Improving Your Book Club With Literary Criticism

 

When a book club becomes a wine and cheese party with very little book talk, the serious bibliophile may feel unfulfilled.  Now, I’m not bashing these kinds of clubs.  It’s wonderful to bond with others over good food.  But if talking about literature is your passion, then you will want to consider finding like minds to share the joy of analyzing a book inside and out.  Structuring the club to talk intelligently about a work requires a basic knowledge of literary criticism.

Historically, book critics have explored the depths of great literature using various approaches.  Think of the approaches as colored glasses.  When we wear a blue lens, the world takes on an azure hue.  If we put on rose-colored ones, the same view is tinged in pink.  A book can be read by changing the lenses to show us the essence of a work's artistic merit. 

The Lenses of Literary Criticism: 

 In A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature (Wilfred L. Guerin et al), the authors present the various approaches exhaustively.  For a serious reader, I recommend getting a copy of this excellent source.  Although a little heady, it explains the origins, problems, and contributions of each critical school of thought through the analysis of five works.  So what are these critical approaches?

 

Traditional approach 

Initially, readers looked at the historic context from which the work sprung as well as the biography of the author, spending little time analyzing the work beyond the basics of theme, plot, setting, etc.  The New Critics, who challenged this perspective, stated a work must be analyzed at the text level as art too.  Thus, a work is criticized for its word play and moral/historical expression as well.  To practice this approach, consider the author’s biography and the historical moment in which the piece was written.  How do these affect your understanding of the story?  Which turns of phrases and images bring the most joy?  What makes each image a work of art, rather than a simply expression of plot?

 

Formalistic 

The search for structure is at the heart of this critical lens.  The Formalists look for “internal relationships [that] gradually reveal form…when all the words, phrases, metaphors, images, and symbols are examined in terms of each other” (Guerin et al).  This approach may lend itself more readily to poetry, but can be applied to the novel as well.  How do the words reveal the genre’s form?  What do repetitions of ideas reveal about the architecture of the plot?

 

Psychological

The Psychological approach is fairly obvious – the reader will examine what makes the characters tick.  Yet it is the psychoanalysis of Freud that is used in this approach.  One must understand Freud’s concepts of the Id, Ego, and Super Ego to practice this approach as it was conceived.  Guerin and his colleagues caution the careful reader of over-analyzing and becoming an arm chair psychologist.  Understanding the Freudian motivation of the characters in a story is interesting but not the only psychological theory to consider given current psychoanalytic thought.  Yet it is fun to try and guess the motivation of the characters and useful in understanding why characters make the choices they do. 

Mythological and Archetypical

The reader may also approach a work from the Mythological and Archetypical perspective.  All cultures have myths, legends, and stereotypes of the warrior, the scapegoat, or the damsel in distress among others.  We also associate colors with various cultural beliefs.  For example, we believe white stands for purity and innocence while red is for passion.  By examining a work from this perspective, the reader will look for these types, and how these various elements affect the characters and plot.  Google “archetypes” or “motifs” in literature and you’ll find lists of them.  Guerin and company provide a comprehensive list of the most commonly used archetypes.  Ask why particular types are used?  What bearing do these have on the theme?

 

Feminist

The Feminist approach is a study of the female characters, as well as the power play between men and women in the story.  Issues of the accuracy of female portrayal by male authors, and the traditional female roles as opposed to the more modern circumstances of the female experience can be part of a reader’s discussion.  Explore the totality of the female experience as expressed in the work. 

 

Cultural Studies

In approaching a work via the Cultural Studies lens, the reader is looking at the ways various cultures are portrayed in the work.  It looks at stereotypes, yet also looks at the social interaction of cultures and the characters’ experience of culture.  Defining what a culture is poses a problem in this approach. Various factors create culture, so the careful reader will need to determine what the culture is prior to discussion. 

 

Reader Response

 A more common practice of literary criticism, generally employed by most book clubs, is Reader Response.  This approach suggests that a reader’s reaction and interpretation of the work is all that the work means.  A reader is necessary in order for the text to even exist, say the proponents of this approach.  This criticism considers that the reader’s personal reaction, coupled with the reactions of fellow readers, which brings to light the pertinent issues addressed in the work.  Thus a work’s significance is borne of those reactions. 

Starting Your Literary Analysis

To improve your club’s discussion you will want to use the literary criticism explained here.  Your club may decide to divide the focus, having one member become an “expert” in the Psychological approach, while another starts a discussion of the Feminist approach.  Make a game of it.  Draw the various approaches from a hat and have a member give his or her opinion in 2 minutes or less.  Or you might decide to look only at the Traditional approach for that month. Don’t ever try to force a particular reading of the text just to say you covered all the approaches.  Some things just aren’t in every text.

Always remember, it is necessary to find art.  Choose great pieces of literature – not Fifty Shades of Gray – that have depth to them.  I always recommend the classics, but there are modern authors who write equally beautiful work.  Think of The Kite Runner or The Life of Pi.  Amidst the various offerings these days on the book shelves of your favorite purveyor of literature, you can find gems that express some of the more quintessential qualities of the human spirit.  Use the LA and New York Times Book Reviews to help you isolate potential books.  Book review blogs that focus on great literature and Goodreads’ groups dedicated to the classics will help you select juicy pieces.  Happy reading!