literary approaches

• Literary Approaches

  methods used to compare, analyze, interpret, and/or evaluate works of literature

  means of the readers to unveil the secrets of the texts
• Formalism (also called New Criticism)

  focuses on the form of the literary work including the structure, imagery and symbolism and how the parts relate to the entire work
• Historical

  involves understanding the events and experiences surrounding the composition of the work, especially the life of the author, and use findings to interpret that work of literature
• Moralistic Approach (also known as Humanistic approach)

  Judges literary works by their ethical teachings and by their effect on readers

  presents man as essentially rational endowed with intellect and free will
• Psychological Criticism (also known as Psychoanalytical Criticism)

  explores literature through the lens of psychology, dissecting characters' behaviors, motivations, and mental processes

  reveals the subconscious in storytelling, offering a profound understanding of human nature
• Biographical focuses on connection of work to an author's personal experiences
• Reader-response attempts to describe what goes on in the reader's mind during the reading of a text
• New Historicism/Cultural Studies

  analyzes a given text in the context of its historical background (i.e. political, social, and economic conditions of the time the writer lived in)

  considers the societal background of the critic or individual evaluating a text using new historicism
• Deconstructionism

  "rejects the traditional assumption that language can accurately represent reality

  tends to emphasize not what is being said but how language is used in a text regards language as a fundamentally unstable medium
• Feminism focuses on female characters, images of women, and concepts of feminine in myth and literature
• Gender Criticism

  an offshoot of feminist movements

  "examines how sexual identity influences the creation and reception of literary works"

  an extension of feminist literary criticism, focusing not just on women but on the construction of gender and sexuality, especially LGBTQ issues, which gives rise to queer theory
• Philosophical focuses on themes, views of the world, and moral statement