[文学]学术前沿概论：文学论文研究思路.ppt

Academic Study about Literature
Approaches to literature
How to form your ideas and Topics
Approaches to literature
to literature
. The traditional approaches
. 1 Historical – Biographical approach
Moral – philosophical approach
. The Formalistic approach: new –criticism
. Theoretical approaches:
. 1. Feminist approach
. 2. Post-colonial approaches
The analysis that dominated the study of literature until the 1930s is usually called the traditional approach, particularly the biographical-historical approach.
In this view, the work is informed by the author's beliefs, prejudices, time, and history, and to fully understand the work, we must understand the author and his age.
. The traditional approaches
. Historical – Biographical approach
One must know Milton was blind, for instance, for "On His Blindness" to have any meaning. In this case, The knowledge of the author’s life experiences can help to understand and clarify some factual reference and allusions in literary works, thereby enriching a reader’s appreciation for that author’s work.
So, the author’s letter, diaries, and essays bed for evidence of authorial intentions in writing.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
David Copperfield by Dickens
Closely connected with the biographical approach is the approach to literature with the reference with the historical and social context in which the authors had lived.
There are some works that are more likely to invite readers to interpret them from the aspect of the broader extrinsic range of social experience. In this case, the authors are likely to be thought as historians, the interpreters of contemporary culture, thinkers of the social life.
Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist, Dombey and Son
Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter
Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe