Literary Criticism Review

What type of criticism deals with social issues that were happening during the time period in which the piece was published?

• Formalist criticism

• Marxist criticism

• Reader Response criticism

• Historical criticism

What question might someone doing an archetypal criticism ask?

• What social classes do I see represented in the text?

• Why did the author break the chapters where they did?

• Does the main character seem similar to other main characters in several other novels I've read?

• What was going on in the world during the time when the author published the book?

Which interpretation of "O Captain! My Captain!" would be seen as a Marxist interpretation?

• President Lincoln was an influential leader whose 'captaincy' will not be forgotten

• The repetition of the phrase "fallen cold and dead" underlines the importance of the captain's death

• The word "father" shows trust in the captain as well as a relationship between the speaker and the captain

• The "swaying mass" reveres the captain and they aren't on the ship, which indicates they may be in a lower class

What type of criticism focuses mainly on your own reaction to the text?

• Archetypal Criticism

• Reader Response Criticism

• Formalist Criticism

• New Criticism

A critique written about a novel that focuses on how a character relates to us because of his 'shared experiences' with us would be what type of criticism?

• Archetypal Criticism

• Formalist Criticism

• Biographical Criticism

• Reader Response Criticism

What type of criticism looks for overarching storylines that are present in multiple different genres and individual pieces?

• Historical

• Marxist

• Reader-response

• Archetypal

A critic who focuses on diction would be looking through what type of lens?

• Historical

• Archetypal

• Formalist

• Reader-response

When might a formalist lens help you determine meaning?

• anytime!

• never. It's quite useless

• only when you can't determine a deeper understanding of a piece

• only when your teacher asks you to use that lens

When might a reader-response lens be beneficial to you as a reader?

• anytime!

• never

• when there are no clear lenses to look through

• I have no idea...

A theme is usually expressed as...

• an idea, like love, PLUS what I think the author is saying about the idea

• an idea, like love

• a quote from the piece, like "I am the darker brother"

• a summary of what the piece is about, like "A man hears what's going on around him and says it's America"