Lit+Crit+notes

Literary Criticism – looking at a text through the “lens” of one particular concern. Reader Response Lens – Archetypal criticism – Gender Criticism Privilege and Social Power criticism – Psychological lens – Historical lens – Ecological lens – Post-colonial criticism
 * How did I like the book? How does it affect me?
 * What we used in grade school and middle school. What we do when we read for fun.
 * Meaning is constructed through the reader’s experience of reading
 * Ex.: When I read this it makes me think of my sister, and it really affects me because I really worry about her.
 * Proponents believe that literature has no objective meaning or existence.
 * How does this reflect the deep beliefs and myths of a culture?
 * Archetype means narrative patterns, character types, or images which are identifiable in literature, myths, art, religion, social behavior, and dreams.
 * These are considered to be deep in us all so that they evoke a strong response.
 * Any symbol with deep roots in a culture
 * Forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden
 * The poison apple in Snow White
 * Do people in this text follow traditional, expected gender roles? Are the characters in the text conscious of this?
 * This point of view recognizes that our culture is patriarchal
 * Men are in power.
 * Men’s power is overt.
 * Women are passive objects.
 * Women’s power is forced to be covert (hidden).
 * Neither men nor women have options regarding their traditional roles.
 * Who has the power in any given situation
 * Based on that person’s social standing
 * Based on ability to cause change
 * The economic organization of a society determines its attitudes and institutions
 * i.e., how wealth is produced makes society what it is.
 * Who has the most opportunities in the story?
 * Is power shared? Is it transparent?
 * Focuses on power and money
 * How does this text reveal the mind of the author?
 * How does the author’s personality explain the text?
 * Reading a work is a way of experiencing the consciousness of the author.
 * How does this work reflect the time and place it was written?
 * How has the time and place affected the author?
 * Apply specific historical information (social, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual climate) to explain the work.
 * How does the work reflect the author or society’s attitude toward land use?
 * Attitude toward ecological balance?
 * Looks at underlying assumptions toward the role of humans in the environment
 * How does this text show the attitude of the conquering culture toward the indigenous culture they come into?
 * What are the long term implications of these attitudes?
 * Successful colonization depends on the process of “Othering” the people being colonized, making the conquered people seem dramatically different and lesser than the colonizers
 * Literature written by the colonizers often distorts the experiences of the colonized.
 * Literature written by the colonized includes attempts to reclaim culture and identity in the face of colonization.