A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature

228 Pages·2004·39.47 MB·English

by  Wilfred L. Guerin

A H a n d b o o k
o f C r i t i c a l
t o L i t e r a t u r e
A Handboook f
CriticaAl pproaches
to Literature
FIFTHE DITION
WILFRED L. GUERIN
Lou isia na S ate Uniae rs i ty
.t
EARLEL ABOR
CentenaryC oIIege
LEE MORGAN
CentenaryC ollege
IEANNE C. REESMAN
Uniaersityo f Texasa t SanA ntonio
IOHN R. WILLINGHAM
Uniaersityo f Kansas
New York . Oxford
OXFORDU NIVERSITPYR ESS
2005
Oxford University Press TO OURFIRSTC RITICS
Oxford NewYork
Aucklmd Bangkok BuenosAires Cape Town Chermai Jeannine Thing Campbell
DaresSalam Delhi HongKong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Carmel Cali Guerin
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melboume Mexico City Mumbai
Nairobi SdoPaulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Rachel Higgs Morgan
Copyright @ t992,1999,2005b y Oxford University Press Sylvia Kirkpatrick Steger
@ 1966,1979b y WtJred L. Guerin" Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Grace Hurst Willingham
and fohn R. WiJlingham.
Published by Oxford University Press,I nc.
198 Madison Avenue, New Yorl New York 10016
ww.ouP.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or Uansmitte4
in my fom or by any mems, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
permission of Oxford Universi$r Press.
Library of CongressC ataloging-in-Publication Data
A hmdbook of critical approaches to literature / Wilfred L. Guerin . . .
[et al.].-Sth ed.
P.cm.
Includes bibliographical references md index.
ISBN-l3: 97&0-19- 51.607-78
ISBN 0-19-516017-(7p bk.)
1. Criticism. I. Guerin,l,Vilfred L.
PNS1:G82 004
801'.95-dc22
2004054708
PrintingNumber:9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
Contents* v
II. Historical and Biographical Approaches
in Practice 54
A. "To His Coy Mistress" 54
B. Hamlet 57
C. HuckleberryF inn 6l
D. "Young Goodman Brown" 66
Contents E. "EvervdavIJse" 69
F. Frankinstiin 73
4. MoralandPhilosophicalApproaches z7
I. General Observations 77
II. Moral and Philosophical Approaches in Practice 79
A. "To His Coy Mistress" 79
B. Hamlet 80
C. HuckleberryF inn 81
Illustrations ix D. "Young Goodman Brown" 82
Preface x E. "EvervdavUse" U
F. Frankenstiin 87
1. Getting Started: The Precritical Response 1
I. Setting 7 5. The Formalist Approach 90
II. Plot 8 I. Reading a Poem:A n Introduction to the Formalist
III. Character 8 Approach 90
IV. Structure 9 II. The Processo f Formalist Analysis: Making
V. Style 10 the Close Reader 93
VI. Atmosphere 11 III. A Brief History of Formalist Criticism 96
VII. Theme 13
A. The Course of a Half Century 96
B. Backgroundso f Formalist Theory 97
2. First Things First: Textual Scholarship, Genres, C. The New Criticism 100
and Sourct studv 15
IV. Constants of the Formalist Approach:
I. First, a Note on Traditional Approaches 15 Some Key Concepts,T erms, and Devices 102
II. Three Foundational Questions 17 A. Form and Organic Form 102
A. Textual Scholarship:D o We Have anAccurate Version B. Texture,I mage, S)'rnbol 105
of What We Are Studying? 17 C. Fallacies 106
1. General Observations 17 D. PointofView 107
2. Text Study in Practice 20 E. The Speaker'sV oice 109
B. Matters of Genre:W hatAre We DealingWith? 29 F. TensioryIrony,Paradox 110
1. AnOverviewof Genre 29 V. The Formalist Approach in Practice L11
2. Genre Characteristicsi n Practice 33 A. Word, Image, and Theme:S pace-TimeM etaphors
C. SourceS tudy: Did Earlier Writings Help This Work in "To His Coy Mistress" tll
Come into Being? 46 B. The Dark, the Light, and the Pink: Ambiguity
as Form in "Young Goodman Brown" 11,6
3. Historicala nd BiographicaAl pproaches 51 1. Virtues and Vices 118
2. SymbolorAllegory? 120
I. GeneralO bservations 51 3. Lossuponloss 121,
vi * Contents
Contents* vli
C. Romancea nd RealiW,L and and River: 2. "Young Goodman Brown": AFailure
The |ourney as Repetitive Form of Individuation 207
in HuckleberrvF inn 123
3. Creature or Creator:W ho Is the Real Monster
D. Dialectic as Form: The Trap Metaphor inFrankenstein? 208
inHamlet 129 4. Slmtheseso f jung and Anthropology 210
1. The Trap Imagery 129
C. Myth Criticism and the American Dream:
2. The CosmologicalT rap 130 Huckleberry Finn as theAmericanAdam 211
3. "Seeming" and"Betng" 132 D. "Everyday Use": The Great [Grand]Mother 21.6
4. "Seeing" and "Knowing" 136
IV. Limitations of Myth Criticism 218
E. Irony and Narrative Voice:A Formalist Approach to
"EverydayUse" 137
F. FrankensteinA: Formalist Reading,w ith an Emphasis 8. Feminisms and Gender Studies 222
onExponents t4L I. Feminisms and Feminist Literary Criticism:
'1.49
VI. Limitations of the Formalist Approach Definitions 222
IL Woman: Created or Constructed? 224
6. The Psychological Approach: Freud rs2 A. Feminism and Psvchoana-l vsis 227
B. Multicultural Feminisms 231
I. Aims and Principles 152 C. MarxistFeminism 234
A. Abuses and Misunderstandings D. Feminist Film Studies 234
ofthePsychologicalApproach 153 III. Gender Studies 236
B. Freud's Theories I54 IV. Feminisms in Practice 240
II. The Psychological Approach in Practice 7GL A. The Marble Vault: The Mistress in
A. Hamlet:T he Oedipus Complex 161 "To His Coy Mistress" 240
B. RebellionAgainst the Fatheri nHuckleberryF inn 164 B. Frailty, Thy Name Is Hamlet: Hamlet
C. PrometheusM anqu6: The Monster Unbound 168 and Women 242
D. "Young Goodman Brown": Id VersusS uperego lG9 C. "The Workshop of Filthy Creation":
E. Death Wish in Poe'sF iction 172 Men and Women inFrankenstein 249
F. Love and Death in Blake's "Sick Rose" LTg 1. Mary and Percy,Author and Editor 250
G. Sexuallmageryin"ToHisCoyMistress" I74 2. Masculinitv and Femininitv
H. Morality over the PleasureP rinciple in the FranicensteinF amily 253
in"EverydayUse" 177 3. "IAm Thy Creature . . ." 255
III. Other Possibilities and Limitations D. Men, Women, and the Loss of Faith
of the Psychological Approach 180 in "Young Goodman Brown" 257
E. Women and "Sivilizatton" inHuckleberryF inn 259
F. "tr Real Life": Recoveringt he Feminine Pasti n
Mythological and Archetypal Approaches "EverydayUse" 264
I. Definitions and Misconceptions 182 V. The Future of Feminist Literarv Studies and Gender
II. Some Examples of Archetypes 184 Studies: Some Problems and Limitations 268
A. Images 185
B. Archetypal Motifs or Patterns I89 9. CulturalStudies
C. Archetypes as Genres I90
I. What Is (or Are) "Cultural Studies"? 275
III. Myth Criticism in Practice 19't II. Five Types of Cultural Studies 280
A. Anthropology and Its Uses 192 A. British Cultural Materialism 280
1. The SacrificialH ero: Hamlet 195 B. New Historicism 282
2. Archetypes of Time and Immortality: C. American Multiculturalism 287
"To His Coy Mistress" 199 1,. AfricanAmericanWriters 289
B. Jungian Psychologya nd Its Archetypal Insights 201, 2. Laina/oWriters 292
1. Some SpecialA rchetypes:S hadow,P ersona, 3. American Indian Literatures 295
andAnima 204
4. AsianAmericanWriters 297
viii * Confenfs
D. Postmodernisma nd Popular Culture 300
1. Postmodemism SOO
2. Popular Culture 902
E. PostcolonialS tudies 303
III. Cultural Studies in Practice 305
A. TWoC haractersi nHamlet: Marginalization
with a Vengeance 30S lllustrations
B. "To His Coy Mistress": Implied Culture Versus
Historical Fact 311
C. From ParadiseL ost to Frank-N-Furter:
The Creature Lives! 914
1. RevolutionaryBirths Zl4
2. The Frankenphemren popular Culture:
Fiction, Drama, Film, Television 3L7
D. "The Lore of Fiends,,:H awthome
and His Market g2S
E. "Telling the Truth, Mainly": Tricksterism
in HuckleberruF inn 330
F. Cultures in Conflict: A Story Looks Followingpage3 24
at Cultural Change 937 1. Engraving from Luigi Galvani, De Viribus Electricitatis
IV. Limitations of Cultural Studies 342 inMotu Musculari
2. Harry H. Laughlin, MassachusettDse partmenot f Mental Diseases
10. The.Play of Meaning(s): Reader-ResponseC riticism, Exhibits:P ictureso f 50 Criminal Brains
Dialogicsa,n dS tructuralisamn dp oitstructuralism,
3. TheE disonK netogramf rom March L5,1 910
IncludingD econstruction 350
4. Boris Karloff as the Creaturei nFrankenstein,193'J.
I. Reader-ResponseC riticism 3S0 5. Poster for TheB ride of Frankenstein,t 935
II. Dialogics 962
6. Victor Frankenstein embracesE lizabet}l.r n Maru Shellev's
III. Structuralism and Postructuralism, Including
"Frankenstein,"L 994
Deconstruction 368
A. Structuralism: Context and Definition 36g 7. Robert De Niro as the Creaturei n Mary Shelley's"F rankmstein"
B. The Linguistic Model 369 8. Dolly, the sheep cloned by the Roslin Institute
C. RussianF ormalism: Extending Saussure 970 in Edinburgh, Scotland
D. Structuralism, L6vi-Strauss,a nd Semiotics gT2 9. "The Bovine Cloning Process"
E. French Structuralism:C odesa nd Decoding 372
F. British and American hterpreters 376-
G. Poststrucfuralism:Deconstruction 377
Epilogue 381
AppendixA AndrewMarvell,"ToHisCoyMistress,, 38S
Appendix B Nathaniel Hawthorne, ,,young Goodman
Brown" 382
Appendix C Alice Walke r, "Everyday Use: for your
grandmama" 40!
Index 4t1
1X
Preface* xi
sis to young colleges tudents in the absenceo f a comprehensive
yet elementaryg uide to someo f the major critical approachest o
works of literature. No work of that sort existed at the time, yet
students clearly could have profited from a more formalized
and contemporary introduction to the serious study of litera-
Preface ture than they generally had received in lower levels of educa-
tion. We found that most lower- and many upper-division stu-
dents were entering and emerging from courses in literature
still unenlightened about the most rewarding critical tech-
niques that a keen reader could apply to good imaginative writ-
ing. Even studentsw hose exposuret o literafure had beene xten-
sive often possessedo nly a narrow and fragmented concept of
such interpretive approaches.C onsequently, one of our first
aims-then and now-has been to help establisha healthy bal-
ance in the student's critical outlook. We-a group that now
This book, now in its fifth edition, has been from the first the includes another coauthor-still fervently believe that any col-
product of our sharedc onviction that the richnesso f great liter- lege or university student-or, for that matteq,a ny advanced
ature merits correspondingly rich responses-responses that high school student-should have at hand the main lines of the
may be reasoneda s well as felt. Corollary to this conviction is most useful approachest o literary criticism.
our belief that such responses come blst when the reader With thesea ssumptionsi n mind, we marked off our areaso f
appreciatesa great work from as many perspectivesa s it legiti- concerna nd laid claim to fill the need we sensed.W e have been
mately opensi tself to. Nothing, of course,r eplacest he reader,s
gratified with the successo f that claim, indicated by the accep-
initralfelt responsest:h e sound of poetry on both the outer and tance of the book by our professional colleaguesa nd by hun-
the inner ear; the visions of fiction in the mind's eye; the kines- dreds of thousands of students throughout the land and
thetic assault of "total theater." But human responsess eldom abroad. (The book has now been published in Spanislg Por-
remain dead-level:t hey reverberatet hrough multiple planes of tuguese, fapanese, Chinese, and Korean ftesides an English
sensibility, impelled toward articulation-in short, toward crit- version in Korea].) However, there has also been an acceptance
we did not anticipate. Our original concernw as to offer critical
approachest o students in the early years of college work, but
we have found that in instancea fter instancet he book is being
used at upper-division levels and in graduate classesE. ven so,
this extended use has not precluded the book's acceptanceb y
inevitable as breathing, and that we should be none the worse numerous high school teachersa s well.
for articulating what passesi n our minds when we read a book We hope that in this fifth edition we have preservedt hat ver-
and feel an emotion about it."
satility, and we have worked skenuously to improve upon it.
Eliot's reminder was instrumental in the genesiso f the first Since the publication of our first edition in the mid-1960s,w e
edition of A Handbooko f Critical Approacheisn the early 1960s,
have wihressed a veritable explosion of critical theories, along
when the four original coauthorsw ere colleaguesi n the English
with a radical expansion and revision of the literary canon.
Department at Centenary Collegeo f Louisiana.A t that time we Thesee xtraordinary developmentsh ave prompted correspon-
had becomes ensitivet o the problems of teachingl iterary analy- ding revisions in eachs ucceedinge dition of our handbook. For
Preface * >ia7i
FrankensteinT he very name has infiltrated our lexicon as "a
monstrous creation;e sp:a workor agencyt hat ruins its origina-
tor." What word-and work-could be more timely? As merely
one of many examples,a recenti ssue of Neznsweekrematktsh at
"Islamic terrorism has becomea Frankensteinm onster that has
turned on the regimest hat nurtured them." Beyond Islamic ter-
rorism are the terrors, real and imagined, attendant upon the
brave new Frankensteinian world of human cloning. Arnold
Schwarzenegger'sT erminatora nd, more recently, The 6th Day
urltlclsm/ lJialogics, structuralism and poststructuralism, In- appear to be increasingly more "science" and less" fiction."
cluding Deconstruction."
What elsem ade our colleague'ss uggestions o apt?L r addition
The most dramatic changei n this fifth edition has been moti- to Frankenstein'sti meliness,i ts spellbinding horror, and durable
popularity, was the striking personageo f the novel's creator:a
woman-not just any woman-but a brilliant teenagern o older
than most first-year college students, the daughter and name-
sake of one of the most eloquent crusaders for the rights of
women, and the wife of one of the greatestR omantic poets.T he
creation of her great work of fiction was in many ways no less
astonishingt han the work of Victor Frankenstein.
and literary form, but also one that would lend itself to multiple Mary Wollstonecraft Shelleya ttestedt hat her novel had been
levels of interpretation. Among the several well-known tities inspired by a haunting noctumal "visitation" after listening to
that came to mind were Charlotte Brontd,s WutheringH eights, a lengthy philosophical discussion between Lord Byron and
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The ScarletL etter,H erman Melvillle,s her husband conceming "the nature of the principle of life":
Night waned upon this talk, and even the witching hour had
goneb y beforew e retiredt o rest.I A/henI placedm y heado n my
pillow, I did not sleep,n or could I be said to think. My imagina-
tiorl unbidder; possesseda nd guided me, gifting the successive
images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the
perenniallypopular but not yet quite canonical. usual bounds of reverie. I saw-with shut eyes,b ut acute men-
"How about Frankenstein?'v, olunteered a Centenarv col_ tal vision,-I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling
league and resident film expert Jeff Hendricks. ,,Eureku !', *" beside the thing he had put together.I saw the hideous phan-
cried in response." Perfectl" tasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some
Frankenstein\lA /hoa mong us does not know the name?\ rVho powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy,h alf
vital motion. Frightful must itbe; for supremely frightful would
among us has not thrilled to the visual horrors perpetrated by
be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous
Boris Karloff look-alikes, act-alikes,a nd worse-much worse? mechanism of the Creator of the world. His successw ould ter-
rify the artist. . . . What terrified me will terrify others. . . . (172)
Indeed! What terrified Mary Shelley on that ]une night nearly
two centuries ago has terrified others beyond her wildest
dreams, for hers has since become a universal nightmare.
xiv * Preface
Preface xv
"
Finally and conclusively,w hat has made this novel such an
treatment of critical reading should be the student's recogni-
tion of the need to selectt he most suitable approach for a given
literary work.
These six works were chosenb ecauset hey lend themselves
exceptionally well to multiple interpretations and becauset hey
will make the beginning student aware of the joys of reading at
increasingly higher levels of ability. Three of thern-Franken-
stein, Adaentureso f HuckleberryF inn, and Hamlet-are easily
available in paperback,i f not in the student's literature anthol-
tions: to provide a basic introduction to the major critical-
ogy. The other three-"To His Coy Mistress," "YotJrrgG ood-
interpretive perspectives that a reader beginning a serious
man Brown," ar.d"Everyday f|ss//-a1g included in this book.
study may bring to bear on literature. This book delcribes and
Regardlesso f the availability of these six works, we hope that
demonstratest he critical tools that have come to be regarded as
this book will serve as a model or guide for the interpretation
indispensablef or the sensitive reader; these tools u."-*hut *"
of many literary works. In short, while our handbook possesses
call " approaches."F urthermore, becauset his is a handbooko f
an integrity of its own, it may be used most instructively as a
complementary text in conjunction with an anthology or a set
of paperbacks.
This handbook may be read from cover to cover as a continu-
ous unit, of course,b ut it has been organized for both flexibility
and adaptability. For example, although it is primarily orga-
nized by "approaches" rather than genres,a t the beginning of a
course the instructor may assign the introductory section of
But heuristics can be guided, and for that reason we have
eachc hapter,l ater assigningt he sectionsd ealing with a certain
genre.T hus, the instructor who decidest o begin with the short
story may assign "Young Goodman Brown" and "Everyday
Use" along with the introductory sectionso f selectedc hapters
and the accompanyingd iscussionso f theset wo stories.A nother
possible strategy is to have students read severall iterary works
early in the term and discusst hem in classw ithout immediate
recourse to this handbook. Then they might read this text, or
pertinent sectionso f it, and bring their resulting new insights to
bear onthe literature read earlier,a sw ell as on subsequentr ead-
ings. This double exposureh ast he advantageo f creatinga sense
of discovery for the perceptiver eader.
For the continuing successo f this handbook over the past
four decades,w e owe many thanks. Our debt to the canono f lit-
erary scholarship-the breadth and depth of which is reflected
in the Quick References ectionso f this text-is obvious, and we
acknowledgei t with gratitude. Equally considerablei s our debt
to the many friends and colleaguesw hose assistancea nd sug-
xvi * Preface
gestions-haveh elped to ensure this success.T o these we give
special thanks: Laurence perrine, William B. Allmory 1ame"as.
Gowery Donald F.W arders,A rthur Schwartz,RichardC oanda, 1
JamesW ilcox, Kathleen Owens, CzarenaS tuart, Irene Winter_
rowd, Yvonne B. Willingham, Mildred B. Smith, Melinda M.
GettingS tarted:
TheP recriticaRl esponse
It may come as a surprise to contemporary students to leam
that well into the nineteenth century, courses in British and
American literature were not offered in universities. For cen-
turies in western Europe, only the literature of classicala ntiq-
uity was thought to have sufficient merit for systematics tudy.
Yet it was inevitable that literature should one day become a
sity Press,p articularly our editol, JanBeatty,a nd our produc_ part of the academicc urriculum. Anything that could so move
tion editor, Christine D'Antonio. and interest large numbers of people, including the most culti-
On a final note, we are especiallyi ndebted to Gayle Labor for vated and enlightened, and that had such obvious and pro-
her editorial efforts, to Greg Guerin for technical assistance, nounced didactic uses was in the judgment of academicians
and to Jeff Hendricks for critical insights. bound to be worthy of intellectual analysis. Such a view may
well have motivated educators to make literature an academic
WL.G. subject it"taugltl" something; it was a sourceo f "knowledge."
E.L . Lr any event, once literature was establishedi n the curriculum,
L. M. it was subjectedt o the formal discipline of criticism, which ulti-
l.c.R. mately consistedo f taking it apart (and putting it back together
I.R.W. again) to seeh ow and why as well as what it was and meant.
A popular opinion has it that becausel iterary "technicians"
have so rigorously pursued their studies, many "common
QUrCKR EFERENCE readers" (a term that Dr. Samuel johnson contributed to the
lexicon) shy away from the rich and pleasurable insights that
N ewsweekA, prll 12,2 004,p . 35. balanced,i ntelligent literary criticism can lead to. Whatever the
Shelley,M ary. Mary SheIIeyF, rankensteinH. unteq,| ., Ed. New york W. reason, many students not innately hostile to literature may
W. Norton, 1996. well have come almost to despise it, certainly to dread it in