Writing the Literary Analysis
How to avoid Fs and impress
your professors
Introduction
 A literary analysis is a paper that gives
a deep and illuminating explanation of
a literary work--it is a Critical
Interpretation.
 We will learn how to formulate a deep
thesis, organize a paper coherently,
and use a number of different critical
methods
Creating a Thesis
 The thesis should state the basic point you
want to communicate, oftentimes including
your main elements of support
 It should be clear and understandable
 It should be deep, something that not
everyone would think of
 It should be significant, something that the
majority of people interested in your text
would find helpful
 It should be new and original
Creating a Thesis
 Start by reading the text closely
 Begin to do research while forming your own
opinion about the text
 Craft a statement that summarizes your
thoughts about the text and responds to the
ideas of other critics—a working thesis
 Modify your working thesis as you continue
to interact with your research and the text
Creating a Thesis
 Don’t be afraid to modify your thesis even
after you’ve begun writing the body of your
paper—it’s better to change it than to have a
bad one
 Spend the body of your paper arguing that
your thesis provides an interpretation which
is clearly supported by the text.
 Do not deviate from discussion related to
your thesis
Tips for Writing the Body
 Begin by finding common threads among the
items supporting your thesis—oftentimes,
writing an outline helps this process along
 Begin writing with the body, making sure that
each paragraph centers on one specific idea
 Make sure that the topic sentence of each
paragraph demonstrates a link between the
content of the paragraph and your thesis
statement
Integrating Research into Your
Paper
 Research the topics most closely related to
your thesis and/or your theory
 Compile notes of pertinent quotes and
paraphrases
 Write either an annotated bibliography or a
review of the literature
 In a review of the literature, summarize only
the criticism that has a significant bearing on
your treatment of the text
Integrating Research into Your
Paper
 Begin your argument by Entering the
Conversation, i.e., stating the ways in which
your argument is different from or adds to
the insights of other critics
 Use the criticism and research of others to
support minor points in your paper
 The main thrust of your paper should be your
own—if someone else has said the same
thing before, you need to find a new thesis
Methods of Interpretation
(Theories)
 A method of interpretation (theory) is simply
a lens through which you may view a text
 Different texts will lend themselves more or
less easily to different methods of
interpretation
 Do not try to force a method upon a text.
 Remember, all methods ultimately end in the
text—you must have sufficient evidence from
the text to justify your argument regardless
of your theory or method of interpretation
The New Critical Thesis
 New Critics assume that all texts (or the best
texts) are unified artifacts that point to
universal themes without recourse to
elements outside of the texts themselves
 A universal theme is one that speaks to the
deeper realities of human life, thought, and
experience
 A New Critical thesis should account for as
many parts of the text as possible, including
such things as form and content
The New Critical Thesis
 To develop a New Critical thesis, begin by
finding the central questions and tensions
that the text seems to ask but does not
explicitly answer
 Continue the process by finding different
strands of thought in the text that, together,
seem to answer the questions and resolve
the tensions—it is here that one explores
imagery, diction, etc.
 Organize your support logically around a
thesis that reveals the text’s unifying theme
The New Critical Thesis:
Examples
Practicing Thesis-craft
 The Scarlet Letter
 The Great Gatsby
 Catcher in the Rye
 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 A Rose for Emily
 The Lord of the Rings
 Chronicles of Narnia
The Historical/Biographical
Thesis
 All authors write in a historical and biographical
context
 The goal of a historical or biographical criticism is
understanding why the author wrote what he or she
wrote
 This includes pointing out how biographical
circumstances contributed to the creation of parts of
the text—biographical readings often resemble nontheoretical psychological readings
 Historical readings reveal how particular texts
address certain historical issues, especially issues
about which the author was passionate
The Cultural-critical Thesis
 All authors write as a part of a cultural
context in which they participate
 A Cultural-critical thesis should illuminate
why and how a specific factor (or factors) of
culture contributed to the creation of specific
facets of the text
 The two most important elements of this
approach are:
 Situating the text in its historical and cultural
context
 Explaining how that context allows us to see the
text in a new way
The Feminist Thesis
 Texts exist as commentary on a cultural framework
that directly relates and affects notions of gender
 Patriarchy is one ideology that many cultures have
used to create social distinctions and hierarchies
 Patriarchy is the privileging of the male perspective
as the only valid perspective, effectively limiting or
abolishing women’s ability to define themselves as
women or people
 Power structures in patriarchal societies reinforce
this ideology through the institutionalized
marginalizing of women
The Feminist Thesis
 Literature, as a cultural product, can either
reinforce or resist the patriarchal influences
in society
 The goal of the feminist critic is to reveal
ways in which particular texts interact with
issues of gender and patriarchy
 A feminist thesis should reflect a deep
knowledge of feminist theory along with a
deep understanding of how the text in
question relates to the operation of
patriarchal ideology and institutions in culture
Conclusion
 Remember to strive for
depth and significance
 Remember to center
your paper on your
thesis
 Remember to organize
your paragraphs
around a central theme
(your thesis)
 Don’t kill yourself!
Go hit a home
run!