Pretty sure there's a term for all of these things, but I don't know whether it's "reading practices" or something totally different. But here's some brief info anyway, half of which is leeched off my classmates' powerpoints.
Information
Marxist criticism: Marxism is a way of seeing the world through economic terms. For example, Marxists see history as a series of class struggles between whatever the upper and lower classes of the period happen to be, whether they be slaves and masters or workers and capitalists. Marxists believe that systems of production of goods exist until they are no longer sufficient and are replaced by a new system. They are often critical of capitalism as they believe that, while the idea that capitalists have to produce what people want to maintain profits might mean that resources are distributed well, it can also go the other way, because it could mean that capitalists are then producing more for people who can afford it to the detriment of those who cannot, as well as to the detriment of the environment. There's a whole bunch of other ideas that are related to Marxism, which you can read about at http://socialsciences.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/Marx.html.
Psychoanalytic criticism: This is mainly to do with Freud's ideas about how the mind works. Freud believed that the mind could be divided up into the id, the ego and the superego. Now, I'm not sure what the ego did, but what I do remember is that the id is basically the unconscious desires and the superego is the mind's means of regulating these desires. A significant number of these desires, according to Freud, have something or other to do with repressed sexuality. I mean, he even divides our life into the oral, anal, phallic and genitals stages. If you don't believe me, go look up the case about Freud and Dora.
New Historicist criticism: I think this is mainly to do with how attitudes at the time influenced a text, as opposed to just looking at context which is where the concrete events themselves influence the text? I'm not entirely sure, and I'm probably completely wrong here. Maybe you can just put down the stuff that I wrote on my Context page after all.
There's other ways of reading, like Feminist criticism, but I've been procrastinating all day and it's now 9pm so I'd better hurry up and get this over with. (I swear I started writing the first article at about 9am this morning... shows how much I procrastinate.)
Reading Prufrock Through These Lenses
Marxist Criticism: My powerpoint was "Prufrock can be read as an exploration of the Marxist idea that the relentless pursuit of profits in a capitalist society advantages the upper classes while disadvantaging lower classes and the environment through poetic devices such as imagery, similes and intertextuality." On my first slide, I wrote about the representations of the advantaged upper classes. There are consistent references to upper-class goods and lifestyle, such as the "taking of a toast and tea," "tea and cakes and ices" and "porcelain." There are also references to the aesthetic qualities present in upper-class life, such as "arms that are braceleted" and people who "prepare a face" to meet each other. Also, the word "time" is used constantly, giving the sense that the upper classes have plenty of leisure time to spare- and who doesn't like leisure time? There's "time for you and time for me," before they even get to have some delicious upper-class tea! What more could you want? Oh, and there's also that saying that "time is money" as well, which only serves to make the upper-classes look even wealthier. Brilliant.
The disadvantaged lower classes are shown through the imagery in the poem as well as through the juxtaposition between the upper- and lower-classes. "Cheap hotels" and "sawdust restaurants" give the impression of poverty and dirtiness, the aural imagery of "the muttering retreats of restless nights" make the city seem unpleasant and unsafe (see my post on Context) and the visual/ kinesthetic imagery of the yellow cat/smoke makes the streets seem forbidding and almost poisonous due to the way that it has been described as "yellow fog" and "yellow smoke" rubbing itself against window panes. I mean, you have poisonous gases rubbing themselves up against your house, for goodness' sake. Isn't that a bit too close for comfort? The "lonely men in shirt sleeves" mentioned later in the poem can be read as a representation of disconnected workers in capitalist society. All of this is juxtaposed against the "tea and cakes and ices" and porcelain of the upper-classes, a stark contrast which is accentuated by the constant swapping between the two scenarios.
The damaged environment is shown through kinaesthetic imagery, similes and visual imagery. In the kinaesthetic imagery category, we have "let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys," "the yellow fog that rubs its back" and "the yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle." The pollution's EVERYWHERE, rubbing against us and everything, and that ain't pretty. And then there's my favourite simile, "when the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherised upon a table." Etherisation is an old anaesthetisation technique in which the patient cannot move but still has his or her mental faculties intact. Comparing the sky to an etherised patient makes it seem as though we have made nature helpless. Finally, the visual imagery of "where wind blows the water white and black" possibly shows the effects of pollution: why is the water black? Is it because of the pollution from the factories?
Freudian criticism: Finding stuff to say about this one is fun because it means you get to look for innuendos. On the other hand, it might not be fun for the same reason.
At the moment I'm just looking at two of my classmates' powerpoints. One of them has split up her analysis into symbols of desire, symbols of repression and symbols of impotence. Another group has split up their analysis into representations of the id (which I guess could correspond to "desire" in the other powerpoint), the superego (which I guess could correspond to "repression" and "impotence" in the other powerpoint) and where the two come to a head in what they term "the battle."
I remember hearing somewhere that you can copy 10% of someone else's work without it being deemed plagiarism, so that's pretty much what I'm going to do. (Actually the real reason why I'm being brief here is not because I care about plagiarism but because I'm too lazy to write a lot.) So here goes:
Okay. Symbols of desire: "Do I dare to eat a peach?" His wanting to symbolises desire, but his questioning about it symbolises his restraint (superego). The mermaids are a reference to the sirens in Homer's Odyssey. Look it up because I'm too lazy to explain. (Okay, I might write it in some other time, but not now.) Arms- symbolises his desire for women. Once in class we were talking about how referring to people as "arms" is an example of synechdoche, in which a part represents the whole (guess I could have talked about that in my "fragmentation" part of my post on Context). Wow, that was a random point that doesn't really fit here. Anyway, perfume is another symbol of temptation and desire.
Symbols of repression: "Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?'"- never says his overwhelming question because something is stopping him. Damn. Then there's the "preparing a face" to almost construct a false identity and the prudent and respectful characteristics of the "attendant lord" which this classmate of mine reckons is Prufrock's excuse for not showing strong emotion.
Symbols of impotence: The mermaids- "I do not think that they will sing to me." Not knowing whether he will "have the strength to force the moment to it crisis." References to growing old symbolise his physical and sexual impotence. Then there's "restless nights in one-night cheap hotels," which I guess symbolises impotence if you associate "one-night cheap hotels" with that kind of behaviour because if you do then "restless nights" sort of symbolises an inability to do that kind of thing.
Okay, that's enough from me. I'm tired and I can't be bothered doing anything else. Good night to you all.
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