1. Analyzing Literature

2. Structure, Content & Style

3. Approaching Texts
 All texts share three common elements:
 Structure
 Content
 Style

4. Structure
 Structure is how a text is built
 Think of the structure of a text like the frame of a
house
 Structure can include sections, chapters, order of
ideas, line breaks (poetry), acts and scenes (drama)
 A text’s outline reveals its structure

5. Content
 Content is the ideas and information in the text
 Think of content as what is in the house (e.g.
furniture)
 Content can include things like plot, character, main
ideas, theme, dialogue
 A summary of the text reveals its content

6. Style
 Style is the unique way the author has presented the
ideas in the text
 Think of style as how the contents of the house are
decorated
 Style can include things like word choice, use of
language, syntax, sentence structure, imagery
 Identifying what makes one author/text different
from another reveals style

7. Structure, Content & Style
 Any text can be analyzed using these concepts –
short stories, novels, plays, poems, essays, non-
fiction texts, letters
 Structure, content, and style work together and often
overlap

8. Critical Approaches to
Literature

9. Critical Approaches to Literature
 The same text can be looked at through more than one
“lens”
 These “lenses” are known as critical approaches
 Critical approaches to literature are developed by
readers who look for different meanings in a text
 Critical approaches are created in different time
periods and generally reflect cultural changes that are
happening at that time

10. Common Critical Approaches
 Formalist Criticism
 Biographical Criticism
 Historical Criticism
 Psychological Criticism
 Mythological Criticism
 Cultural Criticism
 Reader Response Criticism

11. Formalist Criticism
 Literature is a form of knowledge with intrinsic elements –
style, structure, imagery, tone, and genre
 What gives a literary work status as a great work of art is
how all of its elements work together to create the reader's
experience
 Appreciating a text requires close reading – a careful, step-
by-step analysis and explication of the text
 Style and theme influence each other and can't be separated
if meaning is to be retained

12. Formalist Criticism
 "Extracting" elements in isolation
(theme, character, plot, setting, etc.) may destroy a reader's
aesthetic experience of the whole
 Formalist critics don't deny the historical or political
situation of a work, they just believe works of art have the
power to transcend them
 Formalist criticism is evaluative in that it differentiates
great works of art from poor works of art
 Formalist criticism is a "scientific" approach to literary
analysis, focusing on "facts amenable to "verification"
(evidence in the text)

13. Biographical Criticism
 Real life experience can help shape (either directly or
indirectly) an author's work
 Understanding an author's life can help us better
understand the work
 The focus is always on the literary work under
investigation

14. Historical Criticism
 Investigates the social, cultural, and intellectual
context that produced it
 This investigation includes the author's biography
and their culture
 Seeks to understand the impact of a work in its day
and how meanings change over time
 Explores how time and place of creation affect
meaning in the work

15. Psychological Criticism
 Great literature truthfully reflects life and is a
realistic representation of human motivation and
behavior
 May choose to focus on the creative process of the
artist, the artist's motivation or behavior, or analyze
fictional characters' motivations and behaviors

16. Mythological Criticism
 Mythological criticism studies recurrent universal
patterns underlying most literary works
 Combines a variety of academic disciplines –
anthropology, psychology, history, comparative
religion
 Demonstrates how the individual imagination shares a
common humanity by identifying common
symbols, images, plots, etc.
 Identifies "archetypes“ –
symbols, characters, situations, or images evoking a
universal response

17. Common Archetypes: Characters
 The hero - The courageous figure who runs in and saves the day
 The outcast - he or she has been cast out of society or has left it on a
voluntary basis; the outcast figure can oftentimes also be considered
as a Christ figure
 The scapegoat - gets blamed for everything, regardless of whether
he or she is actually at fault
 The star-crossed lovers - the young couple joined by love but
unexpectedly parted by fate
 The shrew - nagging, bothersome wife always battering her husband
with verbal abuse

18. Common Archetypes: Situations/Symbols
 The task - a character, or group of characters, is driven to complete some
duty of monstrous proportion
 The quest - the characters are searching for something, whether
consciously or unconsciously; their actions, thoughts, and feelings
center around the goal of completing this quest
 The loss of innocence - a loss of innocence through sexual
experience, violence, or any other means
 The initiation - process by which a character is brought into another
sphere of influence, frequently (in literature) into adulthood
 Water - a symbol of life, cleansing, and rebirth; it is a strong life force
and is often depicted as a living, reasoning force

19. Cultural Criticism
 Examines literature in its cultural, economic, and political
context
 Explores the relationship between the artist and the society
 Focuses on the social content of literary works

20. Reader-Response Criticism
 Attempts to describe the internal workings of the reader's mental
processes
 Recognizes reading as a creative act or process
 No text is self-contained, independent of a reader's interpretive
design
 The plurality of readings possible is all explored – critics study how
different readers see the same text differently, and how
religious, cultural, and social values affect readings
 Instead of focusing only on the values embedded in the text, this
type of criticism studies the values embedded in the reader

21. The Literary Canon

22. The Literary Canon
 What is a cannon? What is a canon?
 “An authoritative list, as of the works of an author"
and "a basis for judgment; standard; criterion."
 Belonging to the canon confers
social, political, economic, and aesthetic status
 Belonging to the canon is a guarantee of quality

23. The Literary Canon
 What is the role of the canon in literature?
 What is the impact of the canon on literature?
 What are the drawbacks of the literary canon?

24. Questions?

25. Works Cited
Esch, Stacy. Critical Approaches to Literature. 2002. 4 Aug. 2008
<http://brainstorm-services.com/wcu-2002/critical-
approaches.html>.
PageWise. Understanding Literary Archetypes. 2002. 4 Aug. 2008
<http://www.essortment.com/all/literaryarchety_rabl.htm>.
University Scholars Programme Project. “The Concept of Literary
Canon: An Overview.” The Victorian Web. 1989. 4 Aug. 2008
<http://www.usp.nus.edu.sg/landow/victorian/gender/canon/cano
nov.html>.