Sometimes people offer explanations of a literary work without relying specifically on evidence from the text. Doing so is equivalent to advancing scientific conclusions without supplying any data to back them up. In both cases, few audiences will consider the interpretation reliable. For every interpretive claim you’ve made in a literary analysis, ask yourself whether you can support it with direct quotations from the text. Reasonable interpretations always stem from close readings that point to individual words and phrases.
A good literary analysis uses more than one lens to interpret a text. Reader-response criticism, social and intellectual history, deconstruction, race theory and feminist criticism are just a few of these lenses. All of them are interested in what and how the text communicates to audiences, not in whether the text’s author meant for it to communicate a certain idea. Interpretations that rely on determining the author’s intent or meaning fall victim to what literary critics call the “intentional fallacy.” While claims of authorial intent might be appropriate in a biography, they are not suited for literary analysis.
When you’re thinking about how a text works, consider any possible interpretation of the text: Is it an allusion to something else in or outside of the text? Could it point to anything beyond the literal level of the text? How is the text’s organization similar or different to that of other texts? When you’re advancing an analysis, though, most of the answers you consider won’t be relevant. Good interpretations focus on a few threads of meaning that run through the work, and sometimes just one. If you find that your analysis veers from your argument to consider irrelevant elements of the text, revise to keep the argument on track.
Strong literary analysis takes time and thought, and even the most seasoned critics benefit from getting advice from other readers throughout their brainstorming and writing process. If you’re a student, classmates make good sounding boards; for later drafts, consult your teacher to see if your analysis is on the right track. Outside of academia, online forums and book groups are good resources for testing ideas.