What's the point of literature analysis?

Question

When in high school, I took some literature classes but I know so little about literature that I'd need somebody's help to answer a question my friend keeps asking me. She's now a high school student and finds it very difficult to analyze novels. The main problem seems to be that she doesn't understand the 'point': why do we analyze literature? Also, she feels confused when the teacher seems to know very clearly which comments made by students are correct and which are wrong. Is lit analysis just meaningless discussions that don't lead to truth or what is the very right way to analyse a novel?
I've heard many times that there is no one single truth in lit. analysis but still there are people who are more succesfull in that than others. How come?
I'm not questioning lit analysis - I really liked it at school. All I would need now is an answer that motivates my friend. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

There is a fascinating look at this question at: http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html

Essentially, the author is suggesting that our current literary analysis is a mistake. What was once necessary, i.e. a translation and analysis of Greek works that were unearthed, evolved by chance into our modern essay on literature.

An excerpt: "The most obvious difference between real essays and the things one has to write in school is that real essays are not exclusively about English literature. Certainly schools should teach students how to write. But due to a series of historical accidents the teaching of writing has gotten mixed together with the study of literature. And so all over the country students are writing not about how a baseball team with a small budget might compete with the Yankees, or the role of color in fashion, or what constitutes a good dessert, but about symbolism in Dickens."

Answer 2

The purpose of literary analysis is to get you, the reader (or your friend, the reader, in this case), thinking more critically about a text. These skills apply to everything in the world, not just English classes. Being about to think about abstract things in a more concrete way makes smarter people and so the idea of teaching lit. in high school (and literary analysis) is to get a more well-rounded student.

As for other reasons it exists, literary analysis gives the field of English something "concrete" to do. Humanities can seem like lofty studies and some people think that funding should go towards the hard sciences in stead. Analysis gives the English area something to stand on (sort of like "see how important we are? we teach people how to read books"). However, analytic skills are so important in just about every field that really lit. training trains you for many careers.

The other thing is that we can learn a lot from books. Look at "holy texts" (pick one and go with it). These books are all old and people still read them and "find" new things in them. Other books are the same way. They offer insight into what is going on in society at the time the book was written.

As for why the teacher has all the answers, they don't. Literary analysis is catch-all phrase. You can break lit. analysis into smaller groups. For example, feminists (still a huge category!), Marxist, Post-Colonial, New Historical, etc. Most high schools take a very straight forward, one answer and only one answer, stance.

Most high school teachers use new historic/new criticism ("New Criticism regards the work of art as an autonomous object, a self-contained universe of discourse" -- that means that everything you need to know to understand the book exists in the book, you don't need to know about the author, the time period, etc. Just read the book and you'll get it). Even though it sounds "new" from it's name, it's "old school" criticism.

Now, although it's the least "trendy" form of criticism, it's the easiest to teach high schoolers because you need nothing above and beyond the book. There are problems with this idea, and high school, sadly, isn't the place that you really get to "get in" to books and analysis. However, it's a good skill to have and if it's something you'd like consider studying it after high school because it's much more accommodating then.

Hope this helped and I hope your friend starts to understand a little more why they're asked to do they are asked to do.

Answer 3

It is essentially the "advanced" version of reading comprehension. One person can read a paragraph of text and not even understand the words (perhaps due to poor reading skills or vocabulary). The person who understands the words might not have enough reading experience to put it together into something that means something to them (perhaps they don't understand the plot or the interactions between characters). And another might understand the basics, but not "get" the themes or message that the author is attempting to communicate.

I think that classes that teach literature analysis focus on the latter. The point is to gain a deeper understanding of how to read so that when one reads other stories, one can derive enjoyment and enlightenment from the full range of expression that the author invested.

(That said, it is also my experience that too many teachers reduce the task to one of drudgery rather than one that focuses on emotion, illumination and enjoyment, and that this is probably why so many students find what should be an exciting subject so boring...)

Answer 4

High schools require students to take lit classes to, 1) introduce them to better, or more well written book and novels, and 2) in the case of your analysis course, to give you some understanding of the craft of writing, i.e., how an author uses setting, develops an antagonist and protagonist for the element of conflict, the role of lesser characters to bring out detail, how the story builds to its denouement (its peak, where the action and suspense cease to build and begins to flow toward the climax), how the author resolves the conflict, and, finally, how he/she brings the tale to a close.

The whole process is to help students appreciate books, and often times poetry, for reasons other than because the action was fast, and the good guy saves the day in the end. If nothing else, lit courses introduce students to works they might, or probably would never, attempt to read, to round out your education. Naturally, if someone doesn't enjoy reading to begin with, the classes will be difficult and, very likely, boring and pointless.

If a student just isn't interested, truly motivating them may not be possible. The best I can suggest to a person in that catagory is to pay close attention to what the teacher is asking for, read what's assigned carefully, and make his/her best effort to comply with their instructions. Learning to read, that is learning how to interpret what you read, can be a great asset to you throughout life.

Answer 5

Literary analysis can be good for its own sake, but mostly it is good for the skills it gives you while you're doing it. When you analyze a novel, you are getting to the heart of why it works the way it does. But the skills you develop are the same skills you would use when you are trying to analyze a news report or a TV commercial or a political speech or even a letter from your significant other. It's all about getting to the heart of the psychology behind the writing. What is the author trying to tell you or trying to get you to think? This is also called "Critical Thinking".

Answer 6

The point of literature analysis, in my point, it to understand how writers express their ideas and to learn this way to express our own ideas in a mature and a little bit hidden way. Another point would be making somebody a better person, as the literature can give you something only if you understand it. There are some guidelines of anylisis in school, because, for instance here in lithuania, the student cannot be taught that writers write about antihuman ideas. The teachers know which answers are correct because they know, or even write very scrupulous anylises of teh books analysed in school, but they only pat you if you manage to prove your idea that is not actually correct. This is actually the last point of literature analysis - to learn to support your opinion by facts [whats written in books in literature]

Answer 7

It develops your ability to state an opinion and to make arguments that motivate your choice. And it also improves your vocabulary and your phrases. It helps you find links between situations.