Schools of Criticism

Up until recently, I was aware that there existed a number of critical approaches to analyzing literature. However, my understanding of the subject was at best, sketchy. I had gained a fair amount of knowledge concerning only couple of them. I knew a little bit about the conflicts that adherents of particular approaches engaged in. However, I had no unified, coherent understanding about these techniques, or how they related to one another. As I have become recently interested in the subject, I decided that it was time for a primer on the topic.

I recently read Charles Bressler’s Literary Criticism. Though this work is used as a kind of textbook in many introductory literature and humanities classes, the book is extremely readable and presents all of the major critical systems, as well as some important subsystems. Bressler’s summaries are understandable, even when technical. The book presents the reader with a clear and concise overview that includes the history as well as examples of each of these methods. In addition, Bressler chronicles the history of literary criticism from Plato on down to the present day. Not only did I find this text interesting, but I also found exploring the various approaches to be fun.

I also spent a fair amount of time reading online articles and opinions relating to the various schools in order to round out my introduction. Finally, I reread various essays and book chapters written by Harold Bloom on this subject.

I tried to reach a level where I could at least articulate the basics of the various critical approaches and sub approaches. New Criticism, Constructionism, Deconstructionism, Reader-response criticism, Feminist Criticism, New Humanist Criticism, African - American Criticism and Psychoanalytic literary criticism are just a few examples.

Blogging about books is not the same thing as practicing academic literary criticism. Instead, both my fellow bloggers and myself are simply discussing books. With that said, much of the discussions that occur on our blogs involve elements of literary criticism. We often try to analyze meanings, themes, characters, etc. Of course, most of us do not claim to be attempting to write professionally, academically or even in a formal structure. Yet, anyone familiar with even a few of the book blogs out there will find elements of most of the approaches ingrained in our posts and discussions.

Furthermore, I find these various methods, even when I disagree with them, fascinating. Understanding the various approaches, the histories and theories behind them, as well as their methodologies, is just another piece of the puzzle to understanding art and aesthetics.

I will not go into much detail concerning most of the schools. There is a lot of complexity and nuance, and my understanding is rudimentary at best. Some of the philosophies behind these methods are radically different from one another. Personally, it turns out that in my thinking and writing about literature, I often parallel aspects of several approaches. I am very partial to a Holistic strategy, where aspects of several methods are employed.  

I strongly question the value of a few of the schools, particularly Deconstructionism. At the risk of oversimplifying this method, adherents would look for the basic themes and symbols used in the text. Since, according to the theory, all concepts are subjective, the analysis would proceed by elevating themes that would traditionally be considered inferior or negative, to the level of the superior or the positive. Thus, a Deconstructive reading of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol might begin by interpreting the story as being in favor of hard work and frugality and critical of charity, leisure, etc. All sorts of variations in between the traditional interpretation of the story and this alternate interpretation could next be explored. I have doubts if this approach in any way moves us anywhere near to understanding art, ideas or the work itself.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding several of the approaches, particularly the Feminist and Cultural Studies schools, such as the Post Colonial and the African American approaches. I believe that these approaches are useful when examining texts whose themes directly involve their subjects. Thus, a Feminist reading of Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City Of Ladies or William Shakespeare’s The Taming of The Shrew makes perfect sense to me as one way to examine these texts. When such approaches are applied to all literary works, even those whose do not have related themes, these methodologies also seem to have value in terms of examining their respective subjects. Thus, if one wanted to consider or discuss the role of women in 16^th century Europe, a Feminist analysis of just about any work written in 16^th century Europe can be fruitful. However, these approaches seem ill equipped to understand and examine the works themselves if the themes of the work do not directly touch upon their subjects. For instance, Bressler presents a Feminist analysis of Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle. I believe such analysis can be useful and interesting when examining gender related issues and the role and views of women when the story was written. However, in terms of understanding and appreciating this work, such an analysis seems, to me, unenlightening. Some adherents of these schools would argue the contrary, however. 

I must mention that there is a school of thought that rejects many of these approaches outright. In several of his books, but particularly in his The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages, Harold Bloom is highly critical of most of these systems. Bloom is very opinioned, as well as curmudgeonly, however I find his reasoning thought - provoking, even when I do not entirely agree with him.

I will likely not read much more on the theory and methods of literary criticism, as there is too much great literature itself out there waiting to be read. However, I do want to read Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism.  Afterward, I will likely leave this subject be. I am glad that I did spend a week or so exploring some of the basics, however. In a small way, at least, it will make me a better reader and help me to understand the world a bit more.

Too Open Minded?

On the surface it may seem that I am too open minded about books and authors. A sentiment often heard is that a person cannot be too open minded about things. It turns out that I actually do not agree with that line of reasoning. I have from time to time heard people state something akin to – “I like all music equally” or “all books are good.” I believe that such views are untenable. Please do not try to tell me for instance that JRR Tolkien (An author that I love) is aesthetically equal to William Shakespeare. Furthermore, there is art, literature, film, music, etc. that on every level is absolutely vile. I believe that a thinking person must express some aesthetic judgment.

Yet, a reader of my blog will observe that for almost every book discussed, I have a positive impression. Furthermore, I write about everything that I read. Indeed, I would contend that I am very open - minded.  If I perceive that a work or author has something important to say about the world, or if the story, characters or philosophy are presented in a way that is either aesthetically pleasing or original and innovative, I usually take great joy in the work. This is true even if I disagree with the authors’ opinions or views, unless such views are very offensive. Still when I look at the vast majority of books on bestseller lists as well as what I observe what most people are reading, I think that there is a great deal of literature out there that I would dislike.

So why do I like such a high percentage of what I read? I believe that this is the case because I am very selective regarding my reading material. I am an adherent of Harold Bloom’s assertion, spelled out in his The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages, that there are so many worthy books out there, and a very limited amount of lifetime available to read them, and that time wasted on trivial and bad works is unaffordable. I feel that it is important to mention that my own list of worthwhile books is much, much larger and more diverse than Bloom’s controversial and somewhat restrictive Western Cannon. Of course this just makes the problem worse for me! The result however, is that I tend to read things that I judge to be culturally, historically, philosophically, aesthetically or scientifically significant.

I am not trying to get through a list. I take immense pleasure in mining books for interesting and important ideas. It is enormous fun for me to find connections between what I find in literature, philosophy, history and science. In a way, I feel as if I am sitting before an immense jigsaw puzzle called “Human Thought” and I am slowly putting the pieces in. I am having a grand time working this puzzle! This analogy is limited; a more accurate description would be a multidimensional puzzle that is constantly growing. More fun still!

As I seem to have chosen well, I very rarely read works that I do not like.

People will occasionally ask me if sometimes I would rather “relax” and read something with no meaning, no strong characterization or little aesthetic value. While I think that it is fine to read in such a manor if one wants to do so, I have no desire to ever do this. I find that reading for meaning and aesthetic perception is one of the most soothing activities that life has to offer. It does not seem like work, it is pure relaxation for me. In fact, I sometimes lull myself into sleep at as I think about the stories, characters and ideas that I read about during the day.

In a nutshell, I like or love almost everything that I read. I am very carful about what I pick. For me, it is all about exploration and digging deep. This is one of the most fulfilling of life’s activities. Of course the question was rhetorical -  I am NOT too open - minded.

First Post!

I love to read. I really love to read.  I always have loved reading. Since I was a child I have always gotten excited at the prospect of beginning a new book. I daydream about books and sometimes I even dream about them.

 Thus I am starting this blog. I want to begin a record chronicling my thoughts on the various works that I complete. Along the way I may throw in some random musing about society, politics, current events, etc.

Though my tastes have matured, reading is the one hobby that I have consistently stuck with since childhood. I am not an expert in most of the subjects that I read about. My greatest qualification is that I am an insatiably curious person.

So why do I read so much? What should people get out of reading?  The answer is different for all individuals. For me, this is a quest. I am trying to piece together and understand the world.  I am SO very interested in human thought, human history and human culture. After these “people” interests, the natural world also holds immense fascinations for me.

As I love serious literature, history, science, business and other subjects, I can be described as a generalist. However I do believe that everyone should have at least one area that they concentrate upon. So for me, it is the history of Revolutionary era  America. I make a conscious effort to read about one third to one half of my history in this area. A little bit of specialization never hurt!

One question, repeated over and over again for me, and ultimately related to why I read, and is simply: what to read next? Over the last few years I have been somewhat careful about what books to tackle. There is so little time! In several of his books, Harold Bloom emphasizes the point that if the average human lifespan is about 70 years, one would barely make it thorough Bloom’s own of the Western Cannon, a list of fiction and philosophy that among other things, Bloom believes are worth reading. When I peruse the list of works contained in Bloom’s Cannon, there is scarcely anything listed that I would not want to read. Compounding my problem is that there are lots of works not on the Cannon that I also want to devour. These include many works of fiction, that perhaps Bloom would not approve of. In addition I am an avid reader of History. Then there are other fascinating branches of Non Fiction including science and business. I also cannot fail to mention rereading. This could take over a thousand years! Wasting time on unworthy tomes is a luxury that I do not have.

Over the past few years I have alleviating the problem just a little. As I do run and work out regularly, I find myself often hooked up to headphones. Thus, I have discovered audiobooks! Of course I need to be choosy as what to “read” this way.  I would not tackle something as dense as Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity's Rainbow via spoken word. However, for many history books, or even some fiction with accessible prose, recorded books are nice way for me to add “book time” to my life. Audiobooks not withstanding, the vast array of titles that I am interested in, are overwhelming.

So here we go, happy reading everyone!