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How literature shapes culture
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Literary CRITICISM essays
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Literature emerges as an assemblage of external influence, literary form, readership, and authorial intent (Tyson 136). New Criticism asserts that only the analysis of literary form, being concrete and specific examples that exist within the text (135), can accurately assess a literary work. New Criticism discounts authorial agency and cultural force that informs the construction of a given text. New Critics believe that these sources of external evidence produce intentional fallacy, the flawed acceptance of the author’s intention as the text’s true meaning, and affective fallacy, the confusion of the text with the emotions it produces (136-37). Author’s intent, emotions provoked, and external influences of culture are indicated by New Criticism to result in chaos if used to assess literature (137). However, in Carol Ann Duffy’s “Little Red Cap”, such factors excluded by New Criticism aim to reinforce and embody complexity and wholeness unachieved by New Criticism’s limited assessment of “formal elements” (137). Due to New Criticism’s focus on objective form and its exclusion of all outside influences like authorship, readership, and culture, New Criticism fails to accurately assess Duffy’s “Little Red Cap”, thus showing the critique’s limitations as a universally applicable lens.
New Criticism’s requirement of removing subjectivity of the author’s hand in their own work demonstrates purposeful ignorance towards the sole reason for the literary work’s creation: the author. Consideration of biographical nature of “Little Red Cap” provides the reader with the ability to analyze the poem on a level that surpasses basic symbolism by injecting authenticity into the text. Duffy asserts that the poem is biographical, stating, “Little Rep...
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...ion of external influence, “Little Red Cap” provides rich, symbolic and relatable significance that can thusly projected onto other literature or one’s one experience. Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “Little Red Cap” works effectively to illustrate the limitations of New Criticism and helps suggest that critical literary lenses may not be universally applicable.
Works Cited
Duffy, Carol Ann. "Little Red Cap." The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales. Eds. Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Claudia Carlson. Ashland, OR: Story Line Press, 2003. 121. Print.
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2006. 135-167. Print.
Duffy, Carol Ann. Interview by Barry Wood. "Carol Ann Duffy: The World's Wife." Sheer Poetry. 2005. Web. 4 Feb 2014. http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/advanced/interviews/carol-ann-duffy-the-world-s-wife
At first glance the characters Connie from “Where are you going? Where have you been?” and Little Red Riding Hood from the classic fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood” may seem to have nothing in common. However, from the start one can compare how much they actually have in common. Though these two characters are very different they are the same in many ways. Their story, from beginning to end, is similar. It is easy to see how alike and different they are with the description of Connie and Little Red Riding Hood’s lives, the relationship with their wolves, and their tragic endings.
Guerin, Wilfred L., et al., eds. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1992.
Heberle, Mark. "Contemporary Literary Criticism." O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Vol. 74. New York, 2001. 312.
Guerin, Wilford L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1979.
Parker, Robert Dale. How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies. New York: Oxford, 2011. Print.
...thern Literary Journal. Published by: University of North Carolina Press. Vol. 4, No. 2 (spring, 1972), pp. 128-132.
Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 125-156.
On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism. (3rd ed.) Upper Saddle River New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. 2003
Guerin, Wilfred L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Harper & Row,
Theo and the young Narrator similarly discover the revelatory capacity of art through a single pivotal painting and author respectively, both which become significant motifs in either text. Tartt utilizes an existent painting ‘The Goldfinch’ as a fixed point of reference, which, for both Theo and the reader provides a sense of reality and constancy ‘rais[ing him] above the surface’ of an otherwise tumultuous childhood. Whereas Proust uses a fictional author, ‘Bergotte’, to communicate the universality of art, and invite the reader, through the vivid immediacy with which the Narrator’s early reading experiences are described, to participate in his epiphanic discovery that art can translate ‘imperceptible truths which would never have [otherwise] been revealed to us’ (97). Artistic imagery becomes a motif in Proust’s descriptions of scenes of domesticity and nature. In a scene recounting Francoise ‘masterful’ preparation of a family meal the Narrator describes asparagus in the technical language of painting as ‘finely stippled’ provoking an association between his observations of asparagus and the creation of a painting. By forming this improbable link he elevates unremarkable asparagus to the ‘precious’ status of art in the eyes of the reader. Proust’s presentation of his Narrator’s ‘fascination’ and pleasure at their ‘rainbow-loveliness’, forces the reader to consider asparagus with unfamiliar and attentive appreciation, conveying the idea that art can uncover the overlooked beauty of the mundane. Though Theo reveals a far more cynical view of ordinary life as a ‘sinkhole of hospital beds, coffins and broken hearts’ Tartt conveys the similar belief in art’s capacity to create a ‘rainbow-edge’ of beauty between our perceptions and the harshness of reality. In the most
Henley establishes the sense of suffering that the speaker is experiencing through the use of multiple literary devices. By beginning the poem with images of darkness and despair, Henley sets the tone for
The fairytale Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault is a story that recounts the adventure of the protagonist Little Red Riding Hood as she fulfills her mother’s wishes to bring a package to her ill grandmother. Perrault’s short story conveys influential life themes on the idea of male predation on adolescent women who fall victim to male deception. Perrault successfully portrays these themes through his use of rhetorical devices such as personifying the actions of the antagonist Wolf predator as he preys on the protagonist Little Red. Perrault illuminates the central theme of upholding sexual purity and being aware of eminent threats in society in his work. Roald Dahl’s poem, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, is an adaptation to
“Little Red Cap” quickly became a household tale among children and adults, due to the imperative lessons that it directs to children and their parents'. Behind the initial story lies a message which, ”Cautions young girls to mind their mothers and not stray from the path to wander in the forbidden woods” (Rholetter). The forest represents any unfamiliar place that children can easily become lost within, while the path to grandmother’s house can represent a place the child is accustomed to. As soon as Little Red Cap begins her journey, she is confronted by a wolf. When they first meet, the wolf acts as a polite gentleman would towards any young lady which earns Little Red Cap’s trust instantly, "Little Red Cap, just where does your grandmother live? said the Wolf. Little Red Cap eagerly replied, Her house is a good quarter hour from here in the woods, under the three large oak trees. There's a hedge of hazel bushes there. You must know the place”(Grimm). This portrays children being subjected to the danger of strangers acting as friends to others for their own personal gains. The Brothers Grimm version of “
Parker, Robert Dale. Critical Theory: A Reader for Literary and Cultural Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012 . Print.