Literary Approaches

Literary Approaches; Ways to Evaluate a Certain Piece

      To evaluate and critic a certain work or piece, some must have a strategy or own ways of evaluating it. Since some approaches are not applicable to all kind of piece, several approaches are created.

• Formalist Approach- This approach aims to evaluate a piece by basing it to the formal features of the text: style, structure, imagery, tone, and genre. It also answers the what, where, when, who, and how questions.
• Biographical Approach- In this approach, the critics are paying attention to the life and experiences of the author. This will identify some factors that the author's life contributed to the piece.
• Mythological Approach- This approach tries to interpret a text by basing on the recurring myth and the archetypes ( a model of a person, symbols, situations, and images) e.g the circle symbolizes wholeness and unity. This approach will try to reveal the implied meaning or ideas of the text that represents another idea.
• Historical Approach- This approach is a combination of some approaches( cultural, sociological, psychological). It aims to know the culture, societal situation, and purpose of the author as reasons why the piece was produced.
• Gender Approach- examines how sexual identity of the author influences the creation and reception of his/her work.
• Deconstructionists Approach- This approach doesn't entertain the literal meaning of the text or sentence. This will identify the meaning of the text by reading beyond the line.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

• Reader-response Approach- This approach tries to describe what happens to the reader's mind while reading and interpreting the text.
• Sociological Approach- This approach tries to examine the literary piece in its cultural, economic, and political context. This will also trace the effects of the mentioned context that is involved.

• Cultural Approach- This approach borrows method from another approaches in analyzing the wide range of the cultural products and their practices. This approach also examines and understand the complex forms and the effects of the culture's process. 
• Psychological Approach- This approach tries to explore new or controversial areas such as fulfillment of wishes, sexuality, the unconscious and repression. It also consider the expression of man's personality.
• Impressionistic Approach - This is also called the Lazy man's Approach because of its easiness to perform for only opinions of the reader will determine and evaluate a literary work.

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