Types of Literary Analyses
Cultural literary analysis seeks to explain a new understanding of a text using objects, practices, and ideologies representative of a culture’s values, beliefs, and laws. By taking into consideration the belief systems of the time period and location which a text was written, a cultural analysis views the text in light of the culture from which it was written.
Feminist Analysis
Feminist literary analysis focuses on feminist theories based on society’s unequal treatment of men and women. Feminist critics study texts in the context of patriarchal societies, gender stereotypes, and the treatment and reception of male and female writers.
Historical Analysis
Historical Analysis looks at a text through a historical lens. By forming an understanding of the time period in which the text takes place and is written, historical critics translate new meaning from the text based on its roots, the social events, and the historical elements of the time period that impacted the author’s writing.
New Criticism
New criticism analyzes text based solely on the text itself. Ignoring historical, biographical, cultural, and additional outside contexts, new criticism focuses on internal contexts. A few of the devices studied by new critics are language patterns, plot, content, diction, setting, structure, style, theme, and literary devices.
Psychological Analysis
Psychological analysis seek to understand a text by examining and postulating on the author’s intentions, the reader’s responses, and the psychological state of the characters in the piece.
Reader Response Analysis
Reader response analysis shifts the focus away from the author and other outside elements of the text and analyzes the reception of the text through the various lenses of its readers. Each reader response analysis varies based on the experiences and background of the reader and how they perceive the text.