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Reading comprehension literature
Critical response essay
Critical response essay
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Recommended: Reading comprehension literature
A precritical response to any literature can be loosely defined as the initial raw, emotional reaction to the piece. The feeling of confusion, disgust, impassiveness, or pure joy can follow any reading. On the other hand, a critical response is a critical evaluation or, more specifically, an intellectual response to a piece of literature. Critically thinking about a piece of literature involves taking the work and breaking it down into different parts, thus aiding in understanding the work and specific parts of it to the work as a whole. However, this is easier said than done. Being able to think critically about a text takes a vast knowledge of literature and a keen eye to recognize patterns, and each form comes with its own difficulties when it comes to breaking the text down. Large texts make it harder to look back for evidence, and sometimes while reading with one frame of mind, key themes and ideas can be missed. Poems, on the other hand, can be vague and extremely difficult to pick apart. Poets rely on figurative language to make seemingly random word choices make sense within the right context, and having a vast knowledge of literature becomes essential when reading poetry because one never knows when an allusion can make all the difference. Anthony Hecht’s poem The Dover Bitch provides a good example of how figurative language and knowledge of a previous literary work can interfere with one’s precritical and critical response creating a situation wherein experiencing the poem as an emotional and intellectual work of art is nearly nonexistent.
The Dover Bitch is a parody of Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach. In Dover Beach, the speaker is standing on the coast of England talking to a woman supposedly sitting in the back of a ro...
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...ing in the genre of a parody can further complicate the process of obtaining a precritical response even more. Because a parody is essentially an extended allusion and recognizing the connection is further evidence of thinking critically. It is this feature of the parody that makes the chances of having a full, unhindered experience of parodic poetry a rare feat.
Works Cited
Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." 1973. The Norton Introduction to Literature. By Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2010. 916-17. Print.
Hecht, Anthony. "The Dover Bitch." 1973. The Norton Introduction to Literature. By Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2010. 1229. Print.
"Parody." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 9 Feb. 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. .
Thoughtful laughter is a technique used frequently in satirical pieces in literature. It allows for the audience to enjoy the wittiness of a work, later ponder on the meaning, and then apply the message to reality. Thoughtful laughter is often an inner experience that can only be achieved by authors who write meticulously. Two examples of satirical works in literature that display this concept explicitly are Voltaire’s Candide and C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. Both authors explore the depths of satire and simultaneously deliver an important message to readers through skillful technique.
Satire is form of comedy in which flaws in people or society are chastised in order to prompt change in the objects of criticism. Regardless of how long ago comedy itself may have existed, the concept of satire was introduced by the Roman satirists, Juvenal and Horace. The tones conveyed in their writing characterize the main modes of satire, being Horatian and Juvenalian, and are still used in satire today. Presently, two popular forms of comedy that employ satirical elements include parody news sources and comedic performances. Although satirical writing has evolved throughout history, many aspects of satire are still apparent in both the articles of parody news sources, like The Onion, and the performances of professional comedians, like
...arody is the imitation if a work of literature, art, or music for amusement or instruction. Parody usually uses exaggeration or inappropriate subject matter to make a serious style seem ridiculous.
...us 75.1 (Jan. 1991): 150-159. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 58. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
The paper discusses the sound of the poem and how those certain words, said aloud, help to emphasize the meaning. Looking at the form of a poem in this way gave me a new way of looking at the text and finding the meaning. Personally, I have not had much familiarity looking at the sound of a text, but now see how the sound can be valuable when looking for the meaning of a text. I like to look at the imagery that is utilized in a text because I believe it works well in giving the reader a look into the text and bringing the text to life. What I have discovered reading about the formalist approach is to look at the overall form and how the text itself affects the meaning. Looking at the imagery and symbols helps me personally find the meaning in a text, so learning that the form of the text also can contribute to the meaning was
New Criticism attracts many readers to its methodologies by enticing them with clearly laid out steps to follow in order to criticize any work of literature. It dismisses the use of all outside sources, asserting that the only way to truly analyze a poem efficiently is to focus purely on the words in the poem. For this interpretation I followed all the steps necessary in order to properly analyze the poem. I came to a consensus on both the tension, and the resolving of it.
The essays used in this book have been chosen by Harold Bloom, being that they are still by different essayists than the last two sources mentioned and considering Bloom is not one of them, it is still not bias. This source shed some light on the context of the two poems that were analyzed, but minimal observations on the poem itself and its correlation to the themes. Given this, there was only bare to little use of this secondary source.
In order to adequately consider the impact that reader-response criticism can have on a text—particularly one such as “The Lottery”—a more comprehensive view of the literary theory is needed. Reader-response criticism enables the audience, or reader, to construct meaning or interpretation of a work based on both textual evidence and that reader’s personal experience. While textual support is still important to this theoretical approach, the lens also highlights the importance of a reader’s personal application of the text, as well as his or her metacognitive learning abilities (Parker 318). In this sense, reader-response recognizes the reader as an active agent in a text’s interpret...
While studying new criticism and reader response we were told to read the poem “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks. Throughout this essay I will be applying what I have learned in class to help dissect that experience to clearly differentiate both. First I will talk about new criticism and what it was like reading “The Mother” through that style. Then I will continue on to reader response and share the journey through our reading with that style. After that I will compare the similarities between both styles. Finally, to conclude I will briefly discuss which one I preferred more.
Satire is a genre of literature that many authors have written in, particularly when writing in or about the Victorian time period. Authors would write satirical novels with the intent to provide constructive social criticism, to draw attention to issues in their society, and to shame individuals, corporations, governments, and society, in general, into improvement. Two writers who successfully use satire in their works are Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf. Both writers satirize gender roles and social status in their respective works of The Importance of Being Earnest and Between the Acts. In his play, Wilde utilizes the techniques of inversion and puns to get his satire across, which work together to form a specific critique of marriage and social status in a Victorian society, and those that enforce these rules. Woolf, on the other hand, uses both parody and irony to create a more relatable and less direct viewpoint on society and the people who fit into it. Both Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf use satire to criticize gender roles and social status in a Victorian society, but through different techniques direct their satire at different audiences.
...’s argument, that readings of a text are culturally constructed. Being an English major, I am thrust into an English student’s interpretative community, which enables to see or pushes for me to look past the simplicity of a work (surface meaning) and search for a deeper meaning. Enabling me to understand gaps that implied that Stella made it known that she did not feel the way Astrophil did but she was, in the least intrigued by Astrophil, as she is the one who tells him to just say what’s in his heart. With the eyes of a college English student and writer I looked deeper to find that Sidney was portraying a writer plagued by writer’s block and the solution to counter this evil. As I have faith in my interpretation of this poem I understand that even in my attempt at being impartial I am biased. I implore you to take this into account; I looked in my heart and wrote.
Remake, this entails the literal reconstructing of the style , and parody is where by things are made or added to in order to make something that is serious and structured comical out of it although it stays true to the plot or a character or it. Many say that parody is one of the crucial strategies of the postmodern
The formalistic approach to an open text allows the reader to devour the poem or story and break down all the characteristics that make it unique. The reader is able to hear the text rather than read it, and can eventually derive a general understanding or gist of the text. "According to the Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature "when all the words, phrases, metaphors, images, and symbols are examined in terms of each other and of the whole, any literary text worth our efforts will display its own internal logic" (Geurin 75)." When utilizing the formalistic approach, the reader must search in and out of the lines for point of view, form, imagery, structure, symbolism, style, texture, and so on. Using the general theme of time, it is important to focus on structure, style, and imagery found in Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress".
Literary criticism is used as a guideline to help analyze, deconstruct, interpret, or even evaluate literary works. Each type of criticism offers its own methods that help the reader to delve deeper into the text, revealing all of its innermost features. New Criticism portrays how a work is unified, Reader-Response Criticism establishes how the reader reacts to a work, Deconstructive Criticism demonstrates how a work falls apart, Historical Criticism illustrates how the history of the author and the author’s time period influence a text, and last of all, Psychological Criticism expresses how unconscious motivations drive the author in the creation of their work as well as how the reader’s motivations influence their own interpretation of the text (Lynn 139, 191). This creates a deep level of understanding of literature that simply cannot be gained through surface level reading. If not one criticism is beneficial to the reader, then taking all criticisms or a mixture of specific criticisms into consideration might be the best way to approach literary