From English literature to history, literary analysis is the bedrock of many college subjects. It can help to get a deep understanding of literary work. This analysis will allow you to think critically about why and how a literature piece is written and is used to convey a message. However, effective analysis of literature demands proper knowledge and practice. Therefore, it is important to know the concept of literature, its components, types and importance. This article will give you all the information you need about literary analysis.
What is literary analysis?
Literary analysis means closely examining sections or aspects of different kinds of literature. In this type of analysis, you study writing closely, interpret its meaning and explore concepts given by the author. You can do a literary analysis of many forms of writing, such as poems, stories, plays, novels etc. Such analysis does not just give a summary of a book or plot. It gives you proper arguments for analysing various elements like writing structure, perspectives, and language. You provide arguments on how well the author has used literary tools to convey his ideas.
For example, college students are usually assigned to analyse different literary works. The aim is to get a better understanding of literature. For literary analysis, they will focus on various aspects of literature and how they impact the whole work. To do this, they will focus on characters, setting, plot, theme and many other elements of literature. They need to carefully evaluate the components used by the author in the literature. Also there are many dissertation writing services UK that can provide great help for this purpose.
What Are Its Types?
Below are some types of literary analysis:
Cultural Analysis:
This type of analysis aims to explain writing using ideologies and practices of a culture. In this, you consider a belief system of a location at a certain period to analyse the whole culture of that area.
Feminist analysis:
It seeks to explain various feminist theories that mainly discuss gender discrimination and unequal treatment. For this analysis, you can consider discriminatory treatment, gender stereotypes and patriarchal societies.
Historical analysis:
It analyses a literature work by using the historical lens. You form a proper understanding of the historical aspects of the time period in which the literature is written. You look through that period’s historical roots, elements and social events.
New criticism:
It analyses literature solely on its text. You ignore all cultural, historical, biographical and other additional contexts in this type of literary analysis. It purely focuses on the internal context of writing.
Psychological analysis:
It analyses a text by observing and examining the author’s intentions, the nature of the literature’s different characters, and the reader’s responses.
Reader response analysis:
This type of literary analysis does not focus on the author. Instead, it aims to analyse the responses of readers through different lenses.
What Is Its Importance?
The following points show the importance of this analysis:
A mirror to the world:
Literature is a very strong tool to see the world based on the reflection of different authors. It teaches us about the world’s various aspects by showing its good and bad realities. This way, you will be able to build open-mindedness and empathy. The book Native Son by Richard Wright, for instance, shows racial discrimination in the USA in a very vivid and honest way. After reading it, you will get a better perspective on this issue.
It improves critical thinking:
You explore text themes using various literary tools to develop strong arguments in literature analysis. This process includes inductive and deductive reasoning to provide a powerful piece of evidence to support your arguments. Doing this analysis is a great way to improve your critical thinking.
It bolsters communication skills:
This analysis requires open discussion with peers and friends. It will increase your verbal engagement and help you openly share your opinions. This practice can help you improve your communication skills. You can learn to convey your ideas in a better way and help you foster your communication skills.
It is an art:
The journey of an artist not just includes creating art but also analysing and critiquing it. Literary analysis is also an art form as it allows you to interrogate literary writing. It can help students to analyse a successful art piece from different aspects. This can help them understand commentary about larger cultures making your life more enjoyable, meaningful, tolerable and manageable. This analysis can contribute a lot to developing your aesthetic experience.
What are its components?
Before starting your literary analysis, it is vital to carefully read the text you will analyse. Then, you must develop a strong thesis statement to make your analysis more organised and focused. There are three essential components of this analysis:
Introduction:
It grabs readers’ attention by telling them what you will say in your analysis. It includes a thesis statement which tells the main idea of your analysis.
Main body:
Your main body is divided into multiple paragraphs. You can create various arguments using pieces of evidence from the literature piece and analyse it based on your opinion.
Conclusion:
It states all the significant points in your analysis. It also gives some future recommendations.
Conclusion:
It is worth analysing works of literature as it promotes open-mindedness and empathy. Doing literary analysis is a great way to improve your communication skills and critical thinking. It is a form of art that can help you develop your aesthetic sense. This article has given you all the important information you need to know about literary analysis. After reading this, you can easily start doing literature analysis.
