Now in its fourth edition, A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature has became a perennial classic for learning the close reading of literature. 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".
PROLOGUE: THE PRECRITICAL APPROACH
1 Traditional Approaches
I. Nature and Scope of the Traditional Approaches
A. Textual Scholarship: A Prerequisite to Criticism
B. Types of Traditional Approaches
1. Historical-Biographical
2. Moral-Philosophical
II. The Traditional Approaches in Practice
A. Traditional Approaches to Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"
1. The Text of the Poem
2. The Genre of the Poem
3. Historical-Biographical Considerations
4. Moral-Philosophical Considerations
B. Traditional Approaches to Hamlet
1. The Text of the Play
2. A Summary of the Play
3. Historical-Biographical Considerations
4. Moral-Philosophical Considerations
C. Traditional Approaches to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1. Dialect and Textual Matters
2. The Genre and the Plot of the Novel
3. Historical-Biographical Considerations
4. Moral-Philosophical Considerations
D. Traditional Approaches to "Young Goodman Brown"
1. The Text of the Story
2. The Genre and the Plot of the Story
3. Historical-Biographical Considerations
4. Moral-Philosophical Considerations
2 The Formalistic Approach
I. Reading a Poem: An Introduction to the Formalistic Approach
II. The Process of Formalistic Analysis: Making the Close Reader
III. A Brief History of Formalistic Criticism
A. The Course of a Half Century
B. Backgrounds of Formalistic Theory
C. The "New Criticism"
IV. Constants of the Formalistic Approach: Some Key Concepts, Terms, and Devices
V. The Formalistic Approach in Practice
A. Word, Image, and Theme: Space-Time Metaphors in "To His Coy Mistress"
B. The Dark, the Light, and the Pink: Ambiguity as Form in "Young Goodman Brown"
C. Romance and Reality, Land and River: The Journey as Repetitive Form in Huckleberry Finn
D. Dialetic as Form: The Trap Metaphor in Hamlet
IV. Limitations of the Formalistic Approach
3 The Psychological Approach: Freud
I. Aims and Principles
A. Abuses and Misunderstandings of the Psychological Approach
B. Freud's Theories
II. The Psychological Approach in Practice
A. Hamlet: The Oedipus Complex
B. Rebellion against the Father in Huckleberry Finn
C. "Young Goodman Brown": Id versus Superego
D. The Turn of the Screw: The Consequencces of Sexual Repression
E. Death Wish in Poe's Fiction
F. Love and Death in Blake's "Sick Rose"
G. Sexual Imagery in "To His Coy Mistress"
III. Other Possibilities and Limitations of the Psychological Approach
4 Mythological and Archetypal Approaches
I. Definitions and Misconceptions
II. Some Examples of Archetypes
A. Images
B. Archetypal Motifs or Patterns
C. Archetypes as Genres
III. Myth Criticism in Practice
A. Anthropology and Its Uses
1. The Sacrificial Hero: Hamlet
2. Archetypes of Time and Immortality: "To His Coy Mistress"
B. Jungian Psychology and Its Archetypal Insights
1. Some Special Archetypes: Shadow, Persona, and Anima
2. "Young Goodman Brown": A Failure of Individuation
3. Syntheses of Jung and Anthropology
C. Myth Criticism and the American Dream: Huckleberry Finn as the American Adam
IV. Limitations of Myth Criticism
5 Feminist Approaches
I. Feminism and Feminist Literary Criticism: Definitions
II. Historical Overview and Major Themes in Feminist Criticism
III. Four Significant Current Practices
A. Gender Studies
B. Marxist Feminism
C. Psychoanalytic Feminism
D. Minority Feminist Criticism
IV. Four Feminist Approaches
A. The "Marble Vault": The "Mistress" in "To His Coy Mistress"
B. Frailty, Thy Name Is Hamlet: Hamlet and Women
C. Men, Women, and the Loss of Faith in "Young Goodman Brown"
D. Women and "Sivilization" in Huckleberry Finn
V. The Future of Feminist Literary Studies: Some Problems and Limitations
6 Structuralism and Poststructuralism
I. Structuralism
A. Context and Definition
B. The Linguistic Model
C. Russian Formalism: Estrangement and Deformalization in "To His Coy Mistress" and Other Works
D. Semiotics or Semiology
E. Nouvelle Critique (French Structuralism): Decoding "Young Goodman Brown" and Other Works
F. Anglo-American Interpreters
II. Structuralist Approaches to Huckleberry Finn
III. Hamlet: A Parable of Ambiguity
IV. Poststructuralism: Deconstruction
7 Additional Approaches
I. Aristotelian Criticism (Including the Chicago School)
II. Genre Criticism
III. The History of Ideas
IV. Linguistics and Literature
V. Stylistics
VI. The Rhetorical Approach
VII. Phenomenological Criticism (The Criticism of Consciousness)
VIII. Source Study and Related Approaches (Genetic Criticism)
IX. Hermeneutics
X. Dialogics
XI. The Marxist Approach
XII. The New Historicism
XIII. Reader-Response Criticism
EPILOGUE
APPENDIXES
"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell
"Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX