What Is Literary Analysis?

Literary analysis is an attempt to evaluate and understand the creative writing, and the literature of an author.

Literature includes plays, essays, novels, poetry, short stories etc. Literary analysis is a description, evaluation and interpretation of a particular literary work of an author's writings as a whole. Literary analysis is usually expressed in the form of a critical essay. In-depth book reviews are also sometimes viewed as literary analysis. It is about the meanings that a reader finds in an author's literature.

A literary analysis demands to know about the writer and the age to which the writer belongs. Through literary analysis, the interpretation of them is done. Which type of plot does the piece of writing carry? Is there the use of imagery, irony, symbolism and satire? What types of issues, i.e. political, religious, social, cultural and economical, are discussed in the particular literary work? What is the setting, tone, and style of that writing. Where does the theme lie in the story? What is the story pattern of that particular piece of literature? In what ways are the ideas expressed? What is the point of view of writers? What type of language and writing style is used by the writer?

All these issues are critically analyzed by the readers, critics and also by the writers.