Literary analysis requires critical reading.
This concept is made up of two terms that in themselves contain individual and authentic meaning.
Analysis is the examination of a reality susceptible to intellectual study that, through the distinction and separation of its parts, allows us to know its constituent elements and principles.
Literary is that belonging to or relating to literature . This term, which comes from the Latin litterae , is linked to the set of knowledge to write and read well. Literature is an art that has language as a means of expression.
The concept
Literary analysis , therefore, consists of an evaluation to break down and recognize the different aspects that make up a work. This work is done by examining the plot, theme, exposition, style and other issues related to a literary work.
Thanks to literary analysis, you can know what resources the author of a particular work used, with what intention he used them and what things he took into consideration when developing a certain structure or perching on a particular genre . By approaching the analysis of the work we can understand more deeply everything that is linked to it and take it to a higher level of understanding .
How to do a literary analysis
Analyzing a literary work, then, is an activity that requires certain essential steps that, beyond the differences in the case, are repeated over and over again at the time of analysis .
Although there are people who are especially dedicated to the development and research of works, for which they have prepared for several years; Any good reader could be a potential analyst if he or she so desired; although you should keep in mind that it is hard work and will require a lot of time and attention on your part.
The first step of any literary analysis is reading the work and recognizing its historical and social context . From then on, you must determine the theme, structure and form of the text and characterize the characters and the environment.
The historical context is one of the variables to consider in a literary analysis.
Depending on the type of text we are faced with, our analysis will take one direction or another. According to the demands of the job, in turn, we will achieve more complex or superficial work, it always depends on the reasons that lead us to do it.
Determination of genre, style and other characteristics
We will have to determine, first of all, the genre and subgenre to which the work belongs. For example: story, police. It is usually very useful to establish comparisons between the work in question and another belonging to the same genre, because there are common elements that can help us in the interpretation of the work of interest to us.
If it is a work of prose we will have to address aspects such as style, considering that this is the way in which the writer wanted to express himself on that occasion. And analyzing that author's own language. Another thing that we must take into account is the narrative rhythm: the speed at which the events develop and consider whether the author has satisfied our expectations regarding this topic. We must also analyze the point of view of the narrator : who tells the story and how, taking into account above all the degree of credibility that has been achieved in our opinion.
At the end of our exhaustive analysis we will have to express the conclusions of our work. The most important thing at this moment is to capture all the characteristics of the work from various points of view. It is also possible to include a critical analysis, opinions based on the detailed characteristics and, if we want to be more correct, references to demonstrate the veracity of our conclusions .