After reading "My Last Douchess" my ranking changed drastically, at least in respect to things used to prove the validity of the text. I now see that in works that do no necessarily try to persuade our opinions to one direction, the authors biographical information and education does not matter. We use no external information to make sense of what the poem means. I also noticed that I needed to be aware of what the situation was at the time of the poem and what some words mean in the context of this poem.
Coming into this course I believe I am an extrinsic critic. I tend to find myself studying outside influences on the topic or text. What was going on at the time that made the author write a certain word instead of another, skipped a certain topic that may have been important? Does the writer have some sort of expertise that qualifies him to commentate on a subject? these are the kind of questions that I find myself asking when analyzing text. I believe I may be interested in Reader-Response criticism, considering that it may be more valuable to me seeing not only what critics believe the sole interpretation is but also what other readers may think it means.
Jose,
ReplyDeleteI imagine you might like feminism, Marxism, and/or postcolonial criticism as all three schools of criticism can deal with primarily extrinsic elements. Reader response critics can definitely make use of extrinsic elements, too, but it involves a much more subjective approach since you're using your own experiences.