Post by ernesto thaddeus m. solmerano on Jun 18, 2007 5:28:43 GMT -5
An Introduction to Literary Criticism
To my students in Lit 10,
Let me begin this paper by giving you some questions to consider and to ponder on.
1. Can’t you interpret a literary work in any way that pleases you?
2. Isn’t beauty in the eye of the beholder?
3. Who has the authority either to assert a particular meaning for a literary work or to judge it?
4. Is there such a thing as a single “correct” interpretation of a literary work?
5. Can one prove that an interpretation is correct?
6. Are there interpretations that are clearly wrong?
It is important to understand that although there may be an infinite number of different interpretations of a complex literary work, not all interpretations are reasonable or acceptable. Just as there are infinite numbers of even numbers, but seven isn’t one of them. Though there may be an infinite number of shades of blue, orange is not one of them.
What will you expect in this subject? First and foremost, you will be assigned to read selected literary texts written by different writers both foreign and local. Then you will be involved in “criticism”. According to M.H. Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms, 6th edition, criticism is the “overall term for studies concerned with defining, classifying, analyzing, interpreting and evaluating works of literature.”
What do we do when we critique a literary work? We supply the unspoken connections and contexts around what is said or written. We make explicit what would otherwise remain implicit. One of the objectives of this subject is for you to become an interpreter of a literary work. An interpreter is a go-between, a person who stands between the original source of information (the text) and the person trying to understand that information (your audience or readers). And the interpreter acts by filling in what is not understood, either by supplying different language or by articulating the unspoken connections. Thus in your interpretations you will be stating the relationships that the writer/author has left silent. An interpretation involves drawing connections that make the work more understandable.
What are the kinds of criticism that we are going to study in this subject? In their book The Heath Guide to Literature, 2nd edition, Bergman and Epstein stated that in “every literary work is involved in a web of unstated connections. The various types of criticism are defined by the sorts of connections they make explicit.” For example, criticism that explores the connection between the author’s life and his or her work is called biographical criticism. Criticism that deals with the relationship between the work and its historical context is called historical criticism. Criticism that looks at the relationship between the parts of a work and its artistic totality is called formal criticism. Criticism that investigates the text’s relationship to its audience is called reader-response criticism. Criticism that searches the relationship between the literary work and the society from which it is based is, understandably enough, called sociological criticism. These are not the only critical types available, and each type can be broken down into smaller, more specific branches. For example, some sociological critics use a Marxists technique and are therefore called Marxist critics. Other sociological critics employ a Feminist approach and are therefore called Feminist critics. Some biographical critics are indebted to Freud theories and are referred to as Freudian or Psychological critics. Other critical perspectives worth mentioning are the mythological, structuralist and deconstruction, which we will study also in this subject.
How do you go about interpreting a literary text? The uncritical reader passes his or her eyes across the page, line by line, and stops when the story, poem or play comes to an end. The first step in becoming a critical reader is to stop this unimpeded forward motion of reading. By making notes, by asking insightful questions, by stopping at the end of a paragraph and reflecting what it means or what has happened, one begins the long process of critical interpretation. Two propositions may help you in formulating your thoughts.
1. Nothing in a literary work is by accident. Even the smallest detail is an artistic decision made by the author.
2. Every element in a literary work ought to contribute to the effectiveness and beauty of the whole.
There are three questions that you may ask of any detail in a literary work.
1. Why was it chosen?
2. How does it contribute to the work as a whole?
3. How does it relate to the other details around it?
What are the five criteria for acceptable interpretations? Interpreting literature is an art and a skill that readers develop with experience and practice. Regular reading of stories, poems, plays and essays will give you opportunities to become a skillful interpreter. However, simply reading the literary works is not enough. If you want to develop a sense of the interpretive possibilities of literary works, if you want to become a good interpreter of literary texts, you must be, according to the English novelist Virginia Woolf, the “author’s fellow worker and accomplice.” Poets tend to agree that it takes two poets to make a poem. First, the poet–author writes the poem. Then the poet-reader interprets the poem. To guide you in your analysis of the literary texts, here are the five criteria for acceptable interpretations.
1. Appropriateness
The best interpretations must be especially fitting or it must have the quality of being suitable. A good interpreter knows that his or her interpretation must be in agreement or in accord with the text he or she is trying to elucidate.
2. Comprehensiveness
The best interpretations don’t explain just one or two details they make sense of many details in the literary work and the most powerful interpretations help us understand the literary work in its entirety.
3. Simplicity
The most convincing and most powerful interpretations are those that can explain a vast number of relationships in the simplest way. Yet be careful of being overly simple. Don’t confuse simplicity, which is a virtue, with being simplistic, which is a defect.
4. Depth
The best readings go beneath the surface of the literary work to explain its most profound aesthetic achievements or its most important ideas. Depth is also a function of comprehensiveness since the deeper one’s analysis can go, the more completely it reveals the unspoken relationships that bind the literary work together.
5. Reasonability
The final test of an interpretation is whether it seems to make reasonable sense of the work it is trying to interpret.
How To Support Your Interpretation
Students often develop interpretations that are appropriate, comprehensive and reasonable but they do not support their interpretation in an effective and convincing manner. Your reading of and writing about literature will not be convincing and effective unless you can back up your interpretation with good evidence. The task of literary criticism is to validate specific interpretations (i.e. cite evidence to support the analysis and interpretation. Without a critical analysis and interpretation of literature, one cannot arrive at an appreciation of it. When we understand how and why literature operates, we achieve a sense of satisfaction in our experience of literature.
Welcome again to the wonderful world of Literary Criticism.
I am, your professor, while the Semester lasts,
Prof. Ernesto Thaddeus M. Solmerano
To my students in Lit 10,
Let me begin this paper by giving you some questions to consider and to ponder on.
1. Can’t you interpret a literary work in any way that pleases you?
2. Isn’t beauty in the eye of the beholder?
3. Who has the authority either to assert a particular meaning for a literary work or to judge it?
4. Is there such a thing as a single “correct” interpretation of a literary work?
5. Can one prove that an interpretation is correct?
6. Are there interpretations that are clearly wrong?
It is important to understand that although there may be an infinite number of different interpretations of a complex literary work, not all interpretations are reasonable or acceptable. Just as there are infinite numbers of even numbers, but seven isn’t one of them. Though there may be an infinite number of shades of blue, orange is not one of them.
What will you expect in this subject? First and foremost, you will be assigned to read selected literary texts written by different writers both foreign and local. Then you will be involved in “criticism”. According to M.H. Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms, 6th edition, criticism is the “overall term for studies concerned with defining, classifying, analyzing, interpreting and evaluating works of literature.”
What do we do when we critique a literary work? We supply the unspoken connections and contexts around what is said or written. We make explicit what would otherwise remain implicit. One of the objectives of this subject is for you to become an interpreter of a literary work. An interpreter is a go-between, a person who stands between the original source of information (the text) and the person trying to understand that information (your audience or readers). And the interpreter acts by filling in what is not understood, either by supplying different language or by articulating the unspoken connections. Thus in your interpretations you will be stating the relationships that the writer/author has left silent. An interpretation involves drawing connections that make the work more understandable.
What are the kinds of criticism that we are going to study in this subject? In their book The Heath Guide to Literature, 2nd edition, Bergman and Epstein stated that in “every literary work is involved in a web of unstated connections. The various types of criticism are defined by the sorts of connections they make explicit.” For example, criticism that explores the connection between the author’s life and his or her work is called biographical criticism. Criticism that deals with the relationship between the work and its historical context is called historical criticism. Criticism that looks at the relationship between the parts of a work and its artistic totality is called formal criticism. Criticism that investigates the text’s relationship to its audience is called reader-response criticism. Criticism that searches the relationship between the literary work and the society from which it is based is, understandably enough, called sociological criticism. These are not the only critical types available, and each type can be broken down into smaller, more specific branches. For example, some sociological critics use a Marxists technique and are therefore called Marxist critics. Other sociological critics employ a Feminist approach and are therefore called Feminist critics. Some biographical critics are indebted to Freud theories and are referred to as Freudian or Psychological critics. Other critical perspectives worth mentioning are the mythological, structuralist and deconstruction, which we will study also in this subject.
How do you go about interpreting a literary text? The uncritical reader passes his or her eyes across the page, line by line, and stops when the story, poem or play comes to an end. The first step in becoming a critical reader is to stop this unimpeded forward motion of reading. By making notes, by asking insightful questions, by stopping at the end of a paragraph and reflecting what it means or what has happened, one begins the long process of critical interpretation. Two propositions may help you in formulating your thoughts.
1. Nothing in a literary work is by accident. Even the smallest detail is an artistic decision made by the author.
2. Every element in a literary work ought to contribute to the effectiveness and beauty of the whole.
There are three questions that you may ask of any detail in a literary work.
1. Why was it chosen?
2. How does it contribute to the work as a whole?
3. How does it relate to the other details around it?
What are the five criteria for acceptable interpretations? Interpreting literature is an art and a skill that readers develop with experience and practice. Regular reading of stories, poems, plays and essays will give you opportunities to become a skillful interpreter. However, simply reading the literary works is not enough. If you want to develop a sense of the interpretive possibilities of literary works, if you want to become a good interpreter of literary texts, you must be, according to the English novelist Virginia Woolf, the “author’s fellow worker and accomplice.” Poets tend to agree that it takes two poets to make a poem. First, the poet–author writes the poem. Then the poet-reader interprets the poem. To guide you in your analysis of the literary texts, here are the five criteria for acceptable interpretations.
1. Appropriateness
The best interpretations must be especially fitting or it must have the quality of being suitable. A good interpreter knows that his or her interpretation must be in agreement or in accord with the text he or she is trying to elucidate.
2. Comprehensiveness
The best interpretations don’t explain just one or two details they make sense of many details in the literary work and the most powerful interpretations help us understand the literary work in its entirety.
3. Simplicity
The most convincing and most powerful interpretations are those that can explain a vast number of relationships in the simplest way. Yet be careful of being overly simple. Don’t confuse simplicity, which is a virtue, with being simplistic, which is a defect.
4. Depth
The best readings go beneath the surface of the literary work to explain its most profound aesthetic achievements or its most important ideas. Depth is also a function of comprehensiveness since the deeper one’s analysis can go, the more completely it reveals the unspoken relationships that bind the literary work together.
5. Reasonability
The final test of an interpretation is whether it seems to make reasonable sense of the work it is trying to interpret.
How To Support Your Interpretation
Students often develop interpretations that are appropriate, comprehensive and reasonable but they do not support their interpretation in an effective and convincing manner. Your reading of and writing about literature will not be convincing and effective unless you can back up your interpretation with good evidence. The task of literary criticism is to validate specific interpretations (i.e. cite evidence to support the analysis and interpretation. Without a critical analysis and interpretation of literature, one cannot arrive at an appreciation of it. When we understand how and why literature operates, we achieve a sense of satisfaction in our experience of literature.
Welcome again to the wonderful world of Literary Criticism.
I am, your professor, while the Semester lasts,
Prof. Ernesto Thaddeus M. Solmerano