Basic Procedures for Analyzing an Artistic Text
(4Q Method)
 

1.  What did you see?

 Describe the picture(s), plot, images, sounds in detail.
 
 

2.  What techniques did you see?

 In poetry: rhyme, metre, symbol, tone (and more).

 In story: plot, character, structure, foreshadowing, symbol, irony (and more).

 In art: medium, color, shape, space (and more).

 In film: frame, editing, imagery, sound (and lots more).
 
 

3.  What does it mean?

 What is the text saying?

 This stage if often called interpretation.
 
 

4.  What is its significance?

 This is similar to number three but instead of asking what it means,
we take what it means (our interpretation) and ask why it matters,
what truth it reveals about the nature of reality (or what lies).