literary criticism

             It is quite fascinating how one single piece of literature can adopt numerous morals, meanings and hidden messages depending on how it is analyzed. It is then left up to the reader to extract what he or she believes to be correct. This is precisely where literary criticism enters the picture along with a great deal of controversy. Each separate approach to literary criticism is unique and individual. Examining three of the approaches that are each effective in their own way, one clearly stands out in efficacy. While the Freudian approach analyzes works with great depth and scrutiny, the mythological approach effectively relates literature to history with the use of archetypes. Lastly, the reader-response approach gives the reader himself freedom for open analysis. Without a reader, literature would cease to possess meaning at all. It is what the reader gains and learns from a piece of literature that is essential. Reader-response criticism is most effective merely because it bestows power upon the reader himself to discover a meaning that will possess validity in his eyes.
             The Freudian approach is an excellent tool for reading in between the lines of any piece of literature. It provides the reader with an in depth and detailed analysis of the studied work. Psychological criticism on its own is associated with Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical theories as black is associated with white. The two go hand in hand. Sigmund Freud divides our mind into three psychic zones; the ID, the ego and the superego. The ID serves as the completely unconscious zone, referred to as the pleasure principle. The ego serves as the rational governing agent. And finally, the superego acts as a regulating agent for moral censoring. As well, Freud provided convincing evidence that our actions are based upon psychological forces we have no control over. The psychological approach in practice mainly revolves around Freud's theories and analyzes literature upon t...

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