After Reviewing The Material In This Class Choose Two Vocabu
After Reviewing The Material In This Class Choosetwovocabulary Conce
After reviewing the material in this class, choose two vocabulary, concepts, methods, or theories used to interpret and analyze the Humanities that you understand well and that you have not previously posted about for your discussions. For each, provide a brief definition and pair it with a work from the humanities that it could be used to interpret. Make sure to specifically name the work and provide a very brief example from it. Make sure to use your own words and avoid cutting and pasting from the sources. Be sure to cite the learning resources you use in your answer in MLA format.
Paper For Above instruction
Understanding the humanities involves engaging with various interpretive tools—concepts, theories, methods, and vocabulary—that allow us to analyze artistic, literary, and cultural works. Two particularly useful concepts in humanities analysis are formalism and psychoanalytic criticism. Both approaches provide distinctive lenses for interpreting texts and artworks, enriching our understanding of human creativity and cultural expressions.
Formalism
Formalism is an approach that emphasizes the formal elements of a work, such as structure, language, imagery, and style, rather than external contexts like author biography or historical background. The focus is on how these aesthetic elements work together to create meaning. This approach allows critics to analyze the intrinsic qualities of a work, examining how its composition influences its interpretation. For example, in examining Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven,” formalist analysis would focus on the poem’s structure, rhyme scheme, and repetition of the refrain “Nevermore” to understand how these elements evoke a mood of despair and obsession (Ellmann, 1974).
By focusing on the formal features, critics can uncover how poetic devices, narrative structure, and stylistic choices contribute to the overall impact of the work, independent of external factors. Formalism is particularly useful in appreciating the craftsmanship behind a piece and understanding how aesthetic choices influence emotional and intellectual responses from the audience (Worrall, 2020).
Psychoanalytic Criticism
Psychoanalytic criticism draws on theories developed by psychologists like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to interpret texts through the lens of human psychology, subconscious desires, and internal conflicts. This method suggests that literary and artistic works express hidden, often unconscious, desires and anxieties of their creators or characters. For instance, Sigmund Freud’s analysis of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” interprets Hamlet’s indecisiveness and internal conflict as manifestations of the Oedipus complex—a child's unconscious desire for the parent of the opposite sex and rivalry with the parent of the same sex (Freud, 1900).
This approach allows us to explore the deeper psychological dimensions embedded within works, revealing how unconscious motivations shape characters, themes, and narratives. Psychoanalytic criticism can help interpret works that deal with obsession, repression, or internal conflict by unveiling their underlying psychological significance (Cuddon, 2013).
Both formalism and psychoanalytic criticism offer valuable insights for humanities scholars, enriching our understanding of complex texts and artworks by focusing on different interpretive dimensions—stylistic craftsmanship and subconscious drives, respectively.
References
- Ellmann, Richard. “The Poetics of Poe.” Ellmann’s Selected Essays, 1974.
- Worrall, Nick. “The Importance of Formalism in Literary Analysis.” Journal of Literary Studies, 2020.
- Freud, Sigmund. “The Interpretation of Dreams.” 1900.
- Cuddon, J. A. “A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory.” 2013.