William Carlos Williams’ “The Young Housewife”: A Postcritical Reading vis-à-vis Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree

Using the framework of Rita Felski in her 2015 book The Limits of Critique, this essay offers a postcritical analysis of William Carlos Williams’ 1915 poem “The Young Housewife.” Its intention is to show how Williams’ poem or any poem can be approached through a variety of critical lenses, but that these may get in the way of more immediate, rewarding ways of reading. Shel Silverstein's well-known 1964 short book The Giving Tree is similar at the level of “plot” to “The Young Housewife.” Taken in tandem, these two texts neatly exemplify the value of postcritical/non-resistant reading.