THIS PRESENTATION WILL INTRODUCE YOU ON HOW TO

APPROACH A TEXT FROM A VARIETY OF PERSPECTIVES

Critical Strategies for Reading & Writing

Reader’s Response

What is in reader’s mind not in the writing

Meaning evolves with reader, writing does not have a formula or pattern

About reader’s feelings not about meaning

About how a reader’s experiences, memories, and impressions shape the meaning of the text

Formalist

Focus on language, structure, and tone

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Study relationship between

literary devices and meaning

Applying Formalist It is understanding written exactly as it

is presented within literary devices

Helps the reader find the relationship between the form or arrangement of the piece and its meaning

There is no focus on the author’s life or the time period the text was written in

Focus is strictly upon how literary devices convey meaning

Deconstructionist

Do not have fixed meanings Disestablish meaning rather than

establish Focus on gaps, ambiguity, patterns Argues that close examination will

reveal conflicting, contradictory interpretations

Biographical

Analyze an author’s life in relation to text

Analyze how characters may be based on people known by the author

Applying Biographical

Female Characters of “Frankenstein” in relation to Mary Shelley’s life:

Characters have the same qualities as Shelleya lack of family support

treated unjustly (Justine)

not credited with wisdom or accomplishments (Safie)

Psychological Sigmund Freud

• Dreams• Unconscious Desires• Sexual Repression• Aspects of Psyche

• Id• Ego• Superego

Oedipus Complex- a boys unconscious rivalry with his father for his mothers love and his desire to eliminate his father in order to take his fathers place with his mother.

Electra complex- a daughters unconscious rivalry for her father.

Applying Psychological

The mental state of Victor of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” can be applied here.

Upon evaluation, Victor is not within his right mind. His Id tells him not to bring this creature to life, his superego tells him this will be a great scientific discovery, and his ego chooses to give life to the creature.

“Man is made in the image of his creator.” Victor is mentally ugly because of his self torment and so

the creature depicts this in his physical appearance

Once giving in, Victor has committed psycho suicide

Historical

Literature is window into the past

Means of understanding a work of literature better

Literature is a product of its time

Marxist Analyze literature as a means of

aiding the proletarian social and economic goals

Focus on the ideological content of a story or book

Focus upon what takes place within the book, implicit and explicit values and assumptions about matters such as culture, race, class, and power

Stress that all criticism is political in some way

ApplyingHistorical &Marxist

Mark Twain’s “Huck Finn” can be analyzed using historical criticism.

It is a window into the past as it shows the racial inequality, the struggles of a young boy, and the obstacles which can be overcome through friendships

It hints to the past because it shows how far we, as a society, have come since this time period

It is a product of its time period as it uses language considered offensive today, but that was common during the time the text was written

Cultural Examines popular ideas

present within the work Focus upon what the literary

works reveal about the culture; their values, their norms, and what they believed in

Applying Cultural

Examine if Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” gives the sense of contempt or hope for the culture.

Contempt is seen through: Savages (those in Africa), cannibals

Company’s existence

Lying (manager, company, Marlow)

Corruption of company remains

Company is still only concerned with self (greed)

Hope is seen through: Kurtz’s death (main evil)

Marlow shows light in darkness

Hope progresses/increases in darkness

Marlow can continue working

Lie could also leave hope for intended

Gender

Questions masculine and feminine roles

Feminist places literature in a social context like

MarxismExplains how images of women in

literature reflect patriarchal social forces that impede full equality

Applying Gender“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini is a text where a

gender lens can be taken to study the roles of women.

Persecution of women in Afghanistan and their inferiority as opposed to their freedoms and leadership roles of women in American

The social differences between what is acceptable in each country

Being a successful woman in American versus being a housewife in Afghanistan

Ranking of women in social classes in each country

How women are treated in each country: Afghanistan’s women are more of an object and American’s women are their own individuals

Mythological

Archetypal Interprets hopes, fears, and

expectations of a culture Focus on how humans account for

their lives symbolically Since myths try to explain universal

experiences, they follow similar patterns

Look for underlying, recurrent patterns

Applying Mythological

Myths which could be applied to Mary Shelley’s, “Frankenstein”:

Myth of Prometheus: steals fire from gods (shows hubris)

knowledge used destructively and productively

Myth of Aristophanes trying to define love

male and female are split

“desire to make whole, complete, and entire what once was

whole, complete, and entire.” (creature’s desires)