Lesson 7 Critical Approaches in Literary Criticism.docx

**Lesson 7 Critical Approaches in Literary Criticism** What is critical approach in writing? Critical Approaches are different perspectives we consider when looking at a piece of literature. They seek to give us answers to these questions, in addition to aiding us in interpreting literature. 1\....

**Lesson 7 Critical Approaches in Literary Criticism** What is critical approach in writing? Critical Approaches are different perspectives we consider when looking at a piece of literature. They seek to give us answers to these questions, in addition to aiding us in interpreting literature. 1\. What do we read? 2\. Why do we read? 3\. How do we read? 1. Formalist Criticism: Focuses only on the work itself and completely ignores the author of the work, time and background information of work, and the audiences' feeling or perception about the work. - A literary text exists independently of any reader and, in a sense, has a fixed meaning. - Claims that literary works have intrinsic properties and treats each work as a distinct work of art. - It examines the elements of the text. - Example: - Fiction: characters, pov, setting, tone, symbols - Poetry: figure of speech, the rhythm, form 2. Gender Criticism: Examines how gender influences the creation of text especially the characters. - It examines images of men and women, concepts of the feminine in myth and literature, the presence or absence of men or women in the story. - Gender: social and cultural differences between man and woman - Example: - In Disney movies a princess is often portrayed as a damsel in distress and prince is masculine, brave and a hero of the story. 3. Historical Criticism: Involves understanding the events and experiences surrounding the composition of the work, the life of the author, and using the findings to interpret that work of literature. - Example: Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere reflects the oppression and suffering of the Filipinos under the Spanish government. 4. Reader-response Criticism: Is concerned with the reviewer's reaction as an audience pf a literary work. - Claims that the reader's role cannot be separated from the understanding of the work. - A text does not have a meaning until the reader reads and interprets it. - You can ask yourself: - How do I feel after reading the story? - What are the lessons I learned from the story? - How does your experience inform your understanding of the story? - Reader's understanding of the text is what is important. 5. Media criticism: it involves a systematic process in which we examine media, how media is perceived and how media impacts society. - print media (books, magazines, newspapers), television, movies, video games, music, cell phones, various kinds of software, and the Internet. 6. Marxism: An approach to diagnosing political and social problems in terms of the struggles between members of different socio-economic classes. - Concerned with the differences between economic classes. - It attempts to reveal that the ultimate source of people's experience is the socio-economic system. - The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, teleseryes 7. Structuralism: analyses a text\'s connection to other literary works since it examines common underlying structures. - The literary theory of structuralism is based on the assumption that all literary works have underlying universal structure. - Example with horror story. Almost all horror stories follow the same pattern. You start out with an innocent person going about their lives then they hear a strange noise either outside or on the other side of the door. They go to check the sound and are brutally murdered. - Another example is love story. The main character somehow meets the love of their life. They experiencea whirlwind relationship but are turn apart for some reason. They reunite and get married. *And they live happily ever after.*