Hi, All!
At times, an author blog site can serve as a wonderful repository for information. I'm going to use this site today to place some material for the Literature for Young Adults class I'm now teaching at my university. The students in that class will be using this information for an assignment they've been given. For the rest of you, I also encourage you to read through these six approaches to literature study. Why? Because a reader can better understand "what a story does" by looking at the story through these six approaches. In short, think of each of these approaches as pieces of an apple pie. Together, they form the shape and taste of the pie -- and allow for full appreciation of it. Think of the parallel to this in the world of literature study and your reading experiences just might become more intense and fruitful.
Here are the six approaches. Read on -- and enjoy!
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P.S. In my next post I'll be giving more information about my next book project -- so stay tuned!
Six Basic Approaches to Interpreting Literature
The Historical
Approach: This approach
emphasizes the biography of the writer
and the literary and historical events
of the age in which the writer lived.
Overemphasis on this method often makes literature appear secondary to
the history and biography.
However, if this method is used skillfully, students see how literature
is a changing, developing art.
More importantly, students are better able to see where they fit into
the calendar of literature and human development.
The
Socio-psychological Approach: This approach has a threefold purpose. First, it helps students increase their
knowledge of people (through study
of characterization). Second, it helps students understand the age in which the literature was written. Third, it helps students apply these insights to current living. This approach does overlap the
historical approach. However, it
is different in that there is an attempt to compare the flesh and nerves of the
there-and-then with the flesh and nerves of the here-and-now. The weakness in this approach is that
it may lead to the neglect of some of the qualities we call
"literary." However,
this approach depends upon helping the students understand the Universal Themes in literature and
life.
The Emotive Approach: This approach leads the teacher to say,
"isn't this beautiful," in referring to a certain work -- or
"This is fun!" in referring to literature as a whole. In a practical sense, this is when a
teacher points out to students what and
why specific portions of a piece of literature are thought of so highly by
that teacher. In other words, this
is sharing with students what the "experienced teacher" finds to be
most satisfying in the literature.
Students often will not see this love for the literature
immediately. However, this helps
students develop, over time, their own "rubrics" used when evaluating
literature -- and in determining the "quality" of a piece of
literature.
The Didactic Approach: This approach helps students find the author's purpose and the author's
observations made upon life.
These observations may or may not be ethical principles or morals. The search for and discussion over the
author's purpose leads to improved reading ability and to a thoughtful attitude
toward the text. Students usually
enjoy finding a significant idea or a memorable thought capsule in a text. When used carefully, the Didactic
Approach may ultimately help the students to shape their own life
philosophies. When this approach
is carried too far, the discussion may disintegrate into a hunt for all the
"morals to the story."
The Paraphrastic
Approach: Using this approach,
the teachers tell students to re-state a passage from the text using their "own" words. This is related to Bloom's
"Knowledge" and "Comprehensive" levels of thought. This approach is particularly valuable
in interpretation of literature which is difficult to comprehend (because of a
dialect used, unknown historical references, or misunderstood character
motivations -- just to mention a few areas). The usual objection to this approach is that paraphrasing
only gets to the approximate meaning.
However, without understanding of what is going on at the "surface
level" in a text, the students will not be able to move into interpretive
responses and higher-order work.
The Analytical
Approach: When teachers use
this approach, they encourage students to examine how the elements of literature are used by the writer to build the
story (setting, plot, characterization, language use, etc.). This approach also helps students see
the function and inter-related nature of each element -- and provides a look at
the craft of the writer (his/her particular skills and weaknesses within the
story). The weakness of this
approach is that students often feel the literature is being "picked
apart." However, with careful
planning, teachers can use this approach to help students understand both how
writers build stories -- and why readers respond to the literature as they do.
