thesis on literary theory

Literary Criticism

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• thesis examples

SAMPLE THESIS STATEMENTS

These sample thesis statements are provided as guides, not as required forms or prescriptions.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The thesis may focus on an analysis of one of the elements of fiction, drama, poetry or nonfiction as expressed in the work: character, plot, structure, idea, theme, symbol, style, imagery, tone, etc.

In “A Worn Path,” Eudora Welty creates a fictional character in Phoenix Jackson whose determination, faith, and cunning illustrate the indomitable human spirit.

Note that the work, author, and character to be analyzed are identified in this thesis statement. The thesis relies on a strong verb (creates). It also identifies the element of fiction that the writer will explore (character) and the characteristics the writer will analyze and discuss (determination, faith, cunning).

Further Examples:

The character of the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet serves as a foil to young Juliet, delights us with her warmth and earthy wit, and helps realize the tragic catastrophe.

The works of ecstatic love poets Rumi, Hafiz, and Kabir use symbols such as a lover’s longing and the Tavern of Ruin to illustrate the human soul’s desire to connect with God.

The thesis may focus on illustrating how a work reflects the particular genre’s forms, the characteristics of a philosophy of literature, or the ideas of a particular school of thought.

“The Third and Final Continent” exhibits characteristics recurrent in writings by immigrants: tradition, adaptation, and identity.

Note how the thesis statement classifies the form of the work (writings by immigrants) and identifies the characteristics of that form of writing (tradition, adaptation, and identity) that the essay will discuss.

Further examples:

Samuel Beckett’s Endgame reflects characteristics of Theatre of the Absurd in its minimalist stage setting, its seemingly meaningless dialogue, and its apocalyptic or nihilist vision.

A close look at many details in “The Story of an Hour” reveals how language, institutions, and expected demeanor suppress the natural desires and aspirations of women.

The thesis may draw parallels between some element in the work and real-life situations or subject matter: historical events, the author’s life, medical diagnoses, etc.

In Willa Cather’s short story, “Paul’s Case,” Paul exhibits suicidal behavior that a caring adult might have recognized and remedied had that adult had the scientific knowledge we have today.

This thesis suggests that the essay will identify characteristics of suicide that Paul exhibits in the story. The writer will have to research medical and psychology texts to determine the typical characteristics of suicidal behavior and to illustrate how Paul’s behavior mirrors those characteristics.

Through the experience of one man, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, accurately depicts the historical record of slave life in its descriptions of the often brutal and quixotic relationship between master and slave and of the fragmentation of slave families.

In “I Stand Here Ironing,” one can draw parallels between the narrator’s situation and the author’s life experiences as a mother, writer, and feminist.

SAMPLE PATTERNS FOR THESES ON LITERARY WORKS

1. In (title of work), (author) (illustrates, shows) (aspect) (adjective). 

Example: In “Barn Burning,” William Faulkner shows the characters Sardie and Abner Snopes struggling for their identity.

2. In (title of work), (author) uses (one aspect) to (define, strengthen, illustrate) the (element of work).

Example: In “Youth,” Joseph Conrad uses foreshadowing to strengthen the plot.

3. In (title of work), (author) uses (an important part of work) as a unifying device for (one element), (another element), and (another element). The number of elements can vary from one to four.

Example: In “Youth,” Joseph Conrad uses the sea as a unifying device for setting, structure and theme.

4. (Author) develops the character of (character’s name) in (literary work) through what he/she does, what he/she says, what other people say to or about him/her.

Example: Langston Hughes develops the character of Semple in “Ways and Means”…

5. In (title of work), (author) uses (literary device) to (accomplish, develop, illustrate, strengthen) (element of work).

Example: In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe uses the symbolism of the stranger, the clock, and the seventh room to develop the theme of death.

6. (Author) (shows, develops, illustrates) the theme of __________ in the (play, poem, story).

Example: Flannery O’Connor illustrates the theme of the effect of the selfishness of the grandmother upon the family in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”

7. (Author) develops his character(s) in (title of work) through his/her use of language.

Example: John Updike develops his characters in “A & P” through his use of figurative language.

Perimeter College, Georgia State University,  http://depts.gpc.edu/~gpcltc/handouts/communications/literarythesis.pdf

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• How to write a literary analysis essay | A step-by-step guide

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay | A Step-by-Step Guide

Published on January 30, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 14, 2023.

Literary analysis means closely studying a text, interpreting its meanings, and exploring why the author made certain choices. It can be applied to novels, short stories, plays, poems, or any other form of literary writing.

A literary analysis essay is not a rhetorical analysis , nor is it just a summary of the plot or a book review. Instead, it is a type of argumentative essay where you need to analyze elements such as the language, perspective, and structure of the text, and explain how the author uses literary devices to create effects and convey ideas.

Before beginning a literary analysis essay, it’s essential to carefully read the text and c ome up with a thesis statement to keep your essay focused. As you write, follow the standard structure of an academic essay :

• An introduction that tells the reader what your essay will focus on.
• A main body, divided into paragraphs , that builds an argument using evidence from the text.
• A conclusion that clearly states the main point that you have shown with your analysis.

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Table of contents

Step 1: reading the text and identifying literary devices, step 2: coming up with a thesis, step 3: writing a title and introduction, step 4: writing the body of the essay, step 5: writing a conclusion, other interesting articles.

The first step is to carefully read the text(s) and take initial notes. As you read, pay attention to the things that are most intriguing, surprising, or even confusing in the writing—these are things you can dig into in your analysis.

Your goal in literary analysis is not simply to explain the events described in the text, but to analyze the writing itself and discuss how the text works on a deeper level. Primarily, you’re looking out for literary devices —textual elements that writers use to convey meaning and create effects. If you’re comparing and contrasting multiple texts, you can also look for connections between different texts.

To get started with your analysis, there are several key areas that you can focus on. As you analyze each aspect of the text, try to think about how they all relate to each other. You can use highlights or notes to keep track of important passages and quotes.

Language choices

Consider what style of language the author uses. Are the sentences short and simple or more complex and poetic?

What word choices stand out as interesting or unusual? Are words used figuratively to mean something other than their literal definition? Figurative language includes things like metaphor (e.g. “her eyes were oceans”) and simile (e.g. “her eyes were like oceans”).

Also keep an eye out for imagery in the text—recurring images that create a certain atmosphere or symbolize something important. Remember that language is used in literary texts to say more than it means on the surface.

Narrative voice

Ask yourself:

• Who is telling the story?
• How are they telling it?

Is it a first-person narrator (“I”) who is personally involved in the story, or a third-person narrator who tells us about the characters from a distance?

Consider the narrator’s perspective . Is the narrator omniscient (where they know everything about all the characters and events), or do they only have partial knowledge? Are they an unreliable narrator who we are not supposed to take at face value? Authors often hint that their narrator might be giving us a distorted or dishonest version of events.

The tone of the text is also worth considering. Is the story intended to be comic, tragic, or something else? Are usually serious topics treated as funny, or vice versa ? Is the story realistic or fantastical (or somewhere in between)?

Consider how the text is structured, and how the structure relates to the story being told.

• Novels are often divided into chapters and parts.
• Poems are divided into lines, stanzas, and sometime cantos.
• Plays are divided into scenes and acts.

Think about why the author chose to divide the different parts of the text in the way they did.

There are also less formal structural elements to take into account. Does the story unfold in chronological order, or does it jump back and forth in time? Does it begin in medias res —in the middle of the action? Does the plot advance towards a clearly defined climax?

With poetry, consider how the rhyme and meter shape your understanding of the text and your impression of the tone. Try reading the poem aloud to get a sense of this.

In a play, you might consider how relationships between characters are built up through different scenes, and how the setting relates to the action. Watch out for  dramatic irony , where the audience knows some detail that the characters don’t, creating a double meaning in their words, thoughts, or actions.

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Your thesis in a literary analysis essay is the point you want to make about the text. It’s the core argument that gives your essay direction and prevents it from just being a collection of random observations about a text.

If you’re given a prompt for your essay, your thesis must answer or relate to the prompt. For example:

Essay question example

Is Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” a religious parable?

Your thesis statement should be an answer to this question—not a simple yes or no, but a statement of why this is or isn’t the case:

Thesis statement example

Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” is not a religious parable, but a story about bureaucratic alienation.

Sometimes you’ll be given freedom to choose your own topic; in this case, you’ll have to come up with an original thesis. Consider what stood out to you in the text; ask yourself questions about the elements that interested you, and consider how you might answer them.

Your thesis should be something arguable—that is, something that you think is true about the text, but which is not a simple matter of fact. It must be complex enough to develop through evidence and arguments across the course of your essay.

Say you’re analyzing the novel Frankenstein . You could start by asking yourself:

Your initial answer might be a surface-level description:

The character Frankenstein is portrayed negatively in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

However, this statement is too simple to be an interesting thesis. After reading the text and analyzing its narrative voice and structure, you can develop the answer into a more nuanced and arguable thesis statement:

Mary Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

Remember that you can revise your thesis statement throughout the writing process , so it doesn’t need to be perfectly formulated at this stage. The aim is to keep you focused as you analyze the text.

Finding textual evidence

To support your thesis statement, your essay will build an argument using textual evidence —specific parts of the text that demonstrate your point. This evidence is quoted and analyzed throughout your essay to explain your argument to the reader.

It can be useful to comb through the text in search of relevant quotations before you start writing. You might not end up using everything you find, and you may have to return to the text for more evidence as you write, but collecting textual evidence from the beginning will help you to structure your arguments and assess whether they’re convincing.

To start your literary analysis paper, you’ll need two things: a good title, and an introduction.

Your title should clearly indicate what your analysis will focus on. It usually contains the name of the author and text(s) you’re analyzing. Keep it as concise and engaging as possible.

A common approach to the title is to use a relevant quote from the text, followed by a colon and then the rest of your title.

If you struggle to come up with a good title at first, don’t worry—this will be easier once you’ve begun writing the essay and have a better sense of your arguments.

“Fearful symmetry” : The violence of creation in William Blake’s “The Tyger”

The introduction

The essay introduction provides a quick overview of where your argument is going. It should include your thesis statement and a summary of the essay’s structure.

A typical structure for an introduction is to begin with a general statement about the text and author, using this to lead into your thesis statement. You might refer to a commonly held idea about the text and show how your thesis will contradict it, or zoom in on a particular device you intend to focus on.

Then you can end with a brief indication of what’s coming up in the main body of the essay. This is called signposting. It will be more elaborate in longer essays, but in a short five-paragraph essay structure, it shouldn’t be more than one sentence.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

Some students prefer to write the introduction later in the process, and it’s not a bad idea. After all, you’ll have a clearer idea of the overall shape of your arguments once you’ve begun writing them!

If you do write the introduction first, you should still return to it later to make sure it lines up with what you ended up writing, and edit as necessary.

The body of your essay is everything between the introduction and conclusion. It contains your arguments and the textual evidence that supports them.

Paragraph structure

A typical structure for a high school literary analysis essay consists of five paragraphs : the three paragraphs of the body, plus the introduction and conclusion.

Each paragraph in the main body should focus on one topic. In the five-paragraph model, try to divide your argument into three main areas of analysis, all linked to your thesis. Don’t try to include everything you can think of to say about the text—only analysis that drives your argument.

In longer essays, the same principle applies on a broader scale. For example, you might have two or three sections in your main body, each with multiple paragraphs. Within these sections, you still want to begin new paragraphs at logical moments—a turn in the argument or the introduction of a new idea.

Robert’s first encounter with Gil-Martin suggests something of his sinister power. Robert feels “a sort of invisible power that drew me towards him.” He identifies the moment of their meeting as “the beginning of a series of adventures which has puzzled myself, and will puzzle the world when I am no more in it” (p. 89). Gil-Martin’s “invisible power” seems to be at work even at this distance from the moment described; before continuing the story, Robert feels compelled to anticipate at length what readers will make of his narrative after his approaching death. With this interjection, Hogg emphasizes the fatal influence Gil-Martin exercises from his first appearance.

Topic sentences

To keep your points focused, it’s important to use a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph.

A good topic sentence allows a reader to see at a glance what the paragraph is about. It can introduce a new line of argument and connect or contrast it with the previous paragraph. Transition words like “however” or “moreover” are useful for creating smooth transitions:

… The story’s focus, therefore, is not upon the divine revelation that may be waiting beyond the door, but upon the mundane process of aging undergone by the man as he waits.

Nevertheless, the “radiance” that appears to stream from the door is typically treated as religious symbolism.

This topic sentence signals that the paragraph will address the question of religious symbolism, while the linking word “nevertheless” points out a contrast with the previous paragraph’s conclusion.

Using textual evidence

A key part of literary analysis is backing up your arguments with relevant evidence from the text. This involves introducing quotes from the text and explaining their significance to your point.

It’s important to contextualize quotes and explain why you’re using them; they should be properly introduced and analyzed, not treated as self-explanatory:

It isn’t always necessary to use a quote. Quoting is useful when you’re discussing the author’s language, but sometimes you’ll have to refer to plot points or structural elements that can’t be captured in a short quote.

In these cases, it’s more appropriate to paraphrase or summarize parts of the text—that is, to describe the relevant part in your own words:

The conclusion of your analysis shouldn’t introduce any new quotations or arguments. Instead, it’s about wrapping up the essay. Here, you summarize your key points and try to emphasize their significance to the reader.

A good way to approach this is to briefly summarize your key arguments, and then stress the conclusion they’ve led you to, highlighting the new perspective your thesis provides on the text as a whole:

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

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By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

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Barry Mauer and John Venecek

We discuss the following topics on this page:

Methodologies

Research skills.

We also provide the following activity:

Exercises [Discussion]

A theory  is an idea or model about literature in general (rather than about a specific literary work). A theory can account for:

• What things are
• Why they are the way they are
• How and why they work

Theories can be about physical things, like people or books, or abstract concepts, like patriarchy , love, or being. The English word theory  derives from an Ancient Greek word  theoria , meaning “a looking at, viewing, beholding.” In contrast to practical ways of knowing (which are about how to do things), theory usually refers to contemplative and reflective ways of knowing (which are about what things are).

Theory is full of terminology, which often makes it challenging for beginning researchers.  The terminology in theory is a kind of shorthand for concepts. These concepts are similar to those little capsule sponge critters that expand when you leave them in water. The theory  term  is the compressed critter in the capsule and the fully explained  concept is the expanded sponge critter. Advanced theorists and critics often use just the terminology (or the capsule, in our ‘sponge critter’ analogy) as a kind of shorthand conversation with one another. However, researchers who are unfamiliar with a theorist’s terminology have to expand their knowledge of the terminology (the capsule) by conducting additional analysis. By completing this additional analysis, researchers can come to understand each concept’s relationships to other concepts (or the expanded sponge critter in our analogy). Once we have expanded the terminology (capsule) into the concepts (sponge critter), we can realize how valuable and significant these concepts are to our particular field of study.

Example [Theory]

Below are a few terms (and their definitions) that start with the letter “A” selected from a single book by theorist Gregory Ulmer (who borrows terms from many theoretical discourses and even invents some of his own):

Abductive reasoning – from thing to rule. Abject – a formless value, not yet recognized. Alienation – separation from one’s capacity to act; the basis of compassion fatigue. Allegory – like a parable, a story with a moral linked via metaphor to another story. Aporia – a blind spot, an impasse, a dilemma, an inability to move ahead, or conventionally, an inability to choose between sets of equally desirable (or undesirable) alternatives. Apparatus – technology, institutional practices, and subject formation. Arabesque – an ornamental design of interlaced patterns of repeated shapes (floral or geometric) said to be the most typical feature of Islamic aesthetics. Aspectuality – an image whose intelligibility is determined by the aspect of the viewer: the duck-rabbit, for example. ATH (até) – blindness or foolishness in an individual: calamity and disaster in a collective. Attraction and repulsion – two poles (the sublime and the excremental). Attunement ( stimmung ) – the feeling that this is how the world is; results from mapping discourses. Aura – a sign of recognition. [1]

We don’t expect you to learn the terms in this list; we provide them to show how dense and complicated theory can be. Notice how the definitions for each theory term above contain even more terms – like “formless,” “compassion fatigue,” and “blind spot” – that need further unpacking. Theory tends to be very dense; it crams lots of ideas into every page. Entire dictionaries are devoted to literary theory terms (see for instance Joseph Childers and Gary Hentzi, The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism, Columbia University Press, 1995). There are entire dictionaries dedicated to the terms used by a single theorist (see for instance Dylan Evans, An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis.  Routledge, 2006).

Literary scholars use  theories to frame their perspectives of literary works. Each theory is like a different “lens” through which to view a literary work and changing lenses gives us very different views of a work. Below are a few examples of major literary theories: (Note: this list is nowhere near complete.)

Major Literary Theories

• Audience studies  look at how a particular text was received in its day. Such studies might involve reading critical reviews from the period, looking at promotional materials, overall sales, and re-use of a text by other writers or artists. More recently, it could involve studying online communities and their uses and responses to a literary text.
• Cultural studies  theories, such as New Historicism, Post-colonialism, or Multiculturalism, look at how texts use discourses to represent the world, social relations, and meanings. Cultural studies theories also examine the relationships of these discourses to power: how groups in power use particular discourses to justify their power and how those with less power negotiate these discourses and generate their own discourses.
• Ecological studies  examine the ways that human and natural environments are represented in texts.
• Feminist studies  examine the way gender and sexuality shape the production and distribution of texts, or they examine the representation of gender in texts.
• Genre studies  explore what features constitute a literary genre and whether or how well a text meets these expectations, deviates from them (successfully or unsuccessfully), or establishes new genre expectations.
• Linguistic studies  examine the specific uses of language within a text and can include regional dialect, novel use of terminology, the development of language over time, etc.
• Marxist studies  examine the way historical and economic factors operate in the production and distribution of texts, or in the representation of social and economic relationships of people in texts.
• Post-structuralist studies  make claims about instabilities within a text – particularly at how its binary structures, such as male-female, black-white, East-West, and living-dead, start to break down or take on one another’s features.
• Psychological studies  look at a text, its author, or the society in which it was produced in terms of psychological features and processes. These features and processes might include identity formation, healthy or unhealthy qualities of mind, dreams and symptoms, etc.
• Queer studies   challenges heteronormativity in texts and focuses on sexual identity and desire.

Theorists find unanswered questions or return to key questions with different answers or different approaches. By and large these questions are about things in general (for instance, they ask about category systems). Theory is often counterintuitive, meaning that it does not align with common sense. For instance, it was common sense that the Earth was stationary and the sun moved across the sky, rising in the east and setting in the west. Copernicus theorized, counterintuitively, that the Earth rotated, which made it appear that the sun was moving. Theorists change our picture of how the world works. In your writing, you should clearly communicate how your chosen theorist(s) change our pictures of the world.

Before you write your research paper (or project), you should do some broad research into the theory you are assigned (or that you choose) as well as some deeper research into the specific concept(s) you will be using from that theory. Broad research can include Wikipedia entries or the various “For Beginners” or “Introducing” books, such as  Lacan for Beginners  by Philip Hill, (1999) or  Introducing Lacan  by Darian Leader and Judy Groves (1995). Once you have a good general understanding of a theory, then dive into a work written by the theorist. Most literary critics combine two or more theories. They choose their theories based on their interests, their audience, or their research question. Consult with your professor or a more experienced researcher about which theory or theories to use for your research.

Each theory entails particular research questions, methodologies, and methods. For instance, Ecological theory, also called Ecocriticism , entails questions about the representation of human culture and nature. How or where does a text draw a line between the two? What assumptions does a text make about culture and nature? What consequences do these assumptions produce in terms of moving us towards ecological destruction or sustainability? Ecological theory employs methodologies such as studies of the environment and historical research into ideas about nature and culture and how they have changed over time. It also also entails particular research methods such as close readings of literary texts and research into the scholarship of literature and nature.

Note: in literary research, a theory is not an “unproven fact.” Rather, it is an explanation of how facts relate to one another. For instance, Marxism provides a theory of various values (such as labor value, sign value, exchange value, use value, and so on). These theories explain certain facts, like why a necklace made with diamonds and an identical-looking necklace made with costume jewels can have the same sign-value (in other words, the same power to impress) but different exchange values (one being much more expensive than another). The difference between sign values and exchange values plays out, for instance, in Guy de Maupassant’s short story titled “The Diamond Necklace.” Facts are things we can observe but also include the reasoned inferences we draw from those observations (i.e. that jewels are valuable); theories explain “the bigger picture” (like why humans came to value jewels).

Methodologies  (not to be confused with methods – more about that later)   are positions and behaviors that researchers within a theoretical paradigm use in their research.

Criticism is a specific treatment of a literary work. It often uses theory to make a case about the work. For example, we might start a work of literary criticism by selecting a short story by William Faulkner and considering it in terms of one of the concepts from Gregory Ulmer’s work such as abject, alienation, allegory, aporia, apparatus, aspectuality, assemblage, ATH, attraction and repulsion, attunement, or aura. Any of these ideas could make for a valuable and interesting approach to Faulkner’s work. Trying to write a paper without such concepts is unlikely to yield valuable and interesting results. Theory concepts give us lots of great material! By using the concepts and terms common to our area of study, you connect your work to the ongoing conversation, making it relevant!

Method  is the procedure that researchers use to answer their research question. For instance, a paper investigating Faulkner’s use of allegory may involve methods of historical research that reveal how literary authors have understood allegory and used it over time. The project could also involve methods of close reading of a literary text to notice details other critics have missed. We will address both method and close reading more fully in the following pages.

• What theory or theories will you be using for your paper? Why did you make this theory selection over other theories? If you haven’t made a selection yet, which theories are you considering?
• What specific concepts from the theory/theories are you most interested in exploring in relation to your chosen literary work?
• What is your plan for researching your theory and its major concepts?
• When you do your assignments about theory and methodology, you should refer to your earlier work – the literature you chose, the problem, etc. We are in building mode.
• If there are any elements of your assignment that need clarification, please list them.
• What was the most important lesson you learned from this page? What point was confusing or difficult to understand?
• Barry J. Mauer. “Introduction, ”A Glossary for Greg Ulmer’s Avatar Emergency,” and “A Glossary for Greg Ulmer’s Electronic Monuments.”  Text Shop Experiments , Volume 1. 2016  http://textshopexperiments.org/textshop01/ulmer-glossaries   ↵

Theories Copyright © 2021 by Barry Mauer and John Venecek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Introduction

In order to read, discuss, and write about literature, we have to be able to analyze it. The good news is that we analyze things every day, from deciding what news to trust to determining which school to attend. In each situation, we make claims based our examples (also known as evidence), explanations, and the significance of the examples and explanations. This activity will introduce you to these four main components of analysis and help you think about applying the process of analysis to literature.

There are many different approaches to the analysis of literature; these approaches are called literary theories or critical theories. Theories guide the way literary critics analyze literature by providing a framework of what to look at and how to look at it. Queer theory, for instance, looks at gender, sexuality, and identity. Structuralism looks at the elements of literary form. Reader-response theory looks at the reader’s active interaction and engagement with the production of literature. You’ll learn more about these and other theories within the activity.

Some aspects of this activity will ask you to think about examples from literature. Don’t stress about whether you’ve read the particular example pieces referenced here. Think about a favorite book or poem (a children’s book will work just fine!) and work through the steps with it. The goal is not to analyze any particular piece in this activity but rather to practice analyzing something.

Note that as you read through some of these materials, you will most likely encounter words you don’t know or use often. It will be worth your time to look these words up as you find them. Keep your phone or dictionary handy to look up words, jot down definitions, and understand their use in context. This will not be the last time you see many of these words, so take a couple extra minutes to learn them now.

Literary Theory

“Literary theory,” sometimes designated “critical theory,” or “theory,” and now undergoing a transformation into “cultural theory” within the discipline of literary studies, can be understood as the set of concepts and intellectual assumptions on which rests the work of explaining or interpreting literary texts. Literary theory refers to any principles derived from internal analysis of literary texts or from knowledge external to the text that can be applied in multiple interpretive situations. All critical practice regarding literature depends on an underlying structure of ideas in at least two ways: theory provides a rationale for what constitutes the subject matter of criticism—”the literary”—and the specific aims of critical practice—the act of interpretation itself. For example, to speak of the “unity” of Oedipus the King explicitly invokes Aristotle’s theoretical statements on poetics. To argue, as does Chinua Achebe, that Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness fails to grant full humanity to the Africans it depicts is a perspective informed by a postcolonial literary theory that presupposes a history of exploitation and racism. Critics that explain the climactic drowning of Edna Pontellier in The Awakening as a suicide generally call upon a supporting architecture of feminist and gender theory. The structure of ideas that enables criticism of a literary work may or may not be acknowledged by the critic, and the status of literary theory within the academic discipline of literary studies continues to evolve.

Literary theory and the formal practice of literary interpretation runs a parallel but less well known course with the history of philosophy and is evident in the historical record at least as far back as Plato. The Cratylus contains a Plato’s meditation on the relationship of words and the things to which they refer. Plato’s skepticism about signification, i.e., that words bear no etymological relationship to their meanings but are arbitrarily “imposed,” becomes a central concern in the twentieth century to both “Structuralism” and “Poststructuralism.” However, a persistent belief in “reference,” the notion that words and images refer to an objective reality, has provided epistemological (that is, having to do with theories of knowledge) support for theories of literary representation throughout most of Western history. Until the nineteenth century, Art, in Shakespeare’s phrase, held “a mirror up to nature” and faithfully recorded an objectively real world independent of the observer.

Modern literary theory gradually emerges in Europe during the nineteenth century. In one of the earliest developments of literary theory, German “higher criticism” subjected biblical texts to a radical historicizing that broke with traditional scriptural interpretation. “Higher,” or “source criticism,” analyzed biblical tales in light of comparable narratives from other cultures, an approach that anticipated some of the method and spirit of twentieth century theory, particularly “Structuralism” and “New Historicism.” In France, the eminent literary critic Charles AugustinSaint Beuve maintained that a work of literature could be explained entirely in terms of biography, while novelist Marcel Proust devoted his life to refuting Saint Beuve in a massive narrative in which he contended that the details of the life of the artist are utterly transformed in the work of art. (This dispute was taken up anew by the French theorist Roland Barthes in his famous declaration of the “Death of the Author.” See “Structuralism” and “Poststructuralism.”) Perhaps the greatest nineteenth century influence on literary theory came from the deep epistemological suspicion of Friedrich Nietzsche: that facts are not facts until they have been interpreted. Nietzsche’s critique of knowledge has had a profound impact on literary studies and helped usher in an era of intense literary theorizing that has yet to pass.

Attention to the etymology of the term “theory,” from the Greek “theoria,” alerts us to the partial nature of theoretical approaches to literature. “Theoria” indicates a view or perspective of the Greek stage. This is precisely what literary theory offers, though specific theories often claim to present a complete system for understanding literature. The current state of theory is such that there are many overlapping areas of influence, and older schools of theory, though no longer enjoying their previous eminence, continue to exert an influence on the whole. The once widely-held conviction (an implicit theory) that literature is a repository of all that is meaningful and ennobling in the human experience, a view championed by the Leavis School in Britain, may no longer be acknowledged by name but remains an essential justification for the current structure of American universities and liberal arts curricula. The moment of “Deconstruction” may have passed, but its emphasis on the indeterminacy of signs (that we are unable to establish exclusively what a word means when used in a given situation) and thus of texts, remains significant. Many critics may not embrace the label “feminist,” but the premise that gender is a social construct, one of theoretical feminisms distinguishing insights, is now axiomatic in a number of theoretical perspectives.

While literary theory has always implied or directly expressed a conception of the world outside the text, in the twentieth century three movements—”Marxist theory” of the Frankfurt School, “Feminism,” and “Postmodernism”—have opened the field of literary studies into a broader area of inquiry. Marxist approaches to literature require an understanding of the primary economic and social bases of culture since Marxist aesthetic theory sees the work of art as a product, directly or indirectly, of the base structure of society. Feminist thought and practice analyzes the production of literature and literary representation within the framework that includes all social and cultural formations as they pertain to the role of women in history. Postmodern thought consists of both aesthetic and epistemological strands. Postmodernism in art has included a move toward non-referential, non-linear, abstract forms; a heightened degree of self-referentiality; and the collapse of categories and conventions that had traditionally governed art. Postmodern thought has led to the serious questioning of the so-called metanarratives of history, science, philosophy, and economic and sexual reproduction. Under postmodernity, all knowledge comes to be seen as “constructed” within historical self-contained systems of understanding. Marxist, feminist, and postmodern thought have brought about the incorporation of all human discourses (that is, interlocking fields of language and knowledge) as a subject matter for analysis by the literary theorist. Using the various poststructuralist and postmodern theories that often draw on disciplines other than the literary—linguistic, anthropological, psychoanalytic, and philosophical—for their primary insights, literary theory has become an interdisciplinary body of cultural theory. Taking as its premise that human societies and knowledge consist of texts in one form or another, cultural theory (for better or worse) is now applied to the varieties of texts, ambitiously undertaking to become the preeminent model of inquiry into the human condition.

Literary theory is a site of theories: some theories, like “Queer Theory,” are “in;” other literary theories, like “Deconstruction,” are “out” but continue to exert an influence on the field. “Traditional literary criticism,” “New Criticism,” and “Structuralism” are alike in that they held to the view that the study of literature has an objective body of knowledge under its scrutiny. The other schools of literary theory, to varying degrees, embrace a postmodern view of language and reality that calls into serious question the objective referent of literary studies. The following categories are certainly not exhaustive, nor are they mutually exclusive, but they represent the major trends in literary theory of this century.

Critical Theory

The practice of literary theory became a profession in the 20th century, but it has historical roots as far back as ancient Greece (Aristotle’s Poetics is an often cited early example), ancient India (Bharata Muni’s Natya Shastra), ancient Rome (Longinus’s On the Sublime) and medieval Iraq (Al-Jahiz’s al-Bayan wa-‘l-tabyinand al-Hayawan, and ibn al-Mu’tazz’s Kitab al-Badi). The aesthetic theories of philosophers from ancient philosophy through the 18th and 19th centuries are important influences on current literary study. The theory and criticism of literature are, of course, also closely tied to the history of literature.

Painting of a man in a suit and hat seated at a table, writing, against a vivid red wallThe modern sense of “literary theory,” however, dates only to approximately the 1950s, when the structuralist linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure began strongly to influence English language literary criticism. The New Critics and various European-influenced formalists (particularly the Russian Formalists) had described some of their more abstract efforts as “theoretical” as well. But it was not until the broad impact of structuralism began to be felt in the English-speaking academic world that “literary theory” was thought of as a unified domain.

In the academic world of the United Kingdom and the United States, literary theory was at its most popular from the late 1960s (when its influence was beginning to spread outward from elite universities like Johns Hopkins, Yale, and Cornell) through the 1980s (by which time it was taught nearly everywhere in some form).

By the early 1990s, the popularity of “theory” as a subject of interest by itself was declining slightly even as the texts of literary theory were incorporated into the study of almost all literature.

One of the fundamental questions of literary theory is “what is literature?” – although many contemporary theorists and literary scholars believe either that “literature” cannot be defined or that it can refer to any use of language. Specific theories are distinguished not only by their methods and conclusions, but even by how they define a “text.”

There are many types of literary theory, which take different approaches to texts. Even among those listed below, combine methods from more than one of these approaches (for instance, the deconstructive approach of Paul de Man drew on a long tradition of close reading pioneered by the New Critics, and de Man was trained in the European hermeneutic tradition).

Broad schools of theory that have historically been important include historical and biographical criticism, New Criticism, formalism, Russian formalism, and structuralism, post-structuralism, Marxism, feminism and French feminism, post-colonialism, new historicism, deconstruction, reader-response criticism, and psychoanalytic criticism.

Schools of Literary Theory

Listed below are some of the most commonly identified schools of literary theory, along with their major authors. In many cases, such as those of the historian and philosopher Michel Foucault and the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, the authors were not primarily literary critics, but their work has been broadly influential in literary theory.

• Oscar Wilde, Walter Pater, Harold Bloom
• Harold Bloom, Stanley Fish, Richard Rorty
• Frederick Luis Aldama, Mary Thomas Crane, Nancy Easterlin, William Flesch, David Herman, Suzanne Keen, Patrick Colm Hogan, Alan Richardson, Ellen Spolsky, Blakey Vermeule, Lisa Zunshine
• Raymond Williams, Dick Hebdige, and Stuart Hall (British Cultural Studies); Max Horkheimer andTheodor Adorno; Michel de Certeau; also Paul Gilroy, John Guillory
• Darwinian literary studies – situates literature in the context of evolution and natural selection
• Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man, J. Hillis Miller, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Gayatri Spivak, Avital Ronell
• Luce Irigaray, Judith Butler, Hélène Cixous, Elaine Showalter
• Formalism – a school of literary criticism and literary theory having mainly to do with structural purposes of a particular text
• Friedrich Schleiermacher, Wilhelm Dilthey, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Erich Auerbach, René Wellek
• Georg Lukács, Valentin Voloshinov, Raymond Williams, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin
• W. K. Wimsatt, F. R. Leavis, John Crowe Ransom, Cleanth Brooks, Robert Penn Warren
• Stephen Greenblatt, Louis Montrose, Jonathan Goldberg, H. Aram Veeser
• Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi Bhabha and Declan Kiberd
• Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Maurice Blanchot
• Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva
• Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Harold Bloom, Slavoj Žižek, Viktor Tausk
• Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Michel Foucault
• Reader-response criticism – focuses upon the active response of the reader to a text
• Louise Rosenblatt, Wolfgang Iser, Norman Holland, Hans-Robert Jauss, Stuart Hall
• Russian formalism Victor Shklovsky, Vladimir Propp
• Ferdinand de Saussure, Roman Jakobson, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Mikhail Bakhtin, Yurii Lotman, Umberto Eco, Jacques Ehrmann, Northrop Frye and morphology of folklore
• Eco-criticism – explores cultural connections and human relationships to the natural world
• Other theorists: Robert Graves, Alamgir Hashmi, John Sutherland, Leslie Fiedler, Kenneth Burke, Paul Bénichou, Barbara Johnson, Blanca de Lizaur, Dr Seuss

Literary Theory. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_theory. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

The Nature of Literary Analysis

Jeff is not happy. His clock shows 2 a.m., but his computer screen shows nothing. For the last four hours he has tried to get started on an essay on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, but he just doesn’t know where to begin. “It’s Professor Johnson’s fault I’m in this mess,” he thinks to himself. “My other teachers always told me exactly what and how to write, but Professor Johnson asked us to focus on what each of us finds important about the play. She even told us that no one knows Shakespeare’s real intentions, and that a million ways to analyze the play are possible.” Jeff slams his hand down on the table. “If this is true, how do I know when I’ve found the right interpretation?” And Professor Johnson made it even more difficult for Jeff by instructing her students not to summarize the plot or give unsupported opinions, but to come up with their own interpretations, show why they are important, and justify them through close readings of particular scenes. “No one has ever shown me how to do this,” Jeff grumbles to himself as he gulps down his third cup of coffee.

In actuality, Jeff already possesses the ability to write an analytical essay. He would have realized this if he had considered the discussions and activities he engaged in during the previous week. In planning a date, and in thinking of the best way to convince his parents to send him more money, Jeff had to carefully evaluate a variety of situations to develop a point of view that he then had to justify and show why it mattered. In each of these instances, he made plenty of assertions, statements which present points of view; used examples, specific passages, scenes, events, or items which inspire these points of view; gave explanations, statements which reveal how the examples support and/or complicate the assertions; and provided significance, statements which reveal the importance of the analysis to our personal and/or cultural concerns.

Analysis is a way of understanding a subject by using each of these elements, expressing an opinion (making assertions), supporting that opinion (including examples), justifying that opinion (explaining the examples), and showing why the opinion matters (extending the significance). The second letter in the second component (examples) helps create the acronym AXES, which is the plural form of both axe and axis. This acronym provides a way not only to remember the four components but also to visualize them working together. Like an axe, analysis allows us to “chop” our subjects into their essential components so that we can examine the pieces more thoroughly, and, like an axis, analysis inspires insights that become the new reference points around which we rearrange these pieces.

Though a complete analysis always needs to use these elements, the reasons for engaging in it may vary widely. For instance, sometimes the goal is to persuade the reader to accept an interpretation or to adapt a course of action, and other times the goal is to explore several possible interpretations or courses of action without settling on any one in particular. But whether the goal is to persuade, explore, or enlighten, analysis should always spring from a careful examination of a given subject. I always tell my students that they do not need to convince me that their points of view are correct but rather to reveal that they have thought about their subject thoroughly and arrived at reasonable and significant considerations.

The structure and form of an analysis can vary as widely as the many reasons for producing one. Though an analysis should include attention to each of the four main components, it should not be written in a formulaic manner, like those tiresome five-paragraph essays you might recall from high school: “I spent my summer vacation in three ways: working, partying and relaxing. Each of these activities helped me in three aspects of my life: mentally, physically and psychologically.” At best, formulaic essays serve as training wheels that need to come off when you are ready for more sophisticated kinds of writing. Rigorous analysis doesn’t rely on formulas or clichés, and its elements may occur in different orders and with various emphases, depending on your purpose and audience. In fact, individual elements may sometimes blend together because a section may serve more than one function. With practice, you won’t even need to recall the acronym AXES when producing an analysis, because you will have mastered when and how to express each of its components.

The Nature of Analysis. Authored by: Anonymous. Provided by: Anonymous. Located at: http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/a-guide-to-perspective-analysis/s04-01-the-nature-of-analysis.html. Project: A Guide to Perspective Analysis. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

Literary analysis is crucial to success in ENG 134, because it allows you to move beyond being a passive reader and into the position of thinker and writer. Literary analysis begins when you realize you have something to say about a piece of writing. In this activity, you learned the AXES acronym for successful literary analysis: assertion, example, explanation, and significance. Though you can include these four element of analysis in any order, AXES reminds us to make claims (assertions) and support those claims through significant evidence (example) and explanation.

Later in this KnowledgePath activity, you’ll go deeper into some of the common approaches to literary analysis but they will all have assertions, examples, explanation, and significance in common. For now, continue to consider how what you notice about literature could be better supported and communicated through the use of AXES.

ENG134 – Literary Genres Copyright © by The American Women's College and Jessica Egan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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46 Understanding Literary Theory

Dr. Karen Palmer

The next step in your writing journey is to choose a literary lens, also known as a critical lens or critical theory, through which to view your story.

Literary studies have been around long enough that like-minded readers and scholars have gravitated toward basic common positions as they engage in dialogue with each other. As a result, there are a number of widely-recognized critical approaches to literature, from formalists (who focus on how an author employs strategies and devices for a particular effect) to psychoanalytical critics (who explore texts to better understand humans’ psychological structure and their typical responses to particular experiences). As you consider a poem or story, you might choose one of these approaches, called literary theories, as the general lens through which to examine that work.

Imagine putting on a pair of 3D glasses in a movie theater—suddenly things start popping out at you. Though the film hasn’t changed, the way you see it has. Think of applying a literary theory to a text as putting on a pair of 3D glasses that help certain themes to pop out at you and amplify the meaning of the story.

Though there are many different literary theories, we will look at just six: Formalist or New Criticism, Marxist Criticism, Feminist Criticism, Psychological Criticism, New Historical Criticism, and Environmental/Eco Criticism.

Formalist Criticism

Also known as New Criticism, aesthetic criticism, or textual criticism, this theory first emerged in the 1920s at Vanderbilt University as a response to the emphasis placed on using biographical and historical context when analyzing literature at that time.  It was largely influenced by TS Eliot, who emphasized the high place of art as art, the emotion expressed in art, and the form, close reading, and appreciation of order within a text.

This approach considers a literary work as an entity separate from its author and its historical context. The formalist explores a work as a mechanic would explore an engine. The mechanic would assume that the engine’s parts and function can be studied without any understanding of the maker’s life and/or the history of the period in which the engine exists. Similarly, to assess a poem’s impact and understand its meaning, a scholar might “take it apart,” considering its separate elements—the form, line length, rhythm, rhyme scheme, figurative language, and diction—and how those pieces make up the effect of and shape the meaning of the whole. The purpose of this type of criticism is to investigate every detail for connection to the whole–how do all the parts affect each other and fit together?

A formalist criticism will focus on form , diction , and unity in the work of literature.

Form grows out of the work’s recurrences, repetitions, relationships, and motifs.  According to formalism, what a work means depends on how it is said.  Look at how events of plot are recounted, the effect of the story’s point of view, foreshadowing, and progressions in nature that suggest meaning.

Diction looks closely at the word choices the author makes.  Pay attention to denotation vs connotation. Denotation is simply what a word means, while connotation conveys a certain feeling about the word. For example, thin and skinny are both words that imply a slim figure. However, skinny often has a negative connotation. Another thing to look for is the etymology or history of a word. Pay attention to allusions to other words and symbols. Sometimes, a character’s diction will tell readers something important about the person.

Unity refers to how all the aspects of a work fit together in significant ways that create a whole.  Pay attention to imagery, irony, and paradox.

The point is to look at how the various elements of the text work together to create a theme.

A sample thesis:

In “Everyday Use,” the author unveils how family dynamics can influence decisions through point of view, diction, and imagery.

Marxist Criticism

Karl Marx was a 19th century German philosopher who believed that inequitable economic relationships were the source of class conflict.  Marxism was meant to be a set of social, economic, and political ideas that would change the world.

The main principle of Marxist criticism is that, to explain any context, you have to look at both material (economic) and historical situations.  It is based on the idea that the bourgeoisie (wealthy) and the proletariat (working class) are involved in a constant class struggle. The main goal is to explain a text by looking at the ways economics influences the characters.

It is important to note that Marxist criticism is not a promotion of socialist government, but rather a close study of how invisible economic forces underpin, and often undermine, authentic human relationships.

Some things to think about:

• Commodification–Explains how things are valued for power to impress or resale value rather than for their usefulness.
• Materialism vs spirituality: The belief that the material world is reality and that, if you look at the relationship among socio-economic classes, you will find insight into society.
• Class conflict:  The idea that the bourgeoisie controls the proletariat by determining what is of value in society.
• Art, literature, and ideas point out injustice of society.

By looking at the short story, “A&P” by John Updike, through a Marxist lens, the coming-of-age story of a young man working at a supermarket north of Boston transforms into a tale about repression, class conflict, and consumerism in a capitalistic society.

Feminist Criticism

Feminism is based on the assumption that culture is fundamentally patriarchal and that there is an imbalance of power that marginalizes women and their work.  Feminist theory began to be applied to literature in the 60s.  The goal is to find misogyny (negative attitudes about women) in the text.

It’s important to note that there are many kinds of feminism, but there are similarities among them.  For example, though we often think of Christianity as one religion, there are over 30,000 different denominations. They are all different, but have the same roots. Likewise, though all feminisms are rooted in the idea that women deserve to be treated equally to men, there are many different types of feminism.

Feminists look for ways to define the female experience, expose patriarchy, and save women from being the “other.” Using this approach, one examines a literary work for insight into why and how women are subjected to oppression and, sometimes, how they subvert the forces that oppress them.

Expanding on feminist criticism, gender studies explore literature for increased understanding of socially defined gender identity and behavior and its impact on the individual and on society. It includes study of sexual orientation and how non-heterosexual identities are treated by mainstream ideology, a dynamic sometimes reflected in, sometimes critiqued by, literary works.

Things to think about:

1)  Studies of difference–assume gender determines everything.  How are men and women depicted differently?

2) Power:  views of labor and economics, ie  who holds the power in the text?

3) What roles do women play?

A Sample Thesis:

“The Day it Happened” reveals a new perspective by showing women as being powerful and men being quite pathetic in unmistakable and also subtle ways.

Psychological Criticism

Psychological criticism attempts to explain growth, development, and the structure of human personality as demonstrated in a text. Based on the theories of Freud and others, this approach examines a text for signs and symbols of the subconscious processes, both of the characters and of humans in general.

There are two basic types of psychological criticism based on the work of Freud and Jung.

The focus of this type of criticism is the idea that the unconscious plays a major role in what we do, feel, and say.  Based on Freud’s Tripartite Psyche, characters are analyzed based on their subconscious, namely the id, ego, and superego, in an attempt to discover why they make the decisions they do.

• Id: psychic energy, hunger for pleasure.  Lawless, asocial, amoral.  No thought to consequences, morality, ethics, etc.
• Ego: Reality–changes desires by postponing action or diverting it into a socially acceptable form.
• Superego: Sense of guilt/conscience.

Jungian or Archetypal

This approach focuses on common figures and story-lines that reveal patterns in human behavior and psychology.  Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, key figures in the development of this approach, found that in the many stories they collected from cultures all over the world, these figures and story lines emerged over and over again. Their conclusion was that these figures and story lines are etched into the human psyche (or subconscious), and as we recreate them in our stories, our audiences recognize them as symbolic of their own experience. Jung believed that we all have a personal consciousness, a personal unconsciousness, and a collective unconsciousness , which enables us to identify with universal symbols he calls archetypes.

Common Archetypes

Well-known archetypal characters are the hero, the outcast, the scapegoat, the Earth mother, the temptress, the mother, the mentor, and the devil figure.

Some common archetypal story lines are the journey, the quest, the fall, initiation, and death and rebirth.

Common image archetypes include Colors (red= passion, green=life, blue = holiness, light vs dark); Numbers (3=religion, 4=seasons, elements, 7=whole/complete); Water (creation, birth, flowing water=passage of time); Gardens (paradise/innocence); Circles (wholeness/union); Sun (passage of time)

Sample Thesis Statement:

In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner uses archetypes, foreshadowing, timeline disruption, and unknowing to portray the danger of loneliness, and the lengths humans will go to feel a connection.

New Historical Criticism

The New Historical approach seeks to illuminate a text’s original meaning by uncovering details of the text’s historical context.

Modifying the historical approach, the new historicist assumes that material factors interact with each other. While this approach seeks to understand a text through its cultural context, it also attempts to discover through the literary work insight into intellectual history. For example, a new historicist might consider Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass as a product shaped not only by Douglass’s experience as a U.S. slave, but also by Douglass’s challenge of finding a publisher (most of whom were white), and by his primarily Christian readership. These factors, according to the new historicist, would interact to shape the text and its meanings.

New Historical critics are concerned with social and cultural forces that create or threaten a community.  To them, culture  is the beliefs, institutions, arts, and behaviors of a particular people in time. They believe that history is subjectively set down–it’s colored by the cultural context of the recorder.  There is no single true history/worldview.  The main point is to look at how the text reveals and comments on the different voices of the culture it depicts.

Ideas to consider in a text:

1)  What were the formative experiences, significant people, texts, religious influences, political stance, and social class in the author’s life?

2)  What were the major events, controversies, people of the time?  Who represented the power bases?  Who opposed power and influence?

3)  What voices do you meet in the text?  Which ones are powerful?  What are the social rules observed?  Is the text critical/supportive of them?  What does the text imply about the culture it depicts?

Sample Thesis:

In the short story “Marriage is A Private Affair,” by Chinua Achebe, the author’s own experiences, historical time period, and culture illuminate the struggles of the main character.

Environmental/Eco Criticism

Ecocriticism investigates what a text says about nature or the environment. It is particularly effective for looking at texts with a man vs nature type of conflict, but, like any of the literary theories, can be applied to any text. Because ecocriticism is relatively new and still developing, it is often referred to by different names, including American Studies, regionalism, and pastoralism.

An ecocritic might look at the perception of wilderness in a text or the way nature is portrayed.  They might also look at the differences in the ways humans and/or animals are portrayed in a text. They might question anthropocentrism (the idea that humans are central and nature exists to serve us).

In this video, Patrick Howard explains Ecocriticism:

Step 4: Choose a Literary Lens

Attributions:

• Content created by Dr. Karen Palmer. Licensed under CC BY NC SA .
• Content adapted from Writing and Literature , licensed under CC BY SA .

The Worry Free Writer Copyright © 2020 by Dr. Karen Palmer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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What Is Literary Criticism and Theory?

• First Online: 24 June 2023

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• Wayne Deakin 2  

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This chapter provides an overall assessment of the broad definitions of what are literary criticism and theory. It also provides a survey of some of the key movements within literary criticism, for example the trend for more politicised criticism after the second World War. In so doing , it holds in sharp relief thinkers such as F.R. Leavis and C. Achebe. It raises questions about the possible gains and potential pitfalls of theory in its modern manifestation, and also raises questions about the pervasiveness of political pathologies, which it is argued, are inherent in modern criticism.

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5 The monthly review Scutiny not only ran for 76 issues, but also had contributors and readers as diverse as George Santayana, Aldous Huxley, T.S. Eliot, William Empson and I.A. Richards.

Roland Barthes in “The Death of the Author” in David Lodge (ed), Modern Criticism and Theory , New York: Longman, 1991. pp. 167–172.

Roland Barthes, “Reflexions sur un manuel,” in L’Enseignement de la littera Serge Doubrovsky and Tzvetan Todorov (Paris, 1971) p. 170. (The author’s translation).

“An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’” Massachusetts Review. 18. 1977; pp. 7.

Peter Cheyne writes in his tome Coleridge’s Contemplative Philosophy, (London: OUP; p. 262) “By 1829, in Church and State , Coleridge recommends ‘a national clerisy’ to disseminate the liberal arts and sciences, thereby to serve as ‘an essential element of a rightly constituted nation’, securing both its permanence and its progression. He is sometimes cited as coining the word ‘clerisy’ (he was first to use it in English), although in doing so he effectively translates Kant’s Klerisei . Klerisei is standard German for clergy , but Kant uses the word for an idealizing church of reason to free faith from historical forms and direct it towards the moral law discoverable by reason. While Kant suggested the term, however, Coleridge thoroughly developed the notion from his 1818 revision of The Friend to its fullest form in Church and State (1829/30).”

Historical or Higher Criticism is a form of literary analysis that investigates the origins of a text . And is contrasted with lower criticism (or textual criticism), whose goal is to determine the original form of a text from among the variants and is more connected to the recent scholarship of Close Reading . It is historically linked to the work of the German Biblical School of Hermeneutics as practiced by the scholars of the Tübingen School, led by Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834). As with Kant’s notion of a “clerisy” These Germanic scholarly ideas in part emigrated to England under the tutelage of Coleridge.

Lévi-Strauss, as we shall see in the chapter on structuralism, coined the phrase “mythemes” from the linguistic structural study of Ferdinand de Saussure and the binary nature of linguistic phonemes.

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Wayne Deakin

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Deakin, W. (2023). What Is Literary Criticism and Theory?. In: Modern Language, Philosophy and Criticism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30494-1_1

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TAFT COLLEGE

Literary Criticism: Literary Theories

• Introduction
• Literary Theories
• Five Steps of Writing
• Find Resources
• Cite Sources
• Thesis Examples

Types of Literary Theory

"Literary theories were developed as a means to understand the various ways people read texts. ... All literary theories are lenses through which we can see texts" (Appleman, Critical Theories Defined ).

"A very basic way of thinking about literary theory is that these ideas act as different lenses critics use to view and talk about art, literature, and even culture. These different lenses allow critics to consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory. The different lenses also allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a work they consider important" (Gutierrez, Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism ).

Below are just a few of the many literary theories or lenses that you can use to view and talk about art, literature, and culture.

To help you decide on a literary theory and to begin analyzing your chosen text, consider the questions presented below:

Feminism :: Questions for Analysis

Feminist criticism is concerned with "...the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson).  

Is the author male or female?

Is the text narrated by a male or female?

What types of roles do women have in the text?

Are the female characters the protagonists or secondary and minor characters?

Do any stereotypical characterizations of women appear?

What are the attitudes toward women held by the male characters?

What is the author's attitude toward women in society?

How does the author's culture influence her or his attitude? Is feminine imagery used? If so, what is the significance of such imagery?

Do the female characters speak differently than to the male characters? In your investigation, compare the frequency of speech for the male characters to the frequency of speech for the female characters.

Gender Studies :: Questions for Analysis

Gender studies and queer theory explore issues of sexuality, power, and marginalized populations (woman as other) in literature and culture.

What elements of the text can be perceived as being masculine (active, powerful) and feminine (passive, marginalized) and how do the characters support these traditional roles?

What sort of support (if any) is given to elements or characters who question the masculine/feminine binary? What happens to those elements/characters?

What are the politics (ideological agendas) of specific gay, lesbian, or queer works, and how are those politics revealed in...the work's thematic content or portrayals of its characters?

What does the work contribute to our knowledge of queer, gay, or lesbian experience and history, including literary history?

How is queer, gay, or lesbian experience coded in texts that are by writers who are apparently homosexual?

How does the literary text illustrate the problematics of sexuality and sexual "identity," that is the ways in which human sexuality does not fall neatly into the separate categories defined by the words homosexual and heterosexual?

Marxism :: Questions for Analysis

Based on the theories of Karl Marx (and so influenced by philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel), this school concerns itself with class differences, economic and otherwise, as well as the implications and complications of the capitalist system.

​ Is there an outright rejection of socialism in the work?

Does the text raise fundamental criticism about the emptiness of life in bourgeois society?

How well is the fate of the individual linked organically to the nature of societal forces? What are the work's conflicting forces?

At what points are actions or solutions to problems forced or unreal?

Are characters from all social levels equally well sketched?

What are the values of each class in the work?

What is valued most? Sacrifice? Assent? Resistance?

How clearly do narratives of disillusionment and defeat indicate that bourgeois values - competition, chauvinism - are incompatible with human happiness?

Does the protagonist defend or defect from the dominant values of society? Are those values in ascendancy or decay?

Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003.

Psychoanalytic Criticism :: Questions for Analysis

Psychoanalytic criticism builds on Freudian theories of psychology. While we don’t have the room here to discuss all of Freud’s work, a general overview is necessary to explain psychoanalytic literary criticism.

• How do the operations of repression structure or inform the work?
• Are there any oedipal dynamics – or any other family dynamics – are work here?
• How can characters’ behavior, narrative events, and/or images be explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind (for example…fear or fascination with death, sexuality – which includes love and romance as well as sexual behavior – as a primary indicator of psychological identity or the operations of ego-id-superego)?
• What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its author?
• What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the psychological motives of the reader?
• Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or hidden meanings? Could there be a subconscious reason for the author using these “problem words”?

Cultural Poetics or New Historicism :: Questions for Analysis

This school, influenced by structuralist and post-structuralist theories, seeks to reconnect a work with the time period in which it was produced and identify it with the cultural and political movements of the time .

​ What kinds of behavior, what models of practice, does this work seem to reinforce?

Why might readers at a particular time and place find this work compelling?

Are there differences between my values and the values implicit in the work I am reading?

Upon what social understanding does the work depend?

Whose freedom of thought or movement might be constrained implicitly or explicitly by this work?

What are the larger social structures with which these particular acts of praise or blame might be connected?

Additional Resources

The following web sites and books provide descriptions of literary theories, tips for applying the theory to a work, and additional resources you may wish to consult.

• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Founded in 1995 to provide open access to detailed, scholarly, peer-reviewed information on key topics and philosophers in all areas of philosophy.
• Literary Critical Theory Analysis Online OER text exploring different literary critical theories and how to apply them.

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Text world theory and the emotional experience of literary discourse.

--> Whiteley, Sara (2010) Text world theory and the emotional experience of literary discourse. PhD thesis, University of Sheffield.

This thesis investigates the emotional experience of literary discourse from a cognitivepoetic perspective. In doing so, it combines detailed Text World Theory analysis with an examination of naturalistic reader response data in the form of book group discussions and internet postings. Three novels by contemporary author Kazuo Ishiguro form the analytical focus of this investigation: The Remains of the Dt!)' (1989), The Unconso/ed (1995) and Never Let Me Go (2005), chosen due to their thematic engagement with emotion and their ability to evoke emotion in readers. The central aims of this thesis are to develop cognitive-poetic understanding of the emotional experience of literature, and to advance cognitive-poetic and literary-critical understanding of the works of Ishiguro. As a result of the analytical investigations of the three novels, this thesis proposes several enhancements to the discourse-world level of the Text World Theory framework. In particular, this thesis argues for a more detailed and nuanced account of deictic projection and identification, proposes a means of including readers' hopes and preferences in text-world analyses, and reconceptualises processes of knowledge activation as inherently emotional. Detailed, cognitive-poetic analyses of Ishiguro's novels elucidate literary-critical observations regarding Ishiguro's shifting style, and present new insights into the cognitive and emotional aspects of the interaction between the texts and their readers. This thesis aims primarily to be a contribution to the fields of stylistics and cognitive poetics. It approaches this theoretically through the application and enhancement of cognitive poetic frameworks, analytically through the investigation of Ishiguro, and methodologically through the utilisation of reader response data in order to direct and support the investigations. However, incidental contributions are also made to cognitive and social emotion theories, and the discussion raises several suggestions for continued interdisciplinary research in the future.

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4.6: Literary Thesis Statements

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The Literary Thesis Statement

Literary essays are argumentative or persuasive essays. Their purpose is primarily analysis, but analysis for the purposes of showing readers your interpretation of a literary text. So the thesis statement is a one to two sentence summary of your essay's main argument, or interpretation.

Just like in other argumentative essays, the thesis statement should be a kind of opinion based on observable fact about the literary work.

Thesis Statements Should Be

• This thesis takes a position. There are clearly those who could argue against this idea.
• Look at the text in bold. See the strong emphasis on how form (literary devices like symbolism and character) acts as a foundation for the interpretation (perceived danger of female sexuality).
• Through this specific yet concise sentence, readers can anticipate the text to be examined ( Huckleberry Finn) , the author (Mark Twain), the literary device that will be focused upon (river and shore scenes) and what these scenes will show (true expression of American ideals can be found in nature).

Thesis Statements Should NOT Be

• While we know what text and author will be the focus of the essay, we know nothing about what aspect of the essay the author will be focusing upon, nor is there an argument here.
• This may be well and true, but this thesis does not appear to be about a work of literature. This could be turned into a thesis statement if the writer is able to show how this is the theme of a literary work (like "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid) and root that interpretation in observable data from the story in the form of literary devices.
• Yes, this is true. But it is not debatable. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who could argue with this statement. Yawn, boring.
• This may very well be true. But the purpose of a literary critic is not to judge the quality of a literary work, but to make analyses and interpretations of the work based on observable structural aspects of that work.
• Again, this might be true, and might make an interesting essay topic, but unless it is rooted in textual analysis, it is not within the scope of a literary analysis essay. Be careful not to conflate author and speaker! Author, speaker, and narrator are all different entities! See: intentional fallacy.

Thesis Statement Formula

One way I find helpful to explain literary thesis statements is through a "formula":

Thesis statement = Observation + Analysis + Significance

• Observation: usually regarding the form or structure of the literature. This can be a pattern, like recurring literary devices. For example, "I noticed the poems of Rumi, Hafiz, and Kabir all use symbols such as the lover's longing and Tavern of Ruin "
• Analysis: You could also call this an opinion. This explains what you think your observations show or mean. "I think these recurring symbols all represent the human soul's desire." This is where your debatable argument appears.
• Significance: this explains what the significance or relevance of the interpretation might be. Human soul's desire to do what? Why should readers care that they represent the human soul's desire? "I think these recurring symbols all show the human soul's desire to connect with God. " This is where your argument gets more specific.

Thesis statement: The works of ecstatic love poets Rumi, Hafiz, and Kabir use symbols such as a lover’s longing and the Tavern of Ruin to illustrate the human soul’s desire to connect with God .

Thesis Examples

SAMPLE THESIS STATEMENTS

These sample thesis statements are provided as guides, not as required forms or prescriptions.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Literary Device Thesis Statement

The thesis may focus on an analysis of one of the elements of fiction, drama, poetry or nonfiction as expressed in the work: character, plot, structure, idea, theme, symbol, style, imagery, tone, etc.

In “A Worn Path,” Eudora Welty creates a fictional character in Phoenix Jackson whose determination, faith, and cunning illustrate the indomitable human spirit.

Note that the work, author, and character to be analyzed are identified in this thesis statement. The thesis relies on a strong verb (creates). It also identifies the element of fiction that the writer will explore (character) and the characteristics the writer will analyze and discuss (determination, faith, cunning).

The character of the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet serves as a foil to young Juliet, delights us with her warmth and earthy wit, and helps realize the tragic catastrophe.

The Genre / Theory Thesis Statement

The thesis may focus on illustrating how a work reflects the particular genre’s forms, the characteristics of a philosophy of literature, or the ideas of a particular school of thought.

“The Third and Final Continent” exhibits characteristics recurrent in writings by immigrants: tradition, adaptation, and identity.

Note how the thesis statement classifies the form of the work (writings by immigrants) and identifies the characteristics of that form of writing (tradition, adaptation, and identity) that the essay will discuss.

Samuel Beckett’s Endgame reflects characteristics of Theatre of the Absurd in its minimalist stage setting, its seemingly meaningless dialogue, and its apocalyptic or nihilist vision.

A close look at many details in “The Story of an Hour” reveals how language, institutions, and expected demeanor suppress the natural desires and aspirations of women.

Generative Questions

One way to come up with a riveting thesis statement is to start with a generative question. The question should be open-ended and, hopefully, prompt some kind of debate.

• What is the effect of [choose a literary device that features prominently in the chosen text] in this work of literature?
• How does this work of literature conform or resist its genre, and to what effect?
• How does this work of literature portray the environment, and to what effect?
• How does this work of literature portray race, and to what effect?
• How does this work of literature portray gender, and to what effect?
• What historical context is this work of literature engaging with, and how might it function as a commentary on this context?

These are just a few common of the common kinds of questions literary scholars engage with. As you write, you will want to refine your question to be even more specific. Eventually, you can turn your generative question into a statement. This then becomes your thesis statement. For example,

• How do environment and race intersect in the character of Frankenstein's monster, and what can we deduce from this intersection?

Expert Examples

While nobody expects you to write professional-quality thesis statements in an undergraduate literature class, it can be helpful to examine some examples. As you view these examples, consider the structure of the thesis statement. You might also think about what questions the scholar wondered that led to this statement!

• "Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as 'the other world,' the antithesis of Europe and therefore civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality" (Achebe 3).
• "...I argue that the approach to time and causality in Boethius' sixth-century Consolation of Philosophy can support abolitionist objectives to dismantle modern American policing and carceral systems" (Chaganti 144).
• "I seek to expand our sense of the musico-poetic compositional practices available to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, focusing on the metapoetric dimensions of Much Ado About Nothing. In so doing, I work against the tendency to isolate writing as an independent or autonomous feature the work of early modern poets and dramatists who integrated bibliographic texts with other, complementary media" (Trudell 371).

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa" Research in African Literatures 9.1 , Indiana UP, 1978. 1-15.

Chaganti, Seeta. "Boethian Abolition" PMLA 137.1 Modern Language Association, January 2022. 144-154.

"Thesis Statements in Literary Analysis Papers" Author unknown. https://resources.finalsite.net/imag...handout__1.pdf

Trudell, Scott A. "Shakespeare's Notation: Writing Sound in Much Ado about Nothing " PMLA 135.2, Modern Language Association, March 2020. 370-377.

Contributors and Attributions

Thesis Examples. Authored by: University of Arlington Texas. License: CC BY-NC

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Wisch, Stephen H. "Teaching Literary Criticism Through Independent Reading." Ohio Dominican University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oduhonors1556705309193909.

Filsinger, Judy Ann. "Literary criticism, composition, and "passing theory": Conflicts and connections." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1994. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/963.

Barga, Rachel M. "Sex Theory: Theology of the Body as Literary Criticism." Miami University Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1304527876.

Al-Shamaa, Khaldoun. "Modernism and after : modern Arabic literary theory from literary criticism to cultural critique." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2007. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28817/.

Kolbas, E. Dean. "Critical theory and the literary canon." Boulder, CO : Westview Press, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.07706.

Segal, A. P. M. "Deconstruction and the logic of criticism." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.234922.

Ferretter, Luke. "Towards a Christian literary theory." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/15232.

Potts, Tracey. "Can the Imperialist read? : race and feminist literary theory." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1997. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/63653/.

Coonan, Emma Marya. "Senses of theory : conceptual metaphors and manoeuvres in 20th-century literary criticism." Thesis, University of York, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.431650.

Swiderski-Ritchie, Martha. "The contents of criticism : Ingardenian theory in the context of literary analysis /." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 1986. http://www.ub.unibe.ch/content/bibliotheken_sammlungen/sondersammlungen/dissen_bestellformular/index_ger.html.

Jolliffe, Christine. "After relativism : literary theory after the linguistic turn." Thesis, McGill University, 1998. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=35901.

Barlow, Lauren Nicole. "Criticism as Redemption: Jonathan Safran Foer's Theory of Meaning." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2010. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2123.

Cheung, M. P. Y. "Making readers : Theory and practice in modern writing." Thesis, University of Kent, 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.377147.

Clarke, Joni Adamson. "A place to see: Ecological literary theory and practice." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/187115.

Mayes-Elma, Ruthann Elizabeth. "A Feminist Literary Criticism Approach to Representations of Women's Agency in Harry Potter." Oxford, Ohio : Miami University, 2003. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?miami1060025232.

Sychrava, J. "Redescribing the naive : A critique of the 'sentimental' tradition in literary theory and criticism." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.376021.

Pitcher, Jonathan Michael. "Excess baggage : a modern theory and the conscious amnesia of Latin Americanist literary criticism." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.407698.

LiBrizzi, Marcus. "Interpretive ground and moral perspective : economics, literary theory, early modern texts." Thesis, McGill University, 1996. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=42080.

Sherwood, Yvonne M. "Hosea 1-3 and contemporary literary theory : a test-case in rereading the Prophets." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.311550.

De, Obaldia Claire. "The essay as a marginal genre." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.305670.

Cardoso, Sebastião Marques. "De personagens e anti-herois : um estudo sobre a trilogia do exilio, de Oswald de Andrade." [s.n.], 2007. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/270090.

Casto, Andrew Christopher. "Reading Consciousness: Analyzing Literature through William James' Stream of Thought Theory." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/32531.

Noriega-Rivero, Gerardo. "La carrera de Letras Inglesas en el cuidado editorial." Thesis, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/64907.

Donovan, Anna Gay. "Virginia Woolf : a language of looking." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.324071.

Edmonds, Markus. "A Defence of Literary Theory : A psychoanalytical study of selected works by Percy Bysshe Shelley with a view to didactic usage." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-61065.

Mogoboya, Mphoto Johannes. "African indentity in Es'kia Mphahlele's autobiographical and fictional novels : a literary investigation." Thesis, University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/972.

Kakoliris, Gerasimos. "An impossible project : Derrida's deconstructive reading as 'double' reading: the case of 'Of grammatology'." Thesis, University of Essex, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.369354.

Odendaal, Dirk Hermanus 1954. "A hermeneutic description of a therapeutic interview using reader response concepts from literary theory." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007749.

Payne, Christopher Neil. "Terminus intractable and the literary subject : deconstructing the endgame in Chinese avant-garde fiction." Thesis, McGill University, 2002. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=29518.

Ipsen, G. "The value of literature : the disparity between 'Practical Criticism' and 'Modern Literary Theory' with a case study of Thomas Hardy." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2008. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1444202/.

Alvandi, Nazanin. "Literary Theory in Upper Secondary School : Should It Be Used Before Higher Education?" Thesis, Högskolan i Jönköping, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-44612.

Nutters, Daniel. "HENRY JAMES AND ROMANTIC REVISIONISM: THE QUEST FOR THE MAN OF IMAGINATION IN THE LATE WORK." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2017. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/440381.

Brauer, Kristen D. "The religious roots of postmodernism in American culture : an analysis of the postmodern theory of Bernard Iddings Bell and its continued relevance to contemporary postmodern theory and literary criticism." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6264/.

Miranda, Hélio Rosa de. "O sertão no universo poético de João Guimarães Rosa: o recado cifrado da canção." Universidade de São Paulo, 1999. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8151/tde-18042013-114655/.

Tarricone, Jucimara. "Hermenêutica e crítica: o pensamento e a obra de Benedito Nunes." Universidade de São Paulo, 2007. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8151/tde-23012008-115949/.

Lima, Luiz Fernando Martins de [UNESP]. "A recepção crítica de Harold Bloom no meio acadêmico brasileiro." Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/94043.

何梓慶. "明代唐宋派文學思想研究= A research on literary theory of Tang-Song school in Ming dynasty." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2018. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/566.

Leopold, Amanda A. "Dealing with the Digital: Literary Media, Mediated Narratives, and Sketchy Politics." Oberlin College Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1495718816858325.

Wiedeman, Megan. "A Queer and Crip Grotesque: Katherine Dunn's." Scholar Commons, 2018. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7244.

Goode, Rich W. IV. ""Little Things": Chekhov's Children and Discourse in the Comic Short Story." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2013. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1630.

Pino, Estivill Ester. "Circulación de textos y usos de Roland Barthes en la crítica literaria francesa, española y argentina (1965-2015)." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/666179.

Cunha, Rodrigo Ennes da. "Rumo ao abstrato: a importação de teorias anglo-americanas na crítica literária brasileira." Universidade de São Paulo, 2010. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8147/tde-27092010-161554/.

Bacardit, i. Raluy Albert. "The Biohazard Message: Epidemics, Biological Accidents and Bioterrorism in Fiction (1969-1999)." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Lleida, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/8117.

de, Toro Alfonso. "Hacia una teoría de la cultura de la "hibridez" como sistema cientifico transrelacional, "transversal" y "transmedial"." Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, 2015. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-159203.

Casagrande, Eduardo Vignatti. ""Each one of us goes through life inside a bottle" : a reading of Brave new world in the light of Zygmunt Bauman's theory." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/141236.

Absalyamova, Elina. "Paul Verlaine critique littéraire : aspects biographique, esthétique et discursif." Thesis, Paris 4, 2012. http://www.theses.fr/2012PA040152.

Mueller, Marieke. "Subjectivity in Sartre's 'L'idiot de la famille' : biography as a space for the development of theory." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:54f60363-e148-4481-b710-c7e68a908bd5.

Masters, Kenneth Andrew. "Observing and describing textual "reality": a critique of the claims to objective reality and authentication in new critical and structuralist literary theory, seen against a background of Feyerabend's ideas concerning paradigms, dominance and ideology." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002290.

Lima, Luiz Fernando Martins de. "A recepção crítica de Harold Bloom no meio acadêmico brasileiro /." Assis : [s.n.], 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/94043.

Ribeiro, Giselle Rodrigues. "Caminhos teóricos para a leitura literária de práticas de resistência subalterna." Universidade de São Paulo, 2010. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8156/tde-27092010-162632/.

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Literary Theory & Criticism: Books, Theses & Dissertations

• Books, Theses & Dissertations
• Primary Sources
• Related Guides

HBLL Catalog Searching Tips

Keyword Searching: Searches every field in the record (brings up a lot, but not always relevant material).

Advanced Searching: Allows you to customize your search to look for words in the title, subject field or elsewhere in the record.

Browse Alphabetically: Use to retrieve a listing of subjects, titles, or authors alphabetically.   This is the best way to find what the HBLL has about an author: select to search by subject alphabeticall and enter the author's last name, first name (for example "Frost, Robert") and you'll get a list of subjects about Frost: bibliographies, biographies, criticism and interpretation, etc.

An efficient way to search the Lee Library catalog is to use a subject search. When you search by subject, you're searching book records for their contents (for example, books about "Criticism"), and not just for key words in book titles (for example, a key-word search for "Criticism" might bring up a book entitled How Plants Respond to Criticism ). The trick is to know how your subject is phrased in the Lee Library catalog. Some examples of recognizable subject terms for "criticism," "literary theory," etc., are: Criticism Literature-History and Criticism Literature-Philosophy To search by subject, select the "Browse" or "Advanced" search option(s), enter your subject, Criticism , for example in the "Search Term" box and click on "Subject"as the search category.. Now browse the related headings to find other related subjects. For example: If you subject search for Criticism , then click on "related subject headings," you'll see listed the broader subject search term, Rhetoric , along with the narrower subject terms, Deconstruction , Feminist Criticism , Formalism , Literary Analysis , Hermeneutics , Intertextuality , Marxist Criticism , New Criticism , Reader-response Criticism , Rhetorical Criticism , and Structuralism Literary Analysis . Aesthetics is also included as a related subject term. Each of these broader, narrower, or related subject headings is linked to the books in the library which cover it: simply click on a subject heading to see a list of titles in the Lee Library which cover the subject.

Call Number Browsing: When you find a book on your subject, click on the "Nearby items on shelf" link in the upper LH corner of the HBLL catalog record to see what other books are near it on the shelf.

Ways to Search For Books

• BYU Library Catalog This link opens in a new window Only available on-campus. Library catalog keyword search.
• WorldCat Discovery This link opens in a new window Unified catalog of research libraries and public libraries throughout the world. Includes books, serials, sound recordings, data files, musical scores, and visual materials. Search using Library Catalog commands. Updated daily. Interlibrary loan database. Look up book, and order it from interlibrary loan.

Theses & Dissertations

Also search the BYU HBLL catalog.

Finding Standard Editions of Literary Works

Suggestions for finding the standard editions of literary works:

• Search for author in Dictionary of Literary Biography - Print Humanities Reference PN 451 .A6 or Electronically via Literature Resource Center (LRC)
• Consult bibliographies devoted to an author - Search tip: Perform a keyword search combining word "bibliography" or "guide" with the author's name. Or try a subject alphabetic search on the author's name, and browse the resulting list for the subheading "Bibliography."
• Look for "Reference Guides" for area of research.
• Find concordances devoted to an author - Search tip: Perform a keyword search in the library catalog combining concordance or wordlist with author's name: concordance$ and borges. Or try a subject alphabetic search on the author's name, and browse the resulting list for the subheading "Concordances."  $ is truncation symbol for library catalog to pickup both concordance and concordances.
• For contemporary authors, look for 1st edition as standard edition.
• Consult historical reviews and critical essays of the author's works.
• Consult bibliographies of scholarly books/articles or look for scholarly reviews.

Library of Congress Call Numbers

PN80-99 Literature (General) Criticism

PN1110-1279 Poetry History & Criticism

Humanities  Reference Level 5 Hours: M-Th: 8am-9pm; F: 8am-6pm; Sat:10am-6pm

801.422.4006 [email protected]

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• Last Updated: Feb 15, 2024 10:06 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.byu.edu/literary_theory