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. Formalist 2. Biographical 3. Historical 4. Psychological 5. Mythological 6. Sociological 7. Gender 8. Reader-Response 9. Deconstructionist 10. 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