There are different kinds of literary criticism. The Purdue University guide Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism explains different forms of literary criticism. *Each type of criticism has a "Typical Questions" section that can serve as a possible prompt to start writing.
It is not uncommon in literary critiques to see several works of an author discussed, or to see a work compared to the works of other authors. In other sources, the author's works may be discussed in the context of his or her life.
Give yourself plenty of time to complete your assignment, including doing your works cited page. Literary Criticism can be more time-consuming than other research assignments.
What Are You Looking For? START HERE!
Click on the button to find information on your research topic.
Cinderella: A Casebook by Alan DundesCovering a period of more than one hundred years of work by renowned folklorists, these enlightening essays explore the timeless tale of Cinderella. In addition to the most famous versions of the story (Basile's Pentamerone, Perrault's Cendrillon, and the Grimm's Aschenputtel), this casebook includes articles on other versions of the tale from Russian, English, Chinese, Greek and French folklore. The volume concludes with several interpretive essays, including a psychoanalytic view from Dundes and a critique of the popularization of Cinderella in America. "Folklorists, scholars of children's literature, and feminists should appreciate particularly the wide scope of this collection . . . now in paperback with an updated Bibliographical Addendum. . . . Most helpful are the two-page introductions to each variant and to each essay which include a brief overview of the historical times as well as suggested additional sources for more discussion."--Danny Rochman, Folklore Forum "A milestone, a near complete source of primary and secondary materials. . . . The selected analytical writing include definitive classic and new discoveries, covering the whole range of methodological modes and theoretical perspectives from early forms and typology to myth-ritual, social-historical, anthropological, and psychoanalytical readings. The annotated bibliography is most helpful, illuminating, and comprehensive, encompassing publications in other Western languages and works by Asianists."--Chieko Mulhern, Asian Folklore Studies "One can imagine several dimensions on which psychoanalysts might find such a collection interesting: as examples of applied psychoanalysis, in relation to philosophical and cultural examination of imaginative material, in relation to child development, and in the correlations between folktales of a particular culture and individual histories."--Kerry Kelly Novick, Psychoanalytic Quarterly
Call Number: Main Collection GR 75 C4C4 1988
Publication Date: 1988
Cinderella Goes to Market: citizenship, gender, and women's movements in East Central Europe by Barbara EinhornWith the collapse of state socialism, women in Eastern and Central Europe are now faced with more than the double burden of paid and domestic labor. Soaring unemployment is driving women out of the workplace, and nationalist ideologues are urging them to reassume their "primary responsibility"--to produce babies for the nation. Lack of childcare and attacks upon abortion rights are narrowing choices. Can these issues provide the catalyst for transforming the embryonic women's groups into something like a mass women's movement? Or will the current allergy to feminism prevail? Many women now claim to have suffered from "too much emancipation" under socialism, and are seeking what they see as new forms of freedom in femininity and maternity. Barbara Einhorn's timely account of women's position before and after the demise of state socialism in Eastern Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary shows how the issues of gender are today at the heart of potentially explosive processes of social and political transformation. Her book provides incisive sociological, economic and political analysis, along with perceptive commentary on the ways in which the changes in women's daily lives are being represented in literature and in the media.
Call Number: Main Collection HQ 1590.7 E56 1993
Publication Date: 1993
Cinderella Ate My Daughter: dispatches from the front lines of the new girlie-girl culture by Peggy OrensteinPeggy Orenstein, acclaimed author of the groundbreaking New York Times bestsellers Girls & Sex and Schoolgirls, offers a radical, timely wake-up call for parents, revealing the dark side of a pretty and pink culture confronting girls at every turn as they grow into adults. Sweet and sassy or predatory and hardened, sexualized girlhood influences our daughters from infancy onward, telling them that how a girl looks matters more than who she is. Somewhere between the exhilarating rise of Girl Power in the 1990s and today, the pursuit of physical perfection has been recast as the source of female empowerment. And commercialization has spread the message faster and farther, reaching girls at ever-younger ages. But how dangerous is pink and pretty, anyway? Being a princess is just make-believe; eventually they grow out of it . . . or do they? In search of answers, Peggy Orenstein visited Disneyland, trolled American Girl Place, and met parents of beauty-pageant preschoolers tricked out like Vegas showgirls. The stakes turn out to be higher than she ever imagined. From premature sexualization to the risk of depression to rising rates of narcissism, the potential negative impact of this new girlie-girl culture is undeniable--yet armed with awareness and recognition, parents can effectively counterbalance its influence in their daughters' lives.
Call Number: Main Collection HQ777 .O74 2012
Publication Date: 2012
Tears of Hope: an inspirational, true story from the Middle Eastern Cinderella by Aimmee Riley
Call Number: Main Collection E184.L34 R55 2006
Publication Date: 2006
Pigling: A Cinderella Story [A Korean Tale] by Dan Jolley, Anne TimmonsFrom a life filled with heartache and hardship, comes an unmatched beauty destined for a fairy-tale ending: Pear Blossom, a young Korean girl, leads a happy life with her parents until her mother dies and her father remarries. Her new wicked stepmother and stepsister make Pear Blossom the victim of their cruelty. They give her the nickname Pigling, or little pig, and do everything they can to torture her. But soon, magical creatures come to Pear Blossom's aid and one day, the girl meets a handsome magistrate. Will Pear Blossom's luck change for the better? Or is she destined to suffer at her stepfamily's hands forever?
Cinderella Across Cultures: New Directions and Interdisciplinary PerspectivesThe Cinderella story is retold continuously in literature, illustration, music, theatre, ballet, opera, film, and other media, and folklorists have recognized hundreds of distinct forms of Cinderella plots worldwide. The focus of this volume, however, is neither Cinderella as an item of folklore nor its alleged universal meaning. In Cinderella across Cultures, editors Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère, Gillian Lathey, and Monika Wozniak analyze the Cinderella tale as a fascinating, multilayered, and ever-changing story constantly reinvented in different media and traditions. The collection highlights the tale's reception and adaptation in cultural and national contexts across the globe, including those of Italy, France, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Poland, and Russia. Contributors shed new light on classic versions of Cinderella by examining the material contexts that shaped them (such as the development of glass artifacts and print techniques), or by analyzing their reception in popular culture (through cheap print and mass media). The first section, "Contextualizing Cinderella," investigates the historical and cultural contexts of literary versions of the tale and their diachronic transformations. The second section, "Regendering Cinderella," tackles innovative and daring literary rewritings of the tale in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, in particular modern feminist and queer takes on the classic plot. Finally, the third section, "Visualising Cinderella," concerns symbolic transformations of the tale, especially the interaction between text and image and the renewal of the tale's iconographic tradition. The volume offers an invaluable contribution to the study of this particular tale and also to fairy-tale studies overall. Readers interested in the visual arts, in translation studies, or in popular culture, as well as a wider audience wishing to discover the tale anew will delight in this collection.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2016
Cinderella: An Islamic Tale by Fawzia Gilani"It's easy to feel a sense of peace after completing Fawzia Gilani'sCinderella. This humble version of the classic fairy tale is a gentle reminder that victory comes as much from a peaceful soul as a beautiful dress and a dramatic confrontation." -Luxury Reading Cinderella is one of the oldest, best-known, and most loved stories worldwide, with hundreds of cultural variants and re-tellings from ancient Egypt and China to the present day. In this version we follow the trials and tribulations of the sweet, gentle, and pious Zahra when her parents die and she is left at the mercy of an uncaring stepmother and stepsisters. This is a well-crafted Islamic version of the classic tale in which faith, goodness, and prayer are rewarded in the end. The charming, richly detailed illustrations of Shireen Adams, set in medieval Andalusia, help bring the text to life.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2011
The Orphan: a Cinderella story from Greece by Anthony Manna; Christodoula Mitakidou; Giselle Potter (Illustrator)Once upon a time in Greece, fate left a young girl an orphan. Her stepmother was so hateful that she counted every drop of water the orphan drank! But with the help of Nature's blessings, the orphan was showered with gifts- brilliance from the Sun, beauty from the Moon, gracefulness from the Dawn-and even a tiny pair of blue shoes from the Sea. When the prince comes to visit their village, he only has eyes for the mysterious beauty. Children will love this fanciful folk retelling of the Cinderella story, accompanied by luminous watercolor illustrations by Giselle Potter.