The following are not the names of the schools of criticism (you’ll learn those later) but rather a description of what different literary critics value in textual analysis. :
The following are not the names of the schools of criticism (you’ll learn those later) but rather a description of what different literary critics value in textual analysis. Authorial intent – What was the author trying to say (as opposed to what we, as readers, understand the author to “mean” or want the text to “mean”)?
Contemporary cultural context – Knowledge of trends, popular concerns, government/religious/familial practices and value systems in vogue when the author wrote the text; contemporary cultural context includes a general knowledge of history (local, global, cultural) that might inform an author’s inspiration for the text, its critical reception at the time of writing, its public reception, etc.
Descriptions, Continued :
Descriptions, Continued Modern cultural context – Knowledge of trends, popular concerns, government/religious/familial practices and value systems in vogue now (meaning that we use our own social systems as a context for understanding the material rather than relying on older systems of knowledge or belief). Scholarly context – Knowledge and understanding of how professional literary scholars have understood the work diachronically (across a long period of time) and synchronically (now, or within a specified critical “moment”) and/or knowledge and understanding of how a larger population of general readers interpret the text (the public); knowledge of the differences between scholarly and popular responses to a text.
Descriptions, Continued :
Descriptions, Continued A clear understanding of vocabulary, including possible etymology of words (an etymology is an extended definition of a word that shows how and what a word “meant” when it came into use and how that meaning has changed over time) as well as an understanding of poetic diction (figurative language, irony, tension, etc.)
Author’s beliefs/values/personal experience – biographical information – Clearly these things affect an author’s judgment, interpretations and, at least at some level, his or her writing. Are these “valuable” in an excavation of a piece of literature? Personal beliefs/values/experience – Clearly these things affect our judgments and interpretations. But are personal beliefs and values “valuable” in an excavation of a piece of literature? Things to take into account: sex, gender, age, race/ethnic background, religious preferences/beliefs, level of education, linguistic knowledge/ability, recent life events, preconceptions about literature, emotional reactions to subject matter, etc.