6 Literary Criticism
People have been telling stories and sharing responses to stories since the beginning of time. Reading and discussing literature can enhance our ability to write. It can sharpen our critical faculties, enabling us to assess works and better understand why literature can have such a powerful effect on our lives.
“Literary texts” include works of fiction and poetry. In school, instructors ask students to critique literary texts. “Literary criticism” refers to a genre of writing whereby an author critiques a literary text, either a work of fiction, a play, or poetry. Alternatively, some works of literary criticism address how a particular theory of interpretation informs a reading of a work or refutes some other critics’ reading of a work.
Over the years, literary critics have argued about the best ways to interpret literature. Accordingly, many “schools” or “theories of criticism” have emerged. As you can imagine—given that they were developed by sophisticated specialists—some of these theoretical approaches are quite sophisticated and abstract.
(Note: In case your head starts to swim reading through the summaries below, just keep in mind that our focus is just on introducing the various schools that exist within the discipline of literary studies and you don’t need immediate command of any of the details. The only four critical approaches that we will be applying throughout our readings later are highlighted below. Also note that we are specifically addressing Gender/Feminist, Marxist/Materialist, Historicist, and Ethnic/Cultural schools of criticism because they are included in the official course description.)
Below is a summary of some of the more popular literary theories. Because it is a summary, the following tends to oversimplify. You won’t need to learn the particulars of all of these approaches unless you enroll in course dedicated to literary criticism. Because our focus is introductory, we will take an eclectic approach, pulling interpretative questions from multiple literary theories.
Note: If you are interested in learning more about these theories, you can check out The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s page on Literary Theory or Dino F. Felluga’s “Undergraduate Guide to Critical Theory.”
(Some) Schools of Literary Criticism
New / Formalist
New Criticism/”Formalist” Criticism examines the relationships between the ideas and themes in a literary work and its form. When applying this theory, the reader focuses on exploring the meaning of the literature and the way in which the meaning is conveyed in the text. In other words, the work’s theme/meaning is reinforced and unified in the text’s form (imagery, narrative structure, point of view, and other literary elements). In applying the New Criticism as an approach for understanding literature, very close analysis of and focus on the literary text is essential. This “objective” evaluation of the text may focus, for example, on a text’s use of imagery, metaphor, or symbolism, and isn’t concerned with matters outside the text, such as biographical or contextual information.
Online examples: “A Formalist Reading of Sandra Cisneros’s ‘Woman Hollering Creek’ ” and “Sound in William Shakespeare’s ‘Tempest’: A Formalist Approach ” by Skylar Hamilton Burris
Questions to Consider:
- How do imagery and narrative point of view reinforce a theme or idea you’ve identified in the work?
- How does the plot contribute to supporting the meaning of a story you’ve read?
Reader-Response
Reader-Response Criticism suggests that the experience of reading and the experiences that the reader brings to the reading determine the meaning of the work. In other words, meaning within literature is created as the reader experiences (reads) the work. As readers bring their own ideas, thoughts, moods, knowledge, and experiences to the text, meaning is created with little emphasis placed on the structural elements of the work (plot, narrative point of view, character, symbol, etc.). The interaction between the reader and the text determines the meaning of the work. This focus on each reader’s personal reactions to a text assumes that meaning is created by a reader’s or interpretive community’s personal interaction with a text and rejects the idea that a single, correct, universal meaning exists (because meaning resides in the minds of readers).
Online example: “Theodore Roethke’s ‘My Papa’s Waltz’: A Reader’s Response ” (PDF)
Questions to Consider:
- What attitudes do you and the main character of the story have in common? Have these attitudes led you to similar/different outcomes to those of the main character? How so?
- How would you have responded to the situations the characters find themselves in? Why would you have responded in such a manner?
Gender and Feminist
Gender and Feminist Criticism focuses on understanding ways gender roles are reflected or contradicted by texts, how dominance and submission play out in texts, and how gender roles evolve in texts. This literary lens allows the reader to critique dominant patriarchal and heterosexual language and ideas by exposing how a work reflects masculine, patriarchal, heterosexual ideology. Additionally, the reader may focus on examining how literary works are shaped by and/or convey messages about gender-related issues such as gender identity, sexual orientation, gender roles and expectations, gender dynamics, and gender-related power structures. Gender criticism encourages readers to examine gender ideology and politics in literature and to critique oppressive patriarchal and masculine structures apparent in literary works.
Online Example: “‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’: A Twist on Conventional Symbols” by Liselle Sant, “Kate Chopin as Feminist: Subverting the French Androcentric Influence ” by Jane Le Marquand
Questions to Consider:
- In what ways is the work a commentary or critique of the dominant patriarchal ideologies in the society it depicts?
- What ideas about gender are reflected in the work?
New Historicist / Historical-Biographical
New Historicism focuses on understanding texts by viewing texts in the context of other texts and historical context. It allows readers to examine the realities of the historical period reflected in the work and/or the realities of the life and times of the author. To study a work using the historical/biographical literary lens, the reader’s assumption is that the literary work is a reflection of the period in which it was written, and/or that the work is a reflection of the author’s life and times. In other words, the reader assumes that the work has been shaped by historical events of the time (historical) and/or by events in the author’s life (biographical). Readers who examine literature through a New Historical lens concern themselves with the political, social cultural, economic, and/or intellectual implications of the work.
Online example: “Monstrous Acts and Little Murders ” by Jonathan Lethem
Questions to Consider:
- How are the politics and policies of the time in which the work was written depicted in the events and characters of the work?
- In what ways are the social norms of the period reflected in the story, poem, play, or novel?
- How might the work and its meaning have been shaped by events of the time period in which it was set or written?
- How might the work and its meaning have been shaped by events and/or people in the author’s life?
Ethnic/Cultural
Cultural Criticism allows the reader to approach literature with the assumption that the work questions traditional, cultural (typically Western-European) ideologies and values and that most literary works espouse these dominant ideas. With this in mind, those who apply cultural criticism examine how literature challenges Eurocentric-based meaning, particularly by focusing on how works, especially those written by and about traditionally oppressed and/or marginalized groups or sub-groups, expose the identities, systems, values, norms, traditions, etc. of typically under-represented groups.
Questions to Consider:
- How does the work reflect the oppressive environment of the time in which it takes place or in which it was written?
- In what ways is the devaluation and/or marginalization of under-represented groups represented?
Psychoanalytic/Psychological
Psychoanalytical Criticism focuses on psychological dimensions of the work, and may involve the assumption that the work is a reflection of the personality, state of mind, feelings, and desires of the author. The Psychological/Psychoanalytic lens requires readers to delve into the psychology or personality of the author and/or characters to determine the meaning of the work. Readers employing the psychological/psychoanalytic approach examine the role of unconscious psychological drives/impulses and repressive behaviors in shaping human behavior.
Questions to Consider:
- In what ways does the story reveal the protagonist’s struggle to assert his/her identity?
- How is the work a reflection of an individual’s desire to act according to his/her impulses yet, at the same time, struggle against those impulses?
Marxist/Materialist
Marxist or “Materialist” Criticism focuses on ways texts reflect, reinforce, or challenge the effects of class, power relations, and social roles. It argues that literature reflects the struggles between oppressed and oppressing classes. Readers applying Marxist criticism focus on examining the representation of socio-economic class structures, marginalization, materialism, class systems, and/or class conflict in literature. Readers also examine the way in which a literary work may espouse oppressive social and class structures.
In applying Marxist criticism, readers tend not to focus heavily on a literary work’s aesthetic or artistic concerns, arguing that meaning is shaped by the work’s depiction of class conflict and class distinctions, as well as its social and political concerns. In reading and critiquing literature, Marxist theorists tend to find themselves sympathetic to the working classes and to authors whose works challenge economic inequalities found in capitalist societies.
Online example: “A Marxist/Feminist Reading of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery'” by Peter Kosenko
Questions to Consider:
- In what ways does the literature depict the struggles between the rich and the poor?
- How is the work be sympathetic to the working class?
- How might the work be a critique or commentary about capitalism?
Archetypal
Archetypal Criticism focuses on identifying the underlying myths in stories and archetypes, which reflect what the psychologist Carl Jung called the “collective unconsciousness.” It is a literary lens requiring the reader to examine cultural and psychological myths that contribute to the meaning of the texts. As readers apply this theory, they assume that the literature imitates universal dreams of humanity and that recurring images, patterns, symbols, and human experiences, also known as archetypes, contribute to the form and meaning of the work. These archetypes may include what are known as motifs (recurring themes, subjects, ideas).
Online example: “A Symbolic Approach to Kate Chopin’s ‘The Awakening’ ” by Skylar Hamilton Burris
Questions to Consider:
- What symbols help to illustrate a common, universal struggle experienced by the protagonist of the story?
- How do the actions of the characters and/or the setting of the story reflect events/ideas that we find in other cultural stories and myths?
Postcolonial
Postcolonial Criticism focuses on how Western culture’s (mis)representation of third-world countries and peoples in stories, myths, and stereotypical images encourages repression and domination.
Online example: Other Voices: The eJournal of Cultural Criticism
Poststructuralist/Deconstructionist
Post-Structuralism/Deconstruction: focuses, along with Structuralism, on viewing literature as a system of signs, yet rejects the Structuralist view that a critic can identify the inherent meaning of a text, suggesting, instead that literature has no center, no single interpretation, that literary language is inherently ambiguous. Deconstruction involves examining contradictions that exist within a text and accepting the idea that because a text can have a variety of meanings, some meanings may actually contradict others.
Readers employing deconstructionist criticism tend to focus not on what is being said but, rather, on how it is said in the writer’s use of language. Because of this focus on the use of language, deconstructionists rely on a close reading of the text/words in order to make meaning.
Questions to Consider:
- White is a color that typically represents purity and innocence in our culture. How is the color white used to represent ideas that both support and contradict this meaning in the work?
- How might a theme in the work be negated by an opposing theme that also exists within the same work?
How to Approach the Lenses
The schools of literary criticism listed above can be understood as “lenses” you can use to draw deeper meaning from a work of literature (beyond just analyzing the plot or character development alone, for example).
Powerful works of literature invoke multiple readings. In other words, we can all read the same story or poem (or watch the same movie or listen to the same song) and come up with different, even conflicting, interpretations about what the work means. Who we are reflects how we read texts. Our experiences inspire us to relate to and sympathize with characters and difficult situations. Have we read similar stories? Have we actually faced some of the same challenges the characters in the story face?
In addition, literary theories have unique ways to develop and substantiate arguments. Some theories draw extensively on the work of other critics, while others concentrate on the reader’s thoughts and feelings. Some theories analyze a work from an historical perspective, while others focus solely on a close reading of a text.
Example: Romeo and Juliet Analytical Approaches
For a brief example of how different schools of literary criticism might approach a single work of literature, we can use William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet as a subject. I choose this as an example because it is so widely known, but, in case you aren’t familiar with the story, it’s about teenagers who fall in love but are forbidden to have a relationship because their upper-class families are feuding. There’s a lot more to it, but that’s essentially the premise. Now, thinking about the four fields of criticism we’ll often be drawing from, here are different ways that critics might approach analyzing the work (spoiler alert):
Gender and Feminist: Patriarchal society’s structure fuels the conflict between the families and, ultimately, the fates of the children. The outbursts of violence committed by some of the teenage boys can be interpreted according to the patriarchal rules of their society as rites of passage whereby they become “men.” Furthermore, Juliet adopts a passive female role and only by committing suicide is able to grasp agency.
Marxist/Materialist: The conflict between the families is essentially one of social class, and both the children of these families and the working class characters are basically forced to do things according to how the upper classes instruct, regardless of how destructive the fight over power and social standing may be.
New Historicist: The central conflict of the story stems from the era’s political geography, wherein feudalism was giving way to more centralization of the state and disrupting (causing) the nobility to fight amongst themselves.
Ethnic/Cultural: The play is written in England but set in Italy, which may lead us to consider the ways in which “Englishness” is projected onto the Italian characters. Or, vice versa: how through the Italian characters Shakespeare is commenting about England.
These are just ideas, and surely better ones are out there. The point, though, is just to see how an individual reader can figuratively “equip” a critical lens and thereby extract meaning from a work of literature in a way that focuses on specific aspects.
Attribution
Adapted and remixed from “Literary Criticism” by LibreTexts licensed under CC BY-NC and “Literary Theories” by LibreTexts licensed under CC BY-NC-SA .
Romeo and Juliet examples are by Matthew Bloom, CC BY-SA
