Untitled Flashcards Set

Literary Criticism/ Critical Approaches- sometimes called “lenses”, are the different perspectives we can consider in analyzing or interpreting a text and it refers to the act of interpreting and studying literature.
A literary critic is someone who argues on behalf of an interpretation or understanding of the particular meaning(s) of literary texts. The task of a literary critic is to explain and attempt to reach a critical understanding of what literary texts mean in terms of their aesthetic, as well as social, political, and cultural statements and suggestions.

purpose of literary criticism?
 The purpose of literary criticism is to broaden a reader’s understanding of an author’s work by summarizing, interpreting, and exploring its value. After giving the text a close reading, a critic formulates a comprehensive literary analysis that can inform or challenge another reader’s understanding of the text. The practice of literary criticism creates space for readers to better understand the beauty and complexity of the world through literature.
LITERARY APPROACHES

1. The Formalist Approach – holds that the true meaning of a text can be determined only by analyzing the literary elements of the text and by understanding how these elements work together to form a cohesive whole.
2. Historical Approach- it involves the understanding of the historical and cultural conditions that influence the production of the literary work. Additionally, this approach “seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it as the context that necessarily includes the artist’s biography and milieu.” Moreover, it investigates the origins of ancient texts in order to understand "the world behind the text".
3. Biographical Approach- is a form of literary criticism where the life, beliefs, and experiences of the authors are used to better understand and interpret their work.
4. Feminist Approach- focuses on female representation in literature, paying attention to female points of view, concerns, and values.
5. Reader-Response Approach- argues that the meaning of a text depends upon the readers’ response to it. Hence, two different readers may derive completely different interpretations of the same literary text. It also attempts to describe what happens in the reader’s mind while interpreting a text and reflects that reading, like writing, is a creative process.
6. Marxist Approach- examines the relationship of a literary product to the actual economic and social reality of its time and place including:

✓ Class Stratification- which means that certain tasks in society are more valuable than others.

✓ Class relations- which concerns the authority relationships based on property ownership.

✓ Dominant ideology- basically the rich vs poor issues.
Queer Approach- Queer literary criticism specially looks at books and stories. It focuses on how the books talk about gender and sexuality, and how they make people think about these things.
This approach started in the 1990s, building on ideas from feminism. It looks at how books show the normal way of being straight, and how this can make other ways of being seem less important.