A beginner's guide to Critical Literary Analysis

hello I'm Moon and a majority of you follow me for Content like this the coat or out ofwar that a character is wearing especially if it's really different to the rest of their outfit is indicative of the Persona that they're trying to project and also he's caught in this dichotomy between feeling like the best and most powerful man in the world and someone who is absolutely hopeless the thing that I think makes them so tragic is the fact that their ability is only ever triggered when they're in pain we as an audience have absolutely no

idea who he actually is she succumbs to the darkness by deciding to stay in the port Mafia but she views her work as a good thing they can represent reincarnation and life and hope and death but they can also represent Freedom so by aligning loyalty with cape wearing we get this really interesting representation going on and this is great because I love making it and you guys clearly love watching it but as time goes on I'm getting more and more comments and DMS from people asking me exactly how I do this now one of my

biggest long long-term goals for this channel is to tackle more difficult topics such as critical literary analysis and break it down so that more people can understand it because these things won't only help you to develop critical thinking skills and analytical skills but they will also develop your ability to clearly and concisely create and defend an argument but despite all of these great benefits many people will never even try to give it a go because let's be real lots of artists and art educators are a bit too pretentious to stoop down to the beginner level

and help people get started lucky for all of us though not only is this stuff relatively easy to me but it's really fun and I am so excited to share this video with you all today we're going to start from the absolute beginning and talk about what literary analysis is how it works and then work through an example text and analyze it together and when I say that I'm starting from the start I really mean it you don't need to know anything about analysis to understand what's going on here and for those of you looking

for something a little more challenging I have other videos planned that I will hopefully be able to release soon these take me such a long time to make because I do all of the scripting filming and editing myself all while balancing a part-time job and University as well so I really appreciate everyone's patience and excitement every time I do release a new video if you want to support me so I can keep making these then go ahead and like this video And subscribe to my channel as of filming this I'm like 200 Public watch hours

away from being able to monetize my content which would be gamechanging for me all of my socials are also in the description and the very first link will bring you to my cofi where you can send me a tip if you're feeling extra generous so without further Ado let's begin our first class in analysis 101 let's start out with some good old fashion definitions so we know exactly what we're working with here literary anal Anis is the examination and evaluation of a literary work which is a very short definition for something that is so Broad

and can be really timec consuming the key words here are literary and evaluation literary meaning a written work so anything from poetry to plays to short stories to novels and evaluation which means that this needs to be more than just a summary of the story it should also include an argument that you want to make about the text that you've just read and to make an argument doesn't mean that you should just scream your thoughts about the text while this can be very fun an argument is just the point that you want to make about

everything if we take Little Red Riding Hood for example You could argue that the story is a coming of age but you could also argue that it is a horror or a fantasy or any genre that you want to argue that it is as long as you have evidence to back yourself up cuz you can't just say anything about the text that you've just read you have to be able to convince the person that you're talking to that you are right and the way to do this is to gather evidence as you read and there

are different types of arguments that you can make in a literary analysis and understanding what argument you want to make will help you choose what evidence you want to look for here are five of the most common types of arguments first we have the close reading or formalist argument for a formalist argument you'll want to pay close attention to the technical parts of the text so for example the word choices that an author makes to describe something think for example of all the different ways that a character might say I want you to close the

window because it's cold in here they could say something like oh my God it's so cold in here are you cold as well hang on I think the window's open are you do you want to close it do you think we could close it is that okay I know I you TR that you're closer is that okay okay awesome thank you or they could say something more along the lines of it's called close the window at the end of the day these sentences get the same message across but the implications of how they are said

change everything the first implies that the character is of a lower social status than the person that they are talking to it could also indicate that maybe they're very shy or polite by Nature the second sentence indicates the opposite this is a character who really doesn't care how they're perceived by The Listener maybe they're very close with the listener so they don't need to bother with formalities maybe they're mean or they just don't understand why you would say so many words when you could just say five these are the differences that a formalist approach focuses

on and I personally find it really interesting to look at how the same character talks to different people or how their manner of speech changes over time in the context of manga and other visual works such as plays a formalist approach could also draw your attention to interesting choices within the art I've talked about this already with things like the coat Theory and Bongo tray dogs and how carefully constructed all of the characters designs are our second type of argument is the applied reading argument and this is highly subjective because it compares the text to

your own personal experiences if you watch my video about no longer human you'll notice that I spend a lot of time talking about how relatable the main character Yoo is this is a great start to an applied reading argument but it hardly counts as one because while I talk a lot about why Yoo is relatable I don't talk about how anything that he does relates specifically to my own life if I wanted to make a proper argument I would first pinpoint a couple of moments within the text that I relate to really deeply and then

I would discuss why I relate to them and use detailed examples from my own life third we have the comparative or synergistic argument which takes the text that you're looking at already and then Compares it with other texts and it's best to use this kind of approach when you have a couple of really strong Connecting Threads between each text for example you might notice that different texts share a lot of the same themes or maybe they're written in the same style but depict very different things and you want to draw attention to that or maybe

you're very interested in one author and notice that there is an underlying message in all of their works and want to prove it a comparative approach should either prove that multiple texts are very similar or that they're very different but if you're careful you can prove that they are both at the same time next is the contextual or historical argument and this focuses on the historical framework of the text so what was going on in the world at the time that made the text turn out the way that it did a lot of classic literature

in particular is considered classic because while they're very much products of their time modern audiences can still relate very deeply to them it makes a lot of sense to use a historical argument if you're talking about a text that uses a lot of language settings and themes that don't appear very often in modern texts it won't only help your audience to understand why you make some of the arguments that you do but the added context may give you a completely different understanding to what you had initially finally we have the theoretical argument this is the

kind of argument that I use and talk about most often it looks for evidence in the text to support specific theories and the best way to look for evidence of these theories is by viewing the text through a specific lens yes I'm sorry there's one more aspect that I'll have to explain before we can piece everything together the definition of a critical lens is a way of of focusing on style choices plot devices and character interactions and how they show a certain theme which is just a fancy way to say that when you look at

the text through a lens you'll be able to pick up on the very specific pieces of evidence that align with the theme you're interested in four very common lenses are psychoanalytic which focuses on understanding the character's emotional and mental States feminist which examines the story through the lens of women's experiences Marxist which pays close attention to the socioeconomic issues within the text by thinking of it as a product of the society from which it came from and queer which considers queer identities and the queering of characters actions and speech as an example you might be

reading a text that is anti-war and want to focus on how it depicts the mentality of the soldiers in which case you would read through a psychoanalytic lens paying very close attention to the solders actions and speech to try and figure out how they're feeling but remember that the kind of lens that you use will change depending on the specific evidence that you're looking for you could also analyze an anti or text through a Marxist lens if you wanted to focus on how the fictional Society mirrors real life or a fatalist lens if you wanted

to focus on ideas of Freedom versus fate just remember that there are heaps of other lenses that I haven't mentioned that you can use for your analysis but we're not going to get into them today because it's just going to be way too overwhelming so now that we know what analysis is and we understand five different types of arguments and four lenses how do we put it all together before you write anything you want to make sure that you know what you're talking about and the best way way to do this is by gathering evidence

which is a process that I split into two parts first you'll want to familiarize yourself with the text so read the entire thing at least once without annotating it this is a great time to ask questions and note down theories as you go along but remember it will always be easier to gather information on a text that you're already really familiar with once you finished your first read through you can finally reread with all of your themes and lenses in mind as you go along and annotate while you do as well while you're doing this

is useful to create an outline of the plot and a list of important characters I usually have my notes app or a notebook or even just sticky notes with me so that I can keep all of my ideas in one place once you finished annotating and you have all of your evidence it's finally time to create your argument and there are some important things that you need to keep in mind when you do this if you haven't been taking notes already I do suggest that you keep track of these because it's really important to include

all of them and they'll actually make writing your analysis a little bit easier at the beginning you'll want to at least mention the text type and genre that you're analyzing so for example is it a play or a novel or a poem is it a Sci-Fi or a fantasy or a thriller all of these have very specific conventions so make sure you talk about how the text plays into those or how it doesn't how it sort of bends the rules you'll need to examine the important characters and provide an outline of the important parts of

the text so this can be the plot or the themes or both make sure you include a review of the themes that you'll be discussing in the analysis and the symbols that are used to represent these themes and try to at least mention the text's overall structure as well now this is a lot and I'm really sorry that it's difficult for me to break this down any further but let me make it up to you let's work together through that sample text that I mentioned earlier in the video this is a story that I have

loved ever since I was really little and my Australian audience may be familiar with it but other people may not and that story is Edward the Emu and yes it is a kids book but anyone who thinks that children's literature is any less found or moving has clearly never analyzed kids l so let's begin by going back to step one and familiarizing ourselves with the text we're going to read the whole story together and if you would like when we're finished you can pause the video and write your own analytical comment Edward the Emu was

sick of the zoo there was nowhere to go there was nothing to do and compared to the seals that lived right next door well being an emu was frankly a bore so that night when the Zookeeper went home to bed Edward jumped from his pen and he laughed as he said the seals are best anybody can tell so tomorrow I'll just be a seal as well the next morning at 9:00 when they opened the zoo the seals were swimming and Edward was too he dived in the water and basked in the Sun and he balanced

a ball on his beak just for fun while Edward was really enjoying the day till he overheard someone behind the fence say the seals are always amusing it's true but the Lion's the best thing to see at the zoo so that night when the Zookeeper went home to bed Edward jumped from the pool and he smiled as he said the Lion's the best anybody can tell so tomorrow I'll just be a lion as well the next morning at 9: when they opened the zoo the lions were roaring and Edward was too he snarled at the

ladies and growled at the men life was certainly grand for a lion in his den well Edward was having a wonderful day till a man in the crowd had the gumption to say the lion Beast I shall always detest the snakes are the things that I like to see best so that night when the Zookeeper went home to bed Edward crept from the cage and he grinned as he said if the snakes are the best things and that's what they say then tomorrow I'll just be a snake for the day the next morning at 9ine

when they opened the zoo the snakes were all hissing and Edward was too he slipped around the rocks it was magic to see then he curled himself casually up around a tree while Edward was just warming up for the day when he overheard one of the visitors say the snakes are impressive I know that it's true but the Emu is by far the best thing at the zoo the Emu gasped Edward my goodness that's me I'm the thing that that gentleman most likes to see not the seals the Lions the snakes and the rest it's

Edward the Emu he likes to see best so that night when the Zookeeper went home to bed Edward slipped from the cage and he laughed as he said if the Emu is the best then that's easy then tomorrow I'm Edward the Emu again Edward ran to the place where he used to reside but oh what a shock when he clambered inside he found himself suddenly come face to face with the Emu theyd brought in to take Edward's place the Emu considered each other a while then the new emu said with a shy little smile hello

I'm edua it's nice meeting you you're the best thing I've seen since I came to the zoo you're probably starting to realize why I chose to analyze this text with you not only is it short and sweet but it also has a very clear underlying theme and that theme is the idea of identity acceptance and belonging so with that in mind let's look back on the text and find some key moments that will fit into our theme and if you're wondering we're going to be using a psychoanalytic lens while also focusing a little bit on

a formalist argument as well this story which is told via a series of images and short rhyming paragraphs spans approximately 4 days and each new day gives us more information about Edward's mentality but even from the very first page we know that Edward is unhappy with his life he hates being a boring emu in a boring emu enclosure and he hates that he isn't having nearly as much fun as it sounds like the seals next door are having so he decides that since seals obviously have the most fun he wants to be a seal for

the day and that is exactly what he is towards the end of this day though we get two new pieces of information which indicate this isn't exactly what it seems at first glance the first is that he doesn't specifically want to be a seal he just doesn't want to be an emu and the second is the reason why he doesn't want to be an emu at first we could assume that it was just boredom but it turns out that people's perception of him is very very important to Edward our evidence for this is that when

he hears someone say the Lion's the best thing to see at the zoo he immediately plans to jump out of the seil enclosure and go be a lion the next day and we get more evidence when on the third day the exact same thing happens when someone says the snakes are the things that I like to see best we get the cycle repeated again this time Edward goes to live with the snakes for a day what's interesting though is that even though Edward is having a really wonderful time being a snake when he overhears someone

say that emu is by far the best thing at the zoo he is absolutely ecstatic he uses exclam Lang language for the very first time in the whole story and this is also the first time that we get an illustration of Edward smiling with his mouth open rather than just a little but he says the Emu my goodness that's me and he travels back to the Emu enclosure not only does this further prove the point that I just made but it also proves that Edward is happiest when people like him for being himself not when

they like him for pretending to be a different animal and when he does get back to the Emu enclosure and meets Edina for the first time she further valid Ates his identity by saying that he is the best thing she's seen since she came to the zoo now I want you to focus on how the ideas of identity acceptance and belonging were portrayed within this story because acceptance is a really big word right like what do we accepting why are we accepting it and what does it have to do with identity and belonging well what

we're accepting is Edward's identity and its entirety not seal Edward not lion Edward not snake Edward Edward the self-conscious silly little emu who just wants to be loved we accept that no matter how hard he tries and my God does he try he can't change the fact that he's an emu seal Edward is Too Tall and lion Edward is particularly scrawny and snake Edward doesn't have all that many scales because at the core of his identity is the fact that he's an emu regardless how much he tries to contort his body into new shapes the

message here is that there will always be people out there who think that you're the best just as you are and while you can never be everyone's favorite you're somebody's favorite and they will always have a place for you to belong this is also where I think it's really important that at the end Edward didn't just miraculously stop caring what others thought about him this is still an integral part of his identity being the best thing at the zoo is just as important to Edward at the end of the story as it was at the

beginning what's changed is that he's found people who will always love him just as he is and so now he doesn't have to pretend to be any anything else and he can be fully comfortable in his own identity and while this story is great for any kid to hear I want to draw your attention to how important it is for queer kids to hear especially if you go back and read this through a queer lens it will add an entirely new layer to your analysis because identity acceptance and belonging are notoriously difficult subjects for queer

people to talk about and I'm not going to get too much deeper into that because I want you to have a go on your own if you have any ideas that you want to share though please leave a comment because I would love to hear them and this brings us to the end of our first lesson in analysis 101 was this easy enough for you to follow was it too easy are there things that you want me to explain in more depth please let me know because I will add them to my next video in

future videos I want to dig deeper into the concepts that I've introduced you guys to today and I want to tackle more difficult texts as well but even with just this beginner knowledge there is so much critical analysis that you can do and the more you practice the more challenging texts you'll be able to pick up honestly the video that I'm most excited to share with you guys is one that I'm planning about poetry analysis because poetry analysis poetry reading in general is a totally different experience to analyzing anything else until the next video I

post on Tik Tok and Twitter literally every day so you should go follow me there if you want more regular updates and give this video a like if you want to that would mean a lot to me subscribe if you want to that would also mean a lot to me and I'll see you in the next one bye [Music] [Music] [Music] bye [Music] n