We’ll play Name That Critical Approach game at the end, so be ready!

   A way of talking about literature The lens through which we like to examine literature For example • People who believe that understanding the author’s life can help readers better understand his/her work, often use Biographical Criticism

 There are many critical approaches however here are some major ones to which we may be referring: 1.

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Formalist Biographical Historical Psychological Mythological Sociological Gender Reader-Response Deconstructionist Cultural Studies

   Reader-based • Literature does not exist separate from those who read it • An individual’s background and feelings are part of how they read and interpret literature Text-based • Primarily look at the work itself, separate from context in which it was written or who wrote it Context-based • Examines the context in which a work was produced

  Strongly examines elements such as plot, character, style and tone, irony, symbol, etc. Believes that studying these elements is the most significant way to find meaning about the text  Seeks to examine a work in isolation from • the reader,  • the author, • the context in which it was written Do you think this approach is reader, text, or context based?

  Examines how details and people in author’s life have affected a work Might examine the events of writer’s life, (Hemingway’s reporting about the Spanish Civil war) and use them to better understand For Whom

the Bell Tolls

  Might examine multiple drafts to try and decipher why a writer crafted the way she did Danger: often life stories can overwhelm the literature, making it difficult to understand or examine the work for its own merits

  Seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it Context includes author’s biography   Less concerned with a work’s significance today than what it meant in its time How the time and place of a story’s creation affect its meaning

 Emphasizes the underlying meaning in literature in relationship to psychological components  • Sexual symbols, dreams, repressed feelings, an individual character’s conscious and/or subconscious motives, etc. The critic might look at a character’s psychological make-up, sanity, etc.

    An interdisciplinary approach Often draws from anthropology, comparative religion, history, and psychology Explore literature through examination of common humanity Commonly discuss archetypes in literature: symbols or situations that evoke a universal response • Coming of age motif • • The hero’s journey Good v. evil as seen in light v. dark

  Examines literature in the cultural, economic, and political context in which is it written or received Looks at the relationship of the artist and society • • How the social classes of characters influence their outcomes The political or social statements a work offers

   Examines how sexual identity influences the creation and reception of literary works Began with the feminist movement Often looks at how text by examining “male produced” assumptions in works    Men’s movement: seeks to examine ideas of masculinity May examine how women are stereotyped or what roles they play in literatureI nfluenced by sociology, psychology, and anthropology

   Attempts to describe what happens in the reader’s mind while reading a text Acknowledges that different readers come to a text with different backgrounds that will affect their interpretations Though it rejects the idea that there is a singular, correct interpretation, it notes that there are not an infinite number of interpretations

   No central methodology is used Interdisciplinary field Primary looks at the nature of social power as revealed in “texts” • • Cereal boxes Commercials  • Literature Seeks to identify the overt and covert values reflected in a cultural practice

 See handout