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Literary Lenses

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Literary Lenses What s the point? Tool for Analysis As a student, we ask you to analyze Analysis requires understanding interpretation evaluation Literary ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Literary Lenses


1
Literary Lenses
  • Whats the point?

2
Tool for Analysis
  • As a student, we ask you to analyze
  • Analysis requires
  • understanding
  • interpretation
  • evaluation

3
Literary Lenses
  • Literary Theories
  • Critical Theories
  • Literary Approaches
  • Critical Approaches
  • Interpretive Methods
  • All names mean the same thing a way of reading
    with a particular focus

4
Literary Lenses
  • Formalist
  • New Critical (New Criticism)
  • Historical
  • Archetypal/Mythological
  • Feminist
  • Marxist (Sociological)
  • Psychological

5
More Literary Lenses
  • New Historical
  • Biographical
  • Reader-Response
  • Deconstructionist
  • Theres more. . .

6
Reader-Response Theory
  • Transactional experience of reading
  • Reader makes meaning based on his/her own
    experiences and knowledge
  • Emphasis on connections to the readers world
  • Unconcerned with authors intent

7
Reader-Response Theory
  • CAPT
  • Rejects the notion that a single correct
    reading exists for a literary work
  • Not all readings are permissible (meaning is
    based on logical, text-based interpretations)

8
What do you see through the reader-response
lens?
9
What is your analysis?
  • Using the reader-response approach,
  • what do you think about this
  • advertisement?

10
Feminist Theory
  • Also called Gender Criticism
  • Examines how sexual identity influences the
    interpretation of literary works
  • Central precept that patriarchal attitudes have
    resulted in literature full of male-produced
    assumptions

11
Feminist Theory
  • Examines how images of men and women reflect or
    reject the social forces that feed inequality
  • Attempts to combat attitudes by questioning

12
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13
Archetypal Criticism
  • Also called Mythological Criticism
  • Emphasizes the recurrent universal patterns
    underlying most literary works
  • The Archetype
  • Views literature in a broad context

14
Common Female Archetypes
  • THE EARTH MOTHER. Symbolic of fruition,
    abundance, and fertility this character offers
    spiritual and emotional nourishment to those with
    whom she comes in contact
  • THE TEMPTRESS. Characterized by sensuous beauty
  • THE PLATONIC IDEA. This woman is a source of
    inspiration and a spiritual idea
  • THE UNFAITHFUL WIFE. A woman, married to a man
    she sees as a dull and unimaginative, is
    physically attracted to a more virile and
    desirable man

15
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16
Historical Criticism
  • Seeks to understand a literary work by
    investigating the social, cultural, and
    intellectual context that produced it (includes
    the authors biographical information)
  • Key goal is to understand the effect of a
    literary work upon its original audience

17
New Critical Approach
  • Also called Formalist Criticism New Criticism
  • Regards literature as a unique form of human
    knowledge that needs to be examined on its own
    terms
  • Work itself
  • Elements of form style, structure, tone,
    imagery, symbolism, etc

18
New Critical Approach
  • Primary goal is to determine how literary
    elements work together with content to shape an
    effect on the reader
  • AP Literature (college professors love this
    approach)

19
Psychological Approach
  • Uses the study of the mind and behavior to view a
    character (or sometimes the author)
  • Asks
  • Why is the character feeling this way?
  • Why is the character acting this way?
  • What is motivating these things?

20
Psychological Approach
  • Is Holden normal?
  • Is there a disconnect between reality and the
    world he imagines?
  • Whats the problem?
  • How is Holden dealing with it?
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