literary lenses · literary criticism is an attempt to evaluate and understand the creative...
TRANSCRIPT
Literary LensesCritical Approaches
Critical Lenses
•ENDURING
UNDERSTANDING:
The structure of a text affects the meaning.
Authors make specific decisions in their writing, based on audience, purpose, and intent. Literature can be read through many
The structure of a text affects the meaning.
Authors make specific decisions in their writing, based on audience, purpose and intent. Literature can be read through many critical lenses.
What are critical lenses?
Literary criticism is an attempt to evaluate and understand the creative writing, the literature of an author. Literature includes plays, essays, novels, poetry, and short stories. Literary criticism is a description, analysis, evaluation, or interpretation of a particular literary work or an author's writings as a whole.
Critical Lenses are different perspectives through which the reader can “view” a text.
Feminist lensView that society is “patriarchal”, which has hindered or prevented women
from realizing their true potential. Claim that women are viewed negatively, inferior, or as “the other.”
– Consider the gender of the author, characters
– What roles does gender play in this work?
(Examine power relations)
– Look for sexual stereotypes either reinforced or contradicted
– Imagine yourself as the opposite gender reading the text
Marxist Criticism
Views society based on the economic and cultural theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles. Assumes that each society is made up of a set of concepts, beliefs, values, and ways of thinking influenced by economic and class structures.
Consider who has the power/money and who doesn’t
What role does power, money, or class play in this work?
What happens as a result in differences in power/money?
Relate context of work to social-class of author and/or time period
Formalist/New Critical
Views text as existing independently. Meaning is discovered by doing a close reading and by examining outside sources.
Focuses on the meanings and interactions of words, figures of speech, and symbols.
Looks for complex interrelations and ambiguities within a text.
Analyzes how parallels are established and create a unity within the text; analyzes how themes work together.
Historical Criticism
Views text as closely related to the time during which an author wrote.
Focused on the social, political, economic, cultural, and/or intellectual climate of the time.
Examines how other cultures are viewed in terms of an overpowering Western literature base.
Biographical Criticism
How does the literary work reflect key aspects of the author’s life? This has historical aspects too, but the focus is on the author’s personal life within the larger historical context.
PsychologicalCriticism
How are psychological factors important in the novel, especially in showing conflict and growth in characters?
ARCHETYPES-CHARACTER
Archetypal analysis of a work is one of the most common forms of literary analysis.
An archetype is a pattern from which copies can be made. That is, it is a universal theme that manifests itself differently on an individual basis. These archetypes can be found all over the world and throughout history. The manifestation of the idea may be different, but the idea itself is the same.
Archetypes fall into two major categories:
--characters
--situations/symbols.
Archetypes – Characters
• The hero - The courageous figure, the one who's always running in and saving the day.
• The outcast - The outcast is just that. 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 - The scapegoat figure is the one who gets blamed for everything, regardless of whether he or she is actually at fault.
• The star-crossed lovers - This is the young couple joined by love but unexpectedly parted by fate.
• The shrew - This is that nagging, bothersome wife always battering her husband with verbal abuse. "
Archetypes – Situations and Symbols
• The task - A situation in which a character, or group of characters, is driven to complete some duty of monstrous proportion.
• The quest - Here, the character(s) are searching for something, whether consciously or unconsciously. Their actions, thoughts, and feelings center around the goal for completing this quest.
• The loss of innocence - This is, as the name implies, a loss of innocence through life experience, violence, or any other means.
• The initiation - This is the process by which a character is brought into another sphere of influence, usually (in literature) into adulthood.
• Water - Water is a symbol of life, cleansing, and rebirth. It is a strong life force, and is often depicted as a living, reasoning force.
MARXIST (study of class and power relationships)
FOCUS OF STUDY
Examine the class structure of England in the early nineteenth century (Regency period) as presented in the text of Pride and Prejudice.
Study the relationship between powerful and powerless as depicted in the text of the novel.
Consider characteristics of upper and middle class as represented in Pride and Prejudice.
Questions to consider:
1. Who were the powerful ? Who were the powerless? Be sure to consider characters
in the book—both powerful and powerless
2. Why were the powerful in their positions of power? What qualities did they have?
3. Be clear about: working class (>80% of population), middle class (see Reform Act of
1832), and upper class (hereditary aristocracy and the new landed gentry)
4. To what extent does the lack of class mobility depicted in the novel reflect on the
struggle over political participation taking place in England in the early nineteenth
century?
5. To what extent does the novel’s title serve as a commentary on social class?
FEMINIST
FOCUS OF STUDY
Examine differences between men and women.
Examine women in power or power relationships between men and women.
Explore the female experience.
Check out Mary Wollstonecrafts’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
Questions to consider:
1. What stereotypes of women are present? Are female characters oversimplified? Weak?
Foolish? Excessively naïve?
2. Do the female characters play major or minor roles in the action of the work? Are they
supportive or independent? Powerless or strong? Subservient or in control? Are there
exceptions to this (Lady Catherine and Elizabeth Bennet)?
3. If the female characters have any power, what kind is it? Political, economic, social,
psychological?
4. How do the male characters talk about the female characters?
5. How do the male characters treat the female characters?
6. How do the female characters act toward the male characters?
7. How do the female characters act toward each other?
8. Is the work in general sympathetic to female characters?
9. Are the female characters and situations in which they are placed oversimplified or
presented fully and in detail?
FORMALIST
FOCUS OF STUDY
How can the novel be viewed as an independent work of art, one that utilizes narrative techniques to tell a story with key, timeless themes?
Questions to consider:
1. How does Austen use elements of irony and satire to comment on the middle and
upper classes of Regency England?
2. Consider Elizabeth as a dynamic character. How does she change throughout the
course of the story? Also consider Mr. Darcy, Jane Bennet, and Mr. Bingley VS. static
characters (that do not change over the course of the novel) like Mrs. Bennet, Mr.
Collins, and Miss Bingley.
3. Consider point of view-Austen pioneered the narrative technique known as free
indirect discourse. What is the effect of this in enabling readers to perceive growth in
major characters, especially Elizabeth and Darcy?
4. How does the novel fit into the genre of “comedy of manners?” This genre became
popular in England during the Restoration period; it uses elements of satire in order
to ridicule or expose the behaviors, manners, flaws, and morals of members of the
middle or upper classes. Frequently, they incorporate love affairs, witty and comical
exchanges between characters, and the humorous revelation of societal scandals and
intrigues.
Historical
FOCUS OF STUDY
Examine Pride and Prejudice as a novel taking place against the backdrop of the political, social, and economic events shaping England and Europe in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century.
Examine Pride and Prejudice as a novel commenting on, shaping, and criticizing the political, social, and economic events shaping England and Europe in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century.
Questions to consider:
1. What was happening in the world at the time the book was written? What was
occurring during the time in which it’s set?
2. What events transpired to get the powerful/powerless to their positions?
3. What were some major controversies at the time the book was written? The time in
which it is set?
4. Who was on either side of the controversy? Who were the powerful? Who were the
powerless?
Be sure to consider the following: From about 1750-1830, the Industrial Revolution
transformed England and Europe from an agricultural society to an industrial, capitalist
economy. The Industrial Revolution had far-reaching effects on social class and family
structures. Consider other important trends/world events that impacted society in
Regency England.
Biographical
FOCUS OF STUDY
Taking into account the focus of the historical-events group, you will focus on the following:
What view or understanding of Jane Austen’s life does this text offer? How does our understanding of Austen’s life contribute to or shape our understanding of the novel?
Examine the text for references to Austen’s personal life.
Examine the text for clues about Austen’s attitude toward marriage (how does this relate to Elizabeth’s?).
Questions to consider:
1. What events occurred in the writer’s life that made her who she was? What affected her outlook on
life? Consider a strong sister-sister bond, the death of Austen’s father, etc.
2. Who influenced the writer? What people in her life may have helped form her world view?
3. What did Austen read that affected her philosophy?
4. What were Austen’s political views? Was she liberal, conservative, moderate?
5. In what level in the social order was Austen raised? How did her economic and social situation affect
her?
6. At what level in the social order did Austen want to be?
7. What were Austen’s friends like? What level of the social order? What occupations?
8. How powerful was Austen socially?
9. What concerned Austen about society? What did she do about it?
10.What type of person was Austen in her society?
11.Which segments of society are predominantly depicted in the novel? Why does Austen focus on these
segments?
Psychological
FOCUS OF STUDY
How are psychological factors important in the novel, especially in showing conflict and growth in characters?
How do the characters view one another? What are key motivations?
What symbols are used that could imply psychological meanings?
Do any characters have dreams or inner monologues? What is revealed
about a character through these that would not otherwise be revealed?
What are the dangers of first impressions?
Trace the development of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth as individuals.
What are the lessons Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth must learn before they can
become a couple (consider pride and prejudice)?
Archetypes
FOCUS OF STUDY
How do particular characters exemplify important aspects of the novel, especially members of the upper and middle classes?
Questions to consider:
1. Why did Austen choose to create a protagonist who is born into a middle class
family? What social criticism can be associated with Austen’s creation of
Elizabeth Bennet?
2. Can Elizabeth Bennet be considered a progressive, even rebellious, female
character who goes against social expectations set upon women?
3. How do various characters embody key traits/qualities of the middle and upper
class?
(Mr. Bennet, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Collins, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the Bingleys,
Mrs. Phillips)
4. What is Austen’s attitude toward the different social classes? Toward class
mobility?
ARCHETYPES-THEME
FOCUS OF STUDY: Explore key themes in the novel
The possibility of class mobility
Gender relations in eighteenth and nineteenth-century England
Marriage (as an institution—consider different views on marriage presented in the
novel)
The dangers of “first impressions “ (the original title)
Pride and prejudice—how do they shape the attitudes of different characters (Darcy,
Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet, Charlotte Lucas, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, etc.). Does the novel
present different notions of pride?
Choice—to what extent is the novel about the consequences of the choices people
make?
The status of women in 19th century England (independence, property, education,
equality, social decorum)