Literary Analysis and Criticism

Literary Analysis and Criticism

Criticism definition

  • in literature, "criticism" involves assessment of a work through
    • analysis of literary techniques and their effectiveness
    • other literary merits
    • other literary faults

Summarizing

  • plot, setting, narrator, character, conflict, change, connection, reflection, language, and theme.

Literary analysis

author analysis

  • author biography
  • author historical context
  • author publications
  • author critical reception
    • purposes and points of view of critics and their criticism

textual analysis

  • character
  • author purpose
  • author technique
  • metaphor and analogy
    • "read between the lines"
  • narrative
  • moral purpose

Journey of the hero

12 Elements of the hero's journey:

1. background, life as normal

2. the call

3. refusal of the call

4. mentor

5. passing the threshhold (heading into the journey)

6. encounter allies and enemies

7. tests and challenges

8. the "innermost cave" (despair moment)

9. seizing the sword: facing the enemy head on

10. the ultimate ordeal

11. resurrection: hero brought back to life, literally

12. Returning w/ the elixir and return to normal life

  • see : Joesph Campbell's "The Power of Myth"
    • the monomyth of call to adventure, tests, and resurrection

Literary Criticism

George Orwell

  • Politics and the English Language
    • essay on honesty and clarity of language
    • argues against euphemisms and euphemistic language
    • online sources:

Sokal affair

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

  • by Thomas C. Foster: "How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines"
    • Themes, advice, and quotations
      • "Fiction and poetry and drama are not necessarily playgrounds for the overly literal" (p. << to cite)
      • "No literary Christ figure can ever be as pure, as perfect, as divine as Jesus Christ. Here as elsewhere, one does well to remember that writing literature is an exercise of the imagination. And so is reading it."
      • to bring our imaginations to bear on a story if we are to see all its possibilities; otherwise it’s just about somebody who did something." (p. << to cite)
  • online sources: