CRITICAL APPROACHES

TO LITERARY CRITICISM
Mary Kimberly Gerero
Literary Criticism
a fundamental aspect of the world of
literature, serves as the lens through which
we analyze and interpret literary works.
Literary Criticism Approaches

are analytical frameworks and methods used

by scholars, critics, and readers to interpret and
evaluate works of literature. These approaches
help us better understand the meaning,
significance, and artistic qualities of literary
texts. There are several major literary criticism
approaches, each with its own perspective and
focus.
1. FORMALISTIC APPROACH
emphasizes the form of a literary work to determine its
meaning, focusing on literary elements such as plot,
character, setting, diction, imagery, structure, and point of
view. Approaching literary works as independent systems
with interdependent parts, formalists typically subordinate
biographical information or historical data in their
interpretations. The proper concern of literary criticism is
with the work itself rather than with literary history, the life
of the author, or a work's social and historical contexts.
TENETS OF FORMALIST CRITICISM

1. That a literary work exists independent of any particular reader;

2. That a literary work exists outside of any reader’s re-creation of it
in the act of reading.
3. That the greatest literary works are “universal”, their wholeness
and aesthetic harmony; transcending the specific particularities they
describe.
 QUESTIONS COMMONLY USED IN THIS
APPROACH:
1. How is the work structured or organized?
2. How does it begin?
3. Where does it go next?
4. How does it end?
5. What is the work’s plot?
6. How is its plot related to its structure
7. What is the relationship of each part of the work as a whole?
8. How are the parts related to one another?
9. Who is narrating or telling what happens in the work?
10.How is the narrator, speaker or character revealed to the readers?
11.How do we come to know and understand this figure?
12. Who are the major and minor characters, what do they represent, and how do they relate to one
another?
13. What are the time and place of the work-its setting?
14. How is the setting related to what we know of the characters and their actions?
15. To what extent is the setting symbolic?
16. What kind of language does the author use to describe, narrate, explain, or otherwise create the world
of literary work
17. What images, similes, metaphors, symbols appear in the work? What is their function? What meanings
do they convey?
2. MORALIST APPROACH
◦ Is a type of literary critique that judges the value of the
literature based on its moral or ethical teachings.
◦ Its concern is not only to discover meaning but also to
determine whether works of literature are both true and
significant.
◦ It is used to determine whether a work conveys a lesson or
message and whether it can help readers lead better lives
and improve their understanding of the world.
 3. PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH
This form of literary criticism examines
literature based on the psychological
desires and neuroses of the characters
within a particular piece of literature.
Psychoanalytic critics believe that an
author’s unconscious thoughts are
expressed through their work.
The Influencers of this Approach

Sigmund Freud Carl Jung

Sigmund Freud
◦ put forward the theory that
literary texts are a manifestation
of the secret unconscious desires
and anxieties of the author.
Carl Jung
• explored the link between literature
and a concept called ‘collective
unconscious of the human race.’ This
theory claims that all stories and
symbols are based on models from
mankind’s past.
Kinds of Illumination
(Application of Knowledge to Art)
1. The constituents of the aesthetic experience was analyzed as
beauty as that is conducive to synaesthetic equilibrium-that
is a particular and harmonious kinds of response in the
audience, brought about by the stimulus of a work of art.
2. The criticism that employs an approach which assumes an
important part of the relationship between artist and art is
similar to that between patient and dream. The critic then
becomes the analyst, taking the art as the symptom by
interpretation of which he can discover the unconscious
repressions and drives of the artist.