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Fact vs. Interpretation in Literary Analysis
Identifying the facts of a text is a crucial skill for students of literature. In general, demographic information and plot (information about names, events, dates, times) are facts, and are therefore not open to interpretation. Literary analysis is the use of details in a text as evidence to support debatable claims about the text. Interpretations based on debatable claims must be supported by evidence, and they must not contradict the facts that are established by the text.
For example, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight establishes the fact that the Green Knight enters the court at Camelot dressed entirely in green, with green skin and green hair. His clothes, his armor, and his horse are all entirely green. It would not be very useful to contradict this fact. Arguing that the Green Knight was, in fact, red and not green would ignore crucial facts established by the text, and you would need to have a good reason to make such a questionable claim.
It will help to understand what kind of narrator you have, because the reliability of the narrator (if there is one) can help you judge the reliability of the facts presented in the text. The most common type of narrator is third person omniscient. The facts presented by this kind of narrator are difficult to question, because we presume that the narrator knows what is happening and is not trying to…
