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".
Illustrations
Preface
1. GETTING STARTED: THE PRECRITICAL RESPONSE
I. Setting
II. Plot
III. Character
IV. Structure
V. Style
VI. Atmosphere
VII. Theme
2. FIRST THINGS FIRST: TEXUAL SCHOLARSHIP, GENRES, AND SOURCE STUDY
I. First, a Note on the Traditional Approaches
II. Three Foundational Questions
A. Textual Scholarship: Do We Have an Accurate Version of What We Are Studying?
1. General Observations
2. Text Study in Practice
B. Matters of Genre: What Are We Dealing With?
1. An Overview of Genre
2. Genre Characteristics in Practice
C. Source Study: Did Earlier Writings Help This Work Come into Being?
3. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACHES
I. General Observations
II. Historical and Biographical Approaches in Practice
A. "To His Coy Mistress"
B. Hamlet
C. Huckleberry Finn
D. "Young Goodman Brown"
E. "Everyday Use"
F. Frankenstein
4. MORAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES
I. General Observations
II. Moral and Philosophical Approaches in Practice
A. "To His Coy Mistress"
B. Hamlet
C. Huckleberry Finn
D. "Young Goodman Brown"
E. "Everyday Use"
F. Frankenstein
5. THE FORMALIST APPROACH
I. Reading a Poem: An Introduction to the Formalist Approach
II. The Process of Formalist Analysis: Making the Close Reader
III. A Brief History of Formalist Criticism
A. The Course of a Half Century
B. Backgrounds of Formalist Theory
C. The New Criticism
IV. Constants of the Formalist Approach: Some Key Concepts, Terms, and Devices
A. Form and Organic Form
B. Texture, Image, Symbol
C. Fallacies
D. Point of View
E. The Speaker's Voice
F. Tension, Irony, Paradox
V. The Formalist 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"
1. Virtues and Vices
2. Symbol or Allegory?
3. Loss upon Loss
C. Romance and Reality, Land and River: The Journey as Repetitive Form in Huckleberry Finn
D. Dialectic as Form: The Trap Metaphor in Hamlet
1. The Trap Imagery
2. The Cosmological Trap
3. "Seeming" and "Being"
4. "Seeing" and "Knowing"
E. Irony and Narrative Voice: A Formalist Approach to "Everyday Use"
F. Frankenstein: A Formalist Reading, with an Emphasis on Exponents
VI. Limitations of the Formalist Approach
6. 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. Prometheus Manqu: The Monster Unbound
D. "Young Goodman Brown": Id Versus Superego
E. Death Wish in Poe's Fiction
F. Love and Death in Blake's "Sick Rose"
G. Sexual Imagery in "To His Coy Mistress"
H. Morality over the Pleasure Principle in "Everyday Use"
III. Other Possibilities and Limitations of the Psychological Approach
7. 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. Creature or Creator: Who Is the Real Monster in Frankenstein?
4. Syntheses of Jung and Anthropology
C. Myth Criticism and the American Dream: Huckleberry Finn as the American Adam
D. "Everyday Use": The Great [Grand]Mother
IV. Limitations of Myth Criticism
8. FEMINISMS AND GENDER STUDIES
I. Feminisms and Feminist Literary Criticism: Definitions
II. Woman: Created or Constructed?
A. Feminism and Psychoanalysis
B. Multicultural Feminisms
C. Marxist Feminism
D. Feminist Film Studies
III. Gender Studies
IV. Feminisms in Practice
A. The Marble Vault: The Mistress in "To His Coy Mistress"
B. Frailty, Thy Name Is Hamlet: Hamlet and Women
C. "The Workshop of Filthy Creation": Men and Women in Frankenstein
1. Mary and Percy, Author and Editor
2. Masculinity and Femininity in the Frankenstein Family
3. "I Am Thy Creature . . ."
D. Men, Women, and the Loss of Faith in "Young Goodman Brown"
E. Women and "Sivilization" in Huckleberry Finn
F. "In Real Life": Recovering the Feminine Past in "Everyday Use"
V. The Future of Feminist Literary Studies and Gender Studies: Some Problems and Limitations
9. CULTURAL STUDIES
I. What Is (or Are) "Cultural Studies"?
II. Five Types of Cultural Studies
A. British Cultural Materialism
B. New Historicism
C. American Multiculturalism
1. African American Writers
2. Latina/o Writers
3. American Indian Literatures
4. Asian American Writers
D. Postmodernism and Popular Culture
1. Postmodernism
2. Popular Culture
E. Postcolonial Studies
III. Cultural Studies in Practice
A. Two Characters in Hamlet: Marginalization with a Vengeance
B. "To His Coy Mistress": Implied Culture Versus Historical Fact
C. From Paradise Lost to Frank-N-Furter: The Creature Lives!
1. Revolutionary Births
2. The Frankenpheme in Popular Culture: Fiction, Drama, Film, Television
D. "The Lore of Fiends": Hawthorne and His Market
E. "Telling the Truth, Mainly": Tricksterism in Huckleberry Finn
E. Cultures in Conflict: A Story Looks at Cultural Change
IV. Limitations of Cultural Studies
10. THE PLAY OF MEANING(S): READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM, DIALOGICS, AND STRUCTURALISM AND POSTSTRUCTURALISM, INCLUDING DECONSTRUCTION
I. Reader-Response Criticism
II. Dialogics
III. Structuralism and Poststructuralism, Including Deconstruction
A. Structuralism: Context and Definition
B. The Linguistic Model
C. Russian Formalism: Extending Saussure
D. Structuralism, Levi Strauss, and Semiotics
E. French Structuralism: Codes and Decoding
F. British and American Interpreters
G. Poststructuralism: Deconstruction
Epilogue
Appendix A, Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress"
Appendix B, Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown"
Appendix C, Alice Walker, "Everyday Use: for your grandmama"
Index