Ways of Analysis:

Reading, thinking, seeing, and interpreting through a critical lens Hank Williams Summer 2011

Habits of Mind
1. What is the subject/ point? 2. Who says so? (What perspective?) 3. What evidence? 4. Whats the relevance/ connection? 5. So what? (Significance?) 6. What if? (Alternatives?)
Adapted from CCNY SEEK coursepack, 2011

Form

Content

Context

What do we mean by

Form?

Form
1.The style, type, or genre of a particular work. Genre refers to a recognizable sub category. 2.The structure or design of a particular work
Adapted from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (1990)

Content
The subject matter of a particular work

Adapted from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (1990)

Context
The biographical, cultural, social, historical, or political circumstances a particular work is created or set in
Adapted from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (1990)

Connotation
The further associations a word, image, sound, or sight makes us think of beyond the primary meaning.

Adapted from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (1990)

Denotation
The primary meaning or dictionary definition of a word, image, sound, or sight.

Adapted from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (1990)

What are you looking at?

In other words:

Some examples of context

Economic Political

Biographical

Social Artistic/ Aesthetic Temporal Cultural

Biographical Questions
Who is /are the author, designer, artist, musician/composer, actor(s), director? (and what do we know about his/her/their work)? How does it relate to other work theyve done? Does it represent a shift in artistic direction? Does the artist have a personal view of creative work? Does this conform to that view or challenge it?

Temporal Questions
Where is/are the setting(s)? How do they relate to the storyline, design, or style of the work? Is the work consistent with the time period or are there anachronisms (things that dont fit the time)? Are the anachronisms deliberate or do they represent a lack of attention to detail?

Social/ Political Questions

Is there obvious commentary on political/ social issues ? What issues are they? Does it work or does it seem too harsh?

Artistic/Aesthetic Questions
What style(s)/ genres are represented? Is it a sub-genre? How does the work compare to other works of a similar style/ genre/ movement? Does it conform to the type or look/ sound/ feel different? (And is this a deliberate choice?) How well are specific artistic aspects done? (Example: do critics think the writing, directing, design, etc. is good? Why or why not--and do you agree?)

Social Questions
What is going on in society at the time and what effect might it have on the work?

How well are specific artistic aspects done? (Example: do critics think the writing, directing, design, etc. is good? Why or why not--and do you agree?)

Economic Questions
What are the book/ CD sales like or what are the film earnings?? Is the work seen as commercially successful? Are artistic compromises made for the sake of sales? Is the work an important creative statement even if it doesnt have great commercial success?

Cultural Questions
Are there wider cultural connections? How does it show/ critique/ comment on the wider cultural picture or use cultural elements? Does the artist have a personal view of creative work? Does this conform to that view or challenge it?

Research ideas
A few thoughts to get you started Find interviews/ profiles of author/ director/ actors/ musicians/ designers, etc. Find articles or books on the time period Find articles or books on the social or societal issues Find articles or books on the styles/genres or artistic methods used Find articles or statistics on the sales or box office Find articles or books examining cultural issues raised

How will you find all of this?

Well work on that

Revised June, 2011 Some rights reserved

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.