A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature

450 Pages·2005·15.509 MB·English

by  Wilfred L. Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, John R. Willingham

A Handbook of
Critical Approaches
to Literature
FIFTH EDITION
WILFRED L. GUERIN
Louisiana State University
EARLE LABOR
Centenary College
LEE MORGAN
Centenary College
JEANNE C. REESMAN
University Of Texas at San Antonio
JOHN R. WILLINGHAM
University of Kansas
New York • Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
2005
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 1992, 1999,2005 by Oxford University Press
© 1966, 1979 by WIlfred 1. Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morgan,
and John R. Willingham.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
www.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 transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
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permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A handbook of critical approaches to literature / Wtlfred 1. Guerin ...
let al.l.-5th ed.
p.em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-516017-8
ISBN 0-19-516017-7 (pbk.)
1. Criticism. I. Guerin, Wtlfred 1.
PN8LG82004
801' .95-dc22
2004054708
Printing Number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
TO OUR FIRST CRITICS
Jeannine Thing Campbell
Carmel Cali Guerin
Rachelfliggs~organ
Sylvia Kirkpatrick Steger
Grace Hurst Willingham
Contents
Illustrations ix
Preface x
1. Getting Started: The Precritical Response 1
I. Setting 7
II. Plot 8
III. Character 8
IV. Structure 9
V. Style 10
VI. Atmosphere 11
VII. Theme 13
2. First Things First: Textual Scholarship, Genres,
and Source Study 15
I. First, a Note on Traditional Approaches 15
II. Three Foundational Questions 17
A. Textual Scholarship: Do We Have an Accurate Version
of What We Are Studying? 17
1. General Observations 17
2. Text Study in Practice 20
B. Matters of Geme: What Are We Dealing With? 29
1. An Overview of Geme 29
2. Geme Characteristics in Practice 33
C. Source Study: Did Earlier Writings Help This Work
Come into Being? 46
3. Historical and Biographical Approaches 51
I. General Observations 51
iv
Contents. v
II. Historical and Biographical Approaches
in Practice 54
A. "To His Coy Mistress" 54
B. Hamlet 57
C. Huckleberry Finn 61
D. "Young Goodman Brown" 66
E. "Everyday Use" 69
F. Frankenstein 73
4. Moral and Philosophical Approaches 77
I. General Observations 77
II. Moral and Philosophical Approaches in Practice 79
A. "To His Coy Mistress" 79
B. Hamlet 80
C. Huckleberry Finn 81
D. "Young Goodman Brown" 82
E. "Everyday Use" 84
F. Frankenstein 87
5. The Formalist Approach 90
I. Reading a Poem: An Introduction to the Formalist
Approach 90
II. The Process of Formalist Analysis: Making
the Dose Reader 93
III. A Brief History of Formalist Criticism 96
A. The Course of a Half Century 96
B. Backgrounds of Formalist Theory 97
C. The New Criticism 100
IV. Constants of the Formalist Approach:
Some Key Concepts, Terms, and Devices 102
A. Form and Organic Form 102
B. Texture, Image, Symbol 105
C. Fallacies 106
D. Point of View 107
E. The Speaker's Voice 109
F. Tension, Irony, Paradox 110
V. The Formalist Approach in Practice 111
A. Word, Image, and Theme: Space-Time Metaphors
in "To His Coy Mistress" 111
B. The Dark, the Light, and the Pink: Ambiguity
as Form in "Young Goodman Brown" 116
1. Virtues and Vices 118
2. Symbol or Allegory? 120
3. Loss upon Loss 121
vi • Contents
C. Romance and Reality, Land and River:
The Journey as Repetitive Form
in Huckleberry Finn 123
D. Dialectic as Form: The Trap Metaphor
in Hamlet 129
1. The Trap Imagery 129
2. The Cosmological Trap 130
3. "Seeming" and "Being" 132
4. "Seeing" and "Knowing" 136
E. Irony and Narrative Voice: A Formalist Approach to
"Everyday Use" 137
F. Frankenstein: A Formalist Reading, with an Emphasis
on Exponents 141
VI. Limitations of the Formalist Approach 149
6. The Psychological Approach: Freud 152
I. Aims and Principles 152
A. Abuses and Misunderstandings
of the Psychological Approach 153
B. Freud's Theories 154
II. The Psychological Approach in Practice 161
A. Hamlet: The Oedipus Complex 161
B. Rebellion Against the Father in Huckleberry Finn 164
C. Prometheus Manque: The Monster Unbound 168
D. "Young Goodman Brown": Id Versus Superego 169
E. Death Wish in Poe's Fiction 172
F. Love and Death in Blake's "Sick Rose" 173
G. Sexual Imagery in "To His Coy Mistress" 174
H. Morality over the Pleasure Principle
in "Everyday Use" 177
III. Other Possibilities and Limitations
of the Psychological Approach 180
7. Mythological and Archetypal Approaches 182
I. Definitions and Misconceptions 182
II. Some Examples of Archetypes 184
A. Images 185
B. Archetypal Motifs or Patterns 189
C. Archetypes as Genres 190
III. Myth Criticism in Practice 191
A. Anthropology and Its Uses 192
1. The Sacrificial Hero: Hamlet 195
2. Archetypes of Time and Immortality:
"To His Coy Mistress" 199
B. Jungian Psychology and Its Archetypal Insights 201
1. Some Special Archetypes: Shadow, Persona,
and Anima 204
Contents • vii
2. "Young Goodman Brown": A Failure
of Individuation 207
3. Creature or Creator: Who Is the Real Monster
in Frankenstein? 208
4. Syntheses of Jung and Anthropology 210
C. Myth Criticism and the American Dream:
Huckleberry Finn as the American Adam 211
D. "Everyday Use": The Great [Grand]Mother 216
IV. Limitations of Myth Criticism 218
8. Feminisms and Gender Studies 222
I. Feminisms and Feminist Literary Criticism:
Definitions 222
II. Woman: Created or Constructed? 224
A. Feminism and Psychoanalysis 227
B. Multicultural Feminisms 231
C. Marxist Feminism 234
D. Feminist Film Studies 234
III. Gender Studies 236
IV. Feminisms in Practice 240
A. The Marble Vault: The Mistress in
"To His Coy Mistress" 240
B. Frailty, Thy Name Is Hamlet: Hamlet
and Women 242
C. "The Workshop of Filthy Creation":
Men and Women in Frankenstein 249
1. Mary and Percy, Author and Editor 250
2. Masculinity and Femininity
in the Frankenstein Family 253
3. "1 Am Thy Creature ..." 255
D. Men, Women, and the Loss of Faith
in "Young Goodman Brown" 257
E. Women and "Sivilization" in Huckleberry Finn 259
F. "In Real Life": Recovering the Feminine Past in
"Everyday Use" 264
V. The Future of Feminist Literary Studies and Gender
Studies: Some Problems and Limitations 268
9. Cultural Studies 275
I. What Is (or Are) "Cultural Studies"? 275
II. Five Types of Cultural Studies 280
A. British Cultural Materialism 280
B. New Historicism 282
C. American Multiculturalism 287
1. African American Writers 289
2. Latina/o Writers 292
3. American Indian Literatures 295
4. Asian American Writers 297
viii • Contents
D. Postmodernism and Popular Culture 300
1. Postmodernism 300
2. Popular Culture 302
E. Postcolonial Studies 303
III. Cultural Studies in Practice 305
A. Two Characters in Hamlet: Marginalization
with a Vengeance 305
B. "To His Coy Mistress": Implied Culture Versus
Historical Fact 311
C. From Paradise Lost to Frank-N-Furter:
The Creature Lives! 314
1. Revolutionary Births 314
2. The Frankenpheme in Popular Culture:
Fiction, Drama, Film, Television 317
D. "The Lore of Fiends": Hawthorne
and His Market 325
E. "Telling the Truth, Mainly": Tricksterism
in Huckleberry Finn 330
F. Cultures in Conflict: A Story Looks
at Cultural Change 337
IV, Limitations of Cultural Studies 342
10. The Play of Meaning(s): Reader-Response Criticism,
Dialogics, and Structuralism and Poststructuralism,
Including Deconstruction 350
I. Reader-Response Criticism 350
II. Dialogics 362
III. Structuralism and Postructuralism, Induding
Deconstruction 368
A. Structuralism: Context and Definition 368
B. The Linguistic Model 369
C. Russian Formalism: Extending Saussure 370
D. Structuralism, Levi-Strauss, and Semiotics 372
E. French Structuralism: Codes and Decoding 373
F. British and American Interpreters 376
G. Poststructuralism: Deconstruction 377
Epilogue 381
Appendix A Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress" 385
Appendix B Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman
Brown" 387
Appendix C Alice Walker, "Everyday Use: for your
grandmama" 401
Index 411
Illustrations
Following page 324
1. Engraving from Luigi Galvani, De Viribus Electricitatis
in Motu Musculari
2. Harry H. Laughlin, Massachusetts Department of Mental Diseases
Exhibits: Pictures of 50 Criminal Brains
3. The Edison Kinetogram from March 15, 1910
4. Boris Karloff as the Creature in Frankenstein, 1931
5. Poster for The Bride of Frankenstein, 1935
6. Victor Frankenstein embraces Elizabeth in Mary Shelley's
. "Frankenstein," 1994
7. Robert De Niro as the Creature in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"
8. Dolly, the sheep cloned by the Roslin Institute
in Edinburgh, Scotland
9. "The Bovine Cloning Process"
ix