© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.About the Authors Backgrounds
from The Naked Babe and the Cloak
of Manliness
Throughout his plays, William Shakespeare
uses complex symbolism to explore and
convey his key themes. In this piece of literary
criticism, from the book The Well Wrought
Urn, Cleanth Brooks examines the usage and
development of symbolic imagery related
to children and growth in The Tragedy of
Macbeth.from Macbeth
In this essay, Frank Kermode explores the
concept of time in The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Much of the play is driven by concerns about
the future, its uncertainty, and its ambiguity.
This piece of literary criticism is a prime
example of the ideas found in Kermode’s
Shakespeare’s Language, in which he explores
how audiences, since Shakespeare’s time,
have found meaning in the playwright’s
intricate, poetic language.
Note that Kermode follows British spelling
conventions (for instance, behaviour) and cites
line numbers that may differ from those that
appear in the version of Macbeth the play
presented earlier in this unit. As is common
in scholarly works, the author has included
citations and commentary in the form of
footnotes.Cleanth Brooks (1906–1994) was born in
Kentucky. Brooks is perhaps best known for
helping, through his literary criticism, change
the way that poetry was taught in American
colleges and universities. He is the author of
highly regarded works of literary criticism,
including The Well Wrought Urn and Modern
Poetry and the Tradition.Frank Kermode (1919–2010) was a literary
critic who wrote in-depth analyses of works
ranging from the Bible to those of
Shakespeare and beyond. He was a former
professor of modern English at University
College, London, and was knighted by Queen
Elizabeth in 1991.ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How do our attitudes toward the past and future shape our actions?from The Naked Babe and the Cloak of Manliness • from Macbeth 385LIT17_SE12_U03_B2_SG.indd 385 20/03/16 3:13 AMCLOSE READ: Classifications of Criticism
Remind students that literary critics such as
Cleanth Brooks and Frank Kermode work within
overlapping circles of thought and approaches
to the interpretation of literature. Among them
are reader-response criticism, deconstructionist
criticism, cultural criticism, feminist criticism,
historical criticism, New Criticism, and Marxist
criticism. Challenge students to learn more aboutthe distinctions among these various types and
to classify the two essays based on their ideas
and tendencies (both lean toward New Criticism,
in which the reading is done closely on specific
lines of text with few outside considerations).
Emphasize that these types are not mutually
exclusive; most critics use more than one approach
as they analyze and define a piece of literature.Facilitating Small-group learning: literary criticiSm
Small-Group Learning 385
LIT17_TE12_U03_B2_SG.indd 385 16-04-11 7:08 AM