced? Do any of these relate to one another or to the theme?
I. Is there a relationship between the beginning and the end of the story?
J. What tone and mood are created at various parts of the work?
K. How does the author create tone and mood? What relationship is there between tone and mood
and the effect of the story?
L. How do the various elements interact to create a unified whole?

II. Philosophical Approach: This approach focuses on themes, view of the world, moral statements,
author’s philosophy, etc.

A. What view of life does the story present? Which character best articulates this viewpoint?
B. According to this work’s view of life, what is mankind’s relationship to God? To the universe?
C. What moral statement, if any, does this story make? Is it explicit or implicit?
D. What is the author’s attitude toward his world? Toward fate? Toward God?
E. What is the author’s conception of good and evil?
F. What does the work say about the nature of good or evil?
G. What does the work say about human nature?

III. Biographical Approach: Focuses on connection of work to author’s personal experiences.

This approach “begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by actual people and that
understanding an author’s life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.” Hence, it often affords a
practical method by which readers can better understand a text. However, a biographical critic must be careful not
to take the biographical facts of a writer’s life too far in criticizing the works of that writer: the biographical critic
“focuses on explicating the literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the author’s life....
[B]iographical data should amplify the meaning of the text, not drown it out with irrelevant material.”

A. What aspects of the author’s personal life are relevant to this story?
B. Which of the author’s stated beliefs are reflected in the work?
C. Does the writer challenge or support the values of her contemporaries?
D. What seem to be the author’s major concerns? Do they reflect any of the writer’s personal
experiences?
 E. Do any of the events in the story correspond to events experienced by the author?
F. Do any of the characters in the story correspond to real people?

IV. Historical Approach: This approach focuses on connection of work to the historical period in which it was
written; literary historians attempt to connect the historical background of the work to specific aspects of the
work.

This approach “seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context
that produced it—a context that necessarily includes the artist’s biography and milieu.” A key goal for historical
critics is to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers.

A. How does it reflect the time in which it was written?

B. How accurately does the story depict the time in which it is set?
C. What literary or historical influences helped to shape the form and content of the work?
D. How does the story reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the time in which it was written or set?
(Consider beliefs and attitudes related to race, religion, politics, gender, society, philosophy, etc.)
E. What other literary works may have influenced the writer?
F. What historical events or movements might have influenced this writer?
G. How would characters and events in this story have been viewed by the writer’s
contemporaries?
H. Does the story reveal or contradict the prevailing values of the time in which it was written?
Does it provide an opposing view of the period’s prevailing values?
I. How important is it the historical context (the work’s and the reader’s) to interpreting the
work?

V. Psychological Approach: This approach focuses on the psychology of characters.

This approach reflects the effect that modern psychology has had upon both literature and literary criticism.
Fundamental figures in psychological criticism include Sigmund Freud, whose “psychoanalytic theories changed
our notions of human behavior by exploring new or controversial areas like wish-fulfillment, sexuality, the
unconscious, and repression” as well as expanding our understanding of how “language and symbols operate by
demonstrating their ability to reflect unconscious fears or desires”; and Carl Jung, whose theories about the
unconscious are also a key foundation of Mythological Criticism. Psychological criticism has a number of
approaches, but in general, it usually employs one (or more) of three approaches:
1. An investigation of “the creative process of the artist: what is the nature of literary genius and how does it
relate to normal mental functions?”
2. The psychological study of a particular artist, usually noting how an author’s biographical circumstances
affect or influence their motivations and/or behavior.
3. The analysis of fictional characters using the language and methods of psychology.

A. What forces are motivating the characters?

B. Which behaviors of the characters are conscious ones?
C. Which are unconscious?
D. What conscious or unconscious conflicts exist between the characters?
E. Given their backgrounds, how plausible is the characters’ behavior?
F. Are the theories of Freud or other psychologists applicable to this work? To what degree?
G. Do any of the characters correspond to the parts of the tripartite self? (Id, ego, superego)
 H. What roles do psychological disorders and dreams play in this story?
I. Are the characters recognizable psychological types?
J. How might a psychological approach account for different responses in female and male
readers?
K. How does the work reflect the writer’s personal psychology?
L. What do the characters’ emotions and behaviors reveal about their psychological states?
M. How does the work reflect the unconscious dimensions of the writer’s mind?
N. How does the reader’s own psychology affect his response to the work?

VI. Sociological Approach: This approach focuses on man’s relationship to others in society, politics, religion,
and business.

This approach emphasizes “the recurrent universal patterns underlying most literary works.” Combining the
insights from anthropology, psychology, history, and comparative religion, mythological criticism “explores the
artist’s common humanity by tracing how the individual imagination uses myths and symbols common to
different cultures and epochs.” One key concept in mythlogical criticism is the archetype, “a symbol, character,
situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response,” which entered literary criticism from Swiss
psychologist Carl Jung. According to Jung, all individuals share a “‘collective unconscious,’ a set of primal
memories common to the human race, existing below each person’s conscious mind”—often deriving from
primordial phenomena such as the sun, moon, fire, night, and blood, archetypes according to Jung “trigger the
collective unconscious.” Another critic, Northrop Frye, defined archetypes in a more limited way as “a symbol,
usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of one’s literary
experience as a whole.” Regardless of the definition of archetype they use, mythological critics tend to view
literary works in the broader context of works sharing a similar pattern.

A. What is the relationship between the characters and their society?

B. Does the story address societal issues, such as race, gender, and class?
C. How do social forces shape the power relationships between groups or classes of people in the
story? Who has the power, and who doesn’t? Why?
D. How does the story reflect the Great American Dream?
E. How does the story reflect urban, rural, or suburban values?
F. What does the work say about economic or social power? Who has it and who doesn’t? Any
Marxist leanings evident?
G. Does the story address issues of economic exploitation? What role does money play?
H. How do economic conditions determine the direction of the characters’ lives?
I. Does the work challenge or affirm the social order it depicts?
J. Can the protagonist’s struggle be seen as symbolic of a larger class struggle?
How does the microcosm (small world) of the story reflect the macrocosm (large world) of the
society in which it was composed?
K. Do any of the characters correspond to types of government, such as a dictatorship, democracy,
communism, socialism, fascism, etc.? What attitudes toward these political structures/systems
are expressed in the work?
VII. Archetypal Approach: This approach focuses on connections to other literature, mythological/biblical
allusions, archetypal images, symbols, characters, and themes.

This approach emphasizes “the recurrent universal patterns underlying most literary works.” Combining the
insights from anthropology, psychology, history, and comparative religion, mythological criticism “explores the
artist’s common humanity by tracing how the individual imagination uses myths and symbols common to
different cultures and epochs.” One key concept in mythlogical criticism is the archetype, “a symbol, character,
situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response,” which entered literary criticism from Swiss
psychologist Carl Jung. According to Jung, all individuals share a “‘collective unconscious,’ a set of primal
memories common to the human race, existing below each person’s conscious mind”—often deriving from
primordial phenomena such as the sun, moon, fire, night, and blood, archetypes according to Jung “trigger the
collective unconscious.” Another critic, Northrop Frye, defined archetypes in a more limited way as “a symbol,
usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of one’s literary
experience as a whole.” Regardless of the definition of archetype they use, mythological critics tend to view
literary works in the broader context of works sharing a similar pattern.

A. How does this story resemble other stories in plot, character, setting, or symbolism?
B. What universal experiences are depicted?
C. Are patterns suggested? Are seasons used to suggest a pattern or cycle?
D. Does the protagonist undergo any kind of transformation, such as movement from innocence to
experience, that seems archetypal?
E. Are the names significant?
F. Is there a Christ-like figure in the work?
G. Does the writer allude to biblical or mythological literature? For what purpose?
H. What aspects of the work create deep universal responses to it?
I. How does the work reflect the hopes, fears, and expectations of entire cultures (for example,
the ancient Greeks)?
J. How do myths attempt to explain the unexplainable: origin of man? Purpose and destiny of
human beings?
K. What common human concerns are revealed in the story?
L. How do stories from one culture correspond to those of another? (For example, creation myths,
flood myths, etc.)
M. How does the story reflect the experiences of death and rebirth?
N. What archetypal events occur in the story? (Quest? Initiation? Scapegoating? Descents into the
underworld? Ascents into heaven?)
O. What archetypal images occur? (Water, rising sun, setting sun, symbolic colors)
P. What archetypal characters appear in the story? (Mother Earth? Femme Fatal? Wise old man?
Wanderer?)
Q. What archetypal settings appear? (Garden? Desert?)
R. How and why are these archetypes embodied in the work?

VIII. Feminist Criticism: This approach examines images of women and concepts of the feminine in
myth and literature; uses the psychological, archetypal, and sociological approaches; often focuses on female
characters who have been neglected in previous criticism. Feminist critics attempt to correct or supplement what
they regard as a predominantly male-dominated critical perspective.

This approach “examines how sexual identity influences the creation and reception of literary works.” Originally
an offshoot of feminist movements, gender criticism today includes a number of approaches, including the so-
called “masculinist” approach recently advocated by poet Robert Bly. The bulk of gender criticism, however, is
feminist and takes as a central precept that the patriarchal attitudes that have dominated western thought have
resulted, consciously or unconsciously, in literature “full of unexamined ‘male-produced’ assumptions.” Feminist
criticism attempts to correct this imbalance by analyzing and combatting such attitudes—by questioning, for
example, why none of the characters in Shakespeare’s play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband to
murder a wife accused of adultery. Other goals of feminist critics include “analyzing how sexual identity
influences the reader of a text” and “examin[ing] how the images of men and women in imaginative literature
reflect or reject the social forces that have historically kept the sexes from achieving total equality.”
A. How are women’s lives portrayed in the work?
B. Is the form and content of the work influenced by the writer’s gender?
C. How do male and female characters relate to one another? Are these relationships sources of
conflict? Are these conflicts resolved?
D. Does the work challenge or affirm traditional views of women?
E. How do the images of women in the story reflect patriarchal social forces that have impeded
women’s efforts to achieve full equality with men?
F. What marital expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these expectations
have?
G. What behavioral expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these expectations
have?
H. If a female character were male, how would the story be different (and vice versa)?
I. How does the marital status of a character affect her decisions or happiness?

Reader-Response Criticism -- “Reading is as much a creative act as the writing of a text.”

Formalist Criticism -- Focuses solely on a text, using the “elements” of literature and nothing else. The meaning
resides in the text, not in the reader, and we need to analyze the text to discover the meaning.

Biographical Criticism -- Uses events from the author’s life to illuminate the text.

Historical Criticism -- Uses a text’s historical context -- e.g., slavery, wars, depression, etc. -- to illuminate the
text.

Psychological Criticism -- Applies psychological and psychiatric concepts (esp. S. Freud) to texts,
characters, and/or authors.

Mythological Criticism -- Uses the “collective unconscious” and “archetypes” (esp. C. Jung and J. Campbell) to
study texts.

Feminist / Gender Criticism -- Focuses on the gender and/or the sexual orientation of either the author or the
characters or both.

Sociological Criticism -- Uses economic, racial, and political contexts -- e.g., Marxism, Social Darwinism, etc.

Cultural / New Historicist Criticism -- Uses interdisciplinary approaches to study a text -- e.g., using popular
music or advertisements to illuminate a text.

Post-Structuralist / Deconstructionist Criticism -- Believes that language is fundamentally unstable, which

leads to multiple, sometimes self-contradictory meanings in a text.

How to Write a Reaction Paper or Reader Response.

(A Quick Introduction to Reading and Writing Critically)

Analyze the text as an individual reader. This process is as much about YOU as it is about the text you are
responding to. As a scholar you stand in judgment over the text.

Critical reading:

[from the ENGL 0310 Syllabus] "A reader response asks the reader [you] to examine, explain and defend her/his
personal reaction to a reading. You will be asked to explore why you like or dislike the reading, explain whether
you agree or disagree with the author, identify the reading's purpose, and critique the text. There is no right or
wrong answer to a reader response. Nonetheless, it is important that you demonstrate an understanding of the
reading and clearly explain and support your reactions. "

DO NOT use the standard high school-level approach of just writing: "I liked this book (or article or document
or movie) because it is so cool and the ending made me feel happy," or "I hated it because it was stupid, and had
nothing at all to do with my life, and was too negative and boring." In writing a response you may assume the
reader has already read the text. Thus, do NOT summarize the contents of the text at length. Instead, take a
systematic, analytical approach to the text.

---First of all, be sure to mention the title of the work to which you are responding, the author, and the main thesis
of the text, using correct English for the first sentence of your paper!

Then, try to answer ALL of the questions below.

a. What does the text have to do with you, personally, and with your life (past, present or future)? It is not
acceptable to write that the text has NOTHING to do with you, since just about everything humans can write has
to do in some way with every other human.

b. How much does the text agree or clash with your view of the world, and what you consider right and wrong?
Use several quotes as examples of how it agrees with and supports what you think about the world, about right
and wrong, and about what you think it is to be human. Use quotes and examples to discuss how the text
disagrees with what you think about the world and about right and wrong.

c How did you learn, and how much were your views and opinions challenged or changed by this text, if at all?
Did the text communicate with you? Why or why not? Give examples of how your views might have changed or
been strengthened (or perhaps, of why the text failed to convince you, the way it is). Please do not write "I agree
with everything the author wrote," since everybody disagrees about something, even if it is a tiny point. Use
quotes to illustrate your points of challenge, or where you were persuaded, or where it left you cold.

d. How well does it address things that you, personally, care about and consider important to the world? How
does it address things that are important to your family, your community, your ethnic group, to people of your
economic or social class or background, or your faith tradition? If not, who does or did the text serve? Did it pass
the "Who cares?" test? Use quotes to illustrate

e. Critique the text. Reading and writing "critically" does not mean the same thing as "criticizing," in everyday
language (complaining or griping, fault-finding, nit-picking). Your "critique" can and should be positive and
praise the text if possible, as well as pointing out problems, disagreements and shortcomings.

f. How well did you enjoy the text (or not) as entertainment or as a work of art? Use quotes or examples to
illustrate the quality of the text as art or entertainment. Of course, be aware that some texts are not meant to be
entertainment or art--a news report or textbook, for instance, may be neither entertaining or artistic, but may still
be important and successful.
 g. To sum up, what is your overall reaction to the text? Would you read something else like this, or by this
author, in the future or not? Why or why not? To whom would you recommend this text?

An important tip from the UTEP History Tutoring Center: Your first draft is just that, and you should expect to re-
write your work several times before you consider it completed. This means you should start your writing project
in advance of the due date, in order to allow yourself enough time to revise your work. Ask someone else to read
your draft(s) and write their comments and suggestions on how you might improve the work directly on your
drafts.

Tips from UTEP History Prof. I.V. Montelongo:

The goal is to present a coherent essay with a clear argument. ...[Y]ou should state your general argument (your
thesis) in an introductory paragraph and then use the rest of the essay to support your position, making sure that
you deal carefully with each of the issues the questions raise somewhere in the paper.

1.) You don’t need to use footnotes. When quoting or citing from the documents or your textbook, simply put
author and page numbers in parenthesis. Ex. (Gorn, 52) or (Jones, 167). There is absolutely no need to refer to
other, outside sources for this assignment—this is a critical essay, not a research paper...

2.) Be very careful to avoid plagiarism. Do not use words or ideas from the internet, from any publication, or
from the work of another student without citing the source. Also, if you use more than three words in a row from
any source, including the document you’re writing about, those words must be enclosed in quotation marks

3.) Please just staple your papers in the upper left hand corner. You may use a title page if you like, but please
avoid plastic covers. [However, in English 0310 use no title page, and do not staple! O.W.]

4.) Your essay should be based primarily on evidence drawn from a close, careful reading of the documents. You
can also use appropriate background information from the textbook and lectures, but you should use most of your
space to discuss the documents.

5.) Writing style counts. You need to revise your paper multiple times to be a successful writer.