The Relevance Of Literary Analysis To Teaching Literature .

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Tru o n g T h i My Va nThe Relevance of LiteraryAnalysis to Teaching Literaturein the EFL ClassroomFor many university teachers ofEnglish as a foreign language(EFL), the study of literatureis indispensable because it exposesstudents to meaningful contexts thatare replete with descriptive languageand interesting characters. Structuring lessons around the reading ofliterature introduces a profound rangeof vocabulary, dialogues, and prose.In addition to developing students’English language skills, teaching literature also appeals to their imagination, develops cultural awareness, andencourages critical thinking aboutplots, themes, and characters. Mostimportantly, the activities that onecan apply with literature lessons easilyconform to the student-centered andinteractive tenets of CommunicativeLanguage Teaching (CLT).Unfortunately, many postgraduate EFL teacher-training courses focusmainly on language teaching methodology and offer little guidance on theanalytical methods that are essentialto interpreting literature and design-22009Nu m b e ring effective classroom activities. Thismeans that both the students andteachers lose out. Fortunately, thereare a variety of resources for instructors to use to improve their classeswith the study of literature.This article presents a basic reviewof six approaches to teaching literature and includes a discussion basedon my own experience as well as feedback from colleagues who are familiar with the different approaches.Although this discussion pertains tothe university-level EFL context inVietnam, it can be generalized to thewider global audience of instructorsof English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).A review of six approachesto literary analysisBecause the field of literary analysis of fiction, drama, and poetry hasa long history, many theories exist onhow to evaluate and teach literature.Six frequently discussed approaches toliterary analysis include: (1) New Criticism, (2) Structuralism, (3) Stylistics,3 En g l i s hTE a c h i n gFo r u m

(4) Reader-Response, (5) Language-Based, and(6) Critical Literacy. The sections that followwill briefly introduce these six approaches anddiscuss the benefits and drawbacks they offerfor teaching literature in the EFL classroom.Approach 1: New CriticismThe New Criticism approach to literaryanalysis appeared in the United States afterWorld War I. According to this theory, meaning is contained solely within the literary text,apart from the effect on the reader or theauthor’s intention, and external elements aredisregarded when analyzing the work. Thereader’s role is to discover the one correctmeaning by a close reading and analysis of formal elements such as rhyme, meter, imagery,and theme. According to Thomson (1992),the world of a literary work is self-contained,and readers must exercise total objectivityin interpreting the text. In other words, thesocial, historical, and political backgroundof the text, as well as the reader’s reactions orknowledge of the author’s intention, distractfrom and are not relevant to the interpretationof the literary work.Discussion of the New Criticism approachThe major drawback of New Criticism isthat most class activities are dedicated to identifying formal elements and literary devicessuch as symbolism, metaphors, similes, andirony. This turns the study of literary termsinto an end in itself rather than a means todiscover the beauty and value of a literarywork. This excludes looking at the connectionbetween the text and the reader’s experiencesand the historical and sociolinguistic influences that become apparent during the reading process (Thomson 1992).Some who criticize the approach feel thatreaders inevitably relate to aspects of what theyare reading and become subjectively involvedwith the text. In fact, this is why many teachers choose particular texts and communicativeteaching methods: to treat reading as a processthat requires introducing content; describing the setting, characters, and plot; relatingthe text to students’ experience; and elicitingstudent opinion and discussion. This can, ofcourse, include the study of literary terms,but it does not make that technique an end initself but rather a means to discover the beautyand value of a literary work.En g l i s hTEa c h i n gFo r u m The feedback I received from my teachercolleagues about this approach included thefollowing responses: “Different people have differentresponses; for example, you cannotforce me to respond like you, and viceversa.” “Literature concerns the soul. Each person has a distinctive soul that cannot betotally identical.”These teachers also felt that without asubjective response to the meaning of the text,and with the heavy dependence on the teacherto decipher the literary work, students willnot progress in building their language skills.Therefore, the application of the New Criticism approach offers students little enjoymentor recognition of the value of literature, andperhaps worse, creates a negative attitudetowards literature.The selection of literary textsOne criticism of using literature in theEFL classroom deals with the overuse ofwhat is called the traditional canon—thosefamous, classic, award-winning literary worksthat often contain language that is difficultfor a learner of English to comprehend. Asone of my colleagues noted, “It is very hard tocriticize and understand the deeper meaningsof those famous works that have won manyprizes.” This issue especially relates to NewCriticism, which typically deals with texts thatexemplify the highest literary values. Becausethis single-minded focus neglects the readers’ experience, there is little reason to selecttexts that are suitable to the learners’ needs orlanguage proficiency. Although not all literaryclassics are too difficult for EFL classes, thepoint for teachers is that they should considerliterature that students can access and relate to.In choosing acceptable texts for the EFLcontext, there are several things to consider.First is the difficulty of the vocabulary andsyntax, and teachers should look for worksthat match the level they are teaching. Otherthings that make literature difficult are thehistorical, social, and political references thatadd complexity for non-English speakers.The students’ cultural unfamiliarity withtexts causes problems and makes the studentsdependent on the teacher’s interpretation. Asa result, students often have to study literatureby listening to the teacher’s translation andNumber320093

ism does make literature more accessible thanNew Criticism by connecting a work to anoverall thematic structure, it over-emphasizesthe linguistic systems and codes as “the soledeterminants of meaning” (Thomson 1992,15). Structuralism therefore is less relevantfor the teaching of literature because the EFLteachers and learners possess inadequate skillsand knowledge to approach the text scientifically, which makes the study of the processfruitless and results in a lack of motivation forreading literature.Some of what is lacking in the Structuralapproach is reinforced by the reactions frommy colleagues, who reflect that the intimaterelationship between literature and personaldevelopment should lead to: an appreciation of the value of literature to their spiritual and emotionallives, an interest in exploring literary themesfrom different countries to comparecultural differences, pleasure in understanding the effects oflanguage on a poem’s meanings, and enjoyment of the value of literature inenriching life experiences.writing down aspects of the analysis. Theteacher, who speaks mostly in the students’native language, monopolizes a large part ofthe classroom time, which is an unproductiveway to learn English.The combination of difficult language andcultural material creates passive students andnegatively affects their motivation due to thelack of enjoyment or benefit from the experience. An American teacher with experience inteaching literature in Vietnam correctly summarized the type of texts used with the NewCriticism approach: “They are too long, toolinguistically difficult, too culturally or historically unfamiliar, and have few or no pointsof connection with students’ lives.”Approach 2: StructuralismStructuralism is an approach that gainedimportance in the 1950s; instead of interpreting a literary text as an individual entity, thisapproach determines where a literary textfits into a system of frameworks that can beapplied to all literature (Dias and Hayhoe1988). Like New Criticism, Structuralismemphasizes total objectivity in examiningliterary texts and denies the role of readers’personal responses in analyzing literature. Itrequires learners to approach literary textsscientifically and to use their knowledge ofstructures and themes to place the work intoa meaningful hierarchical system. Accordingto Culler (1982, 20), Structuralism does notfocus on the aesthetic value of literature, buton the different processes and structures thatare “involved in the production of meaning.”Approach 3: StylisticsThe Stylistic approach, which emerged inthe late 1970s, analyzes the features of literarylanguage to develop students’ sensitivity toliterature. This includes the unconventionalstructure of literature, especially poetry, wherelanguage often is used in a non-grammaticaland loose manner. Whether these unconventional structures confuse or enhance a learner’sknowledge of the language is the subject ofdebate. In this respect one must consider thedifferences among genres. For example, poetryis often abstract and imaginative, while dialogues in dramas are often very realistic.In the Stylistic approach, the teacherencourages students to use their linguisticknowledge to make aesthetic judgments andinterpretations of the texts. Thus the issue ofthe role of the reader in the process comes upagain. According to Rodger (1983), the language form plays the most important role indeciphering a poem’s significance, while others such as Moody (1983) see the importanceof the reader’s background knowledge, alongwith close attention to language features, asDiscussion of the Structuralist approachCarter and Long (1991, 183) summarizethe criticism of Structuralism when they writethat “instead of being concerned with howa literary text renders an author’s experienceof life and allows us access to human meanings, the structuralist is only interested inmechanical formal relationship, such as thecomponents of a narrative, and treats theliterary text as if it were a scientific object.”This focus on literature as a scientific systemrather than as one containing individual andsubjective meaning downplays the individual’srole in constructing meaning. However, literature should contribute to students’ personaldevelopment, enhance cultural awareness, anddevelop language skills. Though Structural-42009Number3 En g l i s hTEa c h i n gFo r u m

important to interpreting complex texts thatare “capable of analysis and commentary froma variety of different points of view” (23).One useful model of Stylistics is Widdowson’s (1983) comparative approach toteaching literature, in which excerpts fromliterature are compared to excerpts from othertexts, such as news reports, tourist brochures,or advertisements. This technique illustratesthat the language of literature is an independent kind of discourse and teaches studentsdifferent ways that language can be used. Inthis way students also build their knowledgeof registers—the different ways language isused in a particular setting to communicate.Students can compare the registers in a literary work with the registers of non-literarytexts, which will help them recognize thedifferences between literary and non-literarylanguage and the various ways language isused to accomplish things. Students will learnto appreciate the power and versatility of alltypes of language to express the completerange of human feelings and experiences.Discussion of the Stylistic approachThe Stylistic approach is relevant becauseit clarifies one of the rationales for teachingliterature: to highlight the aesthetic value ofliterature and provide access to the meaningby exploring the language and form of theliterary text with a focus on meaning. Mycolleagues agree that the beautiful language ofpoetry, drama, and fiction are motivating andattractive features.From my teaching experiences, I find thatstudents appreciate literature more when theycan explore the beauty of literary language.For example, when my students read thepoem “The Red Wheelbarrow” by WilliamCarlos Williams, they were very excited todiscover how the form of the poem reflects thetheme of the poem. They were surprised andjoyful to observe that the shape of each stanzaillustrates the shape of the wheelbarrow itself,the bumpy sound of each stanza replicates thesound the wheelbarrow makes on the road,and the repetition in the sound of the fourstanzas also reflects the repeated sound thewheelbarrow makes on the road. In addition,the fact that there is no capital letter in thepoem suggests the way people usually considera wheelbarrow: an unimportant, humble, andalmost meaningless object; but the capitalEn g l i s hTea c h i n gFo r u m letters in the title shows the opposite: howmeaningful, important, and beautiful thewheelbarrow is to the worker’s life in particular and to human life in general. My studentsfound the process of exploring the languagestyle and form of the poem both entertainingand valuable. However, they realized that thisanalysis was not possible without guidancefrom the teacher, and they felt they would lackconfidence if working alone.If the Stylistic approach to literature isthe only method used in the EFL context,some problems do arise. Challenges includethe difficulty of recognizing irony in the literature of a foreign culture (Ramsaran 1983)and language learners’ limited communicativecompetence in English and lack of experienceof and sensitivity to a variety of registers ineveryday life contexts (Trengove 1983). Theseproblems increase in EFL classrooms withlimited language resources. In addition, theteacher must be knowledgeable about the terminology of literary devices in order to guidestudents. This knowledge, however, remainsproblematic in EFL contexts where teachertraining and development in literary methodsis often limited. Though it is a great pleasurefor learners to simply compare the differences between literary language and nonliterary language, teaching stylistics effectivelyrequires an investment in teacher training.Approach 4: Reader-ResponseThe principles of the Reader-Responseapproach include attention to the role of thereader and a process-oriented approach toreading literature. Reader-Response supportsactivities that encourage students to drawon their personal experiences, opinions, andfeelings in their interpretation of literature.Dias and Hayhoe (1988, 15) point out that“it is precisely the role of the reader in theact of reading that has not been sufficientlyand properly addressed.” Reader-Responseaddresses this problem by making the learners“active participant[s] in the learning process”(Davies and Stratton 1984, 3).The crucial connection between the readerand the text is explained by Rosenblatt’s (1978)theory of literary reading, which describes thetransactional relationship between a readerand a poem. The events that take place in aliterary work occur at a particular time andNumber320095

place, and different readers react to theseevents in different ways, depending on theirunique interests and experiences. Each readerattaches his or her own personal interpretationto a work; thus, a poem is “an active processlived through during the relationship betweena reader and a text” and “should not be confused with an object in the sense of an entityexisting apart from author or reader” (Rosenblatt 1978, 20–21).This perspective emphasizes the two-wayrelationship between texts and readers, aperspective that has much in common withtheories of top-down reading, where studentsuse their schemata—or familiarity with thetopic from background knowledge and personal feelings—to help them understand thework and improve their comprehension andinterpretation of new information (Price andDriscoll 1997; Schwartz et al. 1998).Because each reader has distinctive experiences and feelings, an author’s idea about awork may be described in a multitude of ways.This is why Wright (1975, 17) objects to “thenotion that poems can be pinned down onceand for all, paraphrased, translated into somestatement which is What the Poem Means,and that this statement is then all you need tounderstand and appreciate the poem.”dents read Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “AnnabelLee.” He asked the students to think about atime when they lost or had to separate fromsomething or somebody they liked or lovedvery much, and what their feelings were atthat moment. When students read the poem,their pre-reading reflection allowed them toimmediately understand its theme, muchmore so than if the teacher had skipped thereflection and simply begun the class with“Today we study ‘Annabel Lee.’ Turn to page5!” After the class analyzed the poem togetherand conducted follow-up activities, the students teased the teacher by saying: “Ah, yourlove is your Annabel!”I also recognize a positive change in mystudents’ attitudes towards literature whenI connect the material with their lives. I seejoy sparkling in the students’ eyes, thoughtfulreflection in their answers, and interest andcuriosity for literature when they come toclass, feeling free and relaxed. When I allowstudents to interpret and respond to literaturewithin the framework of their backgroundsand life experiences, they are empowered to: give opinions without the fear of havingresponses different from the teacher, work collaboratively in pairs or groupsto debate a topic, and read poems aloud and perform scenesfrom plays, which brings smiles, laughter, and contemplation into the classroom.I was very impressed when my class performed scenes from Shakespeare’s Romeo andJuliet and I saw how carefully they preparedfor the scenes, how well they performed—including very long memorized soliloquies—and how involved they were in a performancethat deeply moved the audience. For me, thisis persuasive evidence that when literaturecombines with communicative activities, students get involved and are motivated to learnEnglish. After teaching a British literatureclass, I received feedback that indicated students’ positive attitude towards literature andsuggested that they would continue to readEnglish literature in the future.Nevertheless, some problems with theReader-Response approach have been identified, including: Student’s interpretations may deviategreatly from the work, making it prob-Discussion of the Reader-Response approachThe Reader-Response approach makes animportant contribution to learning by demystifying literature and connecting it to individual experience. Researchers and teachers inthe field of ESOL support making literaturemore accessible by activating students’ background knowledge so they can better predictand decode the language and themes of literary texts. The Reader-Response approach isalso supported because it takes advantageof the crucial fact that emotional reactionsfrom reading a story, poem, or play can beharnessed for classroom instruction (Bleich1975). My colleagues agree that activatingstudents’ schemata in reading literature isimportant and that personalizing the learningexperience increases student participation andmotivation. In fact, these are core principlesof CLT that are known to encourage language learning through student-centered andprocess-oriented activities.As one example, a colleague described apre-reading exercise he used before his stu-62009Number3 En g l i s hTea c h i n gFo r u m

lematic for the teacher to respond andevaluate. Selecting appropriate materials can beproblematic because the level of language difficulty and unfamiliar cul

to literary analysis. Because the field of literary analy-sis of fiction, drama, and poetry has a long history, many theories exist on how to evaluate and teach literature. Six frequently discussed approaches to literary analysis include: (1) New Crit-icism, (2) Structuralism, (3) Stylistics,

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