LITERARY

CRITICISM
THINGS TO DISCUSS
▪ Definitions
▪ Common Approaches:
A. Traditional Approaches: Historical- Biographical, Moral- Philosophical
B. Formalism
C. Marxism
D. Feminist Approach
E. Gay/ Queer Reading
F. Psychological Criticism
G. Mythological Approach
H. Christian Criticism

▪ Individual Task (Formative):

• LITERARY CRITICISM IS THE
EVALUATION, ANALYSIS,
DESCRIPTION, OR INTERPRETATION
OF LITERARY WORKS.
• LITERARY THEORY IS THE SYSTEMATIC
STUDY OF THE NATURE OF LITERATURE
AND OF THE METHODS FOR
ANALYZING LITERATURE
WHY DO LIT CRIT?
▪ EVERY text (novels, films, ads, images, everything) contain conscious and
subconscious messages placed there by the author or perceived by the
consumer
▪ Using a critical approach uncovers those messages

▪ Understanding the layers of meaning in a text leads to a richer reading or

viewing experience
▪ Critical understanding allows you to make informed opinions and ask
informed questions of a text, image, ad, film, book, news, etc.
▪ Incorporating critical approaches into how we view the world leads to a
deeper appreciation of the human experience
▪ Critical reading/viewing promotes critical thinking in all aspects of life
TRADITIONAL APPROACHES
▪ refers to the simplified,
time-tested and “most ancient”
of ALL methods of
interpretation
▪ Guerin et al (2004) identifies
the traditional approaches as:
▪ Historical- Biographical
▪ Moral- Philosophical
 THE HISTORICAL-
BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH
Historical- Biographical Criticism argues that we
must take an author’s life and background into
account when we study a text. This also includes
the historical context of both work and author

▪ Literature reflects the life of the author, the historical period in which the
work was produced, and the historical period in which the work is set
▪ How is the work related to the life of author or the time period in which it was
written?
▪ To what extent is the work a mirror of a time period?
▪ To what extent is the work a judgment of a time period?

▪ As you read…
▪ What was happening in the world when this was written/produced?
▪ What is the setting of the work? How is that setting used to create a mood?
 HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH

▪ Examples:
▪ The Lord of the Rings – Books were written
post WWI; films were made post 9-11
▪ The Crucible – Arthur Miller lived during
the Red Scare of the 1950’s and uses the
Salem Witch Trials to parallel that
experience
▪ The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
achieved fame during the 1920’s for his
excesses, yet struggled to fit in with social
elites
▪ To Kill a Mockingbird – Written during the
Civil Rights movement
▪ The Lorax – Written during the beginning
of the environmental movement in the
1970’s.
MORAL-PHILOSOPHICAL
APPROACH
▪ The basic position of such critics is that the larger function of literature is to teach
morality and to probe philosophical issues. Critics using this theory would
interpret literature within a context of the philosophical thought of a period or
group.
▪ In each instance critics working from a moral bent are not unaware of form,
figurative language, and other purely aesthetic considerations, but they consider
them to be secondary. The important thing is the moral or philosophical teaching.
On its highest plane this is not superficially didactic, though it may at first seem so.
In the larger sense, all great literature teaches.
▪ The critic who employs the moral-philosophical approach insists on ascertaining
and stating what is taught. If the work is in any degree significant or intelligible, this
meaning will be there.
AN EXAMPLE:
FORMALIST ANALYSIS
▪A formalist analysis of a text focuses
on symbolism, metaphor, imagery,
characterization, and so on.
▪Formalism ignores the author’s
biography and focuses only on the
interaction of literary elements
within the text.
▪ QUESTIONS to ANSWER:
❑ - What is the work’s plot? How is its plot related to its structure?
A FORMALIST ANALYSIS OF “UNDER MY
INVISIBLE UMBRELLA”

▪ What does the umbrella symbolize?

▪ Why is it important to open the story en medias res?
▪ What does the setting reveal about the theme?
 THE MARXIST
APPROACH
Marxist Criticism
emphasizes economic
and social conditions. It
is based on the political
theory of Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels.
▪Concerned with
understanding the role
of power, politics, and
money in literary texts
THE MARXIST
APPROACH
Marxist Criticism examines literature to
see how it reflects
1. The way in which dominant groups
(typically, the majority) exploit the
subordinate groups (typically, the
minority)
2. The way in which people become
alienated from one another through
power, money, and politics
3. QUESTIONS IN
MARXIST THEORY
▪ Whom does it benefit if the work or effort is
accepted/successful/believed, etc.?
▪ What is the social class of the author?
▪ Which class does the work claim to represent?
▪ What values does it reinforce?
▪ What values does it subvert?
▪ What conflict can be seen between the values the
work champions and those it portrays?
▪ What social classes do the characters represent?
▪ How do characters from different classes interact or
conflict?
MARXIST/ECONOMIC
THEORY
▪ Literature is a representation of class struggle with an
emphasis on social inequalities, social justice, and
economic disparity
▪ All stories feature characters whose lives have been
shaped by their economic situations
▪ All stories feature power struggles, often between or
within social classes or social ranks
▪ How much control does one group or character have
over another?
▪ As you read…
▪ What is the class of the characters, and how is that
shown?
▪ How are money, power, and resources used in the
story?
MARXIST/ECONOMIC
▪Examples:
▪ Animal Farm – Pigs and humans versus the
rest of the farm
▪ Hunger Games – The Capital versus the
districts; the districts versus one another
▪ Of Mice and Men – George and Lenny’s lack of
resources and recourse
▪ To Kill a Mockingbird – How Mayella Ewell is
affected by her social class and rank
3B. FEMINIST/GENDER
APPROACH
▪ Feminist Criticism examines works by and about women.
Gender Criticism evolved out of feminism to address issues of
masculinity/femininity as binaries, sexual orientation,
heterosexism, and differences in sexes. Both are typically
concerned with fair representation and treatment of people. Both
tend to believe that gender is a societal construct, not strictly a
biological fact. A critic using Feminist Studies or Gender Studies
might ask, "How is gender constructed or deconstructed in this
text? Is the view of the text gendered or sexist?"
3B. THE FEMINIST
APPROACH
Feminist Criticism is
concerned with the role,
position, and influence of
women in a literary text.
▪Asserts that most
“literature” throughout time
has been written by men, for
men.
▪Examines the way that the
female consciousness is
depicted by both male and
female writers.
A FEMINIST READING OF
CINDERELLA
▪ As a single, young woman, Cinderella is
without means or opportunity because she is
unattached to a father or a husband.
▪ It is only through the magic of a fairy
godmother that she can be made presentable
and meet the prince AND he is the only means
of her escaping her plight.
▪ What skills does she have? She is beautiful,
can sing well, and is kind. These are
highlighted as the desirable qualities in a
woman (hence, her UGLY, UNTALENTED,
stepsisters who are portrayed as undesirable).
GAY/LESBIAN LITERARY
CRITICISM
▪ Looks at images of sexuality, and ideas of normative and
deviant behavior, in a number of ways:
▪ by finding gay/lesbian authors whose sexuality has been masked
or erased in history and biography;
▪ by looking at texts by gay/lesbian authors to discover particular
literary themes, techniques, and perspectives which come from
being a homosexual in a heterosexual world;
▪ By looking at texts—by gay or straight authors—which depict
homosexuality and heterosexuality, or which focus on sexuality as a
constructed concept;
GAY/LESBIAN LITERARY
CRITICISM
▪ By looking at how literary texts (by gay or straight authors) operate in conjunction with
non-literary texts to provide a culture with ways to think about sexuality.
▪ Works to understand how the categories of normal and deviant are constructed, how they
operate, how they are enforced, in order to intervene into changing or ending them.
QUEER THEORY
▪ Insists that all sexual behaviors, all concepts linking sexual
behaviors to sexual identities, and all categories of
normative and deviant sexualities, are social constructs.
▪ Follows feminist theory and gay/lesbian studies in
rejecting the idea that sexuality is an essentialists category,
something determined by biology or judged by eternal
standards of morality and truth.
SOME CONCEPTS
▪ Heteronormativity
▪ Heterosexism
▪ Homophobia
▪ Homoeroticism
 PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITICISM
▪ Psychological critical theory
applies the theories of
psychology to a text in order to
better understand its characters.
▪ Based largely on the theories of
neurologist Sigmund Freud, this
theory hinges on an examination
of people’s (characters’)
unconscious desires.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITICISM
▪ What governs human
behavior?
▪ Id – the animal nature that
says, “Do what feels
good.”
▪ Ego – the reality-based
part of your personality
that makes decisions to
satisfy the Id and
Superego
▪ Superego – the socialized
“conscience” that tells
you what’s right or fair
PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITICISM
Oedipus Complex – Every boy
has the unconscious desire to
please his mother;
consequently, sons are afraid of
their fathers, and fathers are
threatened by their sons.
Elektra Complex – Every
daughter has the unconscious
desire to please her father;
consequently, daughters are
deeply afraid of their mothers,
and mothers are deeply
threatened by their daughters.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITICISM
▪ Of course, these
complexes have their
origins in literature and
mythology.
▪ Psychological criticism is
a way to understand
characters, not diagnose
them.
MYTHOLOGICAL CRITICISM
▪ This stance is not about mythology.
▪ It is about the universal elements of human life that are common in
all cultures.
▪ Like ancient mythology, literature is a window to creating meaning
for human life.
▪ In other words, stories make us feel like our lives are more
significant.
MYTHOLOGICAL CRITICISM
▪ Central to mythological theory are archetypes.
▪ Remember, archetypes are those universal
elements present in the literature of all
cultures.
MYTHOLOGICAL CRITICISM
▪ Mythological
Criticism seeks to
understand how the
story constructs
meaning in the human
existence through
archetypes.
▪ For example, note the
ways texts have
examined betrayal.
MYTHOLOGICAL CRITICISM
▪ Common Archetypes
▪ The Hero = Beowulf, Spiderman, Luke Skywalker,
Braveheart
▪ The Outcast = Macbeth’s clown, Lord of the Flies,
Cain
▪ The Quest = LOTR, Star Wars, Beowulf
▪ Sacrificial King = Jesus, The Lion the Witch and the
Wardrobe, LOTR
▪ Evil Personified = Wicked Witch of the West, the
Devil, the Emperor in SW
CHRISTIAN(PROTESTANT &
CATHOLIC)CRITICISM
▪ use of Christian (and Catholic) theology and world view to
the interpretation of literary texts
▪ considered a specific strain of Moral- Philosophical
Approach
▪ Two diverging beliefs:
▪ It can only be used in works or texts whose author or subject
matter are inherently Christian/Catholic
▪ It can be used in all kinds of works
CORE PRINCIPLES (SIMILARITIES
OF PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC
THEORIES)

▪ We live in a fallen world

▪ Life is a journey and is metaphysical
▪ Evil is active and real
▪ Redemption is uncertain, but grace is available
SOME METHODS
▪ underscoring or interpreting images(characters,
setting etc) in relation to Christian images
▪ to examine grace, free will, and sin and redemption
in a story by listing how God is present
References and
Acknowledgements:
1. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature by Guerin et al
2. Literary Theories: www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us › cms › lib › Centricity › Domain
3. LITERARY CRITICISM: www.nrcs.net › Downloads › Literary Criticism Notes
this presentation is based, adapted, and appropriated from
the above sources