A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature

by Guerin, Wilfred L.; Labor, Earle; Morgan, Lee; Reesman, Jeanne C.; Willingham, John R.

• ISBN13: 9780195099553
• ISBN10: 0195099559
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-10-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Now in its fourth edition, A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature has become a standard introduction to the close reading of literature. It offers students and other readers a variety of ways to interpret a piece of literature, ranging from traditional approaches through the formalist, the psychological, the mythic and archetypal, and into such contemporary approaches as feminist criticism and cultural studies. Applying these diverse approaches to the same five works, the book shows students how various methods offer different insights, enriching their response to and understanding of the individual work. This fourth edition features a new chapter on cultural studies and the inclusion and interpretation of Alice Walker's singularly rich short story, "Everyday Use."

Author Biography

John R. Willingham is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Kansas. Jeanne C. Reesman is Ashbel Smith Professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Lee Morgan is Professor Emeritus of English at Centenary College. Earle Labor is George A. Wilson Professor of American Literature at Centenary College. Wilfred L. Guerin is Professor Emeritus of English at Louisiana State University.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
1. Getting Started: The Precritical Response	1	(15)
I. Setting	6	(1)
II. Plot	7	(1)
III. Character	7	(1)
IV. Structure	8	(1)
V. Style	9	(1)
VI. Atmosphere	10	(1)
VII. Theme	11	(5)
2. Traditional Approaches	16	(54)
I. Nature and Scope of the Traditional Approaches	16	(11)
A. Textual Scholarship: A Prerequisite to Criticism	18	(3)
B. Types of Traditional Approaches	21	(6)
1. Historical-Biographical	22	(3)
2. Moral-Philosophical	25	(2)
II. The Traditional Approaches in Practice	27	(43)
A. Traditional Approaches to Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"	27	(6)
1. The Text of the Poem	27	(1)
2. The Genre of the Poem	28	(2)
3. Historical-Biographical Considerations	30	(2)
4. Moral-Philosophical Considerations	32	(1)
B. Traditional Approaches to Hamlet	33	(9)
1. The Text of the Play	33	(3)
2. A Summary of the Play	36	(1)
3. Historical-Biographical Considerations	37	(4)
4. Moral-Philosophical Considerations	41	(1)
C. Traditional Approaches to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	42	(9)
1. Dialect and Textual Matters	43	(1)
2. The Genre and the Plot of the Novel	43	(2)
3. Historical-Biographical Considerations	45	(5)
4. Moral-Philosophical Considerations	50	(1)
D. Traditional Approaches to "Young Goodman Brown"	51	(9)
1. The Text of the Story	52	(1)
2. The Genre and the Plot of the Story	52	(2)
3. Historical-Biographical Considerations	54	(3)
4. Moral-Philosophical Considerations	57	(3)
E. Traditional Approaches to "Everyday Use: for your grandmama"	60	(10)
1. The Plot of the Story	60	(1)
2. Historical-Biographical Considerations	61	(4)
3. Moral-Philosophical Considerations	65	(5)
3. The Formalistic Approach	70	(55)
I. Reading a Poem: An Introduction to the Formalistic Approach	70	(3)
II. The Process of Formalistic Analysis: Making the Close Reader	73	(3)
III. A Brief History of Formalistic Criticism	76	(6)
A. The Course of a Half Century	76	(1)
B. Backgrounds of Formalistic Theory	77	(3)
C. The New Criticism	80	(2)
IV. Constants of the Formalistic Approach: Some Key Concepts, Terms, and Devices	82	(9)
A. Form and Organic Form	83	(2)
B. Texture, Image, Symbol	85	(2)
C. Fallacies	87	(1)
D. Point of View	87	(2)
E. The Speaker's Voice	89	(1)
F. Tension, Irony, Paradox	90	(1)
V. The Formalistic Approach in Practice	91	(30)
A. Word, Image, and Theme: Space-Time Metaphors in "To His Coy Mistress"	91	(5)
B. The Dark, the Light, and the Pink: Ambiguity as Form in "Young Goodman Brown"	96	(8)
1. Virtues and Vices	98	(2)
2. Symbol or Allegory?	100	(1)
3. Loss upon Loss	101	(3)
C. Romance and Reality, Land and River: The Journey as Repetitive Form in Huckleberry Finn	104	(6)
D. Dialectic as Form: The Trap Metaphor in Hamlet	110	(8)
1. The Trap Imagery	110	(1)
2. The Cosmological Trap	111	(2)
3. "Seeming" and "Being"	113	(3)
4. "Seeing" and "Knowing"	116	(2)
E. Irony and Narrative Voice: A Formalistic Approach to "Everyday Use: for your Grandmama"	118	(3)
VI. Limitations of the Formalistic Approach	121	(4)
4. The Psychological Approach: Freud	125	(33)
I. Aims and Principles	125	(9)
A. Abuses and Misunderstandings of the Psychological Approach	126	(1)
B. Freud's Theories	127	(7)
II. The Psychological Approach in Practice	134	(21)
A. Hamlet: The Oedipus Complex	134	(3)
B. Rebellion Against the Father in Huckleberry Finn	137	(4)
C. "Young Goodman Brown": Id versus Superego	141	(3)
D. The Turn of the Screw: The Consequences of Sexual Repression	144	(4)
E. Death Wish in Poe's Fiction	148	(1)
F. Love and Death in Blake's "Sick Rose"	149	(1)
G. Sexual Imagery in "To His Coy Mistress"	150	(3)
H. Morality over the Pleasure Principle in "Everyday Use"	153	(2)
III. Other Possibilities and Limitations of the Psychological Approach	155	(3)
5. Mythological and Archetypal Approaches	158	(38)
I. Definitions and Misconceptions	158	(2)
II. Some Examples of Archetypes	160	(7)
A. Images	161	(4)
B. Archetypal Motifs or Patterns	165	(1)
C. Archetypes as Genres	166	(1)
III. Myth Criticism in Practice	167	(26)
A. Anthropology and Its Uses	168	(9)
1. The Sacrificial Hero: Hamlet	171	(4)
2. Archetypes of Time and Imortality: "To His Copy Mistress"	175	(2)
B. Jungian Psychology and Its Archetypal Insights	177	(9)
1. Some Special Arcyhetypes: Shadow, Persona, and Anima	180	(2)
2. "Young Goodman Brown": A Gailure of Individuation	182	(2)
3. Syntheses of Jung and Anthropology	184	(2)
C. Myth Criticism and the American Dream: Huckleberry Finn as the American Adam	186	(5)
D. "Everyday Use": The Great [Grand] Mother	191	(2)
IV. Limitations of Myth Criticism	193	(3)
6. Feminist Approaches	196	(43)
I. Feminism and Feminist Literary Criticism: Definitions	196	(2)
II. Historical Overview and Major Themes in Feminist Criticism	198	(2)
III. Four Significant Current Practices	200	(12)
A. Gender Studies	200	(2)
B. Marxist Feminism	202	(1)
C. Psychoanalytic Feminism	203	(5)
D. Minority Feminist Criticism	208	(4)
IV. The Future of Feminist Literary Studies: Some Problems and Limitations	212	(3)
V. Five Feminist Approaches	215	(24)
A. The Marble Vault: The Mistress in "To His Coy Mistress"	215	(2)
B. Frailty, Thy Name Is Hamlet: Hamlet and Women	217	(6)
C. Men, Women, and the Loss of Faith in "Young Goodman Brown"	223	(2)
D. Women and "Sivilization" In Huckleberry Finn	225	(5)
E. "In Real Life": Recovering the Feminine Past in "Everyday Use"	230	(9)
7. Cultural Studies	239	(63)
I. What Is "Cultural Studies"?	239	(6)
II. Three Ways To Study Culture	245	(25)
A. British Cultural Materialism	245	(2)
B. The New Historicism	247	(6)
C. American Multiculturalism	253	(17)
1. African American Writers	256	(4)
2. Latina/o Writers	260	(3)
3. American Indian Literature	263	(4)
4. Asian American Writers	267	(3)
III. Cultural Studies in Practice	270	(32)
A. Two Characters in Hamlet: Marginalization with a Vengeance	270	(6)
B. "To His Coy Mistress": Implied Culture Versus Historical Fact	276	(2)
C. "The Lore of Fiends": Hawthorne and His Market	278	(5)
D. Telling the Truth, "Mainly": Tricksterism in Huckleberry Finn	283	(9)
E. Cultures in Conflict: A Story Looks at Cultural Change	292	(10)
8. Additional Approaches	302	(67)
I. Aristotelian Criticism (Including the Chicago School)	304	(3)
II. Genre Criticism	307	(4)
III. Source Study and Related Approaches (Genetic Criticism)	311	(4)
IV. The History of Ideas	315	(4)
V. Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Stylistics	319	(8)
VI. The Marxist Approach	327	(4)
VII. Structuralism and Poststructuralism, Including Deconsturction	331	(12)
A. Structuralism: Context and Defintion	331	(1)
B. The Linguistic Model	332	(2)
C. Russian Formalism: Extending Saussure	334	(1)
D. Structuralism, Levi-Strauss, and Semiotics	335	(2)
E. French Structuralism: Codes and Decoding	337	(2)
F. British and American Interpreters	339	(1)
G. Poststructuralism: Deconstruction	340	(3)
VIII. Phenomenological Criticism (The Criticism of Consciousness)	343	(6)
IX. Dialogics	349	(6)
X. Reader-Response Criticism	355	(14)
Epilogue	369	(4)
Appendixes	373	(24)
Andrew Marvell
"To His Coy Mistress"	373	(2)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Young Goodman Brown"	375	(13)
Alice Walker
"Everyday Use: for your grandmama"	388	(9)
Index	397