Thread: Does literary analysis ruin a book?

I had a literature professor in high school who was close to genious. She was a great professor but made us analize the texts we read so much that in some ways, she ruined the books for me. I remember she had us actually count sentences per page, count pronouns, document the sentence structure, diagram the sentences, etc. While it taught me how to analyze a piece of literature more in depth, it also made reading a "chore" at that time.

On the other hand, I had a Shakespeare class with this same professor and by taking apart the text I was able to gain a whole new perspective about the work, so in that case I was really glad to analyze it so much.

So....does in-depth analysis change your understanding of the text in a positive/negative way, or is it preferrable to read a novel/poetry etc. with a blank slate? What do you think?

Years ago we read L'Etranger by Albert Camus in our French class. If you haven't read it, it's worth reading. It's about an unusual fellow who kills an Arab in North Africa. During the trial, questions posed to him seemed to come from one plane while his responses came from another. The trial did not go well for him. His attitude (completely misunderstood by others) convicted him, not the incident. (I vaguely remember that people were upset when he said he had not cried when his mother died. Well, anyone who wouldn't cry over the death of his mother has to be a terrible person.)

The professor said the book became an immediate success in France. As I recall, it was published just after the German occupation. Everyone read it.

Soon a book was published to explain and analyse the Camus book. And then other books were published. As I recall, about 70 explanations were published. Eventually, even Camus wrote a book to explain what he had written.

Analysts loved to analyse his constant references to the sun. Camus used the sun to mean this, Camus used the sun to mean that... Camus wrote that he had used the sun to represent the sun. Hey, it's hot in North Africa. Ever live there? It's hot. Real hot. When you live there, you think about the sun a lot. The sun meant the sun. The sun did not mean his father, an unhappy childhood, an oppressive government, or his grandmother's cookies. The sun meant the sun. Nothing else. And what did the analysts say then? They said that subconsciously Camus had used the sun to represent... Jalisco no te rajes. You can take a horse to water, but...

Wasn't it Freud who said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"? Sometimes things are what they are.

An analysis is just an opinion. The analyst is not blessed by the gods with insight. Just like an opinion, an analysis can be good or bad or somewhere in between.

Thanks Thomas...I am generally of the same mindset when it comes to literary critics. I think by nature of their profession and the competition that exists among critics, they feel compelled to say something profound and new about each work...but like you say, sometimes the author says it all.

Well, I remember when I was studying translation we used to analyze the texts both from the grammar point of view and hermeneutically. I guess you gain some perspective you wouldn't have been able to have otherwise, but also you leave behind some naivity when facing the work. I don't regret having lost that naivity because I feel I gained a lot by learning what I've learned.

I was an English major, and for four and a half years, I analyzed literary work. Since last December, when I graduated, I haven't read a book for fun. hmmm.....
ja, no, I love reading critically. But I think for a while, it may have exhausted me. Anyone else?

There's a nice quote by Mark Twain at the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that touches on this.

"Persons attempting to find a Motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a Moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a Plot in it will be shot."

Like everyone has said, literary analysis varies for me. Some critics have opened my eyes to things and made me think about a story in a way I never would have before. Others make me angry and feel like I need to defend the author.