Critical Perspectives

Biographical Perspective:
http://infogr.am/Biographical-Perspective/

Historical Perspective:
http://dewittapeblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/historical-perspective-joellen-connor.html

Psychological Perspective:
http://dewittapeblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/psychological-perspective.html

Mythological Perspective:
http://dewittapeblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/mythological-studies-parkinson-and.html

Cultural Studies Perspective:
http://dewittapeblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/cultural-studies-perspective-ozbun.html

Marxist Perspective:
http://dewittapeblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/srcinfogr.html

Feminist Perspective:
http://dewittapeblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/feminist-critical-perspective.html

Deconstructive Perspective:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/199027/DeconstructiveCriticism/image.jpg

Structuralist Perspective:
http://infogr.am/Structure-7091449/

Poetry v. Free Verse (Caught'ya #9)

Poetry v. Free Verse

Merriam- Webster cites the definition of poetry as “the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts”. Merriam Webster defines free verse as “verse composed of variable, usually unrhymed lines having no fixed metrical pattern”. When comparing poetry to free verse, I think poetry is a much more beautiful piece of art. Free verse can be very elegant and creative in the way in which it is written, but poetry supersedes it in many fashions.

Poetry reflects someone’s thoughts or feelings in a very creative, figurative, and deep way. Emotions are reflected in the writing of poems. Authors of poetry use numerous literary devices, especially the use of metaphors and similes. These devices provide a lot of meaning as they compare different things in a very creative and meaningful way. It is these metaphors that often provide the most insight into that the author is feeling and why they are writing the poem. Free verse tends to not have so much emotion attached to it, making poems much more meaningful and heartfelt.

Rhyming is also a big part of poetry that I don’t believe the Merriam- Webster definition captures. Rhyming is such a big part of many poems. It helps creates the moods and tone. Rhyming is even the basis for several poems! A haiku follows the 5-7-5 syllable-rhyming pattern. This format has provided some amazing poems as it forces authors to condense their thoughts into a small amount of words. This then creates a beautiful collection of words, which reflects the author’s feelings in a rhyming fashion. This is something free verse lacks. Rhyming defines poetry and gives it a beat. It forces the reader in a specific way free verse cannot.

Yet another way I think poetry is different from free verse is the interpretation. Poems are most often relatively short in length. This means that the author must be succinct in what they are writing. Due to a norm of short poems, many authors present their theme with a lot of loose ends. The author expects you to tie those loose ends yourself. The author may not explain a metaphor, the theme, or what a stanza really means; it is up to the reader to figure that out. That is why poetry can be so beautiful. Free verse on the other hand tends to be much longer, thus the author has more freedom to expand on what/why they are writing. 

Formalist Perspective Infographic (Caught'ya #8)

Formalist Perspective Infographic

/http://infogr.am/Formalist-Perspective/

My Critical Perspective Use (Caught'ya #7)

My Critical Perspective Use

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.

 Perspective Notes

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.