Yay--There Are Pictures in This Book!

"To study criticism systematically, we need to make these arguments explicit.  And we need a conceptual scheme or organizing metaphor that will help up define, analyze, and compare the various contexts within which all particular interpretations are made.”

-From Donald Keesey’s Contexts for Criticism, “General Introduction,”  p. 2-3

I am so glad that someone finally found a way to organize the schools of criticism in a way I could easily understand!  I was so confused when reading the textbooks, and especially when we have been reading actual critiques that do not explicitly say which type(s) of criticism have been used.  Keesey’s diagram has been so helpful while I have been reading the rest of this week’s essays.  I am primarily a visual learner, but I also need some audio learning incorporated as well, so this was perfect for me.  I am sometimes disappointed when I see college textbooks with no illustrations or diagrams to help me remember, but I guess it should be expected! Keesey, however, kindly included one picture in his book.  It clearly shows each type of criticism (Formal, Historical, Intertextual, Reader-Response, and Mimetic) and which part of a text, etc. it goes with (the work, the author, the literature, the audience, or reality, respectively).  This diagram, along with the readings and all that we have discussed aurally in class, have allowed me to better understand criticism and exactly which schools affects which domains.  Now that I have this diagram, I can refer to it when necessary, and perhaps even add the other forms of criticism that are not listed.

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