CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES FOR UNDERSTANDING LITERARY TEXTS
There are many useful perspectives—"critical approaches," "schools," "philosophies," "orientations"—that will enhance your appreciation of a literary text. Here are just a few of the major critical perspectives: historical, philosophical, biographical, psychological, and New Critical.
1.Historical Criticism: This is a
broad, fluid term that has meant different things to different people at
different times. Generally, this perspective now emphasizes enjoying a literary
text by also understanding that text’s (and its author’s) relationship to the
time period. For example, with Richard
There are many sub-categories of Historical Criticism. For example, the play's women might interest a feminist critic. Feminist studies, of course, focus on literature in relation to women, especially contemporary theories about women and society. Another popular form of historical criticism is New Historicism. New Historicists often use an interdisciplinary approach, not so much to interpret literary history (a complexity that resists interpretation) as to observe, perhaps comment on, it piece by piece. New Historicists, for example, use the methods of the social scientists to analyze literature through demographics, public records, literary ephemera, manuscripts, private documents, and forgotten/temporary classics. For example, Richard was a fascinating character. He was represented not merely by Thomas More and Raphael Holinshed (Shakespeare's primary sources) but by many authors. Was Shakespeare influenced by works such as ballads, sermons, and tales about Richard?
2.Ideological Criticism: A critical
orientation closely related to historical criticism is ideological
criticism. This criticism often works from the assumption that literature
confirms the ruling ideology (belief-system) of the era that produced
it. Literature, then, is often a sophisticated form of propaganda or,
sometimes, "anti-propaganda" (an attack on the hegemonous/dominant
ideology). Either way, literature is defined within an ideological context.
This type of ideological critic would ask how Richard
Other scholars—past and present—claim that a particular ideology is not merely a belief-system but argue that it is "the truth," that history operates according to the laws of a particular philosophy or "ideology." Scholars who espouse this philosophy then analyze a literary text as "evidence" that confirms that ideology.
Religion is one of the most popular philosophical orientations. For
example, a dominant idea in Richard
Another very popular form of this type of ideological criticism is—or
was---based on the work of Karl Marx, especially his idea of dialectical
materialism. Marxist literary critics read literary texts to see how
they confirm the laws of Marxism. For example, how does Richard
Other popular critical orientations include Positivism (popular in the Victorian era, Positivists viewed history as a scientific "March of Progress") and Nihilism (a reaction to Positivism, as it maintained that history had no goal).
3. Biographical Criticism: This critical approach emphasizes the life
of the author as a key to understanding his or her work. For example, did
Shakespeare model Richard on anyone he knew? Did Shakespeare's relationship
with any woman affect his creation of Ann (who marries her husband's killer)?
What was Shakespeare's personal experience with aristocrats? And
what about the personal anecdote about Shakespeare and "Richard
4. Psychological Criticism: This criticism is useful in two ways. First, closely relating to biographical criticism, psychological criticism emphasizes understanding the "mind" or "personality" of the author, especially as that mind/personality shapes, and is mirrored by, his literary output. Second, these critics read literary works as evidence that supports a psychological outlook. In other words, fictional characters and events (rather than the author) operate according to the "laws of psychology."
Of course, in order to analyze a personality, you should have a theory or "philosophy" about the personality. The theories of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) have been by far the most popular for literary analysis. One of Freud’s tenets is that the unconscious—especially in terms of sexuality—greatly determines behavior. For example, what's the connection between Richard's hostility to women and his violence? Is the deformed, ugly hunchback, a failure in the bedroom, attempting to compensate with another kind of weapon (the phallic sword) on the battlefield? Many psychologists would say that he was. Or how does Richard's relationship with his mother determine his behavior? Freud's famous oedipal theory claims males at an early age experience a sexual attraction for the mother, an attraction that is suppressed by the child's fear of the father. Is it significant that Richard, just as he is about to marry his brother's daughter (who would be, in some way, like the mother, Duchess of York), is killed in battle against a man who then marries his intended bride?
Another once popular school of psychology (Analytic Psychology) was created by Carl Jung (1875-1961). His theory of the Collective Unconscious was especially useful for literary critics and scholars. This theory maintained that individual consciousness is linked to a central "mainframe computer," and that this mainframe provides everyone with a few basic programs, called "archetypes," or fundamental patterns (or structures, and so Structuralism). A literary work will succeed, or endure, if it represents one of these patterns/structures (which the individual unit [a person] will recognize and assimilate). Stories that enact these patterns are often myths, but this mythic quality actually appears in most powerful literary works (and Jung is often studied in relation to Mythological Criticism).
For example, does Richard
Working from the perspective of Post Structuralism, many scholars/critics argue that literary structures do not exist and that, upon close examination, literature does not sustain any consistent meaning. The most popular form of Post Structuralism is Deconstruction (which "deconstructs" a text to reveal the absence of consistent meaning).
5. New Criticism: This school of criticism reacted against the biographical, psychological, and historical approaches. New Critics argued that the scholars were so busy with history and biography that they had forgotten about the text! They also claimed that if knowing extensive history and biography were required, only a professor would be licensed to read! New Critics maintained that the only requirements for reading a text were the reader and the text. This approach was new in the late 1930s, but its influence is still with us. For example, we don't need anything but the text to see how many lines are in the play, to discern literary devices, to determine the versification, to see which lines are prose and which poetry, etc.
You can use critical perspectives to support any thesis or answer (or ask) any question about the text. Here are a few possible questions/theses. Note: Be sure to develop your thesis with an eye on the learning objectives listed on the cover sheet.
I. Essay Assignment.
1. Select one of the critical perspectives.
2. Using this perspective, critique, in approximately 750 words, any work of literature.
3. To support your answer, cite in your essay at least three secondary sources (a critical commentary about the work, not the work itself). Document these sources with a Works Cited; use the MLA documentation method for parenthetical documentation.
4. Complete cover sheet if you can.
5. Get my approval for your topic.
6. I’ll check rough drafts.
7. One
class period will be used to help you write the final version of the essay.
II. HINTS FOR WRITING AN ESSAY
I. Use of secondary sources
a). You must use at least three secondary/critical
sources for each paper. A secondary source (article or book) is one other than
the work itself. For example, a secondary source for The Canterbury Tales
would not be The Canterbury Tales. Instead, an example of a secondary
source would be Chaucer and the Medieval Church, a work about Chaucer.
b). Where do you find these sources?
i). Use the computer catalog to locate the call numbers
of most books by and about the author.
ii). Most of these books are grouped together
in the same area of the library. Go to this area and browse.
iii). The best
places to browse are the table of contents and, especially, the index in the
back of the book.
iv). Also consult handbooks, guidebooks, dictionaries,
and encyclopedias, on the second floor of the library.
v). Do not use the textbook or the class
notes as a secondary source. Although, strictly speaking, these can be
cited as secondary sources (the introductions in the Norton text), you should
be able to locate other secondary sources.
AN EXAMPLE OF LOCATING
Suppose I want to find material on Alexander
Pope's view of nature. I would follow these easy steps:
1. I go to the computer catalog and enter
ALEXANDER POPE under AUTHOR (or SUBJECT). Most of these books
have similar call letters, so I write down the exact call number of one of these
books and find its location on the second and third floors of the library.
2. I find the book located among dozens of
other books by and about Pope. I browse through these books.
3. I go through several books about Pope
(e.g. Maynard Mack's Alexander Pope: A Life, The
Garden and the City). I look in the indexes of these books, under
"Nature." Most books have this entry, but some don't. Others have the
topic listed under "Pope: and nature." These entries tell me on which
pages the author discusses Pope and nature, so I don't have to read the entire
book to find the specific topic.
4. Although I obtain considerable information
from the books, I still want more information. Consequently, I stop on the
second floor of the library and consult some reference works, such as The
Oxford Companion to English Literature. I look under "Pope,
Alexander" for a little more on his views on nature.
5. I also use the on-line computer indexes to
locate essays on the subject. The library teaches classes on how to use these
indexes that probably would be well worth the time (an hour or two); my
internet site includes a link to these indexes, the most helpful, in regards to
literature, being the MLA Bibliography.
6). MOST FREQUENT PROLEM: "I can't
find a source on the specific topic" [nature in Shakespeare, prose in the
Renaissance, politics of modernism, whatever]. SOLUTION: You don't have to!
Find a quote on the general subject [Shakespeare, Renaissance, Modernism, or
even English Literature] and put the quote in the introduction or conclusion.
EXAMPLE ESSAY
Critical Perspective: Historical (and
Ideological)
Nature in the Eighteenth
Century
Nature in the 18th century was more than
falling leaves, snowy mountains, rainstorms, or raging seas. Nature, in fact,
was everything. More particularly, though, nature denoted the laws that
generated nature, laws designed by an omnipotent and all-good Creator. This
belief was powerfully expressed in the literature of the period that addressed
the "nature" of society, of man, and of the physical landscape.
Nature was often viewed in the 18th century
as a model for society. The same laws that governed the harmonious working of
creation should be discovered and imitated to ensure a prosperous and
well-ordered state. Pope's advice to poets is equally applicable to statesmen:
"First follow Nature and your judgment frame / By
her just standard . . . One clear, unchanged, and universal light" (Essay
on Criticism 68-71) [NOTICE THAT I CITE THE POEM BY
The 18th century believed that people were
linked to nature by the intellect, rather than with the emotions. Consequently,
as Donald Greene points out about Dr. Johnson, neo-classicists thought that
"poetry should not surprise but . . . `should strike the reader as a
wording of his own highest thoughts' " (164) [QUOTE FOUND BY USING
INDEX: "COLLINS, WILLIAM"]. Such a "nature" often was
compared to an intricate, flawless, and perpetual watch. If man could, through
use of his intellect, conform to the pattern evident in this intricate device,
he would enjoy the greatest happiness, success, and prosperity. Consequently,
in Windsor Forest, "Pope's object was not to depict his individual
response to Nature, or, as the Romantic poets would do, record his own
perplexed emotions, but to portray a universe that enclosed and completed both
the aspiring thoughts and the triumphant works of Man" (Quennell 51) [QUOTE FOUND BY USING INDEX: "POPE,
ALEXANDER: WORKS: WINDSOR FOREST:" THERE WERE SEVERAL PAGES LISTED. I WENT
TO SINGLE LARGEST CLUSTER OF PAGES: 48-52 ]. Pope
would later explicitly formulate this view in Essay on Criticism,
arguing that Nature is "at once the source, and end, and test of art"
(Essay on Criticism 73). Other poets such as James Thomson in The
Seasons went a step further, insisting on nature as "culminating in
man" (Tillotson 218) [QUOTE FOUND BY USING
INDEX: "NATURE:" THERE WERE SEVERAL PAGES LISTED. I WENT TO SINGLE
LARGEST CLUSTER OF PAGES: 217ff].
The 18th century also had an intense interest
in the beauties of nature. In some ways these views were unique to the age, and
in other ways they anticipate the Romantic era. Pope describes
Clearly, the 18th century view of
nature tells us much about this age and its insistence on order, clarity, and
reason. However, this essay has explored only the surface of a very complex topic.
In order to obtain a more comprehensive view of this vast and difficult topic,
a much more extensive analysis would be required.
WORKS CITED
Greene,
Donald. The Age of Exuberance: Backgrounds to Eighteenth-CenturyLiterature.
Random House, 1970.
Mack, Maynard. Alexander Pope: A Life.
Quennell, Peter. Alexander Pope: The Education of Genius
1688-1728.
Tillotson,
Geoffrey. "Eighteenth-Century Poetic Diction."
Eighteenth-Century Literature: Modern
Essays in Criticism. Ed. James Clifford.
NOTE THE FOLLOWING:
1. TILLOTSON'S ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN
1939. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO INCLUDE THE ORIGINAL BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION OF
REPRINTED MATERIAL FOR THESE ESSAYS (ALTHOUGH YOU DO FOR SOME PAPERS).
2. I DID NOT INCLUDE THE SOURCE FOR POPE'S
POETRY
3. USE A WORKS CITED (NOT A BIBLIOGRAPHY):
A BIBLIOGRAPHY LISTS ANY