Literary Criticism

There are several theoretical viewpoints through which literature can be discussed and interpreted

Formalism
• Focuses on form and the literary elements of a piece: theme, setting, character, point of view, metaphor, irony, etc. etc.
• The meaning resides in the text itself

Biographical Criticism
• Information and details about the life of the author can lend insight to his or her literary work
• The meaning resides in the author

Historical/Cultural Criticism
• The time period and surrounding culture have an influence on the literature
• Literature influences culture

Marxism
• Examines themes of class, money, power, and race in works of literature
• What is not present or is only mentioned briefly can be very significant

Feminism
• Examines the roles of men and women in works of literature
• How are gender roles defined? Subverted? Upheld?

Reader-Response Theory
• Readers’ prior experiences and backgrounds influence the way they interpret works of literature
• The meaning resides in the reader

Each theory both reacted to and borrowed from the theories that came before.

Ground Rules

Ground Rules for Writing about Literature 1. Stay in the present tense.
Mercutio is killed in the second act.
The nurse allows and facilitates the elopement.

*The present tense only refers to events that occur in literature. Events that occur in real life in real time can be in the past tense:

The short story was published in 1935. The author died shortly thereafter.

2. Refer to authors and critics by last name (after the first instance).

Shakespeare writes convincingly of young, headstrong love.
Faulkner exposes the complexity of race relations in the South several years after the civil war.
Smith proposes an interpretation …

*Characters may be referred to by first name, however.

3. Stay out of the first person. (Avoid “in my opinion” waffling statements.)

In my opinion, Rosalind is a fascinating character.
I think the ending means …

*The whole paper is your opinion and your interpretation. The reader understands it’s just what you think!

4. Use correct MLA documentation.
The play focuses on romantic love, specifically the intense passion that springs up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet. According to one critic, in Romeo and Juliet, “love is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions” (Smith 444). In the course of the play, the young lovers are driven to defy their entire social world: families “Deny thy father and refuse thy name,” Juliet asks, “Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And I’ll no longer be a Capulet” (Shakespeare 2.1). Love is the overriding theme of the play, but a reader should always remember that Shakespeare is uninterested in portraying a prettied-up, dainty version of the emotion, the kind that bad poets write about, and whose bad poetry Romeo reads while pining for Rosaline. Love in Romeo and Juliet is a brutal, powerful emotion that captures individuals and catapults them against their world, and, at times, against themselves.

Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. 10th edition. New York:
Harcourt Brace, 2010. Print.
Smith, Lauren. “Unconventional Love in Romeo & Juliet.”
Literature Review 44.1 (1999): 444-6. Print.


*MLA that I expect you know:
• All directly quoted words go in “ “ (or in a block quote)
• All borrowed info (including direct quotes) needs:
o A (parenthetical citation) that points directly back to
o A Works Cited Entry

Definitions of Literature

What is Literature?

The Norton Introdution to Literature give a 2-part dictionary definition:
Literature is "imaginative or creative work of recognized artistic value."

Other authors weigh in:

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it.
~ C. S. Lewis

The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature ... is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth.
~Jim Rohn

Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.
~Ezra Pound

There is only one school of literature - that of talent.
~Vladimir Nabokov

Literature could be said to be a sort of disciplined technique for arousing certain emotions.
~Iris Murdoch

The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.
~Margaret Atwood

Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.
~Boris Pasternak

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Incorporating Quoted Material

4 Ways to Incorporate Quoted Material
The goal of incorporating quoted material is for you to seamlessly and easily integrate the quotes and specific evidence you pull from literature into your own writing. Don't just dump a quote in, take the time and effort to make it a part of your sentence that makes grammatical sense to the reader.

1) Simple signal phrase In the Buddhist tale, “once there was a village high in the mountains in which everyone was born blind” (16).

*According to ..., In the short story, O'Connor claims, are all examples of easy signal phrases.

2) Make a claim, then back up your claim with evidence from the text
Just as people often feel strongly about their interpretation of a work of literature, “two elders were about to come to blows about a fan that could not possibly be a pillar” (16).

3) Give an interesting quote and then explain it
“Four young mothers … comparing impressions, realized that the elephant was in fact” a combination of several different parts (16). Though individuals working alone could not put it all together, when different viewpoints came together, they had a more complete understanding.

4) Pull specific words and phrasesThe villagers had no experience with an elephant, but they did have working knowledge of things like “a leather fan,” “a cool, smooth staff,” “a dry, plowed field,” and an “overturned washing tub” (16).

These are just four examples of correctly incorporated quotes. As you get more used to dealing with your interpretation and using evidence from the text, you'll be able to use many more.