Table Of ContentLITERARY ANALYSIS
THE BASICS
Literary Analysis: The Basics is an insightful introduction to analysing
a wide range of literary forms. Providing a clear outline of the
methodologies employed in twenty-first-century literary analysis,
it introduces readers to the genres, canons, terms, issues, critical
approaches, and contexts that affect the analysis of any text. It
addresses such questions as:
• What counts as literature?
• Is analysis a dissection?
• How do gender, race, class, and culture affect the meaning of a
text?
• Why is the social and historical context of a text important?
• Can digital media be analysed in the same way as a poem?
With examples ranging from ancient myths to young adult fiction,
a glossary of key terms, and suggestions for further reading, Literary
Analysis: The Basics is essential reading for anyone wishing to improve
their analytical reading skills.
Celena Kusch is Associate Professor of American Literature at the
University of South Carolina Upstate, USA.
THE BASICS
ACTING THE CITY
BELLA MERLIN KEVIN ARCHER
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
NANCY STANLICK SUMAN GUPTA
ANCIENT NEAR EAST CRIMINAL LAW
DANIEL C. SNELL JONATHAN HERRING
ANIMAL ETHICS CRIMINOLOGY (SECOND EDITION)
TONY MILLIGAN SANDRA WALKLATE
ANTHROPOLOGY DANCE STUDIES
PETER METCALF JO BUTTERWORTH
ARCHAEOLOGY (SECOND EDITION) EASTERN PHILOSOPHY
CLIVE GAMBLE VICTORIA S. HARRISON
ART HISTORY ECONOMICS (THIRD EDITION)
GRANT POOKE AND DIANA NEWALL TONY CLEAVER
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EDUCATION
KEVIN WARWICK KAY WOOD
THE BIBLE ENERGY
JOHN BARTON MICHAEL SCHOBERT
THE BIBLE AND LITERATURE EUROPEAN UNION (SECOND EDITION)
NORMAN W. JONES ALEX WARLEIGH-LACK
BIOETHICS EVOLUTION
ALASTAIR V. CAMPBELL SHERRIE LYONS
BODY STUDIES FILM STUDIES (SECOND EDITION)
NIALL RICHARDSON AND ADAM LOCKS AMY VILLAREJO
BRITISH POLITICS FINANCE (THIRD EDITION)
BILL JONES ERIK BANKS
BUDDHISM FOOD ETHICS
CATHY CANTWELL RONALD SANDLER
CAPITALISM FREE WILL
DAVID COATES MEGHAN GRIFFITH
CHRISTIANITY GENDER
BRUCE CHILTON HILARY LIPS
GENOCIDE METAPHYSICS
PAUL R. BARTROP MICHAEL REA
GLOBAL MIGRATION NARRATIVE
BERNADETTE HANLON AND THOMAS BRONWEN THOMAS
VICINIO
THE OLYMPICS
GREEK HISTORY ANDY MIAH AND BEATRIZ GARCIA
ROBIN OSBORNE
PHILOSOPHY (FIFTH EDITION)
HUMAN GENETICS NIGEL WARBURTON
RICKI LEWIS
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY JOSEPH HOLDEN
ANDREW JONES
POETRY (THIRD EDITION)
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS JEFFREY WAINWRIGHT
PETER SUTCH AND JUANITA ELIAS
POLITICS (FIFTH EDITION)
ISLAM (SECOND EDITION) NIGEL JACKSON AND STEPHEN TANSEY
COLIN TURNER
PUBLIC RELATIONS
JOURNALISM STUDIES RON SMITH
MARTIN CONBOY
THE QUR’AN
JUDAISM MASSIMO CAMPANINI
JACOB NEUSNER
RACE AND ETHNICITY
LANGUAGE (SECOND EDITION) PETER KIVISTO AND PAUL R. CROLL
R.L. TRASK
RELIGION (SECOND EDITION)
LAW MALORY NYE
GARY SLAPPER AND DAVID KELLY
RELIGION AND SCIENCE
LITERARY ANALYSIS
PHILIP CLAYTON
CELENA KUSCH
RESEARCH METHODS
LITERARY THEORY (THIRD EDITION)
NICHOLAS WALLIMAN
HANS BERTENS
ROMAN CATHOLICISM
LOGIC
MICHAEL WALSH
JC BEALL
MANAGEMENT SEMIOTICS (SECOND EDITION)
MORGEN WITZEL DANIEL CHANDLER
MARKETING (SECOND EDITION) SHAKESPEARE (THIRD EDITION)
KARL MOORE AND NIKETH PAREEK SEAN MCEVOY
MEDIA STUDIES SOCIAL WORK
JULIAN MCDOUGALL MARK DOEL
SOCIOLOGY SUSTAINABILITY
KEN PLUMMER PETER JACQUES
SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND TELEVISION STUDIES
DISABILITY (SECOND EDITION) TOBY MILLER
JANICE WEARMOUTH
TERRORISM
SPORT MANAGEMENT JAMES LUTZ AND BRENDA LUTZ
ROBERT WILSON AND MARK PIEKARZ
THEATRE STUDIES (SECOND EDITION)
SPORT PSYCHOLOGY ROBERT LEACH
DAVID TOD
WOMEN’S STUDIES
STANISLAVSKI BONNIE SMITH
ROSE WHYMAN
WORLD HISTORY
SUBCULTURES PETER N. STEARNS
ROSS HAENFLER
LITERARY ANALYSIS
THE BASICS
Celena Kusch
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Celena Kusch
The right of Celena Kusch to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kusch, Celena.Title: Literary analysis: the basics/Celena Kusch.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015034080| ISBN 9780415747097 (hardback: alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780415747103 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315688374 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Literature—Philosophy. | Literary form. | Literature—History and
criticism—Theory, etc.
Classification: LCC PN45 .K834 2016 | DDC 801—dc23LC record available at http://
lccn.loc.gov/2015034080
ISBN: 978-0-415-74709-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-74710-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-68837-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Book Now Ltd, London
CONTENTS
1 Introduction: thinking about literature 1
What is literature? 1
Analysis, classics, and the literary canon 6
Readers, authors, and meanings 13
What does it really mean? Analysis and
evidence 19
References and further reading 21
2 Close reading: words and forms 23
Animal, vegetable, or mineral: Why genre
matters 24
Analysing language 30
Poetics and literary terms 37
References and further reading 49
3 Analysis in context 52
History and literature, literature as history 55
Literary periods and movements: Communities
of writers 59
Cultural contexts 75
References and further reading 78
viii
contents
4 Comparative analysis 80
Common themes 83
Translation, variation, repetition, and remixing 85
References and further reading 92
5 Analysis and the critics 94
About criticism 96
Reading criticism and identifying critical debates 98
Critical response 101
References and further reading 106
6 Analysis and literary theory 108
Everyone has a theory 110
Everything is a construction 123
Everything is a text 125
References and further reading 128
7 Conclusion: analytical writing 132
Academic writing about literature 133
The popular critic: Writing about literature in
the world 138
References and further reading 142
Glossary 143
Index 147
1
INTRODUCTION: THINKING
ABOUT LITERATURE
WHAT IS LITERATURE?
From ancient myths and oral stories to today’s fan fiction and self-
publishing boom, literature has served a variety of functions in society.
Literature conveys sacred knowledge, teaches moral and social lessons,
announces new ideas, records revolutions, tests the limits of cultural
values, and shows us our best and worst selves. As the set of stories we
tell of ourselves through narrative, performance, lyrical reflection,
and many other forms, literature encapsulates human experience and
records the messy, painful, triumphant, and sublime realities of the
passage of humans through our world. While other fields of study
attempt to understand humans by measuring and compiling facts
about our psychological responses, economic behaviours, sociologi-
cal institutions, and anthropological patterns, those fields smooth out
the edges of our rough and often irrational behaviours by highlight-
ing general tendencies or statistical probabilities. Literature offers us
the human life in total – not reduced – with its inconsistent logic,
morality, and identity on full display.
For instance, when William Shakespeare’s Macbeth was first per-
formed in 1606, three years after Queen Elizabeth I’s death, the play
provided an imaginative forum from which to consider and debate
questions of power, gender, ambition, political machination, and the
nation itself.
