A More Global Approach

My process for analyzing and writing about literature has evolved in that I have become more aware of alternate methods of analysis. I have traditionally been very focused on the relationship between the author and their literature. Additionally I have in the past been seldom prone to look at literature from any other point of view than that which seems most obvious. Over the past few semesters I have become more familiar with different critical approaches to literature and different genres of writing in general. This, along with, being exposed to the writing of peers has made my process of analysis just a bit more global.

There are always multiple ways of looking at and reading literature. Even competing methods that are in direct conflict with each other can both have merit when used independently. This is a viewpoint very different from what my default process of analyzing literature used to be. While I never make extensive use of many literary criticisms, my awareness of them is at least better than it once was, which, I believe is useful. The mere act of being able to look at something from a different angle offers a significantly new understanding. While writing my essay on "A&P" this semester, I had a stray thought which begged the question, "how would a Marxist analyze this piece of writing?" That question led to an entirely new outlook on the piece which I had never had before. Ultimately I did not choose to focus my writing on the implications of that question, but the mere presence of the question was valuable to me in the analysis process.

Exposure to the writing and analysis of my peers has also a surprising source of additional insight. In a prior semester I was analyzing Edgar Allen Poe's short story, "The Cask of Amontillado," and I had the opportunity to read another student's paper on the same story. What surprised me was that this student chose to analyze the story from a psychoanalytic perspective. Psychoanalysis is not a form of criticism that I like much, and I rarely attempt to employ it. In this instance however my mind was opened up to the possibilities that this form of criticism offers, and I realized that it actually related to that story in deep and profound ways. In fact, one could soundly argue that psychoanalysis should be the default literary criticism for that particular story.