Unit 3:
So, This is How I’m Supposed to Read:
Critical Reading of Short Fiction
Reading literature, both short and long fiction, is
always most effective through a literary critical
theory.
Whether you realize it or not, you probably read
now through a literary critical perspective, but
you were never taught exactly what your were
doing or how to do it better.
Until now.
Reading through a literary critical perspective is
like looking at the literary work through a lens
that doesn’t limit as much as enhance the
reading.
It forces the reader to read critically, with focus
and purpose.
These skills will elevate you above everyone else
in your English courses.
New Critical / Formalist Literary Theory:
• focuses on literary texts as formal works of art
• narrows a focus on literary devices and
techniques (i.e. character, tone, diction, point
of view, plot structure, etc.)
• holds to the belief that content and form –
including all ideas, ambiguities, subtleties, and
even apparent contradictions – were originally
within the conscious or subconscious of the
author (There are no accidents)
New Critical / Formalist Literary Theory:
• Each literary work takes on its own existence
and identity, with no connection to the
author’s life or the time period
• The reader’s, or critic’s, work is to discover a
reading that explains the facts of the text
• There are often multiple readings of the same
work
A New Critical / Formalist Reading
of Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”
•
•
•
•
•
Plot Structure & Style
Symbolism
Motif
Character
Theme
A Freudian/ Psychoanalytical Reading
of Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”
Freudian / Psychoanalytical Literary Theory:
• treats literature somewhat like information
about patients in therapy, looking closer at the
characters’ psychological conditions?
• examines the obvious and hidden motives
behind a character’s behavior and speech (like
repressed sexuality, childhood trauma,
adolescent memories, defense mechanisms,
self-hate, subconscious projections of feelings
upon others)
Freudian / Psychoanalytical Literary Theory:
• explores darker, subconscious motivations in
characters:
– Repressed homosexuality
– Repressed Oedipal Complex (boy’s affinity for his
mother, from Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex trilogy)
– Repressed Electra Complex (girl’s affinity for her
father, from Aeschylus’ The Orestia trilogy)
Freudian / Psychoanalytical Literary Theory:
• also may examine the psychological state of
the author, considering questions like these:
– What particular life experiences explain
characteristic subjects or preoccupations?
– Was the author’s life happy? Miserable?
Upsetting? Solitary?
– Can the death of someone in the author’s family
be associated with melancholy situations in that
author’s work?
A Freudian/ Psychoanalytical Reading
of Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”
1. Martha’s letters: how they are carried, treated,
read, interpreted
2. Sexuality and the pebble, the envelope, Martha’s
knee, Martha’s virginity
3. Burning of Than Khe, the burning of the letters,
the burning of the marijuana
4. Defense Mechanisms: denial, displacement,
isolation, projection, repression, suppression
5. Self hate and hatred for Martha (para. 41-43 & 8289)
6. Repression in the men (para. 65-75)
New Historicist Literary Theory:
New Historicist Literary Theory:
• stresses the relationship of literature to its
historical period and how it reflects that time
period
• a work of literature is given significance by
seeing the nonobjective context in which it
was written
• examines the author’s life as it influences the
purposes behind writing the work and events
within the work itself
A New Historicist Reading of Kate Chopin’s
“The Kiss”
Short Biography:
• born c.1850 to a wealthy family
• only one of five children to survive past the
age of 25
• married Oscar Chopin at the age of 20
• had all six of her children by the age of 28
• nine years into the marriage, the family went
broke and were forced to move
A New Historicist Reading of Kate Chopin’s
“The Kiss”
Short Biography:
• Oscar died three years later, leaving Chopin in
substantial debt
• supposedly, as a widow, she flirted
outrageously with local men and engaged in a
relationship with a married man
• she lost her home two years later and moved
back home with her mother
A New Historicist Reading of Kate Chopin’s
“The Kiss”
Short Biography:
• she began writing as a source of income and
therapy following the death of her mother
one year after moving home
• her novels, although widely praised now, were
harshly criticized at the time
• she began to write short stories instead
• she died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage at
age 54
A New Historicist Reading of Kate Chopin’s
“The Kiss”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Historical Context: The Victorian Age
Influence of the Personal Life of the Author
Social Rules of Courtship and Social Taboo
Marriage & Status – Where does love fit in?
Privileges of “Intimate” Friendships
The Language of Marital Relationships
The withheld kiss and the final paragraph
Feminist Literary Theory:
Feminist Literary Theory:
• interested in how interpreting texts differs
between the sexes
• define the ways both male and female
characters are portrayed in literature by
– looking at how societal norms about sexual
difference are either enforced or challenged
– focusing partly on patriarchal structures and
institutions, like marriage
Feminist Literary Theory:
• does not imply that the critic will support all
or only female characters
• may critique how female characters or writers
exacerbate gender stereotypes
• may critique how male characters strive to
bridge the gender gap
• looks just as closely at the language and
imagery of the work but through a feminist
lens
A Feminist Reading of Kate Chopin’s “The Kiss”
1. Characterize the masculinity and femininity
of Nathalie, Brantain, & Harvy
2. Marriage as a Patriarchal Structure
3. Value of “Intimate” relationship with Harvy
4. Playing the game: Purposeful submission v.
Control of others’ actions and desires and
choices
5. The withheld kiss and the final paragraph
Deconstructionist Literary Theory:
Deconstructionist Literary Theory:
• begin literary analysis by assuming the
instability of language and the impossibility of
arriving at a fixed standard to anchor
interpretation
• meaning is derived from binary oppositions
such as hero/villain, male/female, good/evil.
Each word of the pair obtains its significance
by contrast with the other, so that its meaning
is relative, not absolute
Deconstructionist Literary Theory:
• examines how texts have “gaps,” or missing
pieces of information or words with several
meanings and connotations, that therefore
“de-center” the meaning of the texts
• starts with a reading of the text and then
undermines that interpretation in order to
yield a new one. The deconstructionist does
not deny that interpretations are possible,
only that there is no basis for appealing to
final, absolute intrepretations
A Deconstructionist Reading of
Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going,
Where Have You Been?”
• Let’s begin looking at Arnold Friend as being
Connie’s destroyer.
• Arnold Friend = Arch Fiend
• Then let’s look at Arnold Friend as being her
savior.
• Arnold Friend = An Old Friend
Structuralist Literary Theory:
Structuralist Literary Theory:
• examines how characters undergo a test (or
series of tests) and how they emerge from
those tests
• applies an outside structure to the work to
determine how certain protagonists pass or
fail their tests and to present questions using
the premise of that structure
Structuralist Literary Theory:
• enables critics to discuss works from widely
separate cultures and historical periods
A Structuralist Reading of Joyce Carol Oates’s
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”
1. The Promises of Music
2. The Perversions of Fairyland
3. The Amorality of Our Vices
Marxist / Economic Determinist Literary Theory:
Marxist / Economic Determinist Literary Theory:
• Karl Marx emphasized that the primary
influence on life was economic, and he saw
society enmeshed in a continuous conflict
between capitalist oppressors and the
oppressed working people
• focus on individuals who are coping with the
ill effects of economic disadvantage
Marxist / Economic Determinist Literary Theory:
• analyzes characters of the lower class – the
poor and oppressed who spend their lives in
endless drudgery and misery, whose attempts
to rise to the top usually result in renewed
oppression
Marxist / Economic Determinist Literary Theory:
• consider questions like these:
– What is the economic status of the characters?
– What happens to them as a result of this status?
– How do they fare against economic and political
odds?
– What other conditions stemming from their class
does the writer emphasize (e.g. poor education,
poor nutrition, poor health care, inadequate
opportunity)?
A Marxist / Economic Determinist Reading of
John Updike’s “A&P”
1. Lengel (upper class) v. Sammy (lower class)
2. Girls (upper class) v. Men/Boys of A&P (lower
class)
3. Sammy’s decision to quit
4. Girls as objects / products / commodities
A Deconstructionist Reading of John Updike’s
“A&P”
A Feminist Reading of Amy Tan’s “Jing-mei Woo:
Two Kinds”
Let’s work through the piece chronologically,
looking particularly at these ideas:
1. Masculinity / Femininity in the mother
2. Masculinity / Femininity in Jing-Mei
3. Weak Patriarchs: the father & Mr. Chong
4. The piano as a symbol
A Marxist / Economic Determinist Reading of
Amy Tan’s “Jing-mei Woo: Two Kinds”
1. How do the characters fare against economic conditions?
How does this change the way we read the words
“showpiece” (49) and “trophy” (91)? How about the
tension between “pleading child” and “perfectly
contented” (95)?
2. Consider the following forces of oppression: Fate, the
mother, Mr. Chong, White America, the narrator herself
3. Critical to Marxist Theory is the attempted (and sometimes
successful) overthrowing of the oppressor but the ironic
new oppression that results. Is the revolution the recital?
The fight? The gift of the piano? Or the purchasing of the
secondhand piano?
A Structuralist Reading of Gabriel García
Márquez’s “The Handsomest Drowned Man in
the World”
A Structuralist Reading of Gabriel García
Márquez’s “The Handsomest Drowned Man in
the World”
Consider Esteban as a symbol of Christ post-crucifixion
but pre-ascension. Look closer for allusions to
(1) the crucifixion and the burial: cross, the nails, the
back, suffocation, the tomb, the cloth
(2) the persona of Christ: his appearance, his
demeanor, his effects on humanity
(3) the resurrection and promise of a second coming
How does this reading change the meaning of
handsomest?
A Feminist Reading of Gabriel García Márquez’s
“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”