Narrative “New Literary” Criticism A good novel is hard to put down. The story in the novel is perfect with a great plot, convincing characters, and a suspenseful build up to the climax. You have been drawn into the story and it is almost like you are there, living along side the characters. You understand their background, their trials, and their joys. The story brings to life something from long ago that may or may not be fictional. It is hard to tell without doing further research. In reality, that further research does not mean much to you at the present moment. The story, in its entirety, is all the matters to you. This is Narrative Criticism. Narrative Criticism focuses on the stories told by a speaker or writer which help us to make meaning out of everyday life. Not only does Narrative Criticism focus on the speaker or writer, but the criticism also focuses on genre, structure, characterization, and the author’s perspective. The Narrative Criticism approach has roots in history and a type of criticism known as Historical Criticism. From Historical Criticism, Narrative Criticism has grown into a whole new understanding of the text: not in fragmented pieces or overanalyzed passages, but rather as a study of the story as a whole. Narrative Criticism has evolved over the years starting in the late 1900s. David Gunn cites Edwin Good as being one of the first to write essays of the criticism in as early as 1965. Gunn goes on to write, “In the crucial formative period of the 1970s a number of significant contributors worked in relative isolation from each other” (Gunn 203). These authors include Meir Sternberg at Tel-Aviv University and Robert Alter at the University of California ' Berkeley. Mark Allan Powell attributes the work of William A. Beardslee in 1969 as one of the first to make known the need for a more literary approach to the Gospels. Powell makes it clear why the change to Narrative Criticism was important when he wrote: The major limitation of all these approaches, as documented by Hans Frei in 1974, is that they fail to take seriously the narrative character of the Gospels. These books are stories about Jesus, not compilations of miscellaneous data concerning him.
There are many times in which a reader will interpret a piece of literature in a way that was completely unintended by the author. In her article, “In the Canon, for All the Wrong Reasons”, Amy Tan discusses people telling her the meaning behind her own stories, her experiences with criticism, and how this has affected her approach to writing moving forward. While this may seem ironic, considering the topic, I have my own interpretations of this article. Firstly, Amy Tan addresses how people will often tell her what her own work means and the symbolism in her writing.
“Short Stories." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Vol. 127. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010. 125-388. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. VALE - Mercer County Community College. 28 February 2014
I frankly confess that I have, as a general thing, but little enjoyment of it, and that it has never seemed to me to be, as it were, a first-rate literary form. . . . But it is apt to spoil two good things – a story and a moral, a meaning and a form; and the taste for it is responsible for a large part of the forcible-feeding writing that has been inflicted upon the world. The only cases in whi...
With all the different types of literature we have in our world, we also have a similar amount of interpretations of those pieces of literature. Each interpretation is as valid as the other. Literature not only allows the writer to create a wonderful world and a story, it allows the reader to fully embrace the story and find meaning out of it. There are also many different types of literary criticisms. These criticisms are vehicles or guidelines for us to use to understand the reading in a very specific way and really pinpoint the issues and overall theme of the story.
Miller, J. Hillis. "Narrative". Critical Terms for Literary Study. Lentricchia, Frank and Thomas McLaughlin, eds. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 1990. 66-79.
Notebook." Journal of Modern Literature 2.1 (Sept. 1971): 33-56. Rpt. In Short Story Criticism. Ed. Justin Karr. Vol. 44. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 19 July 2010.
Smith, Stan. "Criticism by Stan Smith." DISCovering Authors. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Discovering Collection. Gale. Academy of Holy Angels - NJ. 4 Dec. 2013
Perkins, Wendy. “Criticism.” Short Stories for Students. Ed. Carol Ullmann. Vol. 15. Detroit: Gale, 2002. N. pag. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 23 Mar. 2011.
Bryfonski, Dedria, and Phyllis Carmel Mendelson. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Volume 8. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978. 474-7
Crayne, Victory. "How to Critique Fiction." Victory Crayne. Victory Crayne, 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. http://www.crayne.com/howcrit.html.
...d. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 254. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2008. 287-89. Literature Criticism Online. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
In conclusion, it is hard to grasp the true meaning of the story unless the story is read a second time because of the author's style of writing.
Some of the characteristics of Modernism are: a desire to break conventions and established traditions, reject history, experiment, remove relativity, remove any literal meaning, and create an identity that is fluid. The rejection of history sought to provide a narrative that could be completely up for interpretation. Any literal meaning no longer existed nor was it easily given; essence became synonymous. Narrative was transformed. Epic stories, like “Hills Like White Elephants”, could occur in the sequence of a day. Stories became pushed by a flow of thoughts. The narrative became skeptical of linear plots, preferring to function in fragments. These fragments often led to open unresolved inconclusive endings. This echoes in the short story’s format. The short story functions in fragmented dialogue. Focusing on subjectivity rather than objectivity. Creating characters with unfixed, mixed views to challenge readers.
Postmodernism attempts to call into question or challenge the notion of a single absolute unified master narrative without simply replacing it with another. It is a paradoxical, recursive, and problematic method of critique.