APPROACHES

TO
LITERARY CRITICISM
Maiden Pearl O. Maderal
QUICK REFRESHMENT
Mechanics:
• Everybody are encouraged to answer.
• You are only given 10 seconds to answer by stating “May I,
then your last name.”
• Each correct answer garners two points and that is recorded.
• I will read the question first and you will be given the signal
“GO” if it is time to answer.
• The first one to open his/her mic will be given the chance to
state his/her answer.
• Your points will be directly given to Mr. Palad.
ARE YOU ALL
READY
???

Let’s Start
 A.
LITERARY CRITIC

B.
The evaluation, analysis, LITERATURE CRITIC

description, or
interpretation of literary C.
works. LITERARY CRITICISM
 C.
Literary Criticism
 A.
HISTORICAL
APPROACH

B.
BIOGRAPHICAL
Sees literature as both a APPROACH

reflection and a product of

the times and C.
circumstances in which it FORMALISTIC
APPROACH
is written.
 A.
Historical Approach
 A.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
APPROACH

B.
BIOGRAPHICAL
It analyzes a writer's APPROACH

biography to show the

relationship between the C.
author's life and their FORMALISTIC
APPROACH
works of literature.
 B.
Biographical
Approach
 A.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
APPROACH

B.
BIOGRAPHICAAL
APPROACH

It studies text as a text

where generally, it C.
emphasizes the form of FORMALISTIC
APPROACH
the work.
 C.
Formalistic
Approach
 A.
PHILOSOPHICAL
APPROACH

B.
BIOGRAPHICAAL
APPROACH

This approach focuses on

themes, view of the world, C.
moral statements, author's FORMALISTIC
APPROACH
philosophy, etc.
 A.
Philosophical
Approach
 A.
PHILOSOPHICAL
APPROACH

B.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
It led to new ideas about APPROACH

nature of the creative

process, the mind of the C.
FORMALISTIC
artist, and the motivation APPROACH
of characters.
 B.
Psychological
Approach
 A.
ALFRED ADLER

B.
CARL ROGERS

Who developed the

Psychological Approach C.
with his followers in the SIGMUND FREUD

late 1800's and early 1900's?

 C.
Sigmund Freud
 CONGRATULATIONS
&
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
COOPERATION

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

 APPROACHES
TO
LITERARY CRITICISM
continuation…
Maiden Pearl O. Maderal
 OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the lesson, students are expected to:

1. Critic literary piece using the theories of different

psychologists;
2. Apply the approaches to visuals and articles;
 Focuses on the motivation of the
character.

Other psychologist who created

theories:

● Alfred Adler

● Carl Rogers
PSYCHOLOGICAL
● Maslow
APPROACH
● B.F. Skinner
ALFRED ADLER Individual Psychology

Birth order is Children develop a narrative

about who they are and they
significant to Adler live out this narrative

Two Ways:
1. Inferiority Complex- Strong
He felt that the manner in which
feeling of Inferiority + No
you are coddled or the manner in
courage of striving
which you are treated has a 2. Superiority Complex-
significant impact on your success Inferiority + You can’t accept
as an adult. your incapable self.
 Okonkwo in “Things Fall Apart”
He is proud, ambitious and ill-tempered man. He wants to cover his father's
failure by his greatness so he won't feel shame with his father's name.

Okonkwo's life was dominated by fear of failure and fear of becoming like
his lazy shameful father. He hates being treated or thought of as weak that's why he
became a man of action, a man of war.

A man who never showed any emotion openly, unless it would be the emotion
of anger. But deep down in the warrior's heart, was not a cruel man.

There is a clash between sharing the true emotion and maintaining the show
of his strength.
 ● Closely linked of ideal self and real self.

CARL ● If a person had a significant discrepancy

between the ideal self and real self then the

ROGERS individual would have an unhealthy self

image and personality.
● understand your limitations and the “real”
strengths and weaknesses in your
Examining self was personality.
critical to him ● Consider the story of “The Necklace”
 The Necklace
Guy De Maupassant
It is a story of a middle-class lady named Matilda. She
was born in a clerk family and was married to a clerk
named M Loisel. She was very pretty but was dissatisfied
in life because of her ‘poverty’. Once she borrowed a
necklace from her friend Madame Forestier and lost it at
the party. To replace the necklace, she had to live a very
miserable life. The tale is about how her desire to have
more, lead to her ruin.
ABRAHAM
MASLOW
Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs helps explain how a
person’s ability to be ● Once the basics of life are secure, then a
emotionally secure is
person can advance to a belonging stage
linked with having a
and then it is possible for an individual to
strong, secure foundation
work toward a state of Self-Actualization.
that includes a safe home
environment and food.
 Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is centred around two itinerant workers, George and Lennie, in California in
the 1930s as they start work on a ranch in a place called Soledad (a Spanish word meaning
‘solitude’). The whole story takes place over a period of four days, starting on Thursday evening and
ending on Sunday. While at the ranch, George and Lennie meet other characters, who emphasise the
loneliness and difficulty of life for the people living and working in these places.

George is a small, intelligent man who looks after his friend Lennie, a large, strong man who has a
learning disability. Lennie’s strength becomes increasingly problematic throughout the story as it
becomes clear that he does not understand how much damage he can cause.

At several points during the novel, the two men discuss their dream of owning their own ranch and
working for themselves, but this is shown to be impossible as by the end of the book Lennie has
accidentally killed a woman and George’s only option is to shoot him before he is caught.
 ● He felt that individual personality was
formed based on positive and
B.F. SKINNER negative reinforcers and that using
positive and negative reinforcement
could alter an individual’s behavior.
Skinner was a behaviorist known
for developing his theories
● Skinner was quoted as saying:
involving reinforcers.
“Education is what survives when
what has been learned has been
forgotten.”
 LORD OF THE FLIES
William Golding
The plot concerns a group of British boys who are
stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous
attempts to govern themselves.

• Consider what is learned about Ralph(protagonist) and Jack(antagonist)

• Consider what Ralph learns the moment he realized that they were stranded.
• What type of reinforcement does Ralph use with his boys? How about Jack to
his boys called hunters?
Common Questions for the Psychological Approach:
• What motivates the characters’ actions?
• What is the nature of the creative process that led to this literature?
• How do the theories of various psychologists apply to the plot or characters?
• What level of Maslow’s hierarchy is motivating the actions of various
characters? • How does the family dynamic play out in the plot and character
relationships?
• Which psychological theory can be applied to the characters?
• Is there evidence of the unconscious, repression or the tripartite psyche?
• Are any of the characters demonstrating a particular complex?
• What is the nature of the interpersonal relationships among the characters?
 ● focuses on the relationship
between literature and society.

● Literature is always produced in a

social context. Writers may affirm
or criticize the values of the
society in which they live, but they
SOCIOLOGICAL write for an audience and that
audience is society.

APPROACH
 ● It studies and analyses the social
context or the social background of
the novel, poem, drama, or the
prose piece.

● It explains the various literary

techniques and methods used by
SOCIOLOGICAL the writer to depict and describe
the social background in which the

APPROACH
characters are placed.
 Marxist
Criticism:
● Marx criticized the exploitation of the
To understand the Sociological working classes, or the proletariat, by
Approach, a student must the capitalist classes who owned the
understand some of the principals
mines, factories and other resources
related to the studies of Karl
Marx, one of the most important of national economies.
theorists of the relationship
between society, politics and
economics.

• Central to Marx’s
understanding of society is the
concept of ideology. As an
economic determinist, Marx
thought that the system of
production was the most basic
fact in social life. Workers
created the value of
manufactured goods, but owners
of the factories reaped most of
the economic rewards.
● Other concerns for Marx included the
role of religion in the lives of the
workers. Some of the Marxist quotes
reference that religion, any religion,
has a tendency to make the worker
complacent.
● Marx had other significant comments
for journalism and the media. He felt
that the agents of media could create
a “false consciousness”
 Thus, Marx was an advocate for
common man. When Marxist theory is
applied, it looks at how the role of the
common man/woman is presented and
the struggles they face.
 BALLAD OF THE
LANDLORD
Langston Hughes

● Consider the uniqueness of each

stanza?
● Why is one stanza italicized?
● Why is the last stanza in all capital
letters?
 As you consider the Sociological Approach,
keep in mind that Marxist theory is one narrow
approach to a broad approach that essentially
deals with the relationship between people in
society and branches of society.
 ● This approach is a sub-category of
the Sociological Approach. It
examines the role and image of
women in literature, media, art,
and other forms of text.
GENDER ● Likewise, we can also apply an

APPROACH/ analysis of men and their

stereotypical roles throughout time
and how they interact with women
FEMINIST and how their image and roles are
presented in text.

APPROACH
Consider Curly’s Wife and her image and role in the novel.

Consider the relationship between Okonkwo and his wives.

If you want to apply the concept to film, consider the role of

women in the movie, Hidden Figures.
Common Questions for the Sociological Approach:
• What is the relationship between the characters and their society?
• Does the story address societal issues, such as race, gender, and class?
• How does the story reflect the Great American Dream?
• How does the story reflect urban, rural, or suburban values?
• 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?
• What does the work say about economic or social power? Who has it and who doesn’t? Any
Marxist leanings evident?
• Does the story address issues of economic exploitation? What role does money play?
• How do economic conditions determine the direction of the characters’ lives? • Does the
work challenge or affirm the social order it depicts?
• 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?
• 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?
 THANK YOU
for listening & keep safe 
Good Job Everyone
!