Introduction to Literary Criticism

Take a Shot . . .

If the only opportunity you’ve had to discuss the meaning of poetry was in a high school English class, you probably think it’s a lot harder than it really is. The truth is that there is no ONE meaning of any poem, and as long as the interpretation comes from something in the text, there is no wrong interpretation.

There are many different approaches to interpreting literature. Some people use concepts from psychology. Some look at how women or minorities are treated in works, while others look at what various works say about the effects of socioeconomic class. Still others look at the influence that historical events taking place at the time the piece was written are reflected in the art. Still others look at structure or seek out symbols and irony. No one really knows what the deconstructionists are looking for.

But you don’t have to know anything about any of these areas to come up with a good interpretation. Rely on your life experiences. What does the poem mean to YOU? What does it make you think about and feel? Your thoughts and feelings are as valid as those of any “professional” literary critic.

With that in mind, here are a few guidelines you might find useful:

1)    “Criticism” in “literary criticism” means interpretation, not judgment. We will be discussing POSSIBLE meanings of the poems, not whether we think the poem is “good” or “bad.”

2)     I take a Reader Response approach. This school of literary criticism maintains that the meaning of a poem is what it means to the reader. My interpretation is no more “correct” than yours. As long as you can tie what you think the poem means to what is written, your meaning is as valid as mine or anyone else’s.

3)    We are not going to try to guess what Michael Easton meant by the poem or what he was thinking when he wrote it. Only Easton can tell us that, and if he chooses to comment, that would be great.

4)    Reader response theory holds that thinking that only the writer knows what a poem means is called the “intentional fallacy.” Art originates deep inside an artist. None of us is consciously aware of our unconscious motivations. Artists tend to look more deeply within themselves than some people do, but even they can’t know everything that is revealed in a work of art. Some artists like seeing what others see in their poetry and use that information in their own attempts to understand their own work and themselves.

5)    When we make connections between Easton’s work and things we know about him from observing him as an actor and reading his comments on other sites, they are just for consideration and fun. It’s like putting a puzzle together in different ways to see what kind of pictures you can come up with. We can’t presume to believe that anything we come up with is accurate. Anything we come up with is no more “true” than anything we might say about the character of John McBain.