Learning How to Criticize and Analyze Literature

[FoghornBellows]

I have many books. However, I do not understand what swims beneath the surface of the majority of them. I have taken many English classes, and aced them, but I still am at a loss when it comes to canonical literature.
Due to this, I was wondering if any English majors would suggest books elucidating how to criticize and analyze literature. Textbooks are welcome.

[Abdiel]

That's a good question FoghornBellows.

I also had trouble with analyzing and critiquing literature when I first started out but then by practice I grew better at it. I had bought some books on critiquing and analyzing but I never got around to reading them because, honestly, they were quite boring.

All I can say it that it depends on what kind of author you're reading. Some authors are meant to be analyzed and their themes and symbols delved into, while other authors deliberately make this a difficult task. Dickens, for example, is an author with deep symbolism and themes.

You can learn of analyzing by reading the introduction to a book where a professor or another author will tell you what themes and symbols are in the book, and you use this knowledge as you read through. But this is mostly for classics.

However, I really think you can learn by practice and close observation. But to analyze and critique is something you do only if you're reading the book for school, not for fun. If you want to do it on your own, then reread the book, because by going through it a second time you become aware of a lot more.

[Patrick_Bateman]

I gotta study Dr Faustus soon and The Burial at Thebes

I was atrocious with Shakespeare in school, so naturally I'm dreading it

[LitNetIsGreat]

I have many books. However, I do not understand what swims beneath the surface of the majority of them. I have taken many English classes, and aced them, but I still am at a loss when it comes to canonical literature.
Due to this, I was wondering if any English majors would suggest books elucidating how to criticize and analyze literature. Textbooks are welcome.

You really just have to read and read. Pick up as many books as you can and use what works for you. The problem with suggesting a particular textbook is that it becomes more like literature by numbers; and it just doesn't work like that.

[FoghornBellows]

Thank you all for your advice. I attempted to read Kafka, but it was simply too intricate and ambiguous. Still, he is an amazing prose artist. I picked up "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" and, so far, I like it very much. However, I'm a perfectionist; and when I don't know a word in a book I want to look it up. This really gets in the way of enjoyment. Do you guys have any advice?

[LitNetIsGreat]

Thank you all for your advice. I attempted to read Kafka, but it was simply too intricate and ambiguous. Still, he is an amazing prose artist. I picked up "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" and, so far, I like it very much. However, I'm a perfectionist; and when I don't know a word in a book I want to look it up. This really gets in the way of enjoyment. Do you guys have any advice?

Oh yes Dorian Gray is a particular fancy of mine, I'm doing a dissertation on it in fact, though I have not got started yet, but anyway. I think you have to try and strike a balance between interrupting the flow of the text and trying to understand particular words or phrases. It is no good stopping at every single thing because that is going to seriously spoil the reading. Why not put a pencil mark besides the word or phrase and come back to it later or read a chapter twice, once for pure pleasure and meaning, and the other to identify oddities? You have to draw a line somewhere though I think, books are not crosswords when all is said and done and you can only ever hope to gain so much from one, two, or three or more readings of a worthy text.

[FoghornBellows]

Thank you, Neely. I never thought of that. Cheers. By the way, I loved a quote from one of Wilde's other works in the introduction. "The provocative refrain 'For each man kills the thing he loves' rings chillingly throughout the long ballad, and it rings true for Wilde, too. He had destroyed all that was beautiful in his life, and accepted the blame and punishment fully." I paused in awe and let out a silent 'Wow' of identification.

[kiki1982]

I have a special little notebook for those words. I don't have to look many up, but if I am really interested or if they are rather old or colloquial then I do. English is not my first language, so I learn every time. There are words that you have never encountered in the media f.e. that you then see in a book. It helps me to remember them too because I notice that I don't actually look up in that notebook where I used to look up the same word several times because I had forgotten what it meant later. But that's different for everyone, of course.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a good one to start with I think... It is fairly straightforward although Neely might diagree. Though I do think one can still write loads about it; even if the main point is quite clear... @Neely: what topic are you doing?

It was at least one of the first books I kind of 'got' as a rather inexperienced (talented) teenager without a lot of previous canonical reads.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Thank you, Neely. I never thought of that. Cheers. By the way, I loved a quote from one of Wilde's other works in the introduction. "The provocative refrain 'For each man kills the thing he loves' rings chillingly throughout the long ballad, and it rings true for Wilde, too. He had destroyed all that was beautiful in his life, and accepted the blame and punishment fully." I paused in awe and let out a silent 'Wow' of identification.

Oh yes certainly, very haunting, though perhaps society was the one who really destroyed what was beautiful in his life. I could suggest you have a read of his De Profundis too for more of the same. I hope you enjoy the book and let us know how you get on with it.

I have a special little notebook for those words. I don't have to look many up, but if I am really interested or if they are rather old or colloquial then I do. English is not my first language, so I learn every time. There are words that you have never encountered in the media f.e. that you then see in a book. It helps me to remember them too because I notice that I don't actually look up in that notebook where I used to look up the same word several times because I had forgotten what it meant later. But that's different for everyone, of course.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a good one to start with I think... It is fairly straightforward although Neely might diagree. Though I do think one can still write loads about it; even if the main point is quite clear... @Neely: what topic are you doing?

It was at least one of the first books I kind of 'got' as a rather inexperienced (talented) teenager without a lot of previous canonical reads.

No I would agree it is a straightforward novel in one sense of the word, certainly a good a place to start as any, though as ever there is always more that is going on in there - the language at least is very readable.

I've been bogged down by other things so I have yet to fully decide how exactly my dissertation is going to work out and upon what lines it will eventually take. I am interested in Wilde’s attitude to art and how this is reflected in the novel in many forms. Stephen Fry once said that “Wilde’s opinion of art was so high that most people thought he was joking”. I want to develop this thought and show how this is represented in Dorian Gray.

For instance, structurally many critics point to the episodes involving the Vane family as being melodramatic (which they are) but this is entirely intentional and should not be seen as a weakness in the novel, as some critics do. I think that Wilde here is deliberately representing melodrama for many reasons. One reason is that I think he is showing that life mimics art, in the same way that we mimic or internally live out ideology as represented though the media today (Foucault). The Vane family, in particular the mother, are playing out the melodramatic scene because they have internalised the language of melodrama, of the theatre. The mother was an actress, the daughter is an actress playing on a third class stage and there are plenty of references to the theatre and to melodrama, in particular the obvious label “Prince Charming” for Dorian himself, but really just look at the language throughout this part. To criticise this aspect of the novel, (chapter 5), because it falls into “melodrama” entirely misses the point.

So it is sort of along these lines at the moment, but there is so much I can do with it, I don’t really know where to start. I may take the “reflection” idea along a slightly different path, narcissism for example, which is rife throughout Wilde. I am still at the very much at the first stages yet and I may look at other aspects close to these thoughts, we’ll see.

[shortstoryfan]

I guess I could just give you the list JBI gave me when I asked this question.

Honestly, I'm dim, yet I have this interest in literature, and the two don't go together. So far, my undergraduate professors have been taking a very indirect style with criticism and analysis, which I guess they think is good for beginners, but I don't find helpful in the slightest. We just kind of "think" analysis and criticism, rather then having some kind of guidelines. And I never seem to find the thing I'm supposed to be looking for, or I think something is interesting and my professor is just looking at me crazy.

I never felt very stupid until I started being an English major. Good luck.

[kelby_lake]

Thank you all for your advice. I attempted to read Kafka, but it was simply too intricate and ambiguous. Still, he is an amazing prose artist. I picked up "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" and, so far, I like it very much. However, I'm a perfectionist; and when I don't know a word in a book I want to look it up. This really gets in the way of enjoyment. Do you guys have any advice?

I had to look up lots of words when I started reading classics but eventually you'll just get used to it.

As for analysis, look for key 'moments'- the important parts of a book. They should become obvious with practice.

[mayneverhave]

The one thing that you must constantly remind yourself when reading literature (or analyzing any type of art, really) is that what you are reading is an act, a show (this applying most aptly to stage drama), a contrived "work" by a man, a manipulation, essentially: artifice, artificial.

The less often you consider the characters you are reading about as actual humans (as opposed to what they are in reality: the conglomeration of words: actions and speech) the better off you are.

[Amethyst2010]

My brief exposure of Literature in school didn't cover analysis and literary theories. I began to take Literature a bit more seriously for interest these couple of years. After my first reading of two Shakespeare plays, and also reading a "Beginners' guide to Shakespeare" at the same time, I read other books which are critical analysis, and I found these books usually covering at least ten other Shakespeare plays. Similarly, a book I read on understanding "The Importance of Being Earnest", which is the only work by Oscar Wilde that I have read and seen the live performance on stage, compared and contrast Earnest play with other Wilde's plays. Still, I continue with occasional reading of these analysis, to help me to appreciate better my next reading of any novel from the same writer.

I had my experience of selecting works which are too difficult for me, and I gave that up after some chapters and try another novel or play or critical analysis. I could appreciate that any major literature writings could be analysed at so many different aspects, and knowledge in history, philosophy, psychology, art, etc., could all help in the analysis.

[Inka]

well, in addition I'd have advised you to read a little about the history of the time the book was written - in most cases it really helps 'cos one way or another authors in their books tend to cover problems which are actual for them in their times (those problems proves to be actual for any times though )

[kiki1982]

No I would agree it is a straightforward novel in one sense of the word, certainly a good a place to start as any, though as ever there is always more that is going on in there - the language at least is very readable.

I've been bogged down by other things so I have yet to fully decide how exactly my dissertation is going to work out and upon what lines it will eventually take. I am interested in Wilde’s attitude to art and how this is reflected in the novel in many forms. Stephen Fry once said that “Wilde’s opinion of art was so high that most people thought he was joking”. I want to develop this thought and show how this is represented in Dorian Gray.

For instance, structurally many critics point to the episodes involving the Vane family as being melodramatic (which they are) but this is entirely intentional and should not be seen as a weakness in the novel, as some critics do. I think that Wilde here is deliberately representing melodrama for many reasons. One reason is that I think he is showing that life mimics art, in the same way that we mimic or internally live out ideology as represented though the media today (Foucault). The Vane family, in particular the mother, are playing out the melodramatic scene because they have internalised the language of melodrama, of the theatre. The mother was an actress, the daughter is an actress playing on a third class stage and there are plenty of references to the theatre and to melodrama, in particular the obvious label “Prince Charming” for Dorian himself, but really just look at the language throughout this part. To criticise this aspect of the novel, (chapter 5), because it falls into “melodrama” entirely misses the point.

So it is sort of along these lines at the moment, but there is so much I can do with it, I don’t really know where to start. I may take the “reflection” idea along a slightly different path, narcissism for example, which is rife throughout Wilde. I am still at the very much at the first stages yet and I may look at other aspects close to these thoughts, we’ll see.

I had realised that there was much more importance to those scenes of the Vane-family. How could they see past that? I think your idea makes very good sense.

Pretty funny what Fry said there . I guess it was the same for everyone when he argued his homosexuality in court. The argument was just too far-fetched for the judge to understand. Yet, his mind was so great.

Good luck with it!