1．Getting Started:The Precritical Response 1
Ⅰ．Setting 6
Ⅱ．Plot 7
Ⅲ．Character 7
Ⅳ．Structure 8
Ⅴ．Style 9
Ⅵ．Atmosphere 10
Ⅶ．Theme 11
2．Traditional Approaches 16
Ⅰ．Nature and Scope of the Traditional Approaches 16
A．Textual Scholarship:A Prerequisite to Criticism 18
B．Types of Traditional Approaches 21
1．Historical-Biographical 22
2．Moral-Philosophical 25
Ⅱ．The Traditional Approaches in Practice 27
A．Traditional Approaches to Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" 27
1．The Text of the Poem 27
2．The Genre of the Poem 28
3．Historical-Biographical Considerations 30
4．Moral-Philosophical Considerations 32
B．Traditional Approaches to Hamlet 33
1．The Text of the Play 33
2．A Summary of the Play 36
3．Historical-Biographical Considerations 37
4．Moral-Philosophical Considerations 41
C．Traditional Approaches to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 42
1．Dialect and Textual Matters 43
2．The Genre and the Plot of the Novel 43
3．Historical-Biographical Considerations 45
4．Moral-Philosophical Considerations 50
D．Traditional Approaches to"Young Goodman Brown" 51
1．The Text of the Story 52
2．The Genre and the Plot of the Story 52
3．Historical-Biographical Considerations 54
4．Moral-Philosophical Considerations 57
E．Traditional Approaches to"Everyday Use:for your grandmama" 60
1．The Plot of the Story 60
2．Historical-Biographical Considerations 61
3．Moral-Philosophical Considerations 65
3．The Formalistic Approach 70
Ⅰ．Reading a Poem:An Introduction to the Formalistic Approach 70
Ⅱ．The Process of Formalistic Analysis:Making the Close Reader 73
Ⅲ．A Brief History of Formalistic Criticism 76
A．The Course of a Half Century 76
B．Backgrounds of Formalistic Theory 77
C．The New Criticism 80
Ⅳ．Constants of the Formalistic Approach:Some Key Concepts,Terms,and Devices 82
A．Form and Organic Form 83
B．Texture,Image,Symbol 85
C．Fallacies 87
D．Point of View 87
E．The Speaker's Voice 89
F．Tension,Irony,Paradox 90
Ⅴ．The Formalistic Approach in Practice 91
A．Word,Image,and Theme:Space-Time Metaphors in "To His Coy Mistress" 91
B．The Dark,the Light,and the Pink:Ambiguity as Form in"Young Goodman Brown" 96
1．Virtues and Vices 98
2．Symbol or Allegory? 100
3．Loss upon Loss 101
C．Romance and Reality,Land and River:The Journey as Repetitive Form in Huckleberry Finn 104
D．Dialectic as Form:The Trap Metaphor in Hamlet 110
1．The Trap Imagery 110
2．The Cosmological Trap 111
3．"Seeming" and "Being" 113
4．"Seeing" and "Knowing" 116
E．Irony and Narrative Voice:A Formalistic Approach to "Everyday Use:for your grandmama" 118
Ⅵ．Limitations of the Formalistic Approach 121
4．The Psychological Approach:Freud 125
Ⅰ．Aims and Principles 125
A．Abuses and Misunderstandings of the Psychological Approach 126
B．Freud's Theories 127
Ⅱ．The Psychological Approach in Practice 134
A．Hamlet:The Oedipus Complex 134
B．Rebellion against the Father in Huckleberry Finn 137
C．"Young Goodman Brown":Id versus Superego 141
D．The Turn of the Screw:The Consequences of Sexual Repression 144
E．Death Wish in Poe's Fiction 148
F．Love and Death in Blake's "Sick Rose" 149
G．Sexual Imagery in "To His Coy Mistress" 150
H．Morality over the Pleasure Principle in "Everyday Use" 153
Ⅲ．Other Possibilities and Limitations of the Psychological Approach 155
5．Mythological and Archetypal Approaches 158
Ⅰ．Definitions and Misconceptions 158
Ⅱ．Some Examples of Archetypes 160
A．Images 161
B．Archetypal Motifs or Patterns 165
C Archetypes as Genres 166
Ⅲ．Myth Criticism in Practice 167
A．Anthropology and Its Uses 168
1．The Sacrificial Hero:Hamlet 171
2．Archetypes of Time and Immortality:"To His Coy Mistress" 175
B．Jungian Psychology and Its Archetypal Insights 177
1．Some Special Archetypes:Shadow,Persona,and Anima 180
2．"Young Goodman Brown":A Failure of Individuation 182
3．Syntheses of Jung and Anthropology 184
C．Myth Criticism and the American Dream:Huckleberry Finn as the American Adam 186
D．"Everyday Use":The Great[Grand]Mother 191
Ⅳ．Limitations of Myth Criticism 193
6．Feminist Approaches 196
Ⅰ．Feminism and Feminist Literary Criticism:Definitions 196
Ⅱ．Historical Overview and Major Themes in Feminist Criticism 198
Ⅲ．Four Significant Current Practices 200
A．Gender Studies 200
B．Marxist Feminism 202
C．Psychoanalytic Feminism 203
D．Minority Feminist Criticism 208
Ⅳ．The Future of Feminist Literary Studies:Some Problems and Limitations 212
Ⅴ．Five Feminist Approaches 215
A．The Marble Vault:The Mistress in "To His Coy Mistress" 215
B．Frailty,Thy Name Is Hamlet:Hamlet and Women 217
C．Men,Women,and the Loss of Faith in "Young Goodman Brown" 223
D．Women and "Sivilization" in Huckleberry Finn 225
E．"In Real Life":Recovering the Feminine Past in "Everyday Use" 230
7．Cultural Studies 239
Ⅰ．What Is"Cultural Studies"? 239
Ⅱ．Three Ways to Study Culture 245
A．British Cultural Materialism 245
B．The New Historicism 247
C．American Multiculturalism 253
1．African American Writers 256
2．Latina/o Writers 260
3．American Indian Literature 263
4．Asian American Writers 267
Ⅲ．Cultural Studies in Practice 270
A．Two Characters in Hamlet:Marginalization with a Vengeance 270
B．"To His Coy Mistress":Implied Culture versus Historical Fact 276
C．"The Lore of Fiends":Hawthorne and His Market 278
D．Telling the Truth,"Mainly":Tricksterism in Huckleberry Finn 283
E．Cultures in Conflict:A Story Looks at Cultural Change 292
8．Additional Approaches 302
Ⅰ．Aristotelian Criticism(Including the Chicago School) 304
Ⅱ．Genre Criticism 307
Ⅲ．Source Study and Related Approaches(Genetic Criticism) 311
Ⅳ．The History of Ideas 315
Ⅴ．Rhetoric,Linguistics,and Stylistics 319
Ⅵ．The Marxist Approach 327
Ⅶ．Structuralism and Poststructuralism,Including Deconstruction 331
A．Structuralism:Context and Defintion 331
B．The Linguistic Model 332
C．Russian Formalism:Extending Saussure 334
D．Structuralism,Lévi-Strauss,and Semiotics 335
E．French Structuralism:Codes and Decoding 337
F．British and American Interpreters 339
G．Poststructuralism:Deconstruction 340
Ⅷ．Phenomenological Criticism(The Criticism of Consciousness) 343
Ⅸ．Dialogics 349
Ⅹ．Reader-Response Criticism 355
Epilogue 369
Appendixes 373
Andrew Marvell,"To His Coy Mistress" 373
Nathaniel Hawthorne ,"Young Goodman Brown" 375
Alice Walker,"Everyday Use:for your grandmama" 388
Index 397