Learning about the different ways to analyze a literary
work, I realize how few perspectives I use when deciding if I like a book or
not. One of the ways I do use when analyzing a text is the formalist
perspective. If it takes too much effort to decipher what the author is trying
to say, I usually will turn away from the book. I like a book that is easy to
read, yet uses sophisticated literary devices. For example, in Sula, there were several parts in the
book where I became confused as to what was happening. This was because some of
the words or the order of the plot confused me, resulting in frustration. Over
the course of Sula, there were a few
of these muddled areas where I was disoriented about the plot thus leading to a
general dislike of Toni Morrison’s novel.
Formalism is really the only perspective I use when reading
books. I don’t think about what time period the novel was written in or what
mental state the author was in when they wrote it. Those things just don’t
occur to me when I read. I may think about how an author’s past experiences
affect the plot or characters after I read the book if I find out a fact about
them but I would never research the author beforehand and draw the connections while
reading the book. I just read the book, and if I like it, I like it! As simple
as that! I guess that’s why not many of my favorite books are in the literary
canon.
Psychoanalytic Perspective
·
Based on Freud’s psychoanalysis
·
The conscious and unconscious
·
Driven by sexual and aggressive desires:
animalistic impulses
·
Literary works are linked with the author’s
mental and emotional characteristics
·
Try to explain how a literary work reflects its
writer’s consciousness and mental world
·
Superego is the parent and represses the Id,
which is all of the impulses. The Ego balances the two
Marxist Perspective
·
Focuses on how dominant elites exploit
subordinate groups
·
Struggle from the people on the bottom to get to
the top
Feminist Perspective
·
Focuses on what the literary work reveals about
the role, position, and influence of women
·
See literature as an arena in which to contest
for power
·
Literature is an agent for social transformation
·
Takes into account the patriarchal culture at
the time of the text
·
What was the role of males and females when the
book was written?
Reader- Response Perspective
·
Where does the literary meaning reside? In the
literary text, in the reader, or in the interactive space between the text and
reader?
·
Must think of the literary work objectively
·
Don’t just base the book on like or dislike
·
For a reader to connect to the book, the reader
must find their identity themes within the text
·
Reader’s personal understanding
·
How did you feel upon first reading it? What
emotions do you have?
Mythological Perspective
·
Archetypes
·
Patterns of human action and experience
throughout time and space
·
The Mentor, The Rebel, The Innocent
·
Universal experiences = birth, death, rites of
passage, sex, etc.
·
Not about myths like Greek gods and dragons
Structuralism Perspective
·
Everything is based on symbols
·
We ascribed meaning to symbols based on context
·
Looks at differences
·
We look at symbols based on differences
·
BINARY OPPOSITION, things that are opposed to
each other
Deconstructive Perspective
·
Looks for differences in meaning within the
context
·
There is never a clear message due to the
instability of the language
·
Message is not consistent, hypocrisy
·
Believe language is self destroying and self
contradicting
·
What oppositions exist in the work? What
elements suggest a contradiction?
·
Nobody is perfect, that’s why there is
contradiction in the text
Cultural Studies Perspective
·
Looks at text from the perspective of
marginalized cultures
·
Focuses on the experiences of outcast groups
throughout history
·
Asian, African-American, homosexual, etc.
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