literary criticism research questions

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Literary Criticism

• Beginning Your Research
• Overviews and Reference Materials
• Finding Books
• Finding Articles

Head Instruction and Assessment

Preparation.

1.       Read the work. Read it again. Take notes.

2.       Select a topic to discuss in your paper. If you are having trouble formulating a topic you may wish to ask yourself questions about the work (see “Questions to Answer” below). The answers to your questions may lead to a good topic.

3.       Focus the topic into a thesis . A thesis is a sentence or two that states what you think is meaningful or interesting about the work. It should be something that is debatable, provocative, and of the appropriate scope for your assignment.   At the very least, have an idea or theme to explore.

4.       Support your argument with research.   When you write, the bulk of your paper should include a discussion of the details from the work that support your thesis. You do research to find criticism (secondary sources) that allows you to expand upon your discussion.

Questions to Answer

Research often begins with a question. The answers to the following questions could lead you to a topic worth discussing in your paper.

What elements (characters, setting, themes, images, etc.) are particularly interesting? Do these seem to have a deeper significance?

What would you say the work is about? Besides a literal interpretation, can the elements of the work be understood to represent (symbolically, allegorically) something in the real world?

What is the overall tone of the work? How does this influence the depiction of people and events?

What is the source of conflict, problems, or tension? How are these resolved? Are any unresolved?

Do the characters change? How do they change? Why do they change? What changes them?

Does there seem to be a message, moral, or lesson to be learned? How do the elements express or reinforce the message? Are there any contradictory or ambiguous messages?

Are there questions left unanswered in the end? Are there clues that infer possible answers?

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• Last Updated: Oct 26, 2021 8:42 AM
• URL: https://libguides.lamar.edu/litcrit

Alfred J. Drake

Questions on Literary Criticism and Theory

Theoryocracy: Literary Criticism & Theory

ALFRED J. DRAKE’S CURRICULUM VITAE & OTHER MATERIALS

Welcome to my literary theory and criticism home page . This site offers more than 2,000 questions on the 149+ authors included in Vincent B. Leitch et al.’s Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (3rd ed., 2018). This collection is the product of many years of teaching experience in literary criticism and theory surveys at CSU Fullerton and Chapman U in Orange, California. I also benefited greatly from the keen insights of my professors as a graduate student in English at UC Irvine (1989-1997).

My Goal: I hope college students and teachers will find this material valuable as they engage with the philosophers, critics, and theorists covered. Above all, I have tried to write questions that will serve as a springboard for further reflection.

One Tip: Encourage students to “talk back” to the material as if they were in a spirited conversation with it. Too often, students feel overawed by the brilliant likes of Plato, Kant, or Foucault, and they may suppose that because they don’t understand everything about the selections they read, they understand nothing. Remind students that we learn difficult material through successive encounters, not upon first acquaintance!

Legal matters: All questions on this site are Copyright © 2021 by Alfred J. Drake. All rights reserved. The material on this site is offered “as-is,” with no express or implied guarantee of accuracy, interpretive correctness, or exhaustiveness. W. W. Norton’s endorsement is in no way claimed or implied for any of the material on this site. All that said, you are welcome to use and adapt these questions for your own non-profit, educational purposes, with due attribution and (if called for) notice of alteration.

Note on locating passages: (“Lorem ipsum…”) indicates text that begins a paragraph; rarely, (“… Lorem ipsum…”) indicates text beginning within a paragraph. Find the end of relevant passages by noting the beginning text for the next question.

Terminology: I have left the definition of key terms to students and instructors. Terms such as antinomy , presentation , binary logic , chora , discourse , essentialism , reification , rhetoric , social constructivism , synchronic , etc. deserve careful attention when they appear in the selections and in the questions. These terms often have specific meanings in relation to particular authors and critical approaches.