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Literary criticism vs literary analysis

OBJECTIVES
• Define literary analysis
• Understand purpose of literary analysis
• Understand the components of good writing: depth, complexity,
quality
• Tips for effective analysis
• Analysis of Literary Elements: diction, conflict, character, images,
symbols, figurative language, theme and form/style
 LITERARY ANALYSIS

A literary analysis explains a literary work

in a formal essay. The work (novel, short
story, or poem) is described by the use of
the literary elements and the intention of
the author.
 LITERARY ANALYSIS

Literary analysis assumes knowledge of

the work and therefore does not
provide a summary.

Each analysis paper supports a clearly

defined thesis to be proved about the
work; it is PERSUASIVE.
PURPOSE OF ANALYSIS
The ultimate end of analysis is a deeper
understanding and a fuller appreciation
of the literature –
you learn
to see more,
to uncover or create
richer, denser, more interesting
meanings.
YOU MIGHT BE ASKING---

WHAT DO I LOOK FOR?

To begin to analyze written work

a common way of identifying the
qualities that characterize it as
'good' by examining its ….
When we are looking deeply into the text we see
that we are formed largely by culture

we have common human needs (Remember:

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?)
we experience life with complexity
our lives hold symbolic and historical meaning

When you read remember that authors are

demonstrating to us that there is more to life
than our physical sense of it.

Authors seek to define some of the forces and

feelings which give importance to our being.
Think in terms of our human experience as:

being made up by interacting factors -- environment, character,

situation and so forth, and
comprised of a number of different elements -- thought, feeling,
sensation, memory, imagination, significant symbols, culturally-
formed ways of saying and thinking.

Our experience is complex.

 In order to suggest the complexities and the depth of experience,
literature has to use all of its resources well.

 The more the resources of language and meaning are used to

reveal the depth and complexity the more we say this work has
QUALITY.
STRATEGIES TO FOLLOW FOR EFFECTIVE
ANALYSIS

Read the text

Consider related viewpoints

Consider literary elements

Quick Tips Critical viewpoint
Political viewpoint: consider how
political systems and politics are
portrayed in the work;
Feminist viewpoint: consider how the
work portrays women and approaches
gender roles;
Ethnic viewpoint: consider how ethnic
groups are portrayed within the work
Quick Tips Critical viewpoint
Consider other perspectives where appropriate

 religious
 psychological
 belief systems

The caution here is to accurately represent the

text and support all interpretations by evidence
in the text.
 STO
First…. P

and read the novel. Take notes

along the way, considering the
literary elements while you
read
Literary Elements
CHARACTER
Consider what consistent qualities the character
has, what motivates the character, what
complexities the character shows, does the
character change or remain the same.

Are the characters dynamic, static, round or flat?

Character Types
• Flat Characters: one-sided or less developed characters. These
characters are usually minor characters or represent something
stereotypical.
•Round Characters: are multi-dimensional and are usually the
protagonist. These are more developed characters and seem more
real.
•Dynamic Characters: are characters who go through a significant
change in the story. The protagonist is usually a dynamic character.
•Static Characters: are characters who do not change throughout the
story.

•When we discuss character types, we look for qualities that are:

• Physical – hair color, physical description
• Implied/Inferred – these are characteristics about their
personality (shy, funny, racist, amiable)
Character Types
• In the story Cinderella, how would you describe these
characters?
• The Prince
• Flat and Static
• Cinderella
• Round and Dynamic
• The Evil Stepmother
• Flat and Static
•In describing Cinderella, the writer might say:
• Cinderella is a beautiful, young woman with blonde hair
(physical). She is sweet and kind (implied). She is the
protagonist of the story and is a round, dynamic
character.
Literary Elements
DICTION
Focus on THE WORDS of the work.

Ask:
Is the language clear or does the author use
metaphors and similes?
Is this the language of emotion or reason?
What images are created?
How has dialogue been used? Does it add
meaning to the novel?
CONNOTATION

Analyze the figures of speech and sound effects of the work.

These elements add to the meaning.

Literary Elements
CONFLICT
List all of the conflicts or tensions in the work and

fill them out with examples or evidence from the work

Draw conclusions about the conflict.

Consider the universal ideas of conflict:

• Man vs. Man
• Man vs. Nature
• Man vs. Society
• Man vs. Self
• Man vs. Religion
• Man vs. Machine
• Man vs. Supernatural
THEME
As you already know, theme is the central idea or
message the author is sharing with the reader.
It does not make a judgment.
For example: “Drugs are bad” is not a theme.
It merely states something that is true about life and the
human condition.
Your theme is the opinion component of your thesis
statement.
Literary Elements
THEME
Look for the meaning in the
text, but don’t settle for the
first thing you see.

Make a list of all possible

themes stated in complete
sentences and in universal
terms

Example:
One theme of “The Pearl” is
that greed can be a destructive
force.
How do I find the THEME?
Read the entire novel.
Consider the literary
elements.
What message are the
literary elements trying
to convey to the
reader?
What is the author
trying to say about life?
 Each genre or type of
Literary Elements literature has its own
FORM/STYLE principles of style and
form.
Poetry
is Fiction is examined by
examined considering narrative
through point of view, setting,
word choice or
rhyme, rhythm, characterization.
sound devices,
and format

Drama’s unique element is staging, the

props, actors’ gestures, lighting, the set, and
visual effects.
ATTITUDE
Tone is the attitude of the
speaker toward the novel.
Literary Elements
IMAGES
Most literature can be analyzed through
images and symbols.

Scan the work, listing images, symbols,

searching for patterns and repetitions.

Write down page references and your first

interpretations.
 REFERENCES
Bauman, M. G. (2007). Ideas & details: A guide to college writing. Massachusetts: Thomson

Wadsworth: 273-307.

Images from Microsoft Office 2003 clipart

Knott Poetry Analysis Using TPCASTT retrieved on January 25, 2008 from

images.schoolinsites.com/.../BakerHigh/Uploads/Presentat ions/Poetry%20Analysis%20Using

%20TPCASTTknott.ppt

Lye, J. (2000). Critical reading: A guide. Retrieved August 15, 2003 from

http://www.brocku.ca/english/jlye/criticalreading.html
Poetry explications. (2007). The Writing Center. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Retrieved on January 17, 2009 from
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/poetry-explication.html

Quotations about Poetry, (2008). The Quote Garden: A Harvest of Quotes for Word Lovers

Retrieved on January 30, 2008 from http://www.quotegarden.com/poetry.html

Quick Tips Reading

Read s l o w l y, p a y a t t e n t i o n to every word

Use your gut (initial) reactions

Take notes on your impressions and observations

Try to discover the author’s purpose--research

what the authors have said about their work or
historical events that relate to the work
 LITERARY CRITICISM

The paradigms and the possibilities…

DEFINITION …
Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation
of literature.
Let's try again …
"Literary criticism is the evaluation of literary works. This includes the
classification by genre, analysis of structure, and judgement of value."
And again …
"Literary criticism asks what literature is, what it does, and what it is
worth."
In my own words …
Literary criticism is the method used to interpret any given work of
literature. The different schools of literary criticism provide us with
lenses which ultimately reveal important aspects of the literary work.
Why do we have to analyze everything????
• Talking about experiences enhances our enjoyment of them
• Talking about experiences involves the search for meaning which
increases our understanding of them
• Because Socrates said so: "The life which is unexamined is not worth
living."
To further explain …
Literary criticism helps us to understand what is important about the text
• its structure
• its context: social, economic, historical
• what is written
• how the text manipulates the reader
And there's more …
• Literary criticism helps us to understand the relationship between
authors, readers, and texts

• The act of literary criticism ultimately enhances the enjoyment of

our reading of the literary work
Literary Criticism
Literary criticism has two main functions:
1. To analyze, study, and evaluate works of literature.
2. To form general principles for the examination of works of
literature.
What is literary theory?

• The capacity to generalize about phenomena and to develop concepts

that form the basis for interpretation and analysis—in this instance, of
a “literary” text.
YOU'RE GOING TO STUDY EIGHT
PARADIGMS …
1. Formalism
2. Marxism
3. Feminism
4. Psychoanalytic
5. Cultural Criticism
6. Structuralism
7. Post-structuralism
8. Archetypal
But there are many more …
• Author intention
• Reader Response
• Biological
• Cognitive scientific
• Moralist
• Queer
• Socio-political
• Sociological
• And so many more …
THE 4 CRITICAL
VARIABLES of LITERARY 1. The World
THEORY & CRITICISM

2. The Author

Beyond the Real Other

3. The Text
World World Texts
Text = Symbol, Text = Objective ITS CONTEXT Text = Ideologically
reality constructed language
Archetype
4. The Reader
Formalism: the TEXT (as art) Gender Studies: WORLD/author/text/reader

Structuralism: the TEXT (as language Postcolonial: AUTHOR/world/text/reader

system) Marxist: WORLD/text
Psychoanalytic: AUTHOR/READER/text Territorial: TEXT/[reader/ author/world])
Reader Response:
READER/TEXT/community of readers
w/shared values
Understanding the Map

• The work itself is placed in the center because all approaches

must deal, to some extent or another, with the text itself.
• Formalism and deconstruction are placed here also because
they deal primarily with the text and not with any of the
outside considerations such as author, the real world,
audience, or other literature. Meaning, formalists argue, is
inherent in the text. Because meaning is determinant, all
other considerations are irrelevant.
• Deconstructionists also subject texts to careful, formal
analysis; however, they reach an opposite conclusion: there is
no meaning in language.
Cont'd …

• A historical approach relies heavily on the author and his world.

In the historical view, it is important to understand the author
and his world in order to understand his intent and to make
sense of his work. In this view, the work is informed by the
author's beliefs, prejudices, time, and history, and to fully
understand the work, we must understand the author and his
age.
• An intertextual approach is concerned with comparing the work
in question to other literature, to get a broader picture.
• Reader-Response is concerned with how the work is viewed by
the audience. In this approach, the reader creates meaning, not
the author or the work.
Cont'd …
• Mimetic criticism seeks to see how well a work accords with the real
world (is it accurate? correct? moral? ). 

• Then, beyond the real world are approaches dealing with the spiritual
and the symbolic--the images connecting people throughout time
and cultures (archetypes). This is mimetic in a sense too, but the
congruency looked for is not so much with the real world as with
something beyond the real world--something tying in all the
worlds/times/cultures inhabited by humans.
Cont'd …
• The Psychological approach is placed outside these poles because it
can fit in many places, depending how it is applied:
(1) Historical if diagnosing the author himself
(2) Mimetic if considering if characters are acting by "real world"
standards and with recognizable psychological motivations
(3) Archetypal when the idea of the Jungian collective unconscious is
included
(4) Reader-Response when the psychology of the reader--why he sees
what he sees in the text--is examined.
Cont'd …
• Likewise, Feminist, Minority, Marxist, and other such approaches
may fit in:
(1) Historical if the author's attitudes are being examined in relation
to his times (i.e. was Shakespeare a feminist for his times, though he
might not be considered so today?)
(2) Mimetic--when asking how well characters accord with the real
world. Does a black character act like a black person would, or is he a
stereotype? Are women being portrayed accurately? Does the work
show a realistic economic picture of the world?
There are so many possible answers …
What does this literary work mean?
• Different approaches or lenses help us to discover rich and deeper
meaning
• Each lens has its strengths and weaknesses
• Each lens is valuable
• Try to become a pluralist rather than an inflexible supporter of one
Types of Literary
Theory
Formalism
• Has the advantage of forcing writers to evaluate a work on its own
terms rather than to rely on “accepted” notions of the writer’s work
• Works best when applied to poetry and short fiction.
Formalism
• Attempts to discover meaning by close reading of a work of literature.
Focus is on:
• Form, organization, and structure
• Word choice and language
• Multiple meanings
• Considers the work in isolation, disregarding author’s intent, author’s
background, context, and anything else outside of the work itself.
Formalism/New Criticism
• The formalist movement began in England with the publication of I.A.
Richards’ Practical Criticism (1929).
• American critics (such as John Crowe Ransom, Robert Penn Warren,
and Cleanth Brooks) adapted formalism and termed their adaptation
“New Criticism.”
Formalism/New Criticism
• New Criticism varied from formalism in that New Criticism focuses on
image, symbol, and meaning. Traditional formalists often attacked
New Critics for their lack of attention to the form of the work.
• Seminal works on New Criticism include John Crowe Ransom’s The
New Criticism (1941) and Cleanth Brooks’ The Well Wrought Urn
(1947).
NEW CRITICISM

• Meaning resides in the text—not in reader,

author, or world
• Texts may contain numerous messages, but must
have a unifying central theme created by the
perfect union of all artistic elements.
• Texts are artistic creations
• Close reading is the basis of new critical analysis
• The methodology for finding meaning is clear-
cut; the tools are unique to literary analysis

*one type of formalism

Impact of Formalism
Today, few critics adhere only to the formalist or New Criticism theory.
However, its back-to-the-basics approach pervades many other critical
theories.
Reader-Response Criticism
• 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.
Reader-Response Criticism
• Reader-response theory has been criticized as being overly
impressionistic and guilty of the affective fallacy (too focused on the
emotional effect of the work). Less tactful critics have plainly said
that it is not intellectual.
• These attacks resulted in an adaptation of reader-response criticism
called reception theory.
READER RESPONSE

Text has many interpretations—text & reader interact to

create meaning

Meaning ultimately resides in the reader’s mind

or the consensual “mind” of a community of readers
(this class, for example)

A text’s truth is relative

Readers may reach the same conclusions about a

work--but approach the task quite differently
Reader-Response/Reception Theory
Reception theory is applied to the general reading public rather than an
individual reader.
• Each generation has different experiences, values, issues, etc.
• Therefore, each generation will read a work differently.
STRUCTURALISM

• Meaning resides in the structure of language, not in

art nor in the reader’s mind
• Scientific approach to literary analysis:
structure of language as a logical sign system
determines meaning
• Two levels of language: langue (“the King’s English”) &
parole (everyday speech)
• Interpret a text or part of a text by taking its language
apart (study word derivations, sentence syntax, etc.)
Biographical Criticism
• Analyzes an author’s life in regard to their work
• Can enhance the understanding of a work
• Must be used carefully—example: Kate Chopin
Sociological Criticism
Maintains that the literary work cannot be separated from the social
context in which it was created. In general, sociological criticism
examines one of these two aspects:
• Conditions of production, such as schools, magazines, publishers, and
fashions.
• The applicability of a given work—fiction especially—in studying the
dynamics of a given society.
Types of Sociological Criticism
Sociological theory is so broad that it can be subdivided in many
different categories. Two dominant theories we’ll study are
• Feminist criticism
• Marxist criticism
Feminist Criticism
• Feminist criticism grew out of the women’s movement that followed
World War II.
• Feminist critics analyze the role of gender in works of literature.
Leading critic Elaine Showalter describes two purposes of feminist
criticism:
• Feminist critique: The analysis of works by male authors, especially in the
depiction of women’s writing
• Gynocriticism: The study of women’s writing
Feminist Criticism
Feminist critics have been responsible for recovering neglected works
by women authors through the ages and creating a canon of women’s
writing.
A case in point is Kate Chopin. She was fairly widely published in the
1890s, but her work was largely neglected by literary critics until the
1960s, when Chopin was “rediscovered” by feminist critics.
FEMINIST CRITICISM

Meaning is socially constructed.

Texts have more than one interpretation
Texts are commodities (products of
society)
Truth is relative, highly dependent on
arbitrary categories of difference, esp.
those based on “sex” and “gender”
Look for systems of containment; for evidence
of repression, oppression, suppression,
subversion, & rebellion in texts by women;
study women’s unique ways of understanding
and writing about the human condition.
Marxist Criticism
• Marxist criticism is 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
• Marxist critics 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.
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
• 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).
New Historicism
• 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.
NEW HISTORICISM

• Literature is one among many socially constructed texts. If there is a

difference, it’s the intentional use of the imagination to convey ideas.
• History is every bit as subjective as intentionally imaginative texts
• Purpose of analyzing literature is to locate hidden social messages,
especially those that promote oppression.
• Texts have no final interpretation
• Language, though socially constructed, is stable enough to be useful.
• Find a small intriguing or odd piece of the text and interpret it by
comparing it to contemporary sign systems—magazines, newspapers,
fads, laws. Try to locate uses & abuses of power.
Psychoanalytic Criticism
• Analyzes literature to reveal insights about the way the human mind
works.
• Is based on the work of Sigmund Freud and his disciples.
• Works well as a method of analyzing characters’ actions and
motivations.
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 Approach
• Largely attributed to Carl Jung, a disciple of Sigmund Freud
• Archetype: a model or pattern from which all other things of a similar
nature are made
Mythological Approach

• Collective Unconscious--there are certain basic and central images

and experiences that are inherent in the human psyche
• 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
Examples of Archetypes
Common Themes:
• Stories of quest and initiation
• Descents into the underworld
• Ascents into heaven
• Search for father/mother
• Fall from innocence
Examples of Archetypes
Characters:
• Scapegoat
• Hero/Villian
• Outcast
• Temptress
• Mother/Father
• Mentor