Types of Criticism

There are many types of criticisms students might choose to use when analyzing a work of literature. We tend to live in a patriarchal society, thus our viewpoints are often skewed. Intentionally using a different criticism when analyzing a piece of literature can completely change the direction a student may think.
Students will read the different types of criticism and select three different criticisms to complete the activity. (students cannot use Reader Response)
Students will write a paragraph of at least eight sentences explaining how a particular criticism is reflected in a work. Students may use one work to apply all three criticisms or a different work for each criticism.
First sentence of paragraph should contain work being discussed, along with type of criticism.
Make sure to use present tense when discussing works.
Writing About Literature from Different Perspectives
Formalist Criticism
Formalist criticism emphasizes the work as an independent creation, a self-contained unit, something to be studied in itself, not as a part of some larger context, such as the author’s life or a historical period. The emphasis is on the form of the work, the relationships between the parts – the construction of the plot, the contrasts between characters, the point of view, and so on. Formalist criticism is intrinsic criticism for it concentrates on the work itself, independent of biography, history, etc. It begins with a personal response to the literary work, but it goes on to try to account for the response by a close examination of the work. The assumption that meaning is fully presented within the text is not much in favor today, when many argue that the reader makes the meaning. Formalist criticism usually takes one of two forms: explication or analysis. Explication is usually used when discussing short works – line by line. Analysis is usually used when discussing long works – ex. a character analysis from a novel. Formalist criticism also is called New Criticism. (If I handed you a poem and did not tell you the period and author, asked you to read it, and requested you discuss what it means to you, this would be formalist criticism.)
Deconstruction
Deconstruction, or deconstructive or poststructuralist criticism, begins with the assumption that language is unstable, elusive, and unfaithful. It holds that a work has no coherent meaning at the center. Deconstructionists interrogate a text, and they reveal what the authors were unaware of or had thought they kept out of sight. The problem is deconstruction becomes reductive, telling the same story about every text.
Definition of Deconstructionism
Have you ever seen the scaffolding that goes up during the construction of a building? The frame shows what the building will look like, but that’s not the only part. Shift your focus a little, and you’ll see the spaces between the frame’s ‘bones.’ It’s the whole of the metal itself and holes in between that make up the future building’s shape. Similarly, deconstruction looks at what makes a text whole and what holes are in between its pieces, in other words, what’s said and what’s left unsaid.
Reader-Response Criticism
The meaning is an interpretation created or constructed by the reader.
Students may not use this criticism in their activity.
Archetypal or Myth Criticism
Few people today believe in an inherited “collective unconscious,” but many people agree that certain repeated experiences, such as going to sleep and hours later awakening or of the annual death and rebirth of vegetation manifest themselves in dreams, myths, and literature. Ex. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – deathlike calm of ship is restored to motion; mariner has spiritual death and renewed perception of the holiness of life.
In addition to archetypal plots, there are archetypal characters; an archetype is any recurring unit. Ex. Cinderella (three sisters, repeated trying on of slipper).
A weakness in this criticism is that the critic looks for certain characters or patterns of action and values the work if the motifs (dominant themes) are there, meanwhile overlooking what is unique. A work is regarded good if it resembles or works with the usual motifs and characters.
Historical Criticism
Studies a work within its historical context. Hamlet and Macbeth both have ghosts. A student might look at how Elizabethans felt about ghosts. The historical critic assumes that writers are shaped by the particular social contexts in which they live.
Marxist Criticism
Named for Karl Marx. It sees history as a struggle between socioeconomic classes, and it sees literature as the product of economic forces of the period. It reflects the interests of the dominant class. Literature is a material product produced to be consumed in a given society. It believes the deepest historical meaning is found in what it does not say. One example in works would be social classes.
New Historicism
New Historicism insists that there is no history in the sense of a narrative of indisputable past events. There is only our version of the past. In this view, each age projects its own preconceptions on the past. Discuss how history is recorded. Example: Victories by Native Americans are called massacres and when villages were destroyed are called victories. History is told from the view of the victor.
Biographical Criticism
It includes biographies and autobiographies, diaries, journals, letters, and so on. They tell us about the life of the author and enable us to return to literary texts with a deeper understanding. Example: Night by Elie Wiesel
Psychological Criticism
It usually examines the author and the author’s writings in the framework of Freudian psychology. A central doctrine of Sigmund Freud (the Oedipus complex) is the view that all males wish to displace their fathers and sleep with their mother, normally repressed, but may appear in dreams.
Gender Criticism (Feminist, and Lesbian and Gay)
Feminist criticism can be traced back to Virginia Woolf, but it grew out of the women’s movement of the 1960s. Feminist critics point out that men have established the conventions of literature and the canon. Men are strong and women are weak (think of fairytales). We condition boys to not cry and encourage girls to do the opposite.
Lesbian and Gay criticisms have their roots in feminist criticism. Through the years, the acceptance of this group has evolved.
Beginning of a Sample paragraph
In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, one could use gender criticism in discussing the roles of women during the 1920s. (Next, students would discuss the roles/treatment of Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle from the story.)

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