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When you analyze a text on the AP Spanish Literature exam, you're not just summarizing plot—you're demonstrating that you can think critically about how and why a work creates meaning. Literary criticism approaches are the analytical lenses that allow you to move beyond surface-level reading and engage with texts the way the exam expects. Whether you're unpacking the ambigüedad in Cortázar's "La noche boca arriba," examining the clasismo y prejuicio social in García Márquez's "La siesta del martes," or analyzing the dehumanización laboral in Dragún's El hombre que se convirtió en perro, these frameworks give you the vocabulary and structure to craft sophisticated arguments.
The AP exam tests your ability to connect literary techniques to broader themes like la construcción del género, las relaciones de poder, el tiempo y el espacio, and las sociedades en contacto. Different critical approaches illuminate different aspects of these themes—a feminist lens reveals gender dynamics invisible to formalist analysis, while a postcolonial approach unlocks meaning in texts about cultural contact and identity. Don't just memorize these terms as definitions; know which approach best fits which text and theme, and practice applying multiple lenses to the same work. That flexibility is what earns high scores on the FRQ.
These approaches treat the literary work as a self-contained object, focusing on what's on the page rather than external factors like author biography or historical context. They're your foundation for close reading—essential for the AP exam's emphasis on analyzing literary devices.
Compare: Formalism vs. New Criticism—both focus on the text itself, but Formalism emphasizes aesthetic experience while New Criticism insists on objective analysis free from reader emotion. For FRQs, use Formalist language when discussing how form creates beauty or impact; use New Critical terms when arguing for a specific interpretation based solely on textual evidence.
These approaches challenge the idea that texts have single, stable meanings. They emphasize fluidity, contradiction, and the reader's active role in constructing interpretation—crucial concepts for understanding modernist and postmodernist works on the AP list.
Compare: Post-structuralism vs. Deconstruction—both question fixed meaning, but post-structuralism is a broader philosophical stance while deconstruction is a specific method of exposing textual contradictions. On the exam, use deconstruction when you're actively dismantling a binary opposition in your analysis.
These lenses examine who characters are and why they behave as they do, connecting individual psychology to broader questions of identity, desire, and selfhood—themes central to AP Spanish Literature.
Compare: Psychoanalytic vs. Archetypal Criticism—psychoanalytic focuses on individual unconscious motivations (often Freudian), while archetypal criticism looks for universal patterns across human experience (often Jungian). Use psychoanalytic for character-specific analysis; use archetypal when connecting a text to broader literary traditions.
These approaches examine how literature reflects, reinforces, or challenges systems of power based on gender, class, sexuality, and colonial history. They're essential for analyzing the AP curriculum's emphasis on las divisiones socioeconómicas, el machismo, and las sociedades en contacto.
Compare: Feminist vs. Marxist Criticism—feminist criticism centers gender as the primary axis of power, while Marxist criticism centers class. Many AP texts reward analysis that combines both: how do class and gender intersect in the mother's experience in "La siesta del martes"? This intersectional approach strengthens FRQ arguments.
These approaches insist that texts cannot be fully understood apart from their historical, cultural, and environmental contexts. They're crucial for connecting AP works to the specific periods and places that shaped them.
Compare: New Historicism vs. Biographical Criticism—New Historicism examines the broad cultural moment (politics, economics, social structures), while biographical criticism focuses on the individual author's life. For AP essays, New Historicism typically produces stronger arguments because it connects texts to testable historical periods rather than personal anecdotes.
| Concept | Best Approaches |
|---|---|
| Analyzing literary devices and structure | Formalism, New Criticism, Structuralism |
| Exploring ambiguity and multiple meanings | Post-structuralism, Deconstruction, Reader-Response |
| Character psychology and identity | Psychoanalytic Criticism, Archetypal Criticism |
| Gender roles and patriarchy | Feminist Criticism, Queer Theory |
| Class, labor, and economic inequality | Marxist Criticism |
| Colonial legacy and cultural contact | Postcolonial Criticism, New Historicism |
| Historical and cultural context | New Historicism, Biographical Criticism |
| Environment and setting as meaning | Ecocriticism, Formalism |
Which two critical approaches both focus primarily on the text itself but differ in their treatment of aesthetic experience versus objective analysis? How would you apply each to the onomatopeya in "Como la vida misma"?
You're writing an FRQ about dehumanización laboral in El hombre que se convirtió en perro. Which critical approach would be most effective, and what specific elements of the play would you analyze?
Compare and contrast how a feminist critic and a Marxist critic would analyze the mother's journey in "La siesta del martes." What different aspects of her experience would each approach emphasize?
"La noche boca arriba" features a fundamental ambiguity about which world is "real." Which critical approach is specifically designed to analyze how texts undermine binary oppositions like sueño/vigilia? What would this analysis reveal?
If an FRQ asks you to discuss how a text reflects its historical moment, which approach should you use—and how does it differ from simply providing biographical information about the author? Apply this to Rivera's depiction of migrant workers in the context of the Bracero program.