1. Chapter 32: Critical Approaches Important in the Study of Literature
AP English Literature & Composition
Introduction to AP Literature

2. Literary Criticism Concerned with
Reading and interpreting stories, poems, and plays
Establishing a theoretical understanding of literature
May utilize a variety of lenses or approaches with which a reader can view and analyze the text.

3. Caveats for Critical Approaches
Not every approach is appropriate for every work.
The approaches are not always mutually exclusive.
A critic taking one approach may utilize methods that technically belong to another.
Most criticism is pragmatic or eclectic rather than rigid.

4. Ten Basic Approaches Moral / Intellectual Topical / Historical
New Critical / Formalist
Structuralist
Feminist Criticism / Gender Studies / Queer Theory
Economic Determinist / Marxist
Psychological / Psychoanalytic
Archetypal / Symbolic / Mythic
Deconstructionalist
Reader-Response

5. Moral / Intellectual
Concerned with content, ideas, and values (moral, philosophical, and religious).
Seeks to determine whether a work conveys a lesson or a message and whether it can help readers lead better lives and improve their understanding of the world.
Readers should be left with the decision to accept the ideas conveyed by the work.

6. Topical / Historical
Stresses the relationship of literature to its historical period, including
Words and concepts unfamiliar to modern readers
Biographical information about the author
Criticism of this approach is that it deals with the history rather than the literature
New Historicism: parallel reading of literary and nonliterary works to better understand the context of the literary work

7. New Critical / Formalist
Focuses on literary texts as formal works of art; discusses the use of literary elements in the manner of artistic technique
Goes beyond explaining the content (what does it say?) and evaluates artistic quality (how well is it said?)
One criticism of this approach is that it focuses on the author to the exclusion of the reader’s reaction.

8. Structuralist Attempts to discover the forms unifying all literature
Enables critics to discuss works from varied cultures and historical periods
Most appropriate for longer narrative literature (novels, myths, stories, plays, and films)

9. Feminist Criticism / Gender Studies / Queer Theory
Promotes reading of non-canonical women writers
Investigates how male and female characters are portrayed in literature, including
Whether societal norms are supported or subverted
The effect of patriarchal institutions (i.e. marriage)
Interested in how interpretations differ between the sexes (do men and women read and write things differently?)

10. Feminist Criticism / Gender Studies / Queer Theory continued
Brings attention to gender rather than sexual differences
Sees the masculine/feminine divide as socially constructed, not innate
Challenges traditional patriarchal modes of thinking, which tend to value male over female experience

11. Feminist Criticism / Gender Studies / Queer Theory continued
Interested in how homosexuals are portrayed in literature and whether they write or read literature differently than heterosexuals
Deals with lesbian and gay themes that
Are explicit, usually in modern literature
May be the subject of “veiled” references in canonical literature
Queer theory analysis is often theoretical.

12. Economic Determinist / Marxist
Karl Marx emphasized that the primary influence on life was economic; society is in continuous conflict between capitalist oppressors and oppressed working people
Approach judges literature from the perspective of economic and social class inequality and oppression.

13. Psychological / Psychoanalytic
Psychoanalysis: behavior is caused by hidden and unconscious motives
This approach may be used to
Explain the actions of fictional characters
What motives influence behavior and speech?
How much background info. does the author give?
Analyze authors and the artistic process
What life experiences relate to and explain characteristic subjects or preoccupations?

14. Archetypal / Symbolic / Mythic
Presupposes that human life is built up out of patterns (archetypes) that are similar throughout various cultures and historical times
Similar to structuralist analysis
Common archetypes
God’s / god’s creation of human beings
Sacrifice of a hero
Search for paradise

15. Deconstructionist
Seeks to challenge and undermine logocentrism (belief that the words of a text directly express the author’s intentions)
Assumes the instability of language and impossibility of arriving at a fixed standard
General strategy
Begin with standard formalist reading of text
Undermine formalist interpretation in order to yield a new reading of the text

16. Reader-Response
Phenomenology: our knowledge is based on our collective and personal understanding of the world and our conclusions about it
A literary work is the result of the relationship and interaction between the author, the text, and the reader.

17. Reader-Response continued
Literature is not fully created until the reader assimilates and actualizes it.
This method is initially personal and anecdotal.
The more that readers bring to the literature (experiences, knowledge, interests, and studies) the more competent and comprehensive their “transactions” will be.