Approaching Literature

So, as you may know, I am a senior in high school. And, in our class we are just finishing up Hamlet by William Shakespeare. As we read the play, our primary focus was on critical approaches. Here are a few from the Purdue University website. The approaches that we examined included...

-Feminist
-Psychoanalytic
-Marxist
-Formalist
-Mythological
-New Historic
-Reader Response

These various approaches each offer a different perspective to Hamlet (or any work of literature) and something can be gained from each one. When you look at a work of literature through these individual lenses, it increases the value of the literature exponentially.

I have traditionally read books from a basic formalist approach, trying to analyze literary devices and form my own interpretations of the purpose of the piece. However, when you read a work of literature using a different critical approach, you tend to have different questions in mind. For example, questions that feminist critics may ask are "What does the work reveal about the operations of patriarchy?" "How does the work define femininity and masculinity?" "What role does the work play in terms of women's literary tradition throughout history?"

However, my classmates and I have all noticed that questions like these that arise from critical approaches can be asked about many subjects beyond literature. Here are some of my peers' blogs that take the ideas I have discussed and apply them to the real world.

Kate's post on a feminist approach to poetry
Daniel's post on a Marxist approach to politics
Margot's post on critical approaches to journalism
Jamie's post on a feminist approach to society and herself

*If you're interested in learning more about critical approaches to literature, I highly recommend you take a look at Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide by Lois Tyson.