LITERATURE

- Significant Human Experience

- Written and spoken materials
- Anything that has creative and complex writing
- From a Latin word “Litera” which means “Acquaintance with letters”
- Challenges us to think critically (beyond the literary piece)
- Product of one’s particular culture (to have a clear context into the lives and
livelihood of people besides ourselves)
- Immortalize history (learn so much)

LITERARY THEORIES

“Literary theories were developed as a means to understand the various ways people read
texts. All theories are lenses through which we can see texts” -Deborah Apple

- Are bodies of ideas and methods we use to read literature

- Gives not have the actual meaning but is different from the actual (ex: standard
adobo vs different way to cook adobo)
a. Argue your point of view on a work of literature
b. Analyze a text and support assertions with specific evidence from the text (citing
specifically to confirm the evidence)
c. An in-depth examination of some aspect of the literary work (ex: setting, characters,
personality, etc.. > questions how it/they contribute to the story?)

*WE NEED TO CONSIDER LITERARY STANDARDS!

- It sets literature pieces apart from academic pieces

- Are used for examining literary works

LITERARY STANDARDS

- Set of characteristics to determine whether or not a work is literary (The

prerequisites of work to be considered as a literature)
1. Universality
- Appeals to everyone regardless of culture, race, sex, and time which are
considered significant
- It is forever relevant
- Ex: children’s stories like; the little mermaid, the lion king, peter pan, etc..
2. Artistry
- Aesthetic appeal to everyone and possesses a sense of beauty
 - Broad audiences
- Had hidden truths
- Decretive words or flowery words
- Ex: the sun and her flowers by Rupi Kaur
3. Intellectual Value
- Stimulates critical thinking; making man realize the fundamental truths of life and its
nature
- It is relevant to society
- Ex: Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal
4. Suggestiveness
- Unravels man’s emotional power to define symbolism, nuances, implied meanings,
images, and messages, giving and evoking visions above the beyond the plane of
ordinary life and experiences
- Open to interpretation
- Readers have great discussions
- Possible meaning and multiple interpretations (This literary standard defines
symbolisms and implied meanings)
5. Spiritual Value
- Elevates the spirit and the soul; the power to motivate and inspire, drawn from the
suggested morals of the different literary genres
- Draws morals and lessons through or transpired in the story
- Ex: heaven is for real (Hopes to encourage and to help people be inspired)
6. Permanence
- Endures across time and draws out the time factors:
a. Timeliness - napapanahon/occurring in the present like pandemic
b. Timelessness - habang buhay (issues of society)
- Ex: Romeo and Juliet
- It is determined (ability to stand against time)

7. Style

- Presents peculiar ways on how man sees life as evidenced by the formation of his
ideas, forms, structures, and expressions which are marked by their memorable
substance
- Expresses his or her thoughts
- Ex: edgar allan poe (gothic) (Focuses on the distinctive quality of man on having
their own principles and appearances)
LITERARY APPROACHES

1. Archetypal/Mythological Approach- Death and Rebirth

Myth - demonstrations of the inner meaning of the universe and of human life

- Identify the manifestations that aid our interpretation through its work
- Can be a new myth or dating myth
- Aspects of the story create universal themes and universal responses to it
- Examines the archetypes hidden in a literary work

Archetype - A symbol, characters, situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response

- Ex: concept of mars - in science it is a planet or chismis

- Answers the question: Are there symbolic images or motifs presented in the story?
2. Reader’s Response Theory
- The readers create meaning
- Not free or all theory
- Needs us to be keen and has basis in reading a literary piece (objective basis)
- Answer the question: How did you interpret the story? What was meant by the
story?
- Emphasizes the fact that literary works can be interpreted differently.
3. Formalistic or New Criticism Approach
- all information essential to the interpretation of a work must be found within
the work itself
- Interested in the work’s setting, characters, symbols, and point of view
- Literature Function itself
- No need for the author’s background
- Answers the question: Where did the story happen?
- Answers the question: How is the plot relevant to the structure of the story
- Analyzes a literary work’s character, settings, viewpoints,conflicts, and
themes.
4. Historical Approach
- Apply to a text specific historical information about the time during which an
author wrote
- Social (ex: slavery system), political (ex: farmers right), economic
(ex:industrial), intellectual climate of the time (ex: plato, socrates), cultural
(women rights, lgbtq+, indigenous people)
- Acknowledges the literary work’s period of time when it was written.
- Answers the question: To what extent can we understand teh time period
reflected in the story?
5. Moral or Ethical Approach
- Concerned with content and values
- Determined whether a work conveys a lesson
- Helps the reader that lead better lives and improve understanding of the
world
- -determines the enlightenment and experiences gained by the audience.
6. Psychological Approach
- author’s mental and emotional traits
- Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that human
behavior is the result of the interactions among three component parts of the
mind: the id, ego, and superego. (additional info: Psychoanalytic criticism
adopts the methods of "reading" employed by Freud and later theorists to
interpret texts. It argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret
unconscious desires and anxieties of the author, that a literary work is a
manifestation of the author's own neuroses.)
- Ex: Hamlet by William Shakespeare
- Oedipus Complex is a theory propounded by Sigmund Freud in his book “An
Interpretation of Dreams.” Freud says, “The child takes both of its parents,
and more particularly one of them, as the object of its erotic wishes.” The
Tragedy of Hamlet was written by Shakespeare towards the end of the 16th
century.
- Focuses on the author of a literary work determining the connection to its
author.
- Answers the question: What connections can you make between your
knowledge of an author’s life and the behavior of the characters in a literary
work?

7. Sociological Approach
- literary work cannot be separated from the social context in which it was
created
- It addresses a social or economic issue
- Storytelling greatest tool to engage the community to the issues surrounding
us
- Everything is political
- Also called Marxist in other accounts regarding the other name for a
sociological approach
- Evaluates the audience to ponder on the heart of a character’s identity.
- Evaluates a literary work through its social settings and contexts.
8. Feministic Gender - Criticism Approach
- representations of women
- power structures between men and women
- the female/feminine experience
 - Women are depicted on fairytales as a princess should be saved by the prince
charming
- Equality - “the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and
opportunities.”
- Feb 14 - date of the women’s march but the occasion is widely known as
valentines day
- explains that people regardless of their gender are equal.
- Answers the question: How are women’s lives depicted in the story?
9. Queer Theory
- "odd“
- "peculiar“
- "out of the ordinary"
- each sex comes with its own essential characteristics
- goes to the heart of a person’s identity, encouraging us to ask ourselves this
question over and over again: who am I really?
- Encourages the audience to ponder on the heart of a character’s identity
10. Cultural Approach
- examines social, economic, and political conditions that affect institutions
and products such as literature and questions traditional value hierarchies
- ( It includes the entire complex of what goes under “culture” - the technological, the
artistic, the sociological, the ideological aspects, and considers the literary piece in
the total culture milieu in which it was born.)
- It emphasizes the fact that literary works contain social, political, and
economical issues which are connected to the customs and traditional
values.
- Answers the question: What traditions are reflected in the story?

INTRO TO LIT AND KAP CREATION MYTH

https://www.aswangproject.com/formation-of-the-world-kapampangan-mythology/

Creation stories

- Biblical version – Book of Genesis, 7 days of creation

- Big Bang Theory – It is the idea that the universe began as just a single point, then
expanded and stretched to grow as large as it is right now—and it is still stretching.
Literary History of the Philippines

Pre-Colonial Era
( walang post colonial!!!)

-It is considered as the first and the longest literary history.

Oral literature – folktales (objective: describe human lives, communities, creation and
nature), language of daily life. any member of the community was a potential poet/singer

mimetic dances and stage theater to control the environment

Baybayin - syllabary. 13th century, writing systems derived from the Indian-influenced
cultures of Indonesia and Malaysia, primarily used by certain inhabitants of Luzon and the
Visayas.

Baybayin is an alpha-syllabic script, meaning certain characters in baybayin can stand for
either a single consonant or vowel, while some characters stand for an entire syllable.

baybayin had 3 alphabet characters representing vowels (A, E/I, and O/U), while there were
14 characters representing syllables that begin with the consonants (B, C/K, D/R, G, H, L, M,
N, NG, P, S, T, W, and Y).

Discovery of skull cap and a portion of a jaw in Tabon Cave in Palawan in 1962

- Dated before the coming of the Spaniards

Spanish Colonial Era

They used the Spanish language to produce literatures

they already used roman alphabet in their writing system

most of the lit pieces focused on religion and social issues.

Balagtas – industrial revolution, proletariat situation

Florante at laura tyranny

propaganda movement – pushing for reforms rizal noli el fili.

boni and jacinto revolution boni poems pagibig sa tinubuang lupa and jacinto essays. they
used filipino as their medium.
doctrina christiana first published lit piece collection of prayers 1593

indio – natives

Ladinos - native literary writers

American Colonial Era

Thomasites - are the American teachers that Filipinos have during the American colonial

English alphabet, English education = English psyche

Philippine literature - imitative of American models of writing

Paz Marquez Benitez short story, “Dead Stars” 1925

Salvador P. Lopez - essays on Literature and Society (engaged or committed literature VS

art for art’s sake)

zarsuwela, were mounted

Balagtasan

Crissotan - balagtasan pampanga

Contemporary Period
marcos regime - dictatorship, writers were like robots

young journalists

Formation of the World Alfredo Nicdao 1917 - a very violent formation of the world over an
extremely long period of time Setting: precambrian era - start of the world to cambrian era
(001-540 million years ago)

Hadean era - depicts the diabolical or satanic circumstances happenings on the Earth

Pampanga – homeland of the Kapampangans

Kapampangan and Tagalog mythology mirror one another so much

- 26 letters of the English Alphabet were changed to the Filipino Alphabet system (28
letters)

KAPAMPANGAN DEITIES- vDeities are the representations of gods and goddesses

Mangechay - The great elder; the creator of the Heavens; the ‘net weaver’ with the sky as his
weaved fabric and at night the stars that shine are the fabric holes.

Aring Sinukuan – Sun God of War and Death lives in Mt Arayat; dating pogi and
transforming to his hideous form.

Apung Malyari / Apu Malyari - The moon god who lives in Mt. Pinatubo and ruler of the
eight rivers.

- Nagppray sakanya yung mga aeta (1990, 2019)

- Highest deity believed by the mangitos

Tala - The bright star, the one who introduced wet-rice culture.

Munag Sumala - One of the children of Aring Sinukuan who represents dawn; the golden
serpent.

Lakandanup - Son of Aring Sinukuan, the god of gluttony and represents the sun at noon
time.

Gatpanapun - Son of Aring Sinukuan, the noble who only knew pleasure, his name means
‘afternoon’ in Kapampangan language. (siesta)

Sisilim - The child of Apûng Malyari, she represents dusk and is greeted by the songs of the
cicada upon her arrival; her name means dusk or early evening in Kapampangan language.

Galura(garuda) - The winged assistant of Aring Sinukuan, he is represented by a giant eagle

and believed to be the bringer of storms.

Nága – Are serpent deities known for their protective nature. Their presence in structures
are talismans against fire.

Lakandanum – A variant of the Naga, known to rule the waters

STORY: FORMARTION OF THE WORLD (by ALFREDO NICDAO on 1917)

A long, long time ago, the universe was full of gods and goddesses. Of all these gods there
existed one supreme god by the name of Mangechay. He ruled the universe for several
millenniums with great power.
These gods lived in the different planets, and their common temple was suspended in the
air. These planets were far apart. It took hundreds of years to go from one planet to another.

The great god who ruled over them lived in the sun and his bride lived in the moon. Their
daughter lived in a planet called after her name (presumably Venus).

The supreme god sent for all his vassals to meet in great council to decide on a certain
affair in the universe. The gods responded to the call and the elements were disturbed
greatly by the swiftness of their chariots.

As soon as they gazed at the beautiful daughter of Mangechay who was seated on her
golden chair the gods were charmed at her beauty. Instead of deciding on the affair of the
universe, the gods proposed marriage to the pretty goddess.

The great god was troubled and did not know on whom he should confer the hand of his
daughter. Finally he decided that the question was to be settled by combat. The gods
returned to their respective abodes and made the necessary preparations.

The encounter lasted for several thousand years and nearly all the gods perished. During the
battle the daughter of Mangechay died and consequently the trouble ended. The great god,
after the combat, looked down and saw the earth of today to his great surprise. The earth
was formed by the great masses of stones used in the fight.

Sources: NCCA documents

KAMPANPAGAN, AETAS, AND ENVIRONMENT

A. Animism - a philosophical, religious, or spiritual idea where souls or spirits exist not
only in humans but also in animals, plants, rocks, and natural phenomena such as
thunder, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the
natural environment.
 B. Manganitos - the seers and ritual specialists whom can talk to Apo Malyari
- sees Mount Pinatubo as the place of beginnings of their personal guardian spirits

C. Anitos - the friendly ones

- are benevolent spirits, live like human beings, occupies a place they call home, and
provide a helping hand when they can.
- if angered or disturbed their homes, they will send disease and bad luck on your way

D. Kamanas - the evil counterparts

- roam with no special place such as home
- known to send disease and death for no known reason

MOUNT PINATUBO - is the geographical center of the lands of the Aeta people for centuries
and is the focus of their beliefs

KAPAMPANGAN MYTHOLOGY: Mt. Pinatubo Eruption

Apo Malyari was upset that the ecological equilibrium of the area was imbalanced due to
human’s abuse. One particular item that he was upset about was the drilling of some test
bores by the Philippine National Oil Company in 1989. The company was exploring the
possibility of tapping the Geothermal capability of the area. The Manganitos appeal to the
Philippine government for a white cow to be sacrificed and offered to Apo Malyari. The
government did not act upon the request

BUKIDNON MYTHOLOGY

HOW THE MOON AND THE STARS CAME TO BE

Bukidnon (Mindanao)

One day in the times when the sky was close to the ground a spinster went out to pound
rice. Before she began her work, she took off the beads from around her neck and the comb
from her hair, and hung them on the sky, which at that time looked like coral rock.
Then she began working, and each time that she raised her pestle into the air it struck the
sky. For some time she pounded the rice, and then she raised the pestle so high that it
struck the sky very hard.
Immediately the sky began to rise, and it went up so far that she lost her ornaments. Never
did they come down, for the comb became the moon and the beads are the stars that are
scattered about.
Mythological/Archetypal Approach -
interpreting text by focusing on recurring
myths and archetypes in literary works.
Examples of archetypes:
A. Images
➢ Water - the sea - the river
➢ Sun - rising sun - setting sun
➢ Color
- red – anger
- Yellow – happiness -
blue – elegance/royal
➢ Circle - wholeness/unity - yin-yang
➢ Serpent
➢ Garden The Origins: Proponents
❖ Sir James George Frazer – is the
author of…
➢ The golden bough - death-rebirth
myth - death (final harvest) - Rebirth
(spring)
➢ The Abduction of Persephone -
Persephone - Hades - Demeter
- Persephone symbolizes spring
whenever she is with Demeter her
mom
❖ Carl Gustav Jung - Every story is a
retelling or reflection on one of the great
stories from the “collective
unconscious”
Collective Unconscious – a set of primal
memories common to the human race,
existing below each person’s conscious
mind
Myths – the world of ARCHETYPES
Jungian Archetypes - based on the ideas
of Immanuel Kant’s categories, Plato’s
ideas, and
Arthur - universal, archaic symbols and
images that derive from the collective
unconscious. - All people have the same
Response The Origins
1. Events - birth - death - separation from
parents - initiations - the union of
opposites
2. Figures - Stepmother - Child - Devil -
God - Wise old man - The trickster - The
hero – (the quest, the initiation. The
sacrificial scapegoat)
3. Motif - the apocalypse - the deluge -
the creation - the immortality
❖ Northrop Frye
Function and Effect of Archetypes
1. Spring = COMEDY - Existent society
remains - Criticism of society without
change - Existent society replaced by a
happy society - Happy society resists
change - Reflective and idyllic view -
Society ceases to exist beyond
contemplation
✓ Comedy is aligned with spring
because the genre of comedy is
characterized by the birth of the hero,
revival, and Resurrection. Also, spring
symbolized the defeat of the winder and
darkness.
2. Summer = ROMANCE
- Complete innocence
- Youthful innocence of inexperience
- Completion of an ideal
- Happy society resists change
- Reflective and idyllic view
- Society ceases to exist beyond
contemplation
✓ Roman and summer are paired
together because summer is the
culmination of life in the seasonal
calendar, and the romance genre
culminates with some sort of triumph,
usually a marriage.
3. Fall =TRAGEDY
- Complete innocence
- Youthful innocence of inexperience -
Completion of an ideal
- Individual’s faults
- Natural law
- World of shock and horror
✓ Satire is metonymized with winter on
the grounds that satire is a “dark” genre.
Satire is a disillusioned and mocking
form of the three other genres. It is
noted for its darkness, dissolution, the
return of chaos, and the defeat of the
heroic figures.
✓ Autumn is the dying stage of the
seasonal calendar, which parallels the
tragedy genre because it is, (above all),
known for the “fall” or demise of the
protagonist.
4. Winter = IRONY
- Existent society remains - Criticism of
society without change
- Existent society replace by a happy
society, - Individual’s faults
- Natural law
- World of shock and horror Five
Spheres: the context of a genre
determines how a symbol or image is to
be interpreted. Frye outlines five
different spheres in his schema: human,
animal, vegetation, mineral, and water.
1. HUMAN
– wish fulfillment… isolation
– the comedic human world is
representative of wish-fulfillment and
being community centered. In contrast,
the tragic human world is of isolation,
tyranny, and the fallen hero.
2. ANIMAL
– pastoral… predatory
– animals in the comedic genres are
docile and pastoral (e.g., sheep), while
animals are predatory and hunters in the
tragic (e.g., wolves).
3. VEGETATION
– pastoral… wild forest
– for the realm of vegetation, the
comedy is, again, pastoral but also
represented by gardens, parks, roses,
and lotuses. As for the tragic, vegetation
is of a wild forest, or as being barren.
4. MINERAL
– temples… deserts
– cities, temples, or precious stones
represent the comedic mineral realm.
The tragic mineral realm is noted for
being a desert, ruins, or “of sinister
geometrical images”
5. WATER
– rivers… seas, floods
King Kanakung Pamagtua
– Rodrigo Sicat (Sulat ni Nanay at Tatay)
Reader’s Response Theory
1. Reader’s emotional connection (to the
poem)
2. Reader = active agent The reader
actively constructs texts rather than
passively consuming them. “Poetry is
the most difficult and most complicated
of all literary genres.”
Poetry
-Patterned form of verbal or written
expression of ideas
- Oldest literary form - Implied meanings
- More musical Sense of the Poem:
Denotation vs Connotation
✓ Denotation is the dictionary meaning
of the word.
✓ Connotation is the implied meaning
associated with the word beyond its
dictionary definition.
TIPS FOR CREATIVE POEM
A. Sensory Imagery Five Human
Senses (3S’s, 2T’s
1. Sight- colors like black and
white(sadness) VISUAL
2. Sound- to activate the sense of
sound (AUDITORY)
3. Smell- maamoy mo yung
setting(OLFACTORY)
 4. Taste- GUSTATORY
5. Touch- TACTILE
B. Figurative Language
- - Figures of Speech are specific
devices that use words, phrases,
and sentences in a non-literal
definition but, rather, give
meaning in abstractions.
should rhyme (1st and 2nd) (3rd
and 4th).
- METER- measured beat
established by patterns
- BLANK- unrhymed but follows a
metrical pattern.
- FREE- free from both rhyme
scheme and syllable pattern.
HAIKU- Composed of 5-7-5 syllables

-originated from the japanese haiku

- Sound patterns -the 17-th-century Japanese haiku

- RHYME- master, Matsuo Basho/ Matsuo
- END RHYME- sa dulo lang
- I saw a fairy in the woods, he was
dressed all in green. He drew his
sword. I just stood, and realized
I’d been seen. – there should be
alternate rhyming of words
-
- INTERNAL RHYME- words that
are within the line.
- “In mist or cloud, on mast or
shroud” “while all the night
through fog smoke white” – each
line should rhyme. – every line
 Literary Criticism: Questions for a Variety of Approaches

I. Formalistic Approach: This approach focuses on form. The analysis stresses items like
symbols, images, and structure and how one part of the work relates to other parts and to
the whole.

A. How is the work’s structure unified?

B. How do various elements of the work reinforce its meaning?

C. What recurring patterns (repeated or related words, images, etc.) can you find? What is
the effect of these patterns or motifs?

D. How does repetition reinforce the theme(s)?

E. How does the writer’s diction reveal or reflect the work’s meaning?

F. What is the effect of the plot, and what parts specifically produce that effect?

G. What figures of speech are used? (metaphors, similes, etc.)

H. Note the writer’s use of paradox, irony, symbol, plot, characterization, and style of
narration.

I. What effects are produced? Do any of these relate to one another or to the theme?

J. Is there a relationship between the beginning and the end of the story?

K. What tone and mood are created at various parts of the work?

L. How does the author create tone and mood? What relationship is there between tone
and mood and the effect of the story?

M. How do the various elements interact to create a unified whole?

II. Philosophical Approach: This approach focuses on themes, views of the world, moral
statements,

author’s philosophy, etc.

 A. What view of life does the story present? Which character best articulates this
viewpoint?

B. According to this work’s view of life, what is mankind’s relationship to God? To the
universe?

C. What moral statement, if any, does this story make? Is it explicit or implicit?

D. What is the author’s attitude toward his world? Toward fate? Toward God?

E. What is the author’s conception of good and evil?

F. What does the work say about the nature of good or evil?

G. What does the work say about human nature?

III. Biographical Approach: Focuses on the connection of work to the author’s personal
experiences.

A. What aspects of the author’s personal life are relevant to this story?

B. Which of the author’s stated beliefs are reflected in the work?

C. Does the writer challenge or support the values of her contemporaries?

D. What seem to be the author’s major concerns? Do they reflect any of the writer’s
personal experiences?

E. Do any of the events in the story correspond to events experienced by the author?

F. Do any of the characters in the story correspond to real people?

IV. Historical Approach: This approach focuses on the connection of work to the historical
period in which it was written; literary historians attempt to connect the historical
background of the work to specific aspects of the work.

A. How does it reflect the time in which it was written?

B. How accurately does the story depict the time in which it is set?
 C. What literary or historical influences helped to shape the form and content of the
work?

D. How does the story reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the time in which it was
written or set?

(Consider beliefs and attitudes related to race, religion, politics, gender, society,
philosophy, etc.)

E. What other literary works may have influenced the writer?

F. What historical events or movements might have influenced this writer?

G. How would character and events in this story have been viewed by the writer’s
contemporaries?

H. Does the story reveal or contradict the prevailing values of the time in which it was
written?

I. Does it provide an opposing view of the period’s prevailing values?

J. How important is it the historical context (the work’s and the reader’s) to
interpreting the work?

V. Psychological Approach: This approach focuses on the psychology of characters.

A. What forces are motivating the characters?

B. Which behaviors of the characters are conscious ones?

C. Which are unconscious?

D. What conscious or unconscious conflicts exist between the characters?

E. Given their backgrounds, how plausible is the characters’ behavior?

F. Are the theories of Freud or other psychologists applicable to this work? To what
degree?

G. Do any of the characters correspond to the parts of the tripartite self? (Id, ego,
superego)

H. What roles do psychological disorders and dreams play in this story?

I. Are the characters recognizable psychological types?

 J. How might a psychological approach account for different responses in female and
male readers?

K. How does the work reflect the writer’s personal psychology?

L. What do the characters’ emotions and behaviors reveal about their psychological
states?

M. How does the work reflect the unconscious dimensions of the writer’s mind?

N. How does the reader’s own psychology affect his response to the work?

VI. Sociological Approach: This approach focuses on man’s relationship to others in

society, politics, religion, and business.

A. What is the relationship between the characters and their society?

B. Does the story address societal issues, such as race, gender, and class?

C. How do social forces shape the power relationships between groups or classes of
people in the story? Who has the power, and who doesn’t? Why?

D. How does the story reflect the Great American Dream?

E. How does the story reflect urban, rural, or suburban values?

F. What does the work say about economic or social power? Who has it and who
doesn’t? Any Marxist leanings evident?

G. Does the story address issues of economic exploitation? What role does money
play?

H. How do economic conditions determine the direction of the characters’ lives?

I. Does the work challenge or affirm the social order it depicts?

J. Can the protagonist’s struggle be seen as symbolic of a larger class struggle?

K. How does the microcosm (small world) of the story reflect the macrocosm (large
world) of the society in which it was composed?

L. Do any of the characters correspond to types of government, such as a dictatorship,

democracy, communism, socialism, fascism, etc.? What attitudes toward these political
structures/systems are expressed in the work?
VII. Archetypal Approach: This approach focuses on connections to other literature,
mythological/biblical allusions, archetypal images, symbols, characters, and themes.

A. How does this story resemble other stories in plot, character, setting, or symbolism?

B. What universal experiences are depicted?

C. Are patterns suggested? Are seasons used to suggest a pattern or cycle?

D. Does the protagonist undergo any kind of transformation, such as movement from
innocence to experience, that seems archetypal?

E. Are the names significant?

F. Is there a Christ-like figure in the work?

G. Does the writer allude to biblical or mythological literature? For what purpose?

H. What aspects of the work create deep universal responses to it?

I. How does the work reflect the hopes, fears, and expectations of entire cultures (for
example, the ancient Greeks)?

J. How do myths attempt to explain the unexplainable: the origin of man? Purpose and
destiny of human beings?

K. What common human concerns are revealed in the story?

L. How do stories from one culture correspond to those of another? (For example,
creation myths, flood myths, etc.)

M. How does the story reflect the experiences of death and rebirth?

N. What archetypal events occur in the story? (Quest? Initiation? Scapegoating?

Descents into the underworld? Ascents into heaven?)

O. What archetypal images occur? (Water, rising sun, setting sun, symbolic colors)

P. What archetypal characters appear in the story? (Mother Earth? Femme Fatal? Wise
old man? Wanderer?)

Q. What archetypal settings appear? (Garden? Desert?)

 R. How and why are these archetypes embodied in the work?

VIII. Feminist Criticism: This approach examines images of women and concepts of the
feminine in

myth and literature; uses the psychological, archetypal, and sociological approaches; often
focuses on female characters who have been neglected in previous criticism. Feminist
critics attempt to correct or supplement what they regard as a predominantly
male-dominated critical perspective.

A. How are women’s lives portrayed in the work?

B. Is the form and content of the work influenced by the writer’s gender?

C. How do male and female characters relate to one another? Are these relationships
sources of conflict? Are these conflicts resolved?

D. Does the work challenge or affirm traditional views of women?

E. How do the images of women in the story reflect patriarchal social forces that have
impeded women’s efforts to achieve full equality with men?

F. What marital expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these
expectations have?

G. What behavioral expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these
expectations have?

H. If a female character were male, how would the story be different (and vice versa)?

I. How does the marital status of a character affect her decisions or happiness?

Reader Response Criticism (This approach focuses on what is going on in the reader’s
mind during the process of reading a text (they attempt to read the reader); explores how
reader’s expectations and assumptions are met or not met; Reader-response critics believe
that readers create rather than discover meaning and that a literary work evolves as a reader
processes characters, plots, images, and other elements while reading.

1. How does the meaning of a text change as you reread it?

2. How do your values alter your perceptions of the text?

 3. How have readers in different time periods interpreted the text?

4. How is the informed reader’s response to the text shaped by the reader and the text?

5. Which of your personal experiences or memories is affecting your perceptions of the

story?

What was the work’s original intended audience? To what extend are you similar or different
from that audience?