1.

Choose a Topic
Some students need guidance when choosing a topic, but others have ideas that they would like to
explore. Topics can be divided into the main literary elements:

 Characters
 Themes
 Literary devices
 Setting
 Narrative.

2. Focus the Topic

Here is where many students will need to do a lot of brainstorming, outlining, and specific thinking about
the element on which they would like to focus.

 The brainstorming process involves mapping out the different aspects of the chosen element.
 Make a choice by narrowing down the selection and focusing the ideas.
 Come up with a question to answer (thesis statement): What do you want to explore about the topic?
Why does it stand out to you?
 Answer the "why" question. Instead of letting students simply describe the text, "why" pushes them to
analyze and even synthesize. This aspect is vital to student understanding, as most of the time a
teacher is able to identify a relevant thesis related to modern-day issues and concepts. Here is where
real-world application, analysis, and synthesis can begin to form in this piece of writing.

3. Gather Textual Evidence

Collecting material to answer or support your question is often a time-consuming stage, because most of
the close reading will occur here. It's important for students to know that they're allowed to research the
topic or text before starting to write. Many students feel that they should not be using Google or Wikipedia
to research their texts. Here is where the teacher can have an honest discussion about digital citizenship,
and how to tell credible academic sources from non-credible ones.

Show students that close reading and gathering evidence doesn't have to be a mundane, one-
dimensional task.

 Identify common themes, repetitions, and patterns.

 Categorize elements, tone, and narrative style.
 Highlight characterization, setting, and foreshadowing.
 Label character types, symbols, and metaphors.

4. Introduce, Evidence, Analyze

Learning through writing and literary analysis happens through stages (see Bloom's Taxonomy). At this
stage of writing, students have already accomplished remembering, understanding, and applying. Next
comes analysis.

Introduce
Students should introduce their point in one or two clear topic sentences. Next, it's important to provide
evidence that supports the main topic in order to convince the reader of the stated point of view. There
are a few ways students can add their evidence.

Evidence

 Quotation: When providing evidence word for word from a primary or secondary source, students
should be reminded to use quotation marks only if the words have not been altered.
 Summary: Students summarize a piece of evidence by restating it in a shorter form using their own
words.
 Paraphrase: Students explain a piece of evidence using their own words.
At this stage, it's important to use the lesson as a reminder to cite and give credit for words and ideas that
belong to others. A conversation with the class about academic honesty is very important to help them
understand intellectual property. This conversation will also prepare them for honesty and ethics in the
real or academic world.

Analyze
This critical stage is often a learning curve for many students. It's important that the teacher helps them
distinguish between descriptive writing and analytical writing. Descriptive writing answers the "who,"
"what," "where," and "how" questions. It often tends to summarize the text. Analytical writing, however,
answers to the "why" question. When students consider the question, "Why is this point important?", it
pushes them beyond mere description into ideas that are convincing, argumentative, and defend a
position.

5. Conclusion
A strong conclusion outlines the main ideas of the essay, but it also works to provide a solution to a real-
life problem. Students can focus on concluding with what they hope to get out of their analysis, or provide
closure to the topic. Most importantly, students should seize the conclusion as an opportunity to provide
their own opinion and reflection about their process of analyzing the text. The self-reflection here would
be a vital key for teachers to assess the writing process and a great opportunity to provide essential
feedback to the student.

What Are the Functions of Literary Criticism?

by Desmond Parks

Literary criticism is about interpretation.

Related Articles

 What Is the Feminist Approach to Literary Criticism?

 Types of Literary Lenses
 Differences Between Medieval & Renaissance Literature in England
 Neoclassical Period Vs. Romanticism Period
 Mark Twain Research Paper Topics
 Literary Elements of Victorian Literature

The primary function of literary criticism is to interpret literature in a way that will
increase understanding, according to the English department of Georgia Perimeter
College. Literary criticism began in 19th century Europe among the bourgeois class,
writes Professor Terry Eagleton of the University of Manchester in "The Function of
Criticism: From the Spectator to Post-Structuralism." Academics in the literary, political
and philosophical fields assembled to discuss literature and apply the resulting ideas to
their areas of interest.
Sponsored link

Start Download - View PDF

Convert From Doc to PDF, PDF to Doc Simply With The Free Online App!
download.fromdoctopdf.com

Understanding Meaning

The Victorian poet Matthew Arnold was the first contemporary literary critic, S.N.
Radhika Lakshmi writes on the website Literature-Study Online. Arnold's criticism
usually involved poetry; his support of literary criticism greatly influenced the literary
world, building a new appreciation for its practice. Arnold's scientific approach to
criticism included both individual and comparative evaluations. He would explore an
author's purpose for writing, helping to determine what the author was saying beyond
the obvious.
Philosophy

Arnold was a moralist who based his interpretations on this philosophical foundation,
Lakshmi writes. Arnold assumed the position that poetry ought to have a moral
foundation, with positive ideals and perspectives to communicate to readers. He thought
that poetry founded on amoral or indifferent beliefs was counterproductive and
rebellious to life itself.
Discover History

Citing Aristotle, Arnold believed that poetry was more valid than historical accounts
because it was created as an emotional reaction to events instead of being a subjective
report. He based his moralist perspectives on this belief. By assessing literary devices,
metaphors, similes, social norms and societal interpretations in literature from a given
period, you can learn a lot about that period as well as about its society.
Develop Writing Skills

Literary criticism will not only help students better understand literature, but it will also
help them to write it, according to the humanities department at Georgia Perimeter
College. Literary criticism and interpretation give meaning and value to an author's
work. It is important for every writer to understand literary criticism so that he can
improve the way he communicates directly and indirectly. Literary criticism also helps
students discover new ideas, develop philosophical positions and learn about the
nuances of societies from throughout history.

Types of Literary Criticism

Since ancient times, readers have debated and critiqued literature from a variety
of perspectives. Some have looked at a story or play from a moral stance,
considering how values are represented in a text. Another critic might evaluate a
poem in terms of its form. Recent critics have looked at literature to see what it
might be saying about our lives in society, our political or power relations, gender
roles, or sexuality. Below I have summarized some types of literary criticism you
might consider when reading or writing about literature. If you're interested in
knowing more, see the Purdue Online Writing Lab or OWL or read Critical Theory
Today: A User-Friendly Guide, by Louis Tyson.

The Gavilan library website offers resources for students conducting research on
literature. (You will need a Gavilan library card to access this information and can
apply for a card in person or online.) The library also has a helpful website
on Academic Research Guidelines that will help you identify legitmate sources for
your research and avoid plagiarism. See me, a librarian, and/or a writing assistant
at the Gavilan Writing Center for help with writing about literature.
* Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction (~360 BC-present)
* Formalism, New Criticism, Neo-Aristotelian Criticism (1930s-present)
* Psychoanalytic Criticism, Jungian Criticism(1930s-present)
* Marxist Criticism (1930s-present)
* Reader-Response Criticism (1960s-present)
* Structuralism/Semiotics (1920s-present)
* Post-Structuralism/Deconstruction (1966-present)
* New Historicism/Cultural Studies (1980s-present)
* Post-Colonial Criticism (1990s-present)
* Feminist Criticism (1960s-present)
* Gender/Queer Studies (1970s-present)

Sociological criticism: Like historical criticism, sociological criticism examines literature

in the cultural, economic, and political context in which it is written or received. This type
of criticism may analyze the social content of a literary work—the cultural, economic, or
political values a particular text implicitly or explicitly expresses.

Reader-response criticism: This type of criticism attempts to describe what happens in

the reader’s mind while interpreting a text. A reader-response critic might also explore the
impact of a particular text on his or her own ideas or values. For example, one might
reflect on how a particular character seems admirable or unlikable and why. One might
reflect on how one’s religious, culture, or social values affect readings. It also overlaps
with gender criticism in exploring how men and women may read the same text with
different assumptions.

Gender criticism: This type of criticism examines how sexual identity influences the
creation and reception of literary works. Gender studies originated during the feminist
movement, when critics began investigating the unexamined assumptions around gender
in a piece of literature. Feminist critics explored how an author’s gender might—
consciously or unconsciously—affect his or her writing. These critics may also explore
how images of men or women in literature might reflect or reject the social norms around
gender in a particular society.

Mythological criticism: Mythological critics explore the universal patterns underlying a

literary work. This type of criticism draws on the insights of anthropology, history,
psychology, and comparative religion to explore how a text uses myths and symbols
drawn from different cultures and epochs. A central concept in mythological criticism is
the archetype, a symbol, character, situation, or image that evokes a deep universal
response. For example, critic Joseph Campbell, in his books like The Hero with a
Thousand Faces, demonstrates how similar mythic characters and situations, like the
hero’s journey, appear in virtually every culture.

Biographical criticism: Biographical critics explore how understanding an author’s life

can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the literary work. Note: biographical critics
are not concerned with simply describing the author’s life but instead with interpreting the
literary work using the insights provided by knowledge of the author’s life.

New Historicism: New historicist critics look at the impact of the politics, ideologies, and
social customs of the author’s world on the themes, images, and characterizations of a
text. This type of critic considers the historical events or conditions during which the work
was written.

Psychoanalytic criticism: This type of criticism views the themes, conflicts, and
characterizations of a work primarily as a reflection of the needs, emotions, states of mind,
or subconscious desires of the author.
 Formalist criticism: Formalist critics look closely at the work itself, analyzing the
various elements of the work as a way of explicating or interpreting a text.

Literature can be defined as an expression of human feelings, thoughts, and ideas whose medium is language,
oral and written. Literature is not only about human ideas, thoughts, and feelings but also about experiences of
the authors. Literature can be medium for human to communicate what they feel, think, experience to the
readers.

There are many ways to define the term ‘literature’ based on different point of views such as literature is art,
literature is language, literature is aesthetic, literature is fictional, literature is expressive, and literature is
affective. Literature is everything in print. It means any writing can be categorized asliterature. Another way
of defining literature is to limit it to ‘great books’ which are ‘notable for literary form or expression’. Ellis
(1989:30) defines literature as the verbal expression of human imagination and one of the primary means by
which a culture transmits itself. Based on thus definitions, literature contains universal ideas, human
imagination, and human interest that written in any writings and use language as medium to express human’s
ideas and feelings.

In conjunction with literature as art form, it is broken down into imaginative literature and non-imaginative
literature. Imaginative literature and non-imaginative literature are distinguished based on the particular
use made of language in literature. Language of imaginative literature is highly ‘connotative’ and language
of non-imaginative literature is purely ‘denotative’. The connotative meaning means words that used in literary
works have feeling and shades of meaning that words to tend to evoke while denotative meaning means that
the words refer to meaning in dictionary.

The language that is used by literature differ form ordinary spoken or written language. Literatureuses special
words, structures, and characteristics. Primarily the language of literature differs from ordinary language in
three ways: (1) language is concentrated and meaningful, (2) its purpose is not simply to explain, argue, or
make a point but rather to give a sense of pleasure in the discovery of a new experience, and (3) it demands
intense concentration from the readers. It indicates that the language of literature has originality, quality,
creativity, and pleasure.

In this case, to differentiate between the literary texts and non-literary texts (imaginative and non-imaginative),
Kleden (2004:7-8) states that literature can be differentiate based on the kind of meanings that exist in a text.
Literary text consists of textual meaning and referential meaning and non-literary text only consists of
referential meaning. The textual meaning is the meaning that is produced by the relationship of text itself.
While referential meaning is meaning that is produced by the relationship between internal text and external
text (world beyond the text).

From the use of language and the existence of meaning in literary works, it can be concluded that poetry, prose
and drama are put in literary works article, journalism, news, bibliography, memoir, and so on can be
categorized as non-literary works.