Literary Criticism /

Analysis:
Putting Theory into
Practice
Chapter 4

Literary analysis
Interpretation ?
Might seem a drudgery
A fascinating exploration into the depths of a
text
Informative and illuminating
Expands the mind and ones understanding
of the world
Learning to view the world from a mere
analytical perspective

Initial intimacy with the

work
Read/watch it more that once
Sound interpretation
First experiential go through
Appreciate the text
Follow the story
Notice the intricacies
The aspects that move you
The parts that confuse or are difficult to
understand
Emotional response to the text

Types
Close Textual Reading
Encapsulation of liberal humanism, Russian
formalism, and New Criticism

Biographical Approach
Reader Response Criticism
Structuralism, Semiotics, and Narratology
Post structuralism Deconstruction
Post modernism
Psychoanalytic/ Psychological Criticism
Feminism Gender Criticism
Historical/Cultural Criticism

Psychoanalytic/ Psychological Criticism

Sigmund Freud Austrian (1856-1939)
Deeper understanding of
Text
Its writer
Its reader

Changed our notions of human behaviour

Healing of the conscious mind
consciousness is a state of being that has three modes,
those of will (or will power), mind and feeling.

Unconscious as a force determines our actions and

beliefs
How the mind, the instincts, and sexuality work
Wish fulfillment, sexuality, unconscious, repression
Strong influence on our actions

 The superego
Adheres to all the rules, our moral compass, thus conscience
thesuper-egoplays the critical and moralizing role;
Thesuper-egocan stop you from doing certain things that youridmay want
you to do.

The id
Represents our desires, holds the sexual desires
theidis the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends;

The ego
Balances the superego and id
This is the personality ; it is the conscious aspect of the person, and excludes
the subconscious and unconscious minds. It is agency, or the agent of
consciousness. The ego has to make choices, and these produce effects.
So the realm of the ego is the realm of cause and effect.
and theegois the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires
of theidand thesuper-ego.

Freud is known to have relied on literature to explore the workings of

the mind
How language and symbols operate, reflect fears or desires
Texts more obvious content vs its hidden content

Freudian critics pay close attention to

Unconscious motives and feelings
Both the author and the characters in the text

 Harold Bloom The Anxiety of Influence

Explores the idea of writers inhibited in their
writing by the greatness and influence of
those who have written before them

Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar The

Anxiety of Authorship
Discuss the idea of women experiencing
anxiety when picking up the pen to write,
since it was not considered their domain

Women perception not fully explored by

Freud
Caught in the perception of his own time
Freudian approach began to wane in

 Jacques Lacan French (1901-1981)

Lacan revived Freud's theories (mid 1950s) by
updating them

The ego, the I self is only an illusion

produced by the unconscious
Unconscious
The core of ones being
Structured like a language
That helps to form the individual, without the
individuals conscious awareness

Lacanian critics pay close attention to

The unconscious motives and feelings
Not of the authors or characters (Freudian critics do)
But those of the text itself

 Theory of mirror stage creates the concept of

lack and desire in individuals 6-18months
Psychoanalytic / psychological criticism
Investigates the creative process of the arts, the
nature of the literary genius, its relation to the
normal mental functions
Explores the psychology of the particular artist or
writer, reference to the literary work how does it
reflect the authors personal psychology,
An analysis of the fictional characters in the text, the
revelation of the psychological states of the
emotions and behavious of the characters

Move beyond
Complexities Oedipus, Electra Gay, Lesbian
Language apparent, latent
Author Coleridge, Ezra Pound

Movies

A Beautiful Mind
Fight Club
The Silence of the Lambs Red Dragon
Hannibal
American Psycho
Citizen Kane
Atonement
Big fish
Mystic River
Psycho
The Devil Wears Prada
The Importance of Being Earnest