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23 Approaches to Literary Analysis

Approaches to literary analysis.

Since the 1960s, a number of schools or approaches to literary analysis have emerged in the academy. Some of the sources you discover may seem to obviously derive from one of the following traditions. Others may be indirectly influenced by one or more of these approaches:

Formalist, or New Critic, analysis prioritizes close reading based solely on the text itself, its language, structure, symbols, and themes, and eschews interpretation based on the influence of outside information (such as personal history of the author, for example).

New Historicist

New Historicist analysis values the particulars of the time period and location in which the author created the text, as well as any influencing circumstances of the author’s life.

Psychoanalytic

Psychoanalytic, or psycholinguistic, analysis emphasizes the interpretation of characters’ mental and emotional states, narrative point-of-view, the unconscious potency of symbol and imagery, and/or the psychological implications of linguistic pattern, tone, and word usage.

Feminist analysis examines the text through the lens of women’s experience and may also consider factors in the publishing or critical reception of the work when influenced by gender norms.

Marxist analysis addresses the text as a material product of the society from which it emerged, with particular attention to socio-economic issues.

Queer analysis reads the text with strong consideration of “queer” identity and/or “queering” of characters, actions, and/or speech; for example, the cross-dressing and gender switching that occurs in some of Shakespeare’s plays can take on more significance than mere dramatic convention.

Reader-Response

Reader-Response analysis seeks to reveal the activity of the reader as contributing to — even completing — the meaning of the text by applying his or her own experiences, perspectives and cultural values; this approach is not done personally, but in consideration of “the reader” as a type or a social category.

Today, many literary scholars engage in the practice of  intersectionality  , that is the attention to the complexity of how cultural views and traditions often fall into more than one category. For example, while we might gain a great deal by interpreting a short story through a psychoanalytic lens, focusing only on this approach may foreclose the possibilities for our analysis to become as deeply grounded in formalist analysis, or may offer only a passing look at historical issues.

Analytical writers should not base their essays on a particular approach simply for the sake of following that school of thought, but rather to further their understanding of, and appreciation for, the literature in question, as well as the clarity of the interpretation offered. Often hybrid approaches, approaches than combine aspects of two or more of these analytical traditions, are very successful, so long as the thesis remains focused and the support specific and well-documented. As ever, consult with your professor about the specifics of your analytical project and the particular expectations he or she may have for a given assignment.  (1)

Literature for the Humanities Copyright © by Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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guide to literary theory and criticism

A comprehensive resource for close reading, deeper understanding, and analytical discussion.

Literature is meant to convey meaning, but understanding the message of a novel, play, or poem can take some digging. If you have the right tools, you can gain a deep understanding of the texts you read — and approach literature’s most intimidating topics with confidence. This article presents a host of background information and useful resources to help you make use of a reader’s most essential tools: literary theory and literary criticism.

Sigmund Freud is often credited, rightly or wrongly, with the assertion that “[s]ometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” But what if the cigar in the novel you just read is not, in fact, just a cigar, but a symbol of oppression or suppressed desire or even jealousy? The narratives, settings, and characters of literature can and often do represent more than what at first meets the eye. Literary theory and criticism can shine a light on those underlying meanings to help you: 

  • Understand the themes , symbols , and motifs presented in a text.
  • Analyze an author’s style .
  • Write a critical essay or analysis of a book.
  • Engage in a comprehensive literary discussion .
  • Teach students to ask analytical questions of a text.

What Is Literary Theory? What Is Literary Criticism?

Literary theory is a way of interpreting a work of art. When readers and scholars engage in literary criticism, which is the practice of evaluating literature, they often use literary theories to inform their ideas and opinions about a text. 

Though the terms “literary criticism” and “literary theory” are related, they are not interchangeable. Some scholars like to think of literary theories as eyeglasses or camera lenses through which they can examine and evaluate works of literature or other pieces of art. Then, what they see through each lens (each theory) becomes the focus of their literary criticism. Literary criticism is a research method or a kind of scholarly discourse that engages with literary theory .

For example, just as a bifocal or a tinted lens will reveal certain qualities of a work of art, so can different literary theories. A work of feminist literary criticism will contain observations about a text that reveal what it’s like to be female. Writers of feminist criticism will likely employ feminist literary theory to support their scholarly arguments. An argument based on the same text examined through a lens of Marxist theory, however, might focus more on how the text regards a particular social class.

Many different literary theories exist, and scholars often blend two or more theories into their interpretations of literary texts. As time passes, new theories that reflect contemporary issues and mindsets emerge, adding richness and nuance to the study of literature.

Learning resources: 

  • Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism : In this resource, find helpful examples of different schools of literary thought.
  • The 10 Best Literary Theory and Criticism Books : Peruse this list of book titles that describe and explain different literary theories in detail. 
  • Literary Schools of Theory : Here are some thorough explanations of individual literary theories. 
  • Literary Criticism definition : This page includes examples of literary criticism ideas.
  • What is literary criticism, and why would anyone want to write or read it? Read a University of Toronto professor’s discussion of the role of literary criticism in the appreciation of literature.
  • What Is the Point of Literary Criticism? Still wondering about the point of literary criticism? Check out this article for more information.

The History of Literary Theory

The origins of literary theory go back to Plato and Aristotle and the roots of philosophy. To Plato, literature is divinely inspired, but it is written by humans and, therefore, not a trustworthy source of truth. For this reason, Plato’s ideal society excludes poets to ensure that knowledge-seekers are not confused by poetry and other forms of literature. Many scholars credit Aristotle’s defense of the poetic modes that Plato decried as the foundation of modern literary theory. 

Much later, in the 19th century, other European thinkers expanded on these ancient ideas. For example, the Romanticism movement in Germany and England celebrated the same divine qualities of poets that worried Plato, placing high value on the potential of literature to reveal truth. 

The literary theorists of the 20th century have certainly followed suit. Contemporary thinkers continue to demonstrate to students and scholars alike that literature has the power to illuminate what it is to be human in the context of the societies in which we all live.

  • A History of Literary Criticism : This podcast explores the Platonic and Aristotelian origins of literary theory.
  • Historical Development of Literary Criticism : The origins of literary theory explain how contemporary literary theory is indebted the greatest minds of antiquity. 
  • The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism : These volumes, organized by historical era, offer in-depth explanations of the development of literary theory.
  • How Reading Makes Us More Human : This article surveys a series of arguments about the benefits of “deep reading” literature.

Literary Theory Examples

In addition to feminist and Marxist literary theories already mentioned, there are many literary theories — or lenses — through which one can interpret a work of literature. Here are several examples of the most prevalent schools of thought as well as a brief description of each. 

  • Structuralist Theory gained notoriety in the 1920s. Since then, it has been widely accepted as one of the more complicated literary theories in existence. In a nutshell, structuralists look at how language and linguistics operate as a kind of written or oral code. Just as language and music contain patterns, so does literature; literary patterns are sometimes revealed in a writer’s use of myths and archetypes, symbols, or even genre.
  • Psychoanalytic Theory originates from the work of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the founder of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Theory as a literary theory emerged in the 1930s. It examines the role of the psyche and the unconscious in individuals and literary characters as they interpret the impact of society and culture on themselves and others.
  • The origins of Marxist Theory are credited to German philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883), who believed that people are the product of the economic and social environments in which they grow up. Since the 1930s, Marxists have been studying the tensions between social classes as they appear in literature and elsewhere. In addition to economic concerns, Marxists also examine how a text uses politics to uphold or challenge social norms. 
  • Feminist Theory emerged in the 1960s, and the interests of feminist scholars, like the various definitions of feminism itself, do not always overlap. One overarching concern does unite all feminists, however: the power dynamics that stem from stereotypes and discriminatory practices involving women. 
  • Since the 1970s, Critical Race Theory and African American Literary Theory has enabled scholars in America to investigate the impact of race and racism as observed in various forms of expression. African American Studies as well as Asian American, Latino and Indian Studies are all closely linked to this literary theory — as well as matters of social activism, civil and human rights, and cultural perceptions of race and stereotypes. 
  • New Historicism emerged in the 1980s. To New Historicists, literature reveals the writer’s interpretation of historical events rather than the actual facts of the events. Cultural studies examine the role of culture in literature, both from the writer’s point of view and from that of the characters in the text.
  • Gender Studies and Queer Theory came about in the 1990s. Scholars of this school develop their ideas about literature while thinking about gender and sexuality. Feminist Theory is often linked with Gender Studies and Queer Theory because all three schools of thought concern power and marginalized populations.
  • Postcolonial Studies emerged in the 1990s to illuminate literature by writers representing both Western colonizers and the colonized. Issues as varied as politics, religion, culture and economics all matter within the context of power, and these issues form the basis of Postcolonial Studies.

Key Figures in Literary Theory

Hundreds of thinkers and scholars have contributed to the development of literary theory, and they continue to stimulate new ideas regarding art, writing and culture. Here is a brief introduction to ten key figures every literary scholar should know.

  • Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797): English writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft was an early proponent of women’s rights. In her seminal text A Vindication of the Rights of Women , published in 1792, Wollstonecraft argues that women are not subordinate to men and that feminine conventions are highly oppressive to women. Wollstonecraft is credited by many contemporary feminists as laying the groundwork for the feminist movement.
  • Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986): French feminist, existentialist and social theorist Simone de Beauvoir was the first to articulate the distinction between one’s sex, a matter of biology, and one’s gender, a matter of myriad social constructs and stereotypes. Many literary theorists regard de Beauvoir’s philosophical writings as fundamental to our contemporary understanding of gender roles in society.
  • Judith Butler (1956- ): The writings of American professor, philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler appear on many a queer theory reading list around the world. According to Butler, gender identities have a lot to do with how individuals repetitively “perform” their gender according to dominant expectations, stereotypes and conventions of gender. 
  • bell hooks (1952- ): Gloria Jean Watkins uses this pen name to honor her great-grandmother and to draw attention away from her name and identity and towards her ideas. As an American professor and feminist activist, hooks has written about art, media, gender, race and class. Her contributions to literary theory are appreciated within the contexts of several different literary schools of thought.
  • Roland Barthes (1915-1980): French literary theorist Roland Barthes was primarily concerned with the potential of signs to carry meaning. His complex ideas around communication, language, and cultural phenomena impacted the development of Structuralism and semiotics as literary theories. 
  • Noam Chomsky ( 1928- ): American theoretical linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky is widely regarded as a true polymath, having contributed to the study of mathematics, psychology, analytic philosophy and other fields. In the context of literary theory, Chomsky is best known for his ideas around linguistics and psycholinguistics. 
  • Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis. His psychoanalytic theory of personality, which involves the id, the ego and the superego, can be applied to people and characters, revealing Freud’s ideas surrounding their motivations and their reactions to the world around them.
  • W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963): American poet, sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois is famous for his scholarly works that argued for the equal treatment of Black people in a world that regarded Black people as inferior. As a professor of sociology, economics and history, he often applied Marxist theory to his interpretation of American history.
  • Karl Marx (1818-1883): German historian, economist and sociologist Karl Marx co-authored, with Friedrich Engels, several texts that provided a foundation for the political movements of socialism and communism. Marx’s humanism and his concern for the plight of the lower classes inspired the revolutionary ideas for which he is well known.
  • Edward Said (1935-2003): Palestinian-American professor Edward Said is a founder of the field of Postcolonial Studies. He was the first to point out the European tendency to represent Asians unfairly in literature and art in order to assert the power of the West over the East; this tendency results in damaging stereotypes that characterize the people of the East as inferior to Westerners.

How to Choose A Literary Theory

Choosing which literary theory — or theories — to use to inform your close reading depends on the questions you’re pondering. You don’t have to choose just one. In her seminal work, Critical Theory Today , Lois Tyson uses a florist’s bins of flowers as a metaphor to explain the relationship between different literary theories; for Tyson, just as each bin holds a different kind of flower, each literary theory offers readers a different way to understand — or “see” — a text. Just as different types of flowers can combine to make striking bouquets that are more beautiful in combination than on their own, literary theories can overlap to create a deeper appreciation and richer understanding of the elements at work in a piece of literature. 

So what are you trying to get out of the works you’re studying? Perhaps you want to dispel confusions about a text, form a clearer opinion about the author’s intent, or figure out why your reading of a narrative is so different from someone else’s. Once you understand the type of questions you want to ask about a work of literature, you are ready to locate the literary theories that will best inform your process.

Learning resources:

  • Literary Theories: Analysis Questions : The University of Texas - Arlington Libraries offers a great list of analysis questions for various types of literary theory to help you see the kinds of questions you can ask about a text that will take your understanding to the next level.
  • Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Literary Theory : The IEP, hosted by the University of Tennessee at Martin, compares several popular schools of literary theory and provides various resources for further reading.
  • Finding a Literary Criticism Approach : This guide from Pellissippi State Community College Libraries offers step-by-step tips to writers of critical essays.
  • Finding Books with Literary Criticism : The University of Illinois at Chicago offers this resource to library-goers in search of books and articles about literary criticism. This article also contains helpful advice to users of databases like JSTOR and ProjectMuse.

Examples of Applying Literary Theory

Let’s see literary theory in action. Here are three examples that illustrate how applying a literary theory can enable close reading, dispel confusion, and help you deepen your understanding of a text. See below for further examples of how literary theory can be applied — and not just to works of literature.

1. Marxist reading of The Great Gatsby : In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , Nick feels a keen sense of discomfort when he attends one of Jay Gatsby’s lavish parties. To find out why, we apply a literary theory: A Marxist reading of Nick’s awkwardness offers scholars deeper insight into the scene, Nick’s character, and the character of Jay Gatsby himself. Nick’s social class sets him apart from Gatsby and his affluent guests, making Nick an outsider to the decadence of Gatsby’s world. A Marxist understanding of Nick’s role in the novel enhances the irony of the revelation that Gatsby is pretending to be someone he is not: In reality, he is the son of poor farmers, which means he has more in common with Nick than with his own party guests.

2. African American Literary Theory in To Kill a Mockingbird : In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird , Tom Robinson is a Black man whose arm was injured when he was a 12-year-old child; Tom’s left arm was caught in a cotton gin, leaving him disabled. What might the author’s purpose have been in giving Tom an injury of this nature? A scholarly interpretation of Tom’s disabled arm within the context of African American studies reveals that Tom’s injury is a symbol for his race. As a Black man in Alabama during the Great Depression, Tom is highly vulnerable; his disability compromises his ability to work just as his race compromises his ability to survive his trial after he is accused of sexually assaulting a White woman. The symbolism of Tom’s injured arm reveals the extent to which racism has the potential to harm and kill innocent men. 

3. Structuralism and Mythology: In mythology, the food of gods and goddesses takes the form of ambrosia and nectar; these food items are vastly different to the food of humans. A literary theory can help us understand why this difference exists and what it represents. A Structuralist reading of the different foods consumed by gods and humans illuminates a pattern of behavior that exists in all Greek myths. Food distinguishes humans from gods; only humans eat olives and drink wine, while gods consume ambrosia, nectar and the smoke of sacrificed offerings. A Structuralist examination of mythological eating patterns provides scholars with insight into the overarching myth system of ancient Greece and Rome.

Here are some further examples of literary theory in action — applied in some unexpected ways:

  • A Marxist take on Cinderella
  • A Feminist take on Disney Princesses
  • A Postcolonial take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest
  • A Psychoanalytic take on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper

Putting Literary Theory Into Practice

When you’re ready to perform a close read on a text, it’s wise to read with a pen or highlighter in hand. Mark the passages you believe to have analytical potential — even if you’re not yet sure why they are meaningful. Then, review these passages, looking for patterns that help you see where to apply literary theory and begin developing your own literary criticism. Ask questions such as:

  • Do any symbols or motifs repeat themselves? 
  • How do the themes of the work interact with the literary theories you selected? 
  • Over the course of the work of literature, do any of the characters develop according to the predictions of the literary theories that most interest you? 

Sample Practice: A Postcolonial reading of Wide Sargasso Sea

To help you understand how patterns in a literary text can reveal meaning, here’s one more example: a Postcolonial reading of English writer Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea . This 1966 novel centers on a young heiress, Antoinette Cosway, born and raised on the Caribbean island of Martinique in the 1830s. Rhys based her character on Bertha Rochester from Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 classic novel Jane Eyre and tells the story of how she met and married Rochester, before she became the so-called “madwoman in the attic.”

In these three passages from Part 2 of the novel, Rochester has come to Martinique to marry Antoinette with the intention of exploiting her wealth:

So it was all over, the advance and retreat, the doubts and hesitations. Everything finished, for better or for worse. There we were, sheltered from the heavy rain under a large mango tree, myself, my wife Antoinette and a little half-caste servant who was called Amélie. Under a neighbouring tree I could see our luggage covered with sacking, the two porters and a boy holding fresh horses, hired to carry us up 2,000 feet to the waiting honeymoon house.
The girl Amélie said this morning, ‘I hope you will be very happy, sir, in your sweet honeymoon house.’ She was laughing at me I could see. A lovely little creature but sly, spiteful, malignant perhaps, like much else in this place. (Part 2, Page 55)

Analysis 1: 

In this passage, Rochester reveals that he is suspicious of Amélie, who represents the island of Martinique as a whole. His descriptions of her contain a pattern: She is “little” and “half-caste,” which emphasizes her inferior position as a servant and as a person of Caribbean heritage. Amélie’s position enhances his resentment of her as he suspects her of mocking him; Rochester is sure that she is showing disrespect, which is more offensive for the fact that she is a servant and a West Indian. Rochester’s mistrust of Amélie is further demonstrated by both his use of harshly critical adjectives to describe her and his direct comparison of Amélie to the island on which he finds himself. From a Postcolonial perspective, Rochester, as an Englishman, represents the colonial power of Europe over the French colonies of the West Indies. His sense of superiority and dismissal of Amélie reflects widespread European attitudes towards colonized lands and their peoples. His sexual attraction to her, however, as evidenced by his use of the word “lovely,” complicates matters; as a European man, he may have legal power over the Martinican Amélie, but the sexual power of her beauty places him in a weaker position.

Everything is too much, I felt as I rode wearily after her. Too much blue, too much purple, too much green. The flowers too red, the mountains too high, the hills too near. And the woman is a stranger. Her pleading expression annoys me. I have not bought her, she has bought me, or so she thinks. (Part 2, Page 59)

Analysis 2:

Rochester’s weary tone while describing the landscape of Martinique illustrates his acute discomfort while away from his own city and culture. The repetitive nature of his complaints form a pattern in this passage. The many colors of the island and the natural features of the land offend him and exacerbate his irritation with his wife, who was born and raised in this bright and colorful world. From a Postcolonial perspective, Rochester’s weariness indicates that he feels a sense of impatience with the land and its products, which he finds are garish and inferior to those of his own country. Rochester’s description of his wife as a “stranger” suggests that her origins and her person are too different from his own to be worthy of his trust and acceptance.

There were trailing pink flowers on the table and the name echoed pleasantly in my head. Coralita Coralita. The food, though too highly seasoned, was lighter and more appetizing than anything I had tasted in Jamaica. We drank champagne. A great many moths and beetles found their way into the room, flew into the candles and fell dead on the tablecloth. Amélie swept them up with a crumb brush. Uselessly. More moths and beetles came. (Part 2, Page 67)

Analysis 3: 

At dinner, Rochester drinks champagne, and under the influence of alcohol, he is able to appreciate the beauty of the pink coralita flowers on the dinner table. The brightness of the pink color is as noticeable to the reader as the dead moths and beetles that also appear on the table in a contrasting pattern of color and darkness. The insects are drawn to the light of the candles, and their deaths take place near the life-giving plates of food Rochester and Antoinette eat for dinner. A Postcolonial reading of this scene reveals that the stillness of the insects, which have all died, and the stillness of the flowers, which were plucked from a living climbing vine, suggest the potential of Europe to overpower the people of their colonies. The presence of nature on the surface of the dinner table, however, suggests that the natural world of Martinique, represented by the flowers and the insects, cannot be completely eradicated by a European presence, which is symbolized by the champagne and candles.  

As you can see, putting literary theory into practice is easier than its lofty origins might suggest. After all, literary critics and scholars all use the same tools you now have to put literary theory into practice. After you select one or two theories to review, remember that you can add more theories to your study of literature as you learn more about your ideas and your interpretation of the text becomes more informed. Soon, you’ll be engaging with literary theory and criticism and contributing to literary scholarship with confidence.

  • How to Write Literary Analysis : Learn how to analyze literature with this brief guide from SparkNotes. Literary analysis is an essential step to writing literary criticism.
  • How to Identify Writing Patterns : This video from the Online Reading Lab at Excelsior College describes how to identify the structure, parts and organization of a work of literature in order to think analytically about a text.
  • Steps to Literary Criticism : Follow this process to outline your own literary criticism. 
  • Beginner's Guide to Literary Analysis : Learn the basics of literary analysis, including how to write such analysis.

Literary Theory Book List

If you’d like to learn more about this approach to literary analysis and deep reading, here is a book list to whet your appetite and deepen your understanding:

  • Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature With Critical Theory by Steven Lynn
  • Literary Theory: An Introduction by Terry Eagleton 
  • Orientalism by Edward Said 
  • African American Literary Theory: A Reader edited by Winston Napier
  • Aristotle’s Poetics  
  • S/Z by Roland Barthes
  • The End of the Line: Essays on Psychoanalysis and the Sublime by Neil Hertz
  • Criticism and Ideology: A Study in Marxist Literary Theory by Terry Eagleton
  • “Race,” Writing, and Difference edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah
  • The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
  • Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature by Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’O

literary approaches

Table of Contents

Collaboration, information literacy, writing process, literary criticism.

  • © 2023 by Angela Eward-Mangione - Hillsborough Community College
  • Some of the people in the group say they do not like the film because it portrays Bella as a weak female who becomes obsessed with Edward Cullen whom she cannot marry without leaving her loving father and losing her precious mortality.
  • Other people like those aspects of the film, however, arguing that the film makes them disagree with its representation of some women as meek characters.

What is Literary Criticism?

Literary Criticism is

  • a research method , a type of textual research , that literary critics employ to interpret texts and debate interpretations
  • a genre of argument about a specific text or a set of texts .

Key Terms: Archive, Canon ; Dialectic ; Hermeneutics ; Semiotics ; Text & Intertextuality ; Tone ; rhetoric , intersubjectivity, modernism, postmodernism.

*Alternative Article Title(s): Critical Theory

General Strategies for Engaging in Literary Criticism

Engage in rhetorical analysis.

The methods for engaging in rhetorical criticism and presenting interpretations are bounded by the values and customs of particular disciplinary communities–i.e., the conventions of particular critical schools (e.g., Critical Disability Studies or Feminist Criticism ).

Distinguish between summarizing the literary work and presenting your argument. Many students fall into the trap of spending too much time summarizing the literature being analyzed as opposed to critiquing it. As a result, it would be wise to check with your teacher regarding how much plot summary is expected. As you approach this project, remember to keep your eye on the ball: What, exactly (in one sentence) is the gist of your interpretation?

Development

One of the most strategic things you can do if you’ve assigned to write some criticism is to read other critics who are well regarded by the disciplinary community you choose to address.

How do other critics evaluate an author’s work? What literary theories do literary critics use to interpret texts or particular moments in history? Reading sample analysis papers can help you find and adopt an appropriate voice and persona. By reading samples, you can learn how others have prioritized particular criteria.

Cite Other Critics’ Interpretations of the Work

Criticism written by advanced English majors, graduate students, and literary critics may be more about what other critics have said than about the actual text. Indeed, many critics spend more time reading criticism and arguing about critical approaches than actually reading original works. However, unless you are enrolled in a literary theory course, your instructor probably wants you to focus more on interpreting the work than discussing other critical interpretations. This does not mean, however, that you should write about a literary work “blindly.” Instead, you are wise to find out what other students and critics have said about the work.

Below is a sample passage that illustrates how other critics’ works can inspire an author and guide him or her in constructing a counter argument, support an author’s interpretation, and provide helpful biographical information.

In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery” was published in the June 28, 1948 issue of the New Yorker it received a response that “no New Yorker story had ever received”: hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by “bewilderment, speculation, and old-fashioned abuse.”1 It is not hard to account for this response: Jackson’s story portrays an “average” New England village with “average” citizens engaged in a deadly rite, the annual selection of a sacrificial victim by means of a public lottery, and does so quite deviously: not until well along in the story do we suspect that the “winner” will be stoned to death by the rest of the villagers.

[ Scholarship as a Conversation ]

Organization

The format for literary critiques is fairly standard:

  • State your claim(s).
  • Forecast your organization.
  • Marshal evidence for your claim.
  • Reiterate argument and elaborate on its significance.

In English classes, you may be able to assume that your readers are familiar with the work you are critiquing. Perhaps, for example, the entire class is responding to one particular work after some class discussions about it. However, if your instructor asks you to address a broader audience, you may need to provide bibliographical information for the work. In other words, you may need to cite the title, publisher, date, and pages of the work (see Citing Sources ).

Literary critiques are arguments. As such, your instructors expect you to state a claim in your introduction and then provide quotes and paraphrased statements from the text to serve as evidence for your claim. Ideally, your critique will be insightful and interesting. You’ll want to come up with an interpretation that isn’t immediately obvious. Below are some examples of “thesis statements” or “claims” from literary critiques:

  • In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist is oppressed and represents the effect of the oppression of women in society. This effect is created by the use of complex symbols such as the house, the window, and the wall-paper which facilitate her oppression as well as her self expression. [“‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’: A Twist on Conventional Symbols” by Liselle Sant]
  • “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman is a sad story of the repression that women face in the days of the late 1800’s as well as being representative of the turmoil that women face today. [Critique of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Brandi Mahon]
  • “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story of a woman, her psychological difficulties and her husband’s so called therapeutic treatment of her aliments during the late 1800s. . . Gilman does well throughout the story to show with descriptive phrases just how easily and effectively the man “seemingly” wields his “maleness” to control the woman. But, with further interpretation and insight I believe Gilman succeeds in nothing more than showing the weakness of women, of the day, as active persons in their own as well as society’s decision making processes instead of the strength of men as women dominating machines. “The View from the Inside” by Timothy J. Decker
  • In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain creates a strong opposition between the freedom of Huck and Jim’s life on the raft drifting down the Mississippi River, which represents “nature,” and the confining and restrictive life on the shore, which represents “society.” [ “‘All I wanted was a change’: Positive Images of Nature and Society in Chapter 19 of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from Professor Matthew Hurt’s “Sample Essays for English 103: Introduction to Fiction”]
  • In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” an unexpected visitor comes down from the sky, and seems to test the faith of a community. The villagers have a difficult time figuring out just how the very old man with enormous wings fits into their lives. Because this character does not agree with their conception of what an angel should look like, they try to determine if the aged man could actually be an angel. In trying to prove the origin of their visitor, the villagers lose faith in the possibility of him being an angel because he does not adhere to their ordered world. Marquez keeps the identity of the very old man with enormous wings ambiguous to critique the villagers and, more generally, organized religion for having a lack of faith to believe in miracles that do not comply with their master narrative. [“Prove It: A Critique of the Villagers’ Faith in ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings'” from Sample Essays for English 103: Introduction to Fiction, Professor Matthew Hurt]

Literary criticism is a fairly specialized genre . Instead of writing to a general lay audience, you are writing to members of a literary community who have read a work and who developed opinions about the work–as well as a vocabulary of interpretation.

Across Schools of Criticism, critics share a common vocabulary of critique. Below are some common words used by literary critics.

  • Protagonist: The protagonist is the major character of the story; typically the character must overcome significant challenges.
  • Antagonist: The protagonist’s chief nemesis; in other words, the character whom the protagonist must overcome.
  • Symbols: Metaphoric language; see A Catalogue of Symbols in The Awakening by Kate Chopin
  • Viewpoint: Stories are told either in the first person or third person point of view. The first person is limited to a single character, although dialog can let you guess at other characters’ intentions. The third person allows readers inside the character’s mind so you know what the character feels and thinks.Viewpoint can be “limited,” where the character knows less than the reader, or “omniscient,” where the reader can hear the thoughts and feelings of all characters. Occasionally writers will use multiple character viewpoint, which takes you from one character’s perspective to another.
  • Plot: Plots are a series of scenes, typically moving from a conflict situation to a resolution. To surprise readers, authors will foreshadow “false plants,” which lead readers to anticipate other resolutions. The term “denouement” refers to the unraveling of the plot in the conclusion.

Cite from the Work

Literary criticism involves close reading of a literary work, regardless of whether you are arguing about a particular interpretation, comparing stories or poems, or using a theory to interpret literature. The purpose of the document is not to inform the readers, but to argue a particular interpretation. You only need to cite parts of the work that support or relate to your argument and follow the citation format required by your instructor

What are Schools of Literary Criticism?

Literary theory and criticism have existed from classical through contemporary times. Over time, schools of criticism have evolved as critics (aka communities of practitioners) have introduced new ideas about texts and intertextuality , rhetoric , intersubjectivity, modernism, postmodernism.

Schools of Literary Criticism include

Critical Disability Studies

Feminist criticism, lgbtq + criticism, marxist criticism, new historicist criticism, post-colonial criticism, post-structuralist, deconstructive criticism, psychological criticism, reader-response criticism, russian formalism and new criticism, structuralist criticism.

Most schools of literary criticism draw extensively on the work of other theorists and critics, while others concentrate on the reader’s thoughts and feelings. Additionally, some theorists analyze a work from an historical perspective, while others focus solely on a close reading of a text.

The first step in formulating a critical argument is to assume a rhetorical stance that engages a type, school, or approach of literary criticism. The critical approach you employ to engage in textual analysis will shape the content of your interpretation.

[ Rhetorical Stance | Rhetorical Reasoning ]

Related Articles:

Marxist Criticism

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Chapter Four: Theory, Methodologies, Methods, and Evidence

Research Methods

This page discusses the following topics:

Research Goals

Research method types.

Before discussing research   methods , we need to distinguish them from  methodologies  and  research skills . Methodologies, linked to literary theories, are tools and lines of investigation: sets of practices and propositions about texts and the world. Researchers using Marxist literary criticism will adopt methodologies that look to material forces like labor, ownership, and technology to understand literature and its relationship to the world. They will also seek to understand authors not as inspired geniuses but as people whose lives and work are shaped by social forces.

Example: Critical Race Theory Methodologies

Critical Race Theory may use a variety of methodologies, including

  • Interest convergence: investigating whether marginalized groups only achieve progress when dominant groups benefit as well
  • Intersectional theory: investigating how multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage around race, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc. operate together in complex ways
  • Radical critique of the law: investigating how the law has historically been used to marginalize particular groups, such as black people, while recognizing that legal efforts are important to achieve emancipation and civil rights
  • Social constructivism: investigating how race is socially constructed (rather than biologically grounded)
  • Standpoint epistemology: investigating how knowledge relates to social position
  • Structural determinism: investigating how structures of thought and of organizations determine social outcomes

To identify appropriate methodologies, you will need to research your chosen theory and gather what methodologies are associated with it. For the most part, we can’t assume that there are “one size fits all” methodologies.

Research skills are about how you handle materials such as library search engines, citation management programs, special collections materials, and so on.

Research methods  are about where and how you get answers to your research questions. Are you conducting interviews? Visiting archives? Doing close readings? Reviewing scholarship? You will need to choose which methods are most appropriate to use in your research and you need to gain some knowledge about how to use these methods. In other words, you need to do some research into research methods!

Your choice of research method depends on the kind of questions you are asking. For example, if you want to understand how an author progressed through several drafts to arrive at a final manuscript, you may need to do archival research. If you want to understand why a particular literary work became a bestseller, you may need to do audience research. If you want to know why a contemporary author wrote a particular work, you may need to do interviews. Usually literary research involves a combination of methods such as  archival research ,  discourse analysis , and  qualitative research  methods.

Literary research methods tend to differ from research methods in the hard sciences (such as physics and chemistry). Science research must present results that are reproducible, while literary research rarely does (though it must still present evidence for its claims). Literary research often deals with questions of meaning, social conventions, representations of lived experience, and aesthetic effects; these are questions that reward dialogue and different perspectives rather than one great experiment that settles the issue. In literary research, we might get many valuable answers even though they are quite different from one another. Also in literary research, we usually have some room to speculate about answers, but our claims have to be plausible (believable) and our argument comprehensive (meaning we don’t overlook evidence that would alter our argument significantly if it were known).

A literary researcher might select the following:

Theory: Critical Race Theory

Methodology: Social Constructivism

Method: Scholarly

Skills: Search engines, citation management

Wendy Belcher, in  Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks , identifies two main approaches to understanding literary works: looking at a text by itself (associated with New Criticism ) and looking at texts as they connect to society (associated with Cultural Studies ). The goal of New Criticism is to bring the reader further into the text. The goal of Cultural Studies is to bring the reader into the network of discourses that surround and pass through the text. Other approaches, such as Ecocriticism, relate literary texts to the Sciences (as well as to the Humanities).

The New Critics, starting in the 1940s,  focused on meaning within the text itself, using a method they called “ close reading .” The text itself becomes e vidence for a particular reading. Using this approach, you should summarize the literary work briefly and q uote particularly meaningful passages, being sure to introduce quotes and then interpret them (never let them stand alone). Make connections within the work; a sk  “why” and “how” the various parts of the text relate to each other.

Cultural Studies critics see all texts  as connected to society; the critic  therefore has to connect a text to at least one political or social issue. How and why does  the text reproduce particular knowledge systems (known as discourses) and how do these knowledge systems relate to issues of power within the society? Who speaks and when? Answering these questions helps your reader understand the text in context. Cultural contexts can include the treatment of gender (Feminist, Queer), class (Marxist), nationality, race, religion, or any other area of human society.

Other approaches, such as psychoanalytic literary criticism , look at literary texts to better understand human psychology. A psychoanalytic reading can focus on a character, the author, the reader, or on society in general. Ecocriticism  look at human understandings of nature in literary texts.

We select our research methods based on the kinds of things we want to know. For example, we may be studying the relationship between literature and society, between author and text, or the status of a work in the literary canon. We may want to know about a work’s form, genre, or thematics. We may want to know about the audience’s reading and reception, or about methods for teaching literature in schools.

Below are a few research methods and their descriptions. You may need to consult with your instructor about which ones are most appropriate for your project. The first list covers methods most students use in their work. The second list covers methods more commonly used by advanced researchers. Even if you will not be using methods from this second list in your research project, you may read about these research methods in the scholarship you find.

Most commonly used undergraduate research methods:

  • Scholarship Methods:  Studies the body of scholarship written about a particular author, literary work, historical period, literary movement, genre, theme, theory, or method.
  • Textual Analysis Methods:  Used for close readings of literary texts, these methods also rely on literary theory and background information to support the reading.
  • Biographical Methods:  Used to study the life of the author to better understand their work and times, these methods involve reading biographies and autobiographies about the author, and may also include research into private papers, correspondence, and interviews.
  • Discourse Analysis Methods:  Studies language patterns to reveal ideology and social relations of power. This research involves the study of institutions, social groups, and social movements to understand how people in various settings use language to represent the world to themselves and others. Literary works may present complex mixtures of discourses which the characters (and readers) have to navigate.
  • Creative Writing Methods:  A literary re-working of another literary text, creative writing research is used to better understand a literary work by investigating its language, formal structures, composition methods, themes, and so on. For instance, a creative research project may retell a story from a minor character’s perspective to reveal an alternative reading of events. To qualify as research, a creative research project is usually combined with a piece of theoretical writing that explains and justifies the work.

Methods used more often by advanced researchers:

  • Archival Methods: Usually involves trips to special collections where original papers are kept. In these archives are many unpublished materials such as diaries, letters, photographs, ledgers, and so on. These materials can offer us invaluable insight into the life of an author, the development of a literary work, or the society in which the author lived. There are at least three major archives of James Baldwin’s papers: The Smithsonian , Yale , and The New York Public Library . Descriptions of such materials are often available online, but the materials themselves are typically stored in boxes at the archive.
  • Computational Methods:  Used for statistical analysis of texts such as studies of the popularity and meaning of particular words in literature over time.
  • Ethnographic Methods:  Studies groups of people and their interactions with literary works, for instance in educational institutions, in reading groups (such as book clubs), and in fan networks. This approach may involve interviews and visits to places (including online communities) where people interact with literary works. Note: before you begin such work, you must have  Institutional Review Board (IRB)  approval “to protect the rights and welfare of human participants involved in research.”
  • Visual Methods:  Studies the visual qualities of literary works. Some literary works, such as illuminated manuscripts, children’s literature, and graphic novels, present a complex interplay of text and image. Even works without illustrations can be studied for their use of typography, layout, and other visual features.

Regardless of the method(s) you choose, you will need to learn how to apply them to your work and how to carry them out successfully. For example, you should know that many archives do not allow you to bring pens (you can use pencils) and you may not be allowed to bring bags into the archives. You will need to keep a record of which documents you consult and their location (box number, etc.) in the archives. If you are unsure how to use a particular method, please consult a book about it. [1] Also, ask for the advice of trained researchers such as your instructor or a research librarian.

  • What research method(s) will you be using for your paper? Why did you make this method selection over other methods? If you haven’t made a selection yet, which methods are you considering?
  • What specific methodological approaches are you most interested in exploring in relation to the chosen literary work?
  • What is your plan for researching your method(s) and its major approaches?
  • What was the most important lesson you learned from this page? What point was confusing or difficult to understand?

Write your answers in a webcourse discussion page.

literary approaches

  • Introduction to Research Methods: A Practical Guide for Anyone Undertaking a Research Project  by Catherine, Dr. Dawson
  • Practical Research Methods: A User-Friendly Guide to Mastering Research Techniques and Projects  by Catherine Dawson
  • Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches  by John W. Creswell  Cheryl N. Poth
  • Qualitative Research Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice  by Michael Quinn Patton
  • Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches  by John W. Creswell  J. David Creswell
  • Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners  by Ranjit Kumar
  • Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques  by C.R. Kothari

Strategies for Conducting Literary Research Copyright © 2021 by Barry Mauer & John Venecek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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6.4: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism

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Introduction

A very basic way of thinking about literary theory is that these ideas act as different lenses critics use to view and talk about art, literature, and even culture. These different lenses allow critics to consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory. The different lenses also allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a work they consider important.

For example, if a critic is working with certain Marxist theories, s/he might focus on how the characters in a story interact based on their economic situation. If a critic is working with post-colonial theories, s/he might consider the same story but look at how characters from colonial powers (Britain, France, and even America) treat characters from, say, Africa or the Caribbean. Hopefully, after reading through and working with the resources in this area of the OWL, literary theory will become a little easier to understand and use.

Please note that the schools of literary criticism and their explanations included here are by no means the only ways of distinguishing these separate areas of theory. Indeed, many critics use tools from two or more schools in their work. Some would define differently or greatly expand the (very) general statements given here. Our explanations are meant only as starting places for your own investigation into literary theory. We encourage you to use the list of scholars and works provided for each school to further your understanding of these theories.

We also recommend the following secondary sources for study of literary theory:

  • The Critical Tradition: Classical Texts and Contemporary Trends , 1998, edited by David H. Richter
  • Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide , 1999, by Lois Tyson
  • Beginning Theory , 2002, by Peter Barry

Although philosophers, critics, educators and authors have been writing about writing since ancient times, contemporary schools of literary theory have cohered from these discussions and now influence how scholars look at and write about literature. The following sections overview these movements in critical theory. Though the timeline below roughly follows a chronological order, we have placed some schools closer together because they are so closely aligned.

Timeline (most of these overlap)

  • Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction (~360 BC-present)
  • Formalism, New Criticism, Neo-Aristotelian Criticism (1930s-present)
  • Psychoanalytic Criticism, Jungian Criticism(1930s-present)
  • Marxist Criticism (1930s-present)
  • Reader-Response Criticism (1960s-present)
  • Structuralism/Semiotics (1920s-present)
  • Post-Structuralism/Deconstruction (1966-present)
  • New Historicism/Cultural Studies (1980s-present)
  • Post-Colonial Criticism (1990s-present)
  • Feminist Criticism (1960s-present)
  • Gender/Queer Studies (1970s-present)
  • Critical Race Theory (1970s-present)
  • Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism. Authored by : Allen Brizee, J. Case Tompkins, Libby Chernouski, Elizabeth Boyle. Located at : https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/01/ . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright
  • Skylar Hamilton Burris
  • Sep 26, 2018
  • 11 min read

A Toolbox for Understanding Literature: Seven Critical Approaches

literary approaches

The toolbox of literary criticism offers us a variety of ways to tinker with the text until we have a better understanding. We can use literary criticism to help us resolve a question in the reading, to choose the better of two conflicting readings, or to form judgments about literature. Here are seven critical approaches that will enable you to delve deeply into literature.

(1) The Historical / Biographical Approach

Critics who employ this lens see works as the reflection of an author's life and times (or of the characters' life and times). They believe it is necessary to know about the author and the political, economic, and sociological context of his times in order to truly understand his works.

Advantages: This approach works well for some works--like those of Alexander Pope, John Dryden, and Milton--which are obviously political in nature. One must know Milton was blind, for instance, for "On His Blindness" to have any meaning. One must know something about the Exclusion Bill Crisis to appreciate John Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel." It also is necessary to take a historical approach in order to place allusions in their proper classical, political, or biblical background.

Disadvantages: New Critics refer to the historical / biographical critic's belief that the meaning of a work may be determined by the author's intention as "the intentional fallacy." They believe that this approach tends to reduce art to the level of biography and make it relative (to the times) rather than universal.

(2) The Moral / Philosophical Approach

Moral / philosophical critics believe that the larger purpose of literature is to teach morality and to probe philosophical issues. Practitioners include Matthew Arnold, who argued works must have "high seriousness," Plato, who insisted literature must exhibit moralism and utilitarianism, and Horace, who felt literature should be "delightful and instructive."

Advantages: This approach is useful for such works as Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man," which presents an obvious moral philosophy. It is also useful when considering the themes of works (for example, man's inhumanity to man in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn). Finally, it does not view literature merely as "art" isolated from all moral implications; rather, it recognizes that literature can affect readers, whether subtly or directly, and that the message of a work— and not just the decorous vehicle for that message— is important.

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Disadvantages: Detractors argue that such an approach can be too "judgmental." Some believe literature should be judged primarily (if not solely) on its artistic merits, not its moral or philosophical content.

One example of this approach to literature is my collection Christian Literary Criticism . Read the introduction of that book for a justification of a moral / philosophical critical approach to literature.

(3) Formalism / New Criticism

A formalistic approach to literature, once called New Criticism, involves a close reading of the text. Famous formalistic critics include I.A. Richards, Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, and Allen Tate, to name but a few. Formalists believe that all information essential to the interpretation of a work must be found within the work itself; there is no need to bring in outside information about the history, politics, or society of the time, or about the author's life.

Those who practice formalism claim they do not view works through the lens of feminism, psychology, Marxism, or any other philosophical standpoint. They are also uninterested in the work's effect on the reader. Formalistic critics spend a great deal of time analyzing irony, paradox, imagery, and metaphor. They are also interested in a work's setting, characters, symbols, and point of view.

When reading the literary analysis of a New Critic, you might come across the following terms:

Tension is the integral unity of the work and often involves irony or paradox.

Formalistic critics refer to the belief that the meaning of a work may be determined by the author's intention as the intentional fallacy.

In New Criticism, the belief that the meaning or value of a work may be determined by its effect on the reader is called the affective fallacy.

The external form is the outer trappings of a work. For example, in a poem, the external form would include the rhyme scheme, meter, and stanza form.

The objective correlative, a term originated by T.S. Eliot, refers to a collection of objects, situations, or events that immediately evoke a specific emotion.

A formalistic approach to the short story "Silence of the Llano" by Rudolfo Anaya might force us to see the incestuous relationship that is established at the end of the story as a positive alternative to loneliness. If we were to take into account external things, such as morality, we could not help but be horrified at such a conclusion. But in studying the symbols, setting, and structure of "The Silence of the Llano," we get an opposite picture.

The setting of the llano, its isolation and desolation, make its loneliness the primary evil of the story, in contrast to the town where people can escape the loneliness, where Rafael can find love, and where men can talk. The only way to survive the llano is to make it more like the town— to fill it with love and words and anything to escape the loneliness. "Words" are positively contrasted to "silence," as is "winter" to "spring" and "growth" to "death." The silence of the llano is constantly referred to, and Rafael's parents die in winter. But when Rafael marries, his wife makes a garden to grow in the desolate llano, and he can hear her voice. When Rafael establishes the incestuous relationship at the close of the story, he finally speaks to his daughter, and words break the long silence. He tells her that the "spring is the time for the garden. I will turn the earth for you. The seeds will grow." (182). Growth, spring, and words— the primary symbols which are positively contrasted to death, winter, and silence— are all combined in the close.

This formalistic approach does not allow us to account for most readers' natural (and appropriate) response of disgust to the incestuous relationship or to examine how that affects the ability of the author to communicate his story. Some would argue that an understanding of the text is where criticism should begin, and not where it ends. We should also relate the text to life, ideas, and morality.

Advantages: The advantage of this critical approach is that it can be performed without much research, and it emphasizes the value of literature apart from its context. This type of literary criticism in effect makes literature timeless.

Disadvantages: The text is viewed in isolation. Formalism ignores the context of the work. This means that, among other things, it cannot account for allusions. Some have argued that the formalist approach reduces literature to nothing more than a collection of rhetorical devices.

(4) Psychological Criticism

Psychological critics view works through the lens of psychology. They look either at the psychological motivations of the characters or of the authors themselves, although the former is generally considered a more respectable approach. Practitioners of the psychological approach to literature include Ernest Jones, Otto Rank, and Marie Boaparte.

A specifically Freudian approach to literature often includes pinpointing the influences of a character's id (the instinctual, pleasure seeking part of the mind), superego (the part of the mind that represses the id's impulses) and the ego (the part of the mind that controls but does not repress the id's impulses, releasing them in a healthy way). Freudian critics like to point out the sexual implications of symbols and imagery, since Freud believed that all human behavior is motivated by sexuality.

They tend to see concave images, such as ponds, flowers, cups, and caves as female symbols; whereas objects that are longer than they are wide are usually seen as phallic symbols. Dancing, riding, and flying are associated with sexual pleasure. Water is usually associated with birth, the female principle, the maternal, the womb, and the death wish.

Freudian critics occasionally discern the presence of an Oedipus complex (a boy's unconscious rivalry with his father for the love of his mother) in the male characters of certain works, such as Hamlet. They may also refer to Freud's psychology of child development, which includes the oral stage, the anal stage, and the genital stage.

While Jung is also an influential force in myth (archetypal) criticism, psychological critics are generally concerned with his concept of the process of individuation (the process of discovering what makes one different form everyone else). Jung labeled three parts of the self: the shadow, or the darker, unconscious self (usually the villain in literature); the persona, or a man's social personality (usually the hero); and the anima, or a man's "soul image" (usually the heroine). A neurosis occurs when someone fails to assimilate one of these unconscious components into his conscious and projects it on someone else. The persona must be flexible and be able to balance the components of the psyche.

A psychological approach to John Milton's Samson Agonisties might suggest that the shorning of Samson's locks is symbolic of his castration at the hands of Dalila and that the fighting words he exchanges with Harapha constitute a reassertion of his manhood. Psychological critics might see Samson's bondage as a symbol of his sexual impotency, and his destruction of the Philistine temple and the killing of himself and many others as a final orgasmic event (since death and sex are often closely associated in Freudian psychology). The total absence of Samson's mother in Samson Agonisties would make it difficult to argue anything regarding the Oedipus complex, but Samson refusal to be cared for by his father and his remorse over failing to rule Dalila may be seen as indicative of his own fears regarding his sexuality.

Advantages: A psychological approach can be a useful tool for understanding some works, such as Henry James’s The Turning of the Screw, in which characters obviously have psychological issues. Knowing something about a writer's psychological make-up can give us insight into his work.

Disadvantages: Psychological criticism can turn a work into little more than a psychological case study, neglecting to view it as a piece of art. Critics sometimes attempt to diagnose long dead authors based on their works, which is perhaps not the best evidence of their psychology. Critics tend to see sex in everything, exaggerating this aspect of literature. Finally, some works do not lend themselves readily to this approach.

(5) The Mythological / Archetypal / Symbolic Critical Approach

"Symbolic" approaches may also fall under the category of formalism because they involve a close reading of the text. Myth criticism generally has broader, more universal applications than symbolic criticism, although both assume that certain images have a fairly universal effect on readers. A mythological / archetypal approach to literature assumes that there is a collection of symbols, images, characters, and motifs (i.e. archetypes) that evoke basically the same response in all people.

According to the psychologist Carl Jung, mankind possesses a "collective unconscious" that contains these archetypes and that is common to all of humanity. Myth critics identify these archetypal patterns and discuss how they function in the works. They believe that these archetypes are the source of much of literature's power.

Some examples of archetypes follow:

archetypal women - the Good Mother, the Terrible Mother, and the Soul Mate (such as the Virgin Mary)

water - creation, birth-death-resurrection, purification, redemption, fertility, growth

garden - paradise (Eden), innocence, fertility

desert - spiritual emptiness, death, hopelessness

red - blood, sacrifice, passion, disorder

green - growth, fertility

black - chaos, death, evil

serpent - evil, sensuality, mystery, wisdom, destruction

seven - perfection

hero archetype - The hero is involved in a quest (in which he overcomes obstacles). He experiences initiation (involving a separation, transformation, and return), and finally he serves as a scapegoat, that is, he dies to atone.

Numerous archetypes appear in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Fedallah can be seen as Ahab's shadow, his defiant pagan side wholly unrestrained. The sea is associated both with spiritual mystery (Ahab is ultimately on a spiritual quest to defy God because evil exists) and with death and rebirth (all but Ishmael die at sea, but Ahab's death as if crucified is suggestive of rebirth). Three is symbolic of spiritual awareness; thus we see numerous triads in Moby Dick, including Ahab's three mysterious crew members and the three harpooners.

Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner also utilizes archetypes. We might, for example, view Isaac McCaslin's repudiation of the land as an attempt to deny the existence of his archetypal shadow—that dark part of him that maintains some degree of complicity in slavery. When he sees the granddaughter of Jim and can barely tell she is black, his horrified reaction to the miscegenation of the races may be indicative of his shadow's (his deeply racist dark side's) emergence.

Advantages: This type of literary criticisms provides a universal approach to literature and identifies a reason why certain literature may survive the test of time. It works well with works that are highly symbolic.

Disadvantages: Literature may become little more than a vehicle for archetypes, and this approach may ignore the "art" of literature.

(6) The Feminist Approach

Feminist criticism is concerned with the impact of gender on writing and reading. It usually begins with a critique of patriarchal culture. It is concerned with the place of female writers in the cannon. Finally, it seeks to present a feminine theory of or approach to texts. Feminist criticism is political and often revisionist. Feminists often argue that male fears are portrayed through female characters. They may argue that gender determines everything, or, in contrast, that all gender differences are imposed by society, and gender determines nothing.

In A Literature of Their Own, Elaine Showalter argued that literary subcultures all go through three major phases of development:

The Feminine Stage involves "imitation of the prevailing modes of the dominant tradition" and "internalization of its standards."

The Feminist Stage involves "protest against these standards and values and advocacy of minority rights...."

The Female Stage is the "phase of self-discovery, a turning inwards freed from some of the dependency of opposition, a search for identity."

Advantages: Women have been underrepresented in the traditional cannon, and a feminist approach to literature redresses this problem.

Disadvantages: Feminists turn literary criticism into a political battlefield and overlook the merits of works they consider "patriarchal." When arguing for a distinct feminine writing style, they tend to relegate women's literature to a ghetto status; this in turn prevents female literature from being naturally included in the literary cannon. The feminist approach is often too theoretical.

(7) Reader Response Criticism

Reader response criticism has been used by literary critics ranging from I.A. Richards and Louise Rosenblatt to Walter Gibson and Norman Holland. Reader response criticism places strong emphasis on the reader's role in producing the meaning of a literary work. It is in some senses an opposite approach from that of formalism.

Whereas formalists treat meaning as objectively inherent in the text, in reader response criticism, the text has no meaning until it is read by a reader who creates the meaning. Unlike the formalist critical approach, this type of literary criticism insists that works are not universal, that is, that they will not always mean more or less the same thing to readers everywhere. Indeed, according to one practitioner of reader response criticism, Norman Holland, the reader imposes his or her own identity on the work, "to a large extent recreating that text in the reader's image."

In reading the parable of the prodigal son in the New Testament, different readers are likely to have different responses. Someone who has lived a fairly straight and narrow life and who does not feel like he has been rewarded for it is likely to associate with the older brother of the parable and sympathize with his opposition to the celebration over the prodigal son's return. Someone with a more checkered past would probably approach the parable with more sympathy for the younger brother. A parent who had had difficulties with a rebellious child would probably focus on the father, and, depending on his or her experience, might see the father's unconditional acceptance of the prodigal as either good and merciful or as unwise and overindulgent. While the parable might disturb some, it could elicit a feeling of relief from others.

When using reader response criticism as a tool of analysis, you could write about how the author evokes a particular reaction in you as the reader, what aspects of your own identity influence you in creating your interpretation, and how another reader in a different situation might interpret the work differently.

Advantages: Reader response criticism acknowledges that different people view works differently and that interpretations change over time.

Disadvantages: This approach tends to make interpretation highly subjective and consequently does not provide sufficient criteria for judging between two or more different interpretations of the text.

These seven critical approaches to literature can be combined to create a multi-level analysis of a literary work. While imperfect individually, each of these tool can be useful in chipping away at the text until the student of literature arrives at an in-depth understanding.

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Literary theory and criticism are steadily evolving disciplines devoted to the interpretation of literary works. They offer unique ways to analyze texts through specific perspectives or sets of principles. There are many literary theories, or frameworks, available to address and analyze a given text. These approaches range from Marxist to psychoanalytic to feminist and beyond. Queer theory, a recent addition to the field, looks at literature through the prism of sex, gender, and identity.

The books listed below are some of the leading overviews of this fascinating branch of critical theory.

Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism

This hefty tome is a comprehensive anthology of literary theory and criticism, representing the various schools and movements from antiquity to the present. The 30-page introduction offers a concise overview for newcomers and experts alike.

Literary Theory: An Anthology

Editors Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan have divided this collection into 12 sections, each of which covers an important school of literary criticism, from Russian formalism to critical race theory.

A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature

This book, aimed at students, offers a simple overview of more traditional approaches to literary criticism, beginning with definitions of common literary elements like setting, plot, and character. The rest of the book is devoted to the most influential schools of literary criticism, including psychological and feminist approaches.

Beginning Theory by Peter Barry

Peter Barry's introduction to literary and cultural theory is a concise overview of analytical approaches, including relatively newer ones such as ecocriticism and cognitive poetics. The book also includes a reading list for further study.

Literary Theory: An Introduction by Terry Eagleton

This overview of the major movements in literary criticism comes from Terry Eagleton, a well-known Marxist critic who has also written books about religion, ethics, and Shakespeare.

Critical Theory Today by Lois Tyson

Lois Tyson's book is an introduction to feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, reader-response theory, and much more. It includes analyses of The Great Gatsby from historical, feminist, and many other perspectives.

Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction by Michael Ryan

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This short book is designed for students who are just beginning to learn about literary theory and criticism. Using a range of critical approaches, Michael Ryan provides readings of famous texts such as Shakespeare's King Lear and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye . The book shows how the same texts can be studied using different approaches.

Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Culler

Busy students will appreciate this book from Jonathan Culler, which covers the history of literary theory in fewer than 150 pages. Literary critic Frank Kermode says that "it is impossible to imagine a clearer treatment of the subject or one that is, within the given limits of length, more comprehensive."

Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory by Deborah Appleman

Deborah Appleman's book is a guide to teaching literary theory in the high school classroom. It includes essays on various approaches, including reader-response and postmodern theory, along with an appendix of classroom activities for teachers.

Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism

This volume, edited by Robyn Warhol and Diane Price Herndl, is a comprehensive collection of feminist literary criticism . Included are 58 essays on topics such as lesbian fiction, women and madness, the politics of domesticity, and much more.

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The Dictionary of Literary Biography provides authoritative information while placing writers in the larger perspective of literary history. Signed essays written by scholars provide essential context for understanding the careers and writings of more than 12,000 authors from all time periods and from all parts of the world.

The Dictionary of Literary Biography is located in Circulating Reference and has the call number PN451 .D57.

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Critical approaches chart.

Use the critical approaches discussed in the chart below to help you find an interesting angle from which to approach a text. Each approach is given a brief description (Beliefs) , some guidelines for studying a text (Practices) and prompts to inspire your discussion (Questions) .

Do not simply list and answer the questions for a particular critical approach. Instead, use the questions as a starting place for your actual analysis. The questions are intended to be thought-provoking, not a list to be completed.

  • Survey of American Literature II. Authored by : Joshua Watson. Provided by : Reynolds Community College. Located at : http://www.reynolds.edu/ . License : CC BY: Attribution

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  • Published: 14 February 2024

Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system

  • Bernardo M. Flores   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4555-5598 1 ,
  • Encarni Montoya   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4690-190X 2 ,
  • Boris Sakschewski   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7230-9723 3 ,
  • Nathália Nascimento   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4819-0811 4 ,
  • Arie Staal   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5409-1436 5 ,
  • Richard A. Betts   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4929-0307 6 , 7 ,
  • Carolina Levis   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8425-9479 1 ,
  • David M. Lapola 8 ,
  • Adriane Esquível-Muelbert   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5335-1259 9 , 10 ,
  • Catarina Jakovac   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8130-852X 11 ,
  • Carlos A. Nobre 4 ,
  • Rafael S. Oliveira   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6392-2526 12 ,
  • Laura S. Borma 13 ,
  • Da Nian   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2320-5223 3 ,
  • Niklas Boers   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1239-9034 3 , 14 ,
  • Susanna B. Hecht 15 ,
  • Hans ter Steege   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8738-2659 16 , 17 ,
  • Julia Arieira 18 ,
  • Isabella L. Lucas 19 ,
  • Erika Berenguer   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8157-8792 20 ,
  • José A. Marengo 21 , 22 , 23 ,
  • Luciana V. Gatti 13 ,
  • Caio R. C. Mattos   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8635-3901 24 &
  • Marina Hirota   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1958-3651 1 , 12 , 25  

Nature volume  626 ,  pages 555–564 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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  • Climate and Earth system modelling
  • Ecosystem ecology
  • Ecosystem services
  • Sustainability

The possibility that the Amazon forest system could soon reach a tipping point, inducing large-scale collapse, has raised global concern 1 , 2 , 3 . For 65 million years, Amazonian forests remained relatively resilient to climatic variability. Now, the region is increasingly exposed to unprecedented stress from warming temperatures, extreme droughts, deforestation and fires, even in central and remote parts of the system 1 . Long existing feedbacks between the forest and environmental conditions are being replaced by novel feedbacks that modify ecosystem resilience, increasing the risk of critical transition. Here we analyse existing evidence for five major drivers of water stress on Amazonian forests, as well as potential critical thresholds of those drivers that, if crossed, could trigger local, regional or even biome-wide forest collapse. By combining spatial information on various disturbances, we estimate that by 2050, 10% to 47% of Amazonian forests will be exposed to compounding disturbances that may trigger unexpected ecosystem transitions and potentially exacerbate regional climate change. Using examples of disturbed forests across the Amazon, we identify the three most plausible ecosystem trajectories, involving different feedbacks and environmental conditions. We discuss how the inherent complexity of the Amazon adds uncertainty about future dynamics, but also reveals opportunities for action. Keeping the Amazon forest resilient in the Anthropocene will depend on a combination of local efforts to end deforestation and degradation and to expand restoration, with global efforts to stop greenhouse gas emissions.

The Amazon forest is a complex system of interconnected species, ecosystems and human cultures that contributes to the well-being of people globally 1 . The Amazon forest holds more than 10% of Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity, stores an amount of carbon equivalent to 15–20 years of global CO 2 emissions (150–200 Pg C), and has a net cooling effect (from evapotranspiration) that helps to stabilize the Earth’s climate 1 , 2 , 3 . The forest contributes up to 50% of rainfall in the region and is crucial for moisture supply across South America 4 , allowing other biomes and economic activities to thrive in regions that would otherwise be more arid, such as the Pantanal wetlands and the La Plata river basin 1 . Large parts of the Amazon forest, however, are projected to experience mass mortality events due to climatic and land use-related disturbances in the coming decades 5 , 6 , potentially accelerating climate change through carbon emissions and feedbacks with the climate system 2 , 3 . These impacts would also involve irreversible loss of biodiversity, socioeconomic and cultural values 1 , 7 , 8 , 9 . The Amazon is home to more than 40 million people, including 2.2 million Indigenous peoples of more than 300 ethnicities, as well as afrodescendent and local traditional communities 1 . Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) would be harmed by forest loss in terms of their livelihoods, lifeways and knowledge systems that inspire societies globally 1 , 7 , 9 .

Understanding the risk of such catastrophic behaviour requires addressing complex factors that shape ecosystem resilience 10 . A major question is whether a large-scale collapse of the Amazon forest system could actually happen within the twenty-first century, and if this would be associated with a particular tipping point. Here we synthesize evidence from paleorecords, observational data and modelling studies of critical drivers of stress on the system. We assess potential thresholds of those drivers and the main feedbacks that could push the Amazon forest towards a tipping point. From examples of disturbed forests across the Amazon, we analyse the most plausible ecosystem trajectories that may lead to alternative stable states 10 . Moreover, inspired by the framework of ‘planetary boundaries’ 11 , we identify climatic and land use boundaries that reveal a safe operating space for the Amazon forest system in the Anthropocene epoch 12 .

Theory and concepts

Over time, environmental conditions fluctuate and may cause stress on ecosystems (for example, lack of water for plants). When stressing conditions intensify, some ecosystems may change their equilibrium state gradually, whereas others may shift abruptly between alternative stable states 10 . A ‘tipping point’ is the critical threshold value of an environmental stressing condition at which a small disturbance may cause an abrupt shift in the ecosystem state 2 , 3 , 13 , 14 , accelerated by positive feedbacks 15 (see Extended Data Table 1 ). This type of behaviour in which the system gets into a phase of self-reinforcing (runaway) change is often referred to as ‘critical transition’ 16 . As ecosystems approach a tipping point, they often lose resilience while still remaining close to equilibrium 17 . Thus, monitoring changes in ecosystem resilience and in key environmental conditions may enable societies to manage and avoid critical transitions. We adopt the concept of ‘ecological resilience’ 18 (hereafter ‘resilience’), which refers to the ability of an ecosystem to persist with similar structure, functioning and interactions, despite disturbances that push it to an alternative stable state. The possibility that alternative stable states (or bistability) may exist in a system has important implications, because the crossing of tipping points may be irreversible for the time scales that matter to societies 10 . Tropical terrestrial ecosystems are a well-known case in which critical transitions between alternative stable states may occur (Extended Data Fig. 1 ).

Past dynamics

The Amazon system has been mostly covered by forest throughout the Cenozoic era 19 (for 65 million years). Seven million years ago, the Amazon river began to drain the massive wetlands that covered most of the western Amazon, allowing forests to expand over grasslands in that region. More recently, during the drier and cooler conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum 20 (LGM) (around 21,000 years ago) and of the mid-Holocene epoch 21 (around 6,000 years ago), forests persisted even when humans were already present in the landscape 22 . Nonetheless, savannas expanded in peripheral parts of the southern Amazon basin during the LGM and mid-Holocene 23 , as well as in the northeastern Amazon during the early Holocene (around 11,000 years ago), probably influenced by drier climatic conditions and fires ignited by humans 24 , 25 . Throughout the core of the Amazon forest biome, patches of white-sand savanna also expanded in the past 20,000–7,000 years, driven by sediment deposition along ancient rivers 26 , and more recently (around 800 years ago) owing to Indigenous fires 27 . However, during the past 3,000 years, forests have been mostly expanding over savanna in the southern Amazon driven by increasingly wet conditions 28 .

Although palaeorecords suggest that a large-scale Amazon forest collapse did not occur within the past 65 million years 19 , they indicate that savannas expanded locally, particularly in the more seasonal peripheral regions when fires ignited by humans were frequent 23 , 24 . Patches of white-sand savanna also expanded within the Amazon forest owing to geomorphological dynamics and fires 26 , 27 . Past drought periods were usually associated with much lower atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, which may have reduced water-use efficiency of trees 29 (that is, trees assimilated less carbon during transpiration). However, these periods also coincided with cooler temperatures 20 , 21 , which probably reduced water demand by trees 30 . Past drier climatic conditions were therefore very different from the current climatic conditions, in which observed warming trends may exacerbate drought impacts on the forest by exposing trees to unprecedented levels of water stress 31 , 32 .

Global change impacts on forest resilience

Satellite observations from across the Amazon suggest that forest resilience has been decreasing since the early 2000s 33 , possibly as a result of global changes. In this section, we synthesize three global change impacts that vary spatially and temporally across the Amazon system, affecting forest resilience and the risk of critical transitions.

Regional climatic conditions

Within the twenty-first century, global warming may cause long-term changes in Amazonian climatic conditions 2 . Human greenhouse gas emissions continue to intensify global warming, but the warming rate also depends on feedbacks in the climate system that remain uncertain 2 , 3 . Recent climate models of the 6th phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) agree that in the coming decades, rainfall conditions will become more seasonal in the eastern and southern Amazonian regions, and temperatures will become higher across the entire Amazon 1 , 2 . By 2050, models project that a significant increase in the number of consecutive dry days by 10−30 days and in annual maximum temperatures by 2–4 °C, depending on the greenhouse gas emission scenario 2 . These climatic conditions could expose the forest to unprecedented levels of vapour pressure deficit 31 and consequently water stress 30 .

Satellite observations of climatic variability 31 confirm model projections 2 , showing that since the early 1980s, the Amazonian region has been warming significantly at an average rate of 0.27 °C per decade during the dry season, with the highest rates of up to 0.6 °C per decade in the centre and southeast of the biome (Fig. 1a ). Only a few small areas in the west of the biome are significantly cooling by around 0.1 °C per decade (Fig. 1a ). Dry season mean temperature is now more than 2 °C higher than it was 40 years ago in large parts of the central and southeastern Amazon. If trends continue, these areas could potentially warm by over 4 °C by 2050. Maximum temperatures during the dry season follow a similar trend, rising across most of the biome (Extended Data Fig. 2 ), exposing the forest 34 and local peoples 35 to potentially unbearable heat. Rising temperatures will increase thermal stress, potentially reducing forest productivity and carbon storage capacity 36 and causing widespread leaf damage 34 .

figure 1

a , Changes in the dry season (July–October) mean temperature reveal widespread warming, estimated using simple regressions between time and temperature observed between 1981 and 2020 (with P  < 0.1). b , Potential ecosystem stability classes estimated for year 2050, adapted from current stability classes (Extended Data Fig. 1b ) by considering only areas with significant regression slopes between time and annual rainfall observed from 1981 through 2020 (with P  < 0.1) (see Extended Data Fig. 3 for areas with significant changes). c , Repeated extreme drought events between 2001–2018 (adapted from ref. 39 ). d , Road network from where illegal deforestation and degradation may spread. e , Protected areas and Indigenous territories reduce deforestation and fire disturbances. f , Ecosystem transition potential (the possibility of forest shifting into an alternative structural or compositional state) across the Amazon biome by year 2050 inferred from compounding disturbances ( a – d ) and high-governance areas ( e ). We excluded accumulated deforestation until 2020 and savannas. Transition potential rises with compounding disturbances and varies as follows: less than 0 (in blue) as low; between 1 and 2 as moderate (in yellow); more than 2 as high (orange–red). Transition potential represents the sum of: (1) slopes of dry season mean temperature (as in a , multiplied by 10); (2) ecosystem stability classes estimated for year 2050 (as in b ), with 0 for stable forest, 1 for bistable and 2 for stable savanna; (3) accumulated impacts from extreme drought events, with 0.2 for each event; (4) road proximity as proxy for degrading activities, with 1 for pixels within 10 km from a road; (5) areas with higher governance within protected areas and Indigenous territories, with −1 for pixels inside these areas. For more details, see  Methods .

Since the early 1980s, rainfall conditions have also changed 31 . Peripheral and central parts of the Amazon forest are drying significantly, such as in the southern Bolivian Amazon, where annual rainfall reduced by up to 20 mm yr −1 (Extended Data Fig. 3a ). By contrast, parts of the western and eastern Amazon forest are becoming wetter, with annual rainfall increasing by up to 20 mm yr −1 . If these trends continue, ecosystem stability (as in Extended Data Fig. 1 ) will probably change in parts of the Amazon by 2050, reshaping forest resilience to disturbances (Fig. 1b and Extended Data Fig. 3b ). For example, 6% of the biome may change from stable forest to a bistable regime in parts of the southern and central Amazon. Another 3% of the biome may pass the critical threshold in annual rainfall into stable savanna in the southern Bolivian Amazon. Bistable areas covering 8% of the biome may turn into stable forest in the western Amazon (Peru and Bolivia), thus becoming more resilient to disturbances. For comparison with satellite observations, we used projections of ecosystem stability by 2050 based on CMIP6 model ensembles for a low (SSP2–4.5) and a high (SSP5–8.5) greenhouse gas emission scenario (Extended Data Fig. 4 and Supplementary Table 1 ). An ensemble with the 5 coupled models that include a dynamic vegetation module indicates that 18–27% of the biome may transition from stable forest to bistable and that 2–6% may transition to stable savanna (depending on the scenario), mostly in the northeastern Amazon. However, an ensemble with all 33 models suggests that 35–41% of the biome could become bistable, including large areas of the southern Amazon. The difference between both ensembles is possibly related to the forest–rainfall feedback included in the five coupled models, which increases total annual rainfall and therefore the stable forest area along the southern Amazon, but only when deforestation is not included in the simulations 4 , 37 . Nonetheless, both model ensembles agree that bistable regions will expand deeper into the Amazon, increasing the risk of critical transitions due to disturbances (as implied by the existence of alternative stable states; Extended Data Fig. 1 ).

Disturbance regimes

Within the remaining Amazon forest area, 17% has been degraded by human disturbances 38 , such as logging, edge effects and understory fires, but if we consider also the impacts from repeated extreme drought events in the past decades, 38% of the Amazon could be degraded 39 . Increasing rainfall variability is causing extreme drought events to become more widespread and frequent across the Amazon (Fig. 1c ), together with extreme wet events and convective storms that result in more windthrow disturbances 40 . Drought regimes are intensifying across the region 41 , possibly due to deforestation 42 that continues to expand within the system (Extended Data Fig. 5 ). As a result, new fire regimes are burning larger forest areas 43 , emitting more carbon to the atmosphere 44 and forcing IPLCs to readapt 45 . Road networks (Fig. 1d ) facilitate illegal activities, promoting more deforestation, logging and fire spread throughout the core of the Amazon forest 38 , 39 . The impacts of these pervasive disturbances on biodiversity and on IPLCs will probably affect ecosystem adaptability (Box 1 ), and consequently forest resilience to global changes.

Currently, 86% of the Amazon biome may be in a stable forest state (Extended Data Fig. 1b ), but some of these stable forests are showing signs of fragility 33 . For instance, field evidence from long-term monitoring sites across the Amazon shows that tree mortality rates are increasing in most sites, reducing carbon storage 46 , while favouring the replacement by drought-affiliated species 47 . Aircraft measurements of vertical carbon flux between the forest and atmosphere reveal how southeastern forests are already emitting more carbon than they absorb, probably because of deforestation and fire 48 .

As bistable forests expand deeper into the system (Fig. 1b and Extended Data Fig. 4 ), the distribution of compounding disturbances may indicate where ecosystem transitions are more likely to occur in the coming decades (Fig. 1f ). For this, we combined spatial information on warming and drying trends, repeated extreme drought events, together with road networks, as proxy for future deforestation and degradation 38 , 39 . We also included protected areas and Indigenous territories as areas with high forest governance, where deforestation and fire regimes are among the lowest within the Amazon 49 (Fig. 1e ). This simple additive approach does not consider synergies between compounding disturbances that could trigger unexpected ecosystem transitions. However, by exploring only these factors affecting forest resilience and simplifying the enormous Amazonian complexity, we aimed to produce a simple and comprehensive map that can be useful for guiding future governance. We found that 10% of the Amazon forest biome has a relatively high transition potential (more than 2 disturbance types; Fig. 1f ), including bistable forests that could transition into a low tree cover state near savannas of Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia and Peru, as well as stable forests that could transition into alternative compositional states within the central Amazon, such as along the BR319 and Trans-Amazonian highways. Smaller areas with high transition potential were found scattered within deforestation frontiers, where most forests have been carved by roads 50 , 51 . Moreover, 47% of the biome has a moderate transition potential (more than 1 disturbance type; Fig. 1f ), including relatively remote parts of the central Amazon where warming trends and repeated extreme drought events overlap (Fig. 1a,c ). By contrast, large remote areas covering 53% of the biome have low transition potential, mostly reflecting the distribution of protected areas and Indigenous territories (Fig. 1e ). If these estimates, however, considered projections from CMIP6 models and their relatively broader areas of bistability (Extended Data Fig. 4 ), the proportion of the Amazon forest that could transition into a low tree cover state would be much larger.

Box 1 Ecosystem adaptability

We define ‘ecosystem adaptability’ as the capacity of an ecosystem to reorganize and persist in the face of environmental changes. In the past, many internal mechanisms have probably contributed to ecosystem adaptability, allowing Amazonian forests to persist during times of climate change. In this section we synthesize two of these internal mechanisms, which are now being undermined by global change.

Biodiversity

Amazonian forests are home to more than 15,000 tree species, of which 1% are dominant and the other 99% are mostly rare 107 . A single forest hectare in the central and northwestern Amazon can contain more than 300 tree species (Extended Data Fig. 7a ). Such tremendous tree species diversity can increase forest resilience by different mechanisms. Tree species complementarity increases carbon storage, accelerating forest recovery after disturbances 108 . Tree functional diversity increases forest adaptability to climate chance by offering various possibilities of functioning 99 . Rare species provide ‘ecological redundancy’, increasing opportunities for replacement of lost functions when dominant species disappear 109 . Diverse forests are also more likely to resist severe disturbances owing to ‘response diversity’ 110 —that is, some species may die, while others persist. For instance, in the rainy western Amazon, drought-resistant species are rare but present within tree communities 111 , implying that they could replace the dominant drought-sensitive species in a drier future. Diversity of other organisms, such as frugivores and pollinators, also increases forest resilience by stabilizing ecological networks 15 , 112 . Considering that half of Amazonian tree species are estimated to become threatened (IUCN Red list) by 2050 owing to climate change, deforestation and degradation 8 , biodiversity losses could contribute to further reducing forest resilience.

Indigenous peoples and local communities

Globally, Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) have a key role in maintaining ecosystems resilient to global change 113 . Humans have been present in the Amazon for at least 12,000 years 114 and extensively managing landscapes for 6,000 years 22 . Through diverse ecosystem management practices, humans built thousands of earthworks and ‘Amazon Dark Earth’ sites, and domesticated plants and landscapes across the Amazon forest 115 , 116 . By creating new cultural niches, humans partly modified the Amazonian flora 117 , 118 , increasing their food security even during times of past climate change 119 , 120 without the need for large-scale deforestation 117 . Today, IPLCs have diverse ecological knowledge about Amazonian plants, animals and landscapes, which allows them to quickly identify and respond to environmental changes with mitigation and adaptation practices 68 , 69 . IPLCs defend their territories against illegal deforestation and land use disturbances 49 , 113 , and they also promote forest restoration by expanding diverse agroforestry systems 121 , 122 . Amazonian regions with the highest linguistic diversity (a proxy for ecological knowledge diversity 123 ) are found in peripheral parts of the system, particularly in the north-west (Extended Data Fig. 7b ). However, consistent loss of Amazonian languages is causing an irreversible disruption of ecological knowledge systems, mostly driven by road construction 7 . Continued loss of ecological knowledge will undermine the capacity of IPLCs to manage and protect Amazonian forests, further reducing their resilience to global changes 9 .

CO 2 fertilization

Rising atmospheric CO 2 concentrations are expected to increase the photosynthetic rates of trees, accelerating forest growth and biomass accumulation on a global scale 52 . In addition, CO 2 may reduce water stress by increasing tree water-use efficiency 29 . As result, a ‘CO 2 fertilization effect’ could increase forest resilience to climatic variability 53 , 54 . However, observations from across the Amazon 46 suggest that CO 2 -driven accelerations of tree growth may have contributed to increasing tree mortality rates (trees grow faster but also die earlier), which could eventually neutralize the forest carbon sink in the coming decades 55 . Moreover, increases in tree water-use efficiency may reduce forest transpiration and consequently atmospheric moisture flow across the Amazon 53 , 56 , potentially reducing forest resilience in the southwest of the biome 4 , 37 . Experimental evidence suggests that CO 2 fertilization also depends on soil nutrient availability, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus 57 , 58 . Thus, it is possible that in the fertile soils of the western Amazon and Várzea floodplains, forests may gain resilience from increasing atmospheric CO 2 (depending on how it affects tree mortality rates), whereas on the weathered (nutrient-poor) soils across most of the Amazon basin 59 , forests might not respond to atmospheric CO 2 increase, particularly on eroded soils within deforestation frontiers 60 . In sum, owing to multiple interacting factors, potential responses of Amazonian forests to CO 2 fertilization are still poorly understood. Forest responses depend on scale, with resilience possibly increasing at the local scale on relatively more fertile soils, but decreasing at the regional scale due to reduced atmospheric moisture flow.

Local versus systemic transition

Environmental heterogeneity.

Environmental heterogeneity can reduce the risk of systemic transition (large-scale forest collapse) because when stressing conditions intensify (for example, rainfall declines), heterogeneous forests may transition gradually (first the less resilient forest patches, followed by the more resilient ones), compared to homogeneous forests that may transition more abruptly 17 (all forests transition in synchrony). Amazonian forests are heterogeneous in their resilience to disturbances, which may have contributed to buffering large-scale transitions in the past 37 , 61 , 62 . At the regional scale, a fundamental heterogeneity factor is rainfall and how it translates into water stress. Northwestern forests rarely experience water stress, which makes them relatively more resilient than southeastern forests that may experience water stress in the dry season, and therefore are more likely to shift into a low tree cover state. As a result of low exposure to water deficit, most northwestern forests have trees with low drought resistance and could suffer massive mortality if suddenly exposed to severe water stress 32 . However, this scenario seems unlikely to occur in the near future (Fig. 1 ). By contrast, most seasonal forest trees have various strategies to cope with water deficit owing to evolutionary and adaptive responses to historical drought events 32 , 63 . These strategies may allow seasonal forests to resist current levels of rainfall fluctuations 32 , but seasonal forests are also closer to the critical rainfall thresholds (Extended Data Fig. 1 ) and may experience unprecedented water stress in the coming decades (Fig. 1 ).

Other key heterogeneity factors (Extended Data Fig. 6 ) include topography, which determines plant access to groundwater 64 , and seasonal flooding, which increases forest vulnerability to wildfires 65 . Future changes in rainfall regimes will probably affect hydrological regimes 66 , exposing plateau (hilltop) forests to unprecedented water stress, and floodplain forests to extended floods, droughts and wildfires. Soil fertility is another heterogeneity factor that may affect forest resilience 59 , and which may be undermined by disturbances that cause topsoil erosion 60 . Moreover, as human disturbances intensify throughout the Amazon (Fig. 1 ), the spread of invasive grasses and fires can make the system increasingly homogeneous. Effects of heterogeneity on Amazon forest resilience have been poorly investigated so far (but see refs. 37 , 61 , 62 ) and many questions remain open, such as how much heterogeneity exists in the system and whether it can mitigate a systemic transition.

Sources of connectivity

Connectivity across Amazonian landscapes and regions can contribute to synchronize forest dynamics, causing different forests to behave more similarly 17 . Depending on the processes involved, connectivity can either increase or decrease the risk of systemic transition 17 . For instance, connectivity may facilitate forest recovery after disturbances through seed dispersal, but also it may spread disturbances, such as fire. In the Amazon, an important source of connectivity enhancing forest resilience is atmospheric moisture flow westward (Fig. 2 ), partly maintained by forest evapotranspiration 4 , 37 , 67 . Another example of connectivity that may increase social-ecological resilience is knowledge exchange among IPLCs about how to adapt to global change 68 , 69 (see Box 1 ). However, complex systems such as the Amazon can be particularly vulnerable to sources of connectivity that spread disturbances and increase the risk of systemic transition 70 . For instance, roads carving through the forest are well-known sources of illegal activities, such as logging and burning, which increase forest flammability 38 , 39 .

figure 2

Brazil holds 60% of the Amazon forest biome and has a major responsibility towards its neighbouring countries in the west. Brazil is the largest supplier of rainfall to western Amazonian countries. Up to one-third of the total annual rainfall in Amazonian territories of Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador depends on water originating from Brazil’s portion of the Amazon forest. This international connectivity illustrates how policies related to deforestation, especially in the Brazilian Amazon, will affect the climate in other countries. Arrow widths are proportional to the percentage of the annual rainfall received by each country within their Amazonian areas. We only show flows with percentages higher than 10% (see  Methods for details).

Five critical drivers of water stress

Global warming.

Most CMIP6 models agree that a large-scale dieback of the Amazon is unlikely in response to global warming above pre-industrial levels 2 , but this ecosystem response is based on certain assumptions, such as a large CO 2 -fertilization effect 53 . Forests across the Amazon are already responding with increasing tree mortality rates that are not simulated by these models 46 , possibly because of compounding disturbance regimes (Fig. 1 ). Nonetheless, a few global climate models 3 , 14 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 indicate a broad range for a potential critical threshold in global warming between 2 and 6 °C (Fig. 3a ). These contrasting results can be explained by general differences between numerical models and their representation of the complex Amazonian system. While some models with dynamic vegetation indicate local-scale tipping events in peripheral parts of the Amazon 5 , 6 , other models suggest an increase in biomass and forest cover (for example, in refs. 53 , 54 ). For instance, a study found that when considering only climatic variability, a large-scale Amazon forest dieback is unlikely, even under a high greenhouse gas emission scenario 75 . However, most updated CMIP6 models agree that droughts in the Amazon region will increase in length and intensity, and that exceptionally hot droughts will become more common 2 , creating conditions that will probably boost other types of disturbances, such as large and destructive forest fires 76 , 77 . To avoid broad-scale ecosystem transitions due to synergies between climatic and land use disturbances (Fig. 3b ), we suggest a safe boundary for the Amazon forest at 1.5 °C for global warming above pre-industrial levels, in concert with the Paris Agreement goals.

figure 3

a , Five critical drivers of water stress on Amazonian forests affect (directly or indirectly) the underlying tipping point of the system. For each driver, we indicate potential critical thresholds and safe boundaries that define a safe operating space for keeping the Amazon forest resilient 11 , 12 . We followed the precautionary principle and considered the most conservative thresholds within the ranges, when confidence was low. b , Conceptual model showing how the five drivers may interact (arrows indicate positive effects) and how these interactions may strengthen a positive feedback between water stress and forest loss. These emerging positive feedback loops could accelerate a systemic transition of the Amazon forest 15 . At global scales, driver 1 (global warming) intensifies with greenhouse gas emissions, including emissions from deforestation. At local scales, driver 5 (accumulated deforestation) intensifies with land use changes. Drivers 2 to 4 (regional rainfall conditions) intensify in response to drivers 1 and 5. The intensification of these drivers may cause widespread tree mortality for instance because of extreme droughts and fires 76 . Water stress affects vegetation resilience globally 79 , 104 , but other stressors, such as heat stress 34 , 36 , may also have a role. In the coming decades, these five drivers could change at different rates, with some approaching a critical threshold faster than others. Therefore, monitoring them separately can provide vital information to guide mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Annual rainfall

Satellite observations of tree cover distributions across tropical South America suggest a critical threshold between 1,000 and 1,250 mm of annual rainfall 78 , 79 . On the basis of our reanalysis using tree cover data from the Amazon basin (Extended Data Fig. 1a ), we confirm a potential threshold at 1,000 mm of annual rainfall (Fig. 3a ), below which forests become rare and unstable. Between 1,000 and 1,800 mm of annual rainfall, high and low tree cover ecosystems exist in the Amazon as two alternative stable states (see Extended Data Table 2 for uncertainty ranges). Within the bistability range in annual rainfall conditions, forests are relatively more likely to collapse when severely disturbed, when compared to forests in areas with annual rainfall above 1,800 mm (Extended Data Fig. 1a ). For floodplain ecosystems covering 14% of the forest biome, a different critical threshold has been estimated at 1,500 mm of annual rainfall 65 , implying that floodplain forests may be the first to collapse in a drier future. To avoid local-scale ecosystem transitions due to compounding disturbances, we suggest a safe boundary in annual rainfall conditions at 1,800 mm.

Rainfall seasonality intensity

Satellite observations of tree cover distributions across tropical South America suggest a critical threshold in rainfall seasonality intensity at −400 mm of the maximum cumulative water deficit 37 , 80 (MCWD). Our reanalysis of the Amazon basin (Extended Data Fig. 1c ) confirms the critical threshold at approximately −450 mm in the MCWD (Fig. 3a ), and suggests a bistability range between approximately −350 and −450 mm (see Extended Data Table 2 for uncertainty ranges), in which forests are more likely to collapse when severely disturbed than forests in areas with MCWD below −350 mm. To avoid local-scale ecosystem transitions due to compounding disturbances, we suggest a safe boundary of MCWD at −350 mm.

Dry season length

Satellite observations of tree cover distributions across tropical South America suggest a critical threshold at 7 months of dry season length 79 (DSL). Our reanalysis of the Amazon basin (Extended Data Fig. 1d ) suggests a critical threshold at eight months of DSL (Fig. 3a ), with a bistability range between approximately five and eight months (see Extended Data Table 2 for uncertainty ranges), in which forests are more likely to collapse when severely disturbed than forests in areas with DSL below five months. To avoid local-scale ecosystem transitions due to compounding disturbances, we suggest a safe boundary of DSL at five months.

Accumulated deforestation

A potential vegetation model 81 found a critical threshold at 20% of accumulated deforestation (Fig. 3a ) by simulating Amazon forest responses to different scenarios of accumulated deforestation (with associated fire events) and of greenhouse gas emissions, and by considering a CO 2 fertilization effect of 25% of the maximum photosynthetic assimilation rate. Beyond 20% deforestation, forest mortality accelerated, causing large reductions in regional rainfall and consequently an ecosystem transition of 50−60% of the Amazon, depending on the emissions scenario. Another study using a climate-vegetation model found that with accumulated deforestation of 30−50%, rainfall in non-deforested areas downwind would decline 67 by 40% (ref.  67 ), potentially causing more forest loss 4 , 37 . Other more recent models incorporating fire disturbances support a potential broad-scale transition of the Amazon forest, simulating a biomass loss of 30–40% under a high-emission scenario 5 , 82 (SSP5–8.5 at 4 °C). The Amazon biome has already lost 13% of its original forest area due to deforestation 83 (or 15% of the biome if we consider also young secondary forests 83 that provide limited contribution to moisture flow 84 ). Among the remaining old-growth forests, at least 38% have been degraded by land use disturbances and repeated extreme droughts 39 , with impacts on moisture recycling that are still uncertain. Therefore, to avoid broad-scale ecosystem transitions due to runaway forest loss (Fig. 3b ), we suggest a safe boundary of accumulated deforestation of 10% of the original forest biome cover, which requires ending large-scale deforestation and restoring at least 5% of the biome.

Three alternative ecosystem trajectories

Degraded forest.

In stable forest regions of the Amazon with annual rainfall above 1,800 mm (Extended Data Fig. 1b ), forest cover usually recovers within a few years or decades after disturbances, yet forest composition and functioning may remain degraded for decades or centuries 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 . Estimates from across the Amazon indicate that approximately 30% of areas previously deforested are in a secondary forest state 83 (covering 4% of the biome). An additional 38% of the forest biome has been damaged by extreme droughts, fires, logging and edge effects 38 , 39 . These forests may naturally regrow through forest succession, yet because of feedbacks 15 , succession can become arrested, keeping forests persistently degraded (Fig. 4 ). Different types of degraded forests have been identified in the Amazon, each one associated with a particular group of dominant opportunistic plants. For instance, Vismia forests are common in old abandoned pastures managed with fire 85 , and are relatively stable, because Vismia trees favour recruitment of Vismia seedlings in detriment of other tree species 88 , 89 . Liana forests can also be relatively stable, because lianas self-perpetuate by causing physical damage to trees, allowing lianas to remain at high density 90 , 91 . Liana forests are expected to expand with increasing aridity, disturbance regimes and CO 2 fertilization 90 . Guadua bamboo forests are common in the southwestern Amazon 92 , 93 . Similar to lianas, bamboos self-perpetuate by causing physical damage to trees and have been expanding over burnt forests in the region 92 . Degraded forests are usually dominated by native opportunistic species, and their increasing expansion over disturbed forests could affect Amazonian functioning and resilience in the future.

figure 4

From examples of disturbed forests across the Amazon, we identify the three most plausible ecosystem trajectories related to the types of disturbances, feedbacks and local environmental conditions. These alternative trajectories may be irreversible or transient depending on the strength of the novel interactions 15 . Particular combinations of interactions (arrows show positive effects described in the literature) may form feedback loops 15 that propel the ecosystem through these trajectories. In the ‘degraded forest’ trajectory, feedbacks often involve competition between trees and other opportunistic plants 85 , 90 , 92 , as well as interactions between deforestation, fire and seed limitation 84 , 87 , 105 . At the landscape scale, secondary forests are more likely to be cleared than mature forests, thus keeping forests persistently young and landscapes fragmented 83 . In the ‘degraded open-canopy ecosystem’ trajectory, feedbacks involve interactions among low tree cover and fire 97 , soil erosion 60 , seed limitation 105 , invasive grasses and opportunistic plants 96 . At the regional scale, a self-reinforcing feedback between forest loss and reduced atmospheric moisture flow may increase the resilience of these open-canopy degraded ecosystems 42 . In the ‘white-sand savanna’ trajectory, the main feedbacks result from interactions among low tree cover and fire, soil erosion, and seed limitation 106 . Bottom left, floodplain forest transition to white-sand savanna after repeated fires (photo credit: Bernardo Flores); bottom centre, forest transition to degraded open-canopy ecosystem after repeated fires (photo credit: Paulo Brando); bottom right, forest transition to Vismia degraded forest after slash-and-burn agriculture (photo credit: Catarina Jakovac).

White-sand savanna

White-sand savannas are ancient ecosystems that occur in patches within the Amazon forest biome, particularly in seasonally waterlogged or flooded areas 94 . Their origin has been attributed to geomorphological dynamics and past Indigenous fires 26 , 27 , 94 . In a remote landscape far from large agricultural frontiers, within a stable forest region of the Amazon (Extended Data Fig. 1b ), satellite and field evidence revealed that white-sand savannas are expanding where floodplain forests were repeatedly disturbed by fires 95 . After fire, the topsoil of burnt forests changes from clayey to sandy, favouring the establishment of savanna trees and native herbaceous plants 95 . Shifts from forest to white-sand savanna (Fig. 4 ) are probably stable (that is, the ecosystem is unlikely to recover back to forest within centuries), based on the relatively long persistence of these savannas in the landscape 94 . Although these ecosystem transitions have been confirmed only in the Negro river basin (central Amazon), floodplain forests in other parts of the Amazon were shown to be particularly vulnerable to collapse 45 , 64 , 65 .

Degraded open-canopy ecosystem

In bistable regions of the Amazon forest with annual rainfall below 1,800 mm (Extended Data Fig. 1b ), shifts to degraded open-canopy ecosystems are relatively common after repeated disturbances by fire 45 , 96 . The ecosystem often becomes dominated by fire-tolerant tree and palm species, together with alien invasive grasses and opportunistic herbaceous plants 96 , 97 , such as vines and ferns. Estimates from the southern Amazon indicate that 5−6% of the landscape has already shifted into degraded open-canopy ecosystems due to deforestation and fires 45 , 96 . It is still unclear, however, whether degraded open-canopy ecosystems are stable or transient (Fig. 4 ). Palaeorecords from the northern Amazon 98 show that burnt forests may spend centuries in a degraded open-canopy state before they eventually shift into a savanna. Today, invasion by alien flammable grasses is a novel stabilizing mechanism 96 , 97 , but the long-term persistence of these grasses in the ecosystem is also uncertain.

Prospects for modelling Amazon forest dynamics

Several aspects of the Amazon forest system may help improve earth system models (ESMs) to more accurately simulate ecosystem dynamics and feedbacks with the climate system. Simulating individual trees can improve the representation of growth and mortality dynamics, which ultimately affect forest dynamics (for example, refs. 61 , 62 , 99 ). Significant effects on simulation results may emerge from increasing plant functional diversity, representation of key physiological trade-offs and other features that determine water stress on plants, and also allowing for community adjustment to environmental heterogeneity and global change 32 , 55 , 62 , 99 . For now, most ESMs do not simulate a dynamic vegetation cover (Supplementary Table 1 ) and biomes are represented based on few plant functional types, basically simulating monocultures on the biome level. In reality, tree community adaptation to a heterogenous and dynamic environment feeds into the whole-system dynamics, and not covering such aspects makes a true Amazon tipping assessment more challenging.

Our findings also indicate that Amazon forest resilience is affected by compounding disturbances (Fig. 1 ). ESMs need to include different disturbance scenarios and potential synergies for creating more realistic patterns of disturbance regimes. For instance, logging and edge effects can make a forest patch more flammable 39 , but these disturbances are often not captured by ESMs. Improvements in the ability of ESMs to predict future climatic conditions are also required. One way is to identify emergent constraints 100 , lowering ESMs variations in their projections of the Amazonian climate. Also, fully coupled ESMs simulations are needed to allow estimates of land-atmosphere feedbacks, which may adjust climatic and ecosystem responses. Another way to improve our understanding of the critical thresholds for Amazonian resilience and how these link to climatic conditions and to greenhouse gas concentrations is through factorial simulations with ESMs. In sum, although our study may not deliver a set of reliable and comprehensive equations to parameterize processes impacting Amazon forest dynamics, required for implementation in ESMs, we highlight many of the missing modelled processes.

Implications for governance

Forest resilience is changing across the Amazon as disturbance regimes intensify (Fig. 1 ). Although most recent models agree that a large-scale collapse of the Amazon forest is unlikely within the twenty-first century 2 , our findings suggest that interactions and synergies among different disturbances (for example, frequent extreme hot droughts and forest fires) could trigger unexpected ecosystem transitions even in remote and central parts of the system 101 . In 2012, Davidson et al. 102 demonstrated how the Amazon basin was experiencing a transition to a ‘disturbance-dominated regime’ related to climatic and land use changes, even though at the time, annual deforestation rates were declining owing to new forms of governance 103 . Recent policy and approaches to Amazon development, however, accelerated deforestation that reached 13,000 km 2 in the Brazilian Amazon in 2021 ( http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br ). The southeastern region has already turned into a source of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere 48 . The consequences of losing the Amazon forest, or even parts of it, imply that we must follow a precautionary approach—that is, we must take actions that contribute to maintain the Amazon forest within safe boundaries 12 . Keeping the Amazon forest resilient depends firstly on humanity’s ability to stop greenhouse gas emissions, mitigating the impacts of global warming on regional climatic conditions 2 . At the local scale, two practical and effective actions need to be addressed to reinforce forest–rainfall feedbacks that are crucial for the resilience of the Amazon forest 4 , 37 : (1) ending deforestation and forest degradation; and (2) promoting forest restoration in degraded areas. Expanding protected areas and Indigenous territories can largely contribute to these actions. Our findings suggest a list of thresholds, disturbances and feedbacks that, if well managed, can help maintain the Amazon forest within a safe operating space for future generations.

Our study site was the area of the Amazon basin, considering large areas of tropical savanna biome along the northern portion of the Brazilian Cerrado, the Gran Savana in Venezuela and the Llanos de Moxos in Bolivia, as well as the Orinoco basin to the north, and eastern parts of the Andes to the west. The area includes also high Andean landscapes with puna and paramo ecosystems. We chose this contour to allow better communication with the MapBiomas Amazonian Project (2022; https://amazonia.mapbiomas.org ). For specific interpretation of our results, we considered the contour of the current extension of the Amazon forest biome, which excludes surrounding tropical savanna biomes.

We used the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF) data (MOD44B version 6; https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mod44bv006/ ) for the year 2001 at 250-m resolution 124 to reanalyse tree cover distributions within the Amazon basin, refining estimates of bistability ranges and critical thresholds in rainfall conditions from previous studies. Although MODIS VCF can contain errors within lower tree cover ranges and should not be used to test for bistability between grasslands and savannas 125 , the dataset is relatively robust for assessing bistability within the tree cover range of forests and savannas 126 , as also shown by low uncertainty (standard deviation of tree cover estimates) across the Amazon (Extended Data Fig. 8 ).

We used the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS; https://www.chc.ucsb.edu/data/chirps ) 127 to estimate mean annual rainfall and rainfall seasonality for the present across the Amazon basin, based on monthly means from 1981 to 2020, at a 0.05° spatial resolution.

We used the Climatic Research Unit (CRU; https://www.uea.ac.uk/groups-and-centres/climatic-research-unit ) 128 to estimate mean annual temperature for the present across the Amazon basin, based on monthly means from 1981 to 2020, at a 0.5° spatial resolution.

To mask deforested areas until 2020, we used information from the MapBiomas Amazonia Project (2022), collection 3, of Amazonian Annual Land Cover and Land Use Map Series ( https://amazonia.mapbiomas.org ).

To assess forest fire distribution across the Amazon forest biome and in relation to road networks, we used burnt area fire data obtained from the AQUA sensor onboard the MODIS satellite. Only active fires with a confidence level of 80% or higher were selected. The data are derived from MODIS MCD14ML (collection 6) 129 , available in Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS). The data were adjusted to a spatial resolution of 1 km.

Potential analysis

Using potential analysis 130 , an empirical stability landscape was constructed based on spatial distributions of tree cover (excluding areas deforested until 2020; https://amazonia.mapbiomas.org ) against mean annual precipitation, MCWD and DSL. Here we followed the methodology of Hirota et al. 104 . For bins of each of the variables, the probability density of tree cover was determined using the MATLAB function ksdensity. Local maxima of the resulting probability density function are considered to be stable equilibria, in which local maxima below a threshold value of 0.005 were ignored. Based on sensitivity tests (see below), we chose the intermediate values of the sensitivity parameter for each analysis, which resulted in the critical thresholds most similar to the ones previously published in the literature.

Sensitivity tests of the potential analysis

We smoothed the densities of tree cover with the MATLAB kernel smoothing function ksdensity. Following Hirota et al. 104 , we used a flexible bandwidth ( h ) according to Silverman’s rule of thumb 131 : h  = 1.06 σn 1/5 , where σ is the standard deviation of the tree cover distribution and n is the number of points. To ignore small bumps in the frequency distributions, we used a dimensionless sensitivity parameter. This parameter filters out weak modes in the distributions such that a higher value implies a stricter criterion to detect a significant mode. In the manuscript, we used a value of 0.005. For different values of this sensitivity parameter, we here test the estimated critical thresholds and bistability ranges (Extended Data Table 2 ). We inferred stable and unstable states of tree cover (minima and maxima in the potentials) for moving windows of the climatic variables. For mean annual precipitation, we used increments of 10 mm yr −1 between 0 and 3500 mm yr −1 . For dry season length, we used increments of 0.1 months between 0 and 12 months. For MCWD, we used increments of 10 mm between −800 mm and 0 mm.

Transition potential

We quantified a relative ecosystem transition potential across the Amazon forest biome (excluding accumulated deforestation; https://amazonia.mapbiomas.org ) to produce a simple spatial measure that can be useful for governance. For this, we combined information per pixel, at 5 km resolution, about different disturbances related to climatic and human disturbances, as well as high-governance areas within protected areas and Indigenous territories. We used values of significant slopes of the dry season (July–October) mean temperature between 1981 and 2020 ( P  < 0.1), estimated using simple linear regressions (at 0.5° resolution from CRU) (Fig. 1a ). Ecosystem stability classes (stable forest, bistable and stable savanna as in Extended Data Fig. 1 ) were estimated using simple linear regression slopes of annual rainfall between 1981 and 2020 ( P  < 0.1) (at 0.05° resolution from CHIRPS), which we extrapolated to 2050 (Fig. 1b and Extended Data Fig. 3 ). Distribution of areas affected by repeated extreme drought events (Fig. 1c ) were defined when the time series (2001–2018) of the MCWD reached two standard deviation anomalies from historical mean. Extreme droughts were obtained from Lapola et al. 39 , based on Climatic Research Unit gridded Time Series (CRU TS 4.0) datasets for precipitation and evapotranspiration. The network of roads (paved and unpaved) across the Amazon forest biome (Fig. 1d ) was obtained from the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG; https://geo2.socioambiental.org/raisg ). Protected areas (PAs) and Indigenous territories (Fig. 1e ) were also obtained from RAISG, and include both sustainable-use and restricted-use protected areas managed by national or sub-national governments, together with officially recognized and proposed Indigenous territories. We combined these different disturbance layers by adding a value for each layer in the following way: (1) slopes of dry season temperature change (as in Fig. 1a , multiplied by 10, thus between −0.1 and +0.6); (2) ecosystem stability classes estimated for year 2050 (as in Fig. 1b ), with 0 for stable forest, +1 for bistable and +2 for stable savanna; (3) accumulated impacts from repeated extreme drought events (from 0 to 5 events), with +0.2 for each event; (4) road-related human impacts, with +1 for pixels within 10 km from a road; and (5) protected areas and Indigenous territories as areas with lower exposure to human (land use) disturbances, such as deforestation and forest fires, with −1 for pixels inside these areas. The sum of these layers revealed relative spatial variation in ecosystem transition potential by 2050 across the Amazon (Fig. 1f ), ranging from −1 (low potential) to 4 (very high potential).

Atmospheric moisture tracking

To determine the atmospheric moisture flows between the Amazonian countries, we use the Lagrangian atmospheric moisture tracking model UTrack 132 . The model tracks the atmospheric trajectories of parcels of moisture, updates their coordinates at each time step of 0.1 h and allocates moisture to a target location in case of precipitation. For each millimetre of evapotranspiration, 100 parcels are released into the atmosphere. Their trajectories are forced with evaporation, precipitation, and wind speed estimates from the ERA5 reanalysis product at 0.25° horizontal resolution for 25 atmospheric layers 133 . Here we use the runs from Tuinenburg et al. 134 , who published monthly climatological mean (2008–2017) moisture flows between each pair of 0.5° grid cells on Earth. We aggregated these monthly flows, resulting in mean annual moisture flows between all Amazonian countries during 2008–2017. For more details of the model runs, we refer to Tuinenburg and Staal 132 and Tuinenburg et al. 134 .

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the  Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

All data supporting the findings of this study are openly available and their sources are presented in the Methods.

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Acknowledgements

This work was inspired by the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) initiative ( https://www.theamazonwewant.org/ ) that produced the first Amazon Assessment Report (2021). The authors thank C. Smith for providing deforestation rates data used in Extended Data Fig. 5b . B.M.F. and M.H. were supported by Instituto Serrapilheira (Serra-1709-18983) and C.J. (R-2111-40341). A.S. acknowledges funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) under the Talent Program Grant VI.Veni.202.170. R.A.B. and D.M.L. were supported by the AmazonFACE programme funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI). R.A.B. was additionally supported by the Met Office Climate Science for Service Partnership (CSSP) Brazil project funded by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and D.M.L. was additionally supported by FAPESP (grant no. 2020/08940-6) and CNPq (grant no. 309074/2021-5). C.L. thanks CNPq (proc. 159440/2018-1 and 400369/2021-4) and Brazil LAB (Princeton University) for postdoctoral fellowships. A.E.-M. is supported by the UKRI TreeScapes MEMBRA (NE/V021346/1), the Royal Society (RGS\R1\221115), the ERC TreeMort project (758873) and the CESAB Syntreesys project. R.S.O. received a CNPq productivity scholarship and funding from NERC-FAPESP 2019/07773-1. S.B.H. is supported by the Geneva Graduate Institute research funds, and UCLA’s committee on research. J.A.M. is supported by the National Institute of Science and Technology for Climate Change Phase 2 under CNPq grant 465501/2014-1; FAPESP grants 2014/50848-9, the National Coordination for Higher Education and Training (CAPES) grant 88887.136402-00INCT. L.S.B. received FAPESP grant 2013/50531-0. D.N. and N.B. acknowledge funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 820970. N.B. has received further funding from the Volkswagen foundation, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 956170, as well as from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under grant no. 01LS2001A.

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Graduate Program in Ecology, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil

Bernardo M. Flores, Carolina Levis & Marina Hirota

Geosciences Barcelona, Spanish National Research Council, Barcelona, Spain

Encarni Montoya

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany

Boris Sakschewski, Da Nian & Niklas Boers

Institute of Advanced Studies, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Nathália Nascimento & Carlos A. Nobre

Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, UK

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Adriane Esquível-Muelbert

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Catarina Jakovac

Department of Plant Biology, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil

Rafael S. Oliveira & Marina Hirota

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Contributions

B.M.F. and M.H. conceived the study. B.M.F. reviewed the literature, with inputs from all authors. B.M.F., M.H., N.N., A.S., C.L., D.N, H.t.S. and C.R.C.M. assembled datasets. M.H. analysed temperature and rainfall trends. B.M.F. and N.N. produced the maps in main figures and calculated transition potential. A.S. performed potential analysis and atmospheric moisture tracking. B.M.F. produced the figures and wrote the manuscript, with substantial inputs from all authors. B.S. wrote the first version of the ‘Prospects for modelling Amazon forest dynamics’ section, with inputs from B.M.F and M.H.

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Correspondence to Bernardo M. Flores or Marina Hirota .

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended data fig. 1 alternative stable states in amazonian tree cover relative to rainfall conditions..

Potential analysis of tree cover distributions across rainfall gradients in the Amazon basin suggest the existence of critical thresholds and alternative stable states in the system. For this, we excluded accumulated deforestation until 2020 and included large areas of tropical savanna biome in the periphery of the Amazon basin (see  Methods ). Solid black lines indicate two stable equilibria. Small grey arrows indicate the direction towards equilibrium. (a) The overlap between ~ 1,000 and 1,800 mm of annual rainfall suggests that two alternative stable states may exist (bistability): a high tree cover state ~ 80 % (forests), and a low tree cover state ~ 20% (savannas). Tree cover around 50 % is rare, indicating an unstable state. Below 1,000 mm of annual rainfall, forests are rare, indicating a potential critical threshold for abrupt forest transition into a low tree cover state 79 , 104 (arrow 1). Between 1,000 and 1,800 mm of annual rainfall, the existence of alternative stable states implies that forests can shift to a low tree cover stable state in response to disturbances (arrow 2). Above 1,800 mm of annual rainfall, low tree cover becomes rare, indicating a potential critical threshold for an abrupt transition into a high tree cover state. In this stable forest state, forests are expected to always recover after disturbances (arrow 3), although composition may change 47 , 85 . (b) Currently, the stable savanna state covers 1 % of the Amazon forest biome, bistable areas cover 13 % of the biome (less than previous analysis using broader geographical ranges 78 ) and the stable forest state covers 86 % of the biome. Similar analyses using the maximum cumulative water deficit (c) and the dry season length (d) also suggest the existence of critical thresholds and alternative stable states. When combined, these critical thresholds in rainfall conditions could result in a tipping point of the Amazon forest in terms of water stress, but other factors may play a role, such as groundwater availability 64 . MODIS VCF may contain some level of uncertainty for low tree cover values, as shown by the standard deviation of tree cover estimates across the Amazon (Extended Data Fig. 8 ). However, the dataset is relatively robust for assessing bistability within the tree cover range between forest and savanna 126 .

Extended Data Fig. 2 Changes in dry-season temperatures across the Amazon basin.

(a) Dry season temperature averaged from mean annual data observed between 1981 and 2010. (b) Changes in dry season mean temperature based on the difference between the projected future (2021−2050) and observed historical (1981−2010) climatologies. Future climatology was obtained from the estimated slopes using historical CRU data 128 (shown in Fig. 1a ). (c, d) Changes in the distributions of dry season mean and maximum temperatures for the Amazon basin. (e) Correlation between dry-season mean and maximum temperatures observed (1981–2010) across the Amazon basin ( r  = 0.95).

Extended Data Fig. 3 Changes in annual precipitation and ecosystem stability across the Amazon forest biome.

(a) Slopes of annual rainfall change between 1981 and 2020 estimated using simple regressions (only areas with significant slopes, p  < 0.1). (b) Changes in ecosystem stability classes projected for year 2050, based on significant slopes in (a) and critical thresholds in annual rainfall conditions estimated in Extended Data Fig. 1 . Data obtained from Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), at 0.05° spatial resolution 127 .

Extended Data Fig. 4 Changes in ecosystem stability by 2050 across the Amazon based on annual rainfall projected by CMIP6 models.

(a) Changes in stability classes estimated using an ensemble with the five CMIP6 models that include vegetation modules (coupled for climate-vegetation feedbacks) for two emission scenarios (Shared Socio-economic Pathways - SSPs). (b) Changes in stability classes estimated using an ensemble with all 33 CMIP6 models for the same emission scenarios. Stability changes may occur between stable forest (F), stable savanna (S) and bistable (B) classes, based on the bistability range of 1,000 – 1,800 mm in annual rainfall, estimated from current rainfall conditions (see Extended Data Fig. 1 ). Projections are based on climate models from the 6 th Phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). SSP2-4.5 is a low-emission scenario of future global warming and SSP5-8.5 is a high-emission scenario. The five coupled models analysed separately in (a) were: EC-Earth3-Veg, GFDL-ESM4, MPI-ESM1-2-LR, TaiESM1 and UKESM1-0-LL (Supplementary Information Table 1 ).

Extended Data Fig. 5 Deforestation continues to expand within the Amazon forest system.

(a) Map highlighting deforestation and fire activity between 2012 and 2021, a period when environmental governance began to weaken again, as indicated by increasing rates of annual deforestation in (b). In (b), annual deforestation rates for the entire Amazon biome were adapted with permission from Smith et al. 83 .

Extended Data Fig. 6 Environmental heterogeneity in the Amazon forest system.

Heterogeneity involves myriad factors, but two in particular, related to water availability, were shown to contribute to landscape-scale heterogeneity in forest resilience; topography shapes fine-scale variations of forest drought-tolerance 135 , 136 , and floodplains may reduce forest resilience by increasing vulnerability to wildfires 65 . Datasets: topography is shown by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM; https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ ) 137 at 90 m resolution; floodplains and uplands are separated with the Amazon wetlands mask 138 at 90 m resolution.

Extended Data Fig. 7 The Amazon is biologically and culturally diverse.

(a) Tree species richness and (b) language richness illustrate how biological and cultural diversity varies across the Amazon. Diverse tree communities and human cultures contribute to increasing forest resilience in various ways that are being undermined by land-use and climatic changes. Datasets: (a) Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN, https://atdn.myspecies.info ). (b) World Language Mapping System (WLMS) obtained under license from Ethnologue 139 .

Extended Data Fig. 8 Uncertainty of the MODIS VCF dataset across the Amazon basin.

Map shows standard deviation (SD) of tree cover estimates from MODIS VCF 124 . We masked deforested areas until 2020 using the MapBiomas Amazonia Project (2022; https://amazonia.mapbiomas.org ).

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Flores, B.M., Montoya, E., Sakschewski, B. et al. Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system. Nature 626 , 555–564 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06970-0

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By Nicholas Fandos and Katie Glueck

In the heart of Long Island, where Republicans have won every major election in the last three years, Tom Suozzi fought through ripping political headwinds to claim victory on Tuesday in a special House election, seizing a coveted swing district that had been held by George Santos.

Mr. Suozzi’s eight-point win flipped one of the five House seats Democrats need to retake the majority in November, giving the party a badly needed shot of optimism. But his campaign also provided something that may prove more valuable, a playbook for candidates across the country competing on turf where President Biden and his party remain deeply unpopular.

The strategy went something like this: Challenge Republicans on issues that they usually monopolize, like crime, taxes and, above all, immigration. Flash an independent streak. And fire up the Democratic base with attacks — in this case, nearly $10 million in ads — on the abortion issue and former President Donald J. Trump, the likely Republican nominee for the White House.

“It’s a very interesting lesson to Democrats that you can escape your opponent’s attacks on immigration by not only leaning into the issue, but doubling down on it,” said Steve Israel, a former congressman from the district who once led the House Democrats’ campaign arm.

“Instead of trying to pivot around the issue, he charged into it,” Mr. Israel added.

One of the most vivid examples came in the race’s final weeks. Mr. Suozzi was on his way to a meeting one morning and learned that his Republican opponent, Mazi Pilip, was about to hold an event at a Queens migrant shelter blaming him for the nation’s growing border crisis.

The issue had all the makings of a political storm for the party in power — one that other Democrats might have written off as a lost cause. But Mr. Suozzi redirected his car through choked traffic, pulled up just in time to follow Ms. Pilip in front of TV news cameras and threw himself squarely into the fray.

“You want to try to respond to what the people are hungering for,” he explained at the January event. “This is what the people are hungering for.”

On Wednesday, even House Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged that Mr. Suozzi’s approach had broken through, though he downplayed the significance of the result.

“He sounded like a Republican, talking about the border and immigration,” Mr. Johnson told reporters in the Capitol. “Because, everybody knows, that’s the top issue.”

Mr. Suozzi’s victory was not the only piece of good news for Democrats on Tuesday night. They also won a special election in a key battleground , Bucks County in Pennsylvania, to maintain control of the State House.

In both cases, the Biden campaign released statements casting the Democratic victories as defeats of Trumpism — a view echoed in part by a spokeswoman for Nikki Haley, Mr. Trump’s last significant, if long-shot, Republican primary challenger.

“We just lost another winnable Republican House seat because voters overwhelmingly reject Donald Trump,” the spokeswoman, Olivia Perez-Cubas, said of the New York contest. “Until Republicans wake up, we will continue to lose.”

Mr. Trump, for his part, distanced himself from Ms. Pilip, a registered Democrat who ran as a Republican, deriding her as a “very foolish woman.” In a statement on TruthSocial, he wrote in capital letters, “MAGA, which is most of the Republican Party, stayed home — and it always will, unless it is treated with the respect that it deserves.”

Political strategists of all stripes caution against drawing sweeping conclusions from special elections. The races can offer a snapshot of political energy at a moment in time, but they are far from predictive.

Certainly not everything about Mr. Suozzi’s victory will be replicable. After three decades in local politics, he had the benefit of a strong personal brand, plus a largely unknown opponent and a Republican predecessor who was universally reviled after his expulsion from the House in December.

And if Mr. Suozzi’s run spared the Democrats a full-on election-year freakout, it also laid bare the extent of the party’s challenges ahead.

Mr. Suozzi, a longtime ally of Mr. Biden, distanced himself from the president and the national party at nearly every turn. That will prove far more difficult for candidates on the ballot during a presidential election — and some of Mr. Suozzi’s positions would risk blowback from the Democratic base in other, less moderate districts.

“Joe Biden won this district by eight points, Democrats outspent Republicans two-to-one and our Democrat opponent spent decades representing these New Yorkers — yet it was still a dogfight,” Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the chair of the House Republican campaign arm, said in a statement. “Republicans still have multiple pathways to grow our majority in November.”

Still, Democratic candidates and operatives were clearly buoyed by Mr. Suozzi’s ability to defang a potent set of issues that typically hamstring the party, especially as it competes in five other Republican-held swing districts in New York.

Immigration was by far the most significant. Illegal border crossings reached a high in December. The arrival of more than 170,000 asylum seekers in New York City, straining budgets and the police force, has brought a sense of chaos close to home.

Republicans pummeled Mr. Suozzi with millions of dollars in attack ads portraying him as a Biden flunky who favored open borders. At one point, the Pilip campaign called him the “godfather of the border crisis .” House Republicans released a memo on Wednesday citing private polling from last week that showed that 45 percent of voters listed immigration as their top issue, and that the attacks badly tarnished Mr. Suozzi’s image.

Republicans had used similar fears about an adjacent issue, crime, to fuel remarkable victories around suburban New York since 2021, especially on Long Island. Their successes there in 2022, at a time when Republicans underperformed across the country, almost single-handedly delivered the party’s margin in the House.

But this time, Mr. Suozzi, who watched fellow Democrats all but concede the issue to Republicans that year, was determined not to repeat the mistake.

So, over the course of the two-month race, he broke with party orthodoxy, calling on Mr. Biden to shut down the southern border and demanding that migrants charged with assaulting police officers in Times Square be deported. But his primary focus was bipartisanship, with the message that “solutions are not sound bites.”

When Ms. Pilip rejected a bipartisan Senate deal to boost deportations and fortify the border, Mr. Suozzi turned the tables, arguing that she was putting base politics above national security.

Other public opinion polls over the course of the race suggested that Ms. Pilip had an advantage among voters concerned about the border issue, but Mr. Suozzi narrowed the trust gap. Democratic strategists credited Mr. Suozzi’s direct embrace of immigration as a campaign policy with helping him win over the district’s large independent voting block, which had abandoned the party in 2022. And among loyal Democrats, more traditional Democratic messages on abortions, gun safety and Mr. Trump motivated a strong turnout.

Mr. Biden himself has begun testing a similar approach on the issue, blaming Mr. Trump for tanking the bipartisan deal in the Senate that Republicans had negotiated. The message has been echoed by other Democrats who cast Republicans as extreme and uninterested in solutions to urgent issues.

“This was such a stark, clear choice of, do folks want members of Congress who are going to fearmonger, or who are going to fix a whole bunch of issues,” said Representative Pat Ryan, a New York Democrat preparing to defend a nearby Hudson Valley swing seat. “We’ve had a year-plus of chaos, division and dysfunction in the House. And to me this is a clear rejection of that.”

Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government. More about Nicholas Fandos

Katie Glueck is a national political reporter. Previously, she was chief Metro political correspondent, and a lead reporter for The Times covering the Biden campaign. She also covered politics for McClatchy’s Washington bureau and for Politico. More about Katie Glueck

I'm rooting for Detroit Tigers' Javier Baez to succeed with new approach, even if it's unlikely

literary approaches

Let me start with this: I’m rooting for Javier Báez.

I’m rooting for the Detroit Tigers ’ struggling shortstop for two reasons. The first is I want to see if the Tigers can pull off their grand experiment and fix a player who has been broken and getting worse over the past two years.

But I’m also rooting for Báez as a person, because he has handled his struggles honorably and professionally. He is a lightning rod for criticism , yet he hasn’t lashed out at anyone or become a cancer or even a sullen presence in the clubhouse.

He has remained a good teammate and acknowledged his struggles. He committed himself to the offseason plan of strengthening his lower back and core while working with Tigers trainers and coaches in Puerto Rico and Florida. He faced live pitching in the offseason instead of typically waiting until spring training.

TIGERS SPRING OBSERVATIONS: Tarik Skubal faces Spencer Torkelson, Colt Keith, Javier Báez

At 31, Báez is trying to turn back the clock by changing his violent swing and recapture something close to all the success he had in eight seasons with the Cubs that produced 140 home runs and made him the National League’s RBI leader in 2018.

In this way, Báez exemplifies the best of the human spirit, the drive and the will to overcome failure and improve. He speaks often about wanting to see the ball better and regaining the trust in his swing.

“ I'm feeling better in my low back and my core,” he told reporters Saturday in Lakeland, Florida. “It feels pretty good right now. I've been swinging. I've been seeing live pitches. It hasn't bothered me a lot, so hopefully, it stays that way.”

The Tigers are in the midst of a rebuild with a few young foundational pieces surrounded by many players with unknown potential and several prospects waiting in the wings. A solid if unspectacular pitching staff is supposed to take the pressure off the weak offense.

The albatross that was Miguel Cabrera’s contract and anemic production is gone, but even with it last season the Tigers still finished second to Minnesota in the American League Central. And even with Báez’s massively disappointing season at the plate that produced a .222 average, nine homers, 59 RBIs, a .593 OPS and a 62 OPS+ (second lowest among qualified major-league hitters), the Tigers were just 10 games away from winning the division.

[ MUST LISTEN: Make "Days of Roar" your go-to Detroit Tigers podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts ( Apple , Spotify ) ]  

Báez’s struggles leaked into other parts of his game, leading to an early season benching after a big baserunning blunder in Toronto, which he admirably owned up to. But it reminded me of the old line by John McKay, the late Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach: “We didn't tackle well today but we made up for it by not blocking.”

Now just imagine if this all works. If the stronger muscles, the new commitment, the different approach all comes together and Báez just comes close to his baseline production in Chicago. Maybe something like 22 homers, a .262 average and a .777 OPS. Imagine what that would do to helping speed along the Tigers’ rebuild, if not their playoff chances in a weak division.

Báez already has.

“There is a lot of talent here,” he said. “The way people describe us depends on how we play. We played good as a team last year.”

Then Báez said something that tells you a lot about who is he as a player, a person and a teammate.

“It didn't go well for me,” he said, “but we played better than the year before.”

It’s rare to hear any athlete admit a struggle so bluntly, but it’s even rarer to hear it uttered in the same sentence that praises those around them.

I know it’s hard for some people to muster sympathy for rich professional athletes like Báez, who is woefully underperforming while he has $98 million and four years left on his contract. But the effort is clearly there and if the results follow, if Báez and the Tigers succeed at making him a better player this season, it would be a marvel that would surely prompt massive interest in the team’s methods.

The problem is that that baseball usually doesn’t work this way, especially as players age. There are too many tendencies and analytics that the Tigers and every opposing pitcher will be aware of when Báez steps up to the plate.

Baez’s dreadful lunges at sweepers led laughable GIFs and a .097 average against that pitch in 2022, which improved to .189 last year. But the biggest indictment was his .177 average against four-seam fastballs last season. And if you can’t hit a fastball in the majors, it’s time to look for another job.

While I’m rooting for Báez to succeed and make himself into a better version of himself by accessing the most inspiring element of the human spirit, the reality is that human nature makes us creatures of habit compelled to stay the same. Just ask yourself how much weight you’ve lost lately or how those piano lessons are going or how much of that language course you’ve finished.

Unfortunately for Báez, he happens to be a human.

On the first day of spring training at Joker Marchant Stadium, it was observed that Báez had changed his routine from the previous year of parking his $250,000 Lamborghini Urus under palm trees beside a bed of flowers. Along with all the offseason changes came a new spot in the regular parking lot.

One day later, Baez moved his car back under the palm trees and next to the flowers.

Contact Carlos Monarrez: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter  @cmonarrez .

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Heavy Machinery Meets AI

  • Vijay Govindarajan
  • Venkat Venkatraman

literary approaches

Until recently most incumbent industrial companies didn’t use highly advanced software in their products. But now the sector’s leaders have begun applying generative AI and machine learning to all kinds of data—including text, 3D images, video, and sound—to create complex, innovative designs and solve customer problems with unprecedented speed.

Success involves much more than installing computers in products, however. It requires fusion strategies, which join what manufacturers do best—creating physical products—with what digital firms do best: mining giant data sets for critical insights. There are four kinds of fusion strategies: Fusion products, like smart glass, are designed from scratch to collect and leverage information on product use in real time. Fusion services, like Rolls-Royce’s service for increasing the fuel efficiency of aircraft, deliver immediate customized recommendations from AI. Fusion systems, like Honeywell’s for building management, integrate machines from multiple suppliers in ways that enhance them all. And fusion solutions, such as Deere’s for increasing yields for farmers, combine products, services, and systems with partner companies’ innovations in ways that greatly improve customers’ performance.

Combining digital and analog machines will upend industrial companies.

Idea in Brief

The problem.

Until recently most incumbent industrial companies didn’t use the most advanced software in their products. But competitors that can extract complex designs, insights, and trends using generative AI have emerged to challenge them.

The Solution

Industrial companies must develop strategies that fuse what they do best—creating physical products—with what digital companies do best: using data and AI to parse enormous, interconnected data sets and develop innovative insights.

The Changes Required

Companies will have to reimagine analog products and services as digitally enabled offerings, learn to create new value from data generated by the combination of physical and digital assets, and partner with other companies to create ecosystems with an unwavering focus on helping customers solve problems.

For more than 187 years, Deere & Company has simplified farmwork. From the advent of the first self-scouring plow, in 1837, to the launch of its first fully self-driving tractor, in 2022, the company has built advanced industrial technology. The See & Spray is an excellent contemporary example. The automated weed killer features a self-propelled, 120-foot carbon-fiber boom lined with 36 cameras capable of scanning 2,100 square feet per second. Powered by 10 onboard vision-processing units handling almost four gigabytes of data per second, the system uses AI and deep learning to distinguish crops from weeds. Once a weed is identified, a command is sent to spray and kill it. The machine moves through a field at 12 miles per hour without stopping. Manual labor would be more expensive, more time-consuming, and less reliable than the See & Spray. By fusing computer hardware and software with industrial machinery, it has helped farmers decrease their use of herbicide by more than two-thirds and exponentially increase productivity.

  • Vijay Govindarajan is the Coxe Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, an executive fellow at Harvard Business School, and faculty partner at the Silicon Valley incubator Mach 49. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. His latest book is Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future . His Harvard Business Review articles “ Engineering Reverse Innovations ” and “ Stop the Innovation Wars ” won McKinsey Awards for best article published in HBR. His HBR articles “ How GE Is Disrupting Itself ” and “ The CEO’s Role in Business Model Reinvention ” are HBR all-time top-50 bestsellers. Follow him on LinkedIn . vgovindarajan
  • Venkat Venkatraman is the David J. McGrath Professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, where he is a member of both the information systems and strategy and innovation departments. His current research focuses on how companies develop winning digital strategies. His latest book is Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future.  Follow him on LinkedIn . NVenkatraman

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  1. Literary Theory: Understanding 15 Types of Literary Criticism

    Writing Literary Theory: Understanding 15 Types of Literary Criticism Written by MasterClass Last updated: Jun 7, 2021 • 4 min read Literary theory enables readers and critics a better understanding of literature through close readings and contextual insights.

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    Learn about the different schools or traditions of literary analysis, such as formalist, new historicist, psychoanalytic, feminist, Marxist, and queer, and how they interpret texts. Find out how to apply these methods to your own analysis of literature and discover sources that may help you.

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    a genre of argument about a specific text or a set of texts. Key Terms: Archive, Canon; Dialectic; Hermeneutics; Semiotics; Text & Intertextuality; Tone; rhetoric, intersubjectivity, modernism, postmodernism. *Alternative Article Title (s): Critical Theory General Strategies for Engaging in Literary Criticism Engage in Rhetorical Analysis

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    Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, 1999, by Lois Tyson; Beginning Theory, 2002, by Peter Barry; Although philosophers, critics, educators and authors have been writing about writing since ancient times, contemporary schools of literary theory have cohered from these discussions and now influence how scholars look at and write about ...

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    "Literary theory," however, refers to a particular form of literary criticism in which particular academic, scientific, or philosophical approaches are followed in a systematic fashion while analyzing literary texts. For example, a psychoanalytic theorist might examine and interpret a literary text strictly through the theoretical lens of

  18. ENGL 210: Introduction to Literature: Approaches to Literature

    Postmodern criticism recognizes that literature is social and can be understood from multiple points of view. It seeks inclusiveness, opening the discussion to both dominant and minority voices. Use the "Literary Theories: A Sampling of Critical Lenses" page to learn about postmodern approaches to literature.

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    Today, approaches based in literary theory and continental philosophy largely coexist in university literature departments, while conventional methods, some informed by the New Critics, also remain active. Disagreements over the goals and methods of literary criticism, which characterized both sides taken by critics during the "rise" of theory ...

  20. Critical Approaches Chart

    Critical Approaches Chart Use the critical approaches discussed in the chart below to help you find an interesting angle from which to approach a text. Each approach is given a brief description (Beliefs), some guidelines for studying a text (Practices) and prompts to inspire your discussion (Questions).

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    By "literary approaches" I do not mean simply "the way that literature is treated." Literature is treated many ways, and post-New Critical versions of "close reading" share a .

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    12. Cultural - an approach in knowing the culture of the people and one of the pleasurable ways of appreciating the literature of the people. Formalistic - based on the literary elements Moral / Humanistic - close to the morality of literature , to questions of ethical goodness and badness. Conclusion. 13.

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    Important aspects of a systematic literature review (SLR) include a structured method for conducting the study and significant transparency of the approaches used for summarizing the literature (Hiebl, 2023).The inspection of existing scientific literature is a valuable tool for (a) developing best practices and (b) resolving issues or controversies over a single study (Gupta et al., 2018).

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