Reader-Response Criticism: Langston Hughes’ Dream Boogie Essay Example
Reader-Response Criticism: Langston Hughes’ Dream Boogie
T Wilkins
ENG 125 Introduction to Literature
Instructor M. XXXXXXXXX
May 22, 2011
Literature, no matter what the topic of form it comes in, has the ability to raise issues, spark thought/imagination, and/or draw out emotions that have been buried deep within us as people. It is expected, from the authors, that readers will form opinions and criticisms for their works. Be it that the readers’ emotions parallel those of the writer or differ; some thoughts and opinions are expected. While reading through the text for week one I was drawn in by the many different poems throughout…but there was one poem that captured my attention more than the others. That poem is/was “Dream Boogie” by Langston Hughes (1951). This poem stood out to me the most because I believe Langston Hughes to have been one of the greatest poets of his time…of all time. I believe that Hughes made his readers think. If you wanted to come to a conclusion of his work you had to work, yourself, to get to it. The ambiguity of his poems and stories left a lot for the reader to imagine and fill in. Chapter 16 of “Journey into Literature” by R. Wayne Clugton gives us a brief overview on Literary Criticism. Literary Criticism is defined as “…an informed response a person makes to literature after openly (imaginatively) experiencing it…” (Clugton, R. W., 2010). This, in Laymen’s terms, means that one would make their own analysis or describe a literary work after they have fully read it and came to their own conclusion. After Clugton explains what Literary Criticism is, he went a step further to explain to the reader some strategies of approaching or mapping out those criticisms. This section is titled “Ways to approach literary criticism”. Clugton gives us four different ways to “approach”:
1. The Reader-Response approach
2. The Formalist approach
3. The Biographical/Historical approach and 4. The Archetypal approach I have
T Wilkins
ENG 125 Introduction to Literature
Instructor M. XXXXXXXXX
May 22, 2011
Literature, no matter what the topic of form it comes in, has the ability to raise issues, spark thought/imagination, and/or draw out emotions that have been buried deep within us as people. It is expected, from the authors, that readers will form opinions and criticisms for their works. Be it that the readers’ emotions parallel those of the writer or differ; some thoughts and opinions are expected. While reading through the text for week one I was drawn in by the many different poems throughout…but there was one poem that captured my attention more than the others. That poem is/was “Dream Boogie” by Langston Hughes (1951). This poem stood out to me the most because I believe Langston Hughes to have been one of the greatest poets of his time…of all time. I believe that Hughes made his readers think. If you wanted to come to a conclusion of his work you had to work, yourself, to get to it. The ambiguity of his poems and stories left a lot for the reader to imagine and fill in. Chapter 16 of “Journey into Literature” by R. Wayne Clugton gives us a brief overview on Literary Criticism. Literary Criticism is defined as “…an informed response a person makes to literature after openly (imaginatively) experiencing it…” (Clugton, R. W., 2010). This, in Laymen’s terms, means that one would make their own analysis or describe a literary work after they have fully read it and came to their own conclusion. After Clugton explains what Literary Criticism is, he went a step further to explain to the reader some strategies of approaching or mapping out those criticisms. This section is titled “Ways to approach literary criticism”. Clugton gives us four different ways to “approach”:
1. The Reader-Response approach
2. The Formalist approach
3. The Biographical/Historical approach and 4. The Archetypal approach I have