The document discusses the key elements of literature analysis, focusing on structure, content, and style, and how they interact in various texts. It explores different critical approaches, such as formalist, biographical, historical, psychological, mythological, cultural, and reader-response criticisms, each providing unique lenses through which to interpret literary works. Additionally, it addresses the concept of the literary canon and its implications on the status and quality of literature.

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>.