In reality the ways of approaching the task of how to read any work of literature vary as widely as the number of readers of that particular work. For scholastic purposes--in general achieving a greater understanding of all the aspects of a work of art--the most common methods are grouped into the following categories, or their respective sub-groups:


Please let me know if you believe I have left out anything drastically important, or made any glaring errors in my glosses. Done from familiarty and reference to this handy site: http://www.sla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/