CRITICAL METHODOLOGIES

LITERARY THEORY Literature (as well as art and culture) can be read and analyzed through a number of different critical lenses Choosing a critical methodology helps the critic focus on a specific aspect of a text in greater detail and/or with greater insight No matter how many times you may have encountered a text, you can always gain a new and deeper understanding of it by reading through the lens of a new critical methodology

FORMALISM Looks at a text as an entity that exists by itself (not in relation to its time, its author, its cultural context) Analyzes only the form of the text and compares the text only to itself Focuses on form and internal textual relationships

NEW HISTORICISM AND CULTURAL STUDIES Understands a text in relation to the culture and politics during the time in which it was created The historical moment can give us insights into the text The text can give us insights into the cultural moment The readers/viewers of the text can never exist in a position outside of their own cultural moment All meaning is contingent upon context Meaning is subjective

FEMINIST CRITICISM Analyzes how texts perpetuate or challenge patriarchal hierarchies Patriarchal structures infiltrate multiple, intersecting aspects of a person’s experience in the world and are often reflected in texts Questions how these influences and assumptions play out in a text Interested in achieving equality of representation in literature, art, and culture

CRITICAL RACE THEORY Examines the appearance of race and racism Works to analyze how racism is expressed in texts and how “victims of systemic racism are affected by cultural perceptions of race and how they are able to represent themselves to counter prejudice.” Recognizes that an individual’s experience in the world is not impacted by his or her race alone, but also by other intersecting aspects of identity (class, gender, nation, sexual orientation, ability, etc.). Emphasizes the importance of finding a way for diverse individuals to share their experiences.

PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM Sigmund Freud ( ) Repression: our instincts or primitive urges (such as sexuality) are repressed, but the repressed always returns in other forms (such as dreams and unconscious behaviors) Oedipus Complex: the desire to sleep with the mother and kill the father Parts of the psyche: Id: oriented toward instincts and passions Ego: oriented toward reason, sanity, and the real world Superego: polices “unacceptable desires” The Uncanny

PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM (FRENCH FEMINIST) Julia Kristeva (1941- ) The Abject The human reaction (horror, vomit) to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object, self and other. Anything that causes a reaction of simultaneous fascination and repulsion because it disrupts our understanding of binary oppositions. A “vortex of summons and repulsion” Corpses Open wounds Shit/sewage The skin on the surface of milk Nail parings

QUEER STUDIES Explores the existence and/or marginalization of non-normative genders, sexualities, and desires in a text Reclaims violently marginalized identities and terms (such as “queer”--noun, adjective, verb) Questions notions of the “natural” or “biological” in relation to gender and sexuality Depends on social constructionist theories in order to understand and explain how gender and sexual hierarchies are created by culture Challenges binaries Male/Female Gay/Straight Masculine/Feminine Radical/Assimilationist

AND THERE ARE MORE… If you are interested in reading more about these critical methodologies and others, I encourage you to visit Purdue’s Online Writing Lab website

LET’S TRY THIS Get into 7 groups Each group will be assigned a critical methodology Analyze a portion of The Haunting of Hill House or “A Rose for Emily” the using the lens of your assigned theory Choose a single passage or element to focus on Take notes using a triple entry format (interpretation in one column, quotes in the middle, explanation in the third column0 Direct the class to the specific portion of the text and provide a textual analysis in order to explain your critical reading