New Lenses to See, Experience, and

Understand Literature
“Big Questions” about Literature
What are the influences on how
we read, interpret, and
understand a text?
How do we come to interpret a
novel, poem, play, or story?
 Literary Theories/Critical Theories are
approaches to answer some of these questions.
The Basic Idea
 The point of criticism is to argue your
point of view on a work of literature.
 You do have to analyze a text and support
your assertions with specific evidence
from the text (and in college, from
scholars).
 It’s crucial to go beyond plot development
and into more abstract, higher-level
thinking like theme, tone, purpose, etc.
The Basic Idea
 A critical analysis is an in-depth
examination of some aspect of the literary
work
 You may examine any element of the text:
character development, conflicts, narrative
point of view, etc.
 Literary critical theories inform us of certain
ways to approach big ideas in the novel.
 CRITICAL APPROACHES PRIMER
 Biographical
 New Historicism
 Formalism
 Psychological - Freud
 Archetypal - Jung
 Feminist
 Marxist
 Postcolonial Theory
 Reader Response
 Remember Cinderella?
In a far away, long ago kingdom, Cinderella is living happily with
her mother and father until her mother dies. Cinderella's father
remarries a cold, cruel woman who has two daughters. When the
father dies, Cinderella's wicked stepmother turns her into a servant
in her own house. Meanwhile, across town in the castle, the King
determines that his son the Prince should find a suitable bride and
provide him with a required number of grandchildren. So the King
invites every eligible maiden in the kingdom to a fancy dress ball,
where his son will be able to choose his bride. Cinderella has no
suitable party dress for a ball, but her friends (the mice and the
birds) lend a hand in making her one, a dress the evil stepsisters
immediately tear apart on the evening of the ball. At this point,
enter the Fairy Godmother, the pumpkin carriage, the royal ball, the
stroke of midnight, the glass slipper, and the rest, as they say, is fairy
tale history.
1. Biographical Criticism
 views literature as the reflection of an
author's life and times (or of the characters'
life and times).
 it is necessary to know about the author and
the political, economical, and sociological
context of his times in order to truly
understand his works.
Biographical Approach
Advantages:
 works well for some which are obviously political
or biographical in nature.
 places allusions in their proper classical, political,
or biblical background.
Disadvantages:
 "the intentional fallacy" - assuming we can know
the intent, thoughts, purposes of the author
 tends to reduce art to the level of biography and
make it relative (to the times) rather than
universal.
2. New Historicist Criticism
 New historicist critics view literature as part
of history, and furthermore, as an
expression of forces on history.
 New historicism compares literary analysis
to a dynamic circle:
 The work tells us something about the
surrounding ideology (slavery, rights of women,
etc.)
 Study of the ideology tells us something about
the work.
New Historicism
 New historicism takes two forms:
 Analysis of the work in the context in which it
was created
 Analysis of the work in the context in which it
was critically evaluated.
 New historicists assert that literature “does
not exist outside time and place and cannot
be interpreted without reference to the era
in which it was written” (Kirszner and
Mandell 2038).
So, why the “New” in Historicism?
 Traditional (or “Old”) historicism is, by its nature, a
subjective narrative, usually told from the point of
view of the powerful, the “winners.”
 The “losers” of history do not have the means to write
their stories, nor is there usually an audience
interested in hearing them. Most cultures, once
dominated by another, are forced to forget their past.
 Literature, especially, gives subjective voice to the
oppressed. (e.g.: slave narratives)
Cinderella
 What can we infer about the society in which this
story—considering, especially, the violence and
vengeance in the Grimm version—would evolve and
be told to young children?
 What can we infer about property and inheritance laws
in the society in which “Cinderella” evolved? What can
we infer about the society’s view of royalty and
monarchic power?
3. Formalism / New Criticism
 involves a close reading of the text
 all information essential to the interpretation of a
work must be found within the work itself
 focuses on analyzing irony, paradox, imagery, and
metaphor
 also interested in the work's setting, characters,
symbols, and point of view.
 no need to bring in outside information about the
history, politics, or society of the time, or about the
author's life
Formalism / New Criticism
Advantages:
 can be performed without much research
 emphasizes the value of literature apart from its
context
 virtually all critical approaches must begin here
Disadvantages:
 text is seen in isolation
 ignores the context of the work
 cannot account for allusions
Cinderella
 Look for symbolic, or some other, significance for the
specific items and animals chosen (for the coach and
staff) and/or the numbers of each chosen.
 Compare the speech patterns of Cinderella and the
stepmother and stepsisters. Are there noticeable
differences in cadence? Do any use more (or less)
figurative or poetic language than the others? Do any
speak noticeably more (or less) than the others?
 Are there any internal ironies or inconsistencies that
render the work disunified?
4. Psychological Criticism
 views works through the lens of psychology
 looks either at the psychological motivations of the
characters or of the authors themselves
 most frequently applies Freudian psychology to works,
but other approaches also exist.
Freudian Approach to Personality
Three parts to an individual’s psyche:
 the id: the instinctual, pleasure seeking part
of the mind
 the ego: the part of the mind that controls
but does not repress the id's impulses,
releasing them in a healthy way
 the superego: the part of the mind that
represses the id's impulses
Freudian Drives
Freud believed that much human behavior is
motivated by sexuality
 Oedipus complex: a boy's unconscious
rivalry with his father for the love of his
mother
 Electra complex: a girl’s unconscious
rivalry with her mother for the love of her
father
Cinderella

VS
Psychoanalytical Approach
Advantages:
 can be a useful tool for understanding
character development and conflict
Disadvantages:
 can turn a work into a psychological case
study
 tends to see sex in everything, exaggerating
this aspect of literature
 some works do not lend themselves readily
to this approach.
5. Archetypal/Mythological Criticism
 assumes that there is a collection of
symbols, images, characters, and motifs (i.e.
archetypes) that evokes basically the same
response in all people
 identifies these patterns and discusses how
they function in the works
 asserts that these archetypes are the source
of much of literature's power.
Archetypal Approach
 based on the theories of
psychologist Carl Jung
 he states that mankind
possesses a "collective
unconscious" that
contains these archetypes
and that is common to all
of humanity
Some Archetypes
 archetypal women - the Good Wife/Mother, the Terrible
Mother, the Virgin (often a Damsel in Distress), and the
Fallen Woman.
 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.
Archetypal Approach
Advantages:
 provides a universalistic 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 a vehicle for archetypes
 can easily become a list of symbols without much
analysis
A Riddle
 A father and his son are in a car
accident. The father dies at the scene
and the son is rushed to the hospital.
At the hospital the surgeon looks at the
boy and says "I can't operate on this
boy, he is my son" .... How can this be?
The surgeon is the child’s mother
 What does this simple riddle reveal
about our assumptions regarding
gender?
6. Feminist/Gender Criticism
 ...the ways in which literature (and other
cultural productions) reinforce or
undermine the economic, political, social,
and psychological oppression of women
 Role of women in the literary work;
representations of women
 Power structures between men and women
 The female/feminine experience
Some common considerations
for feminist/gender critics
 Patriarchal ideologies and its effects on women (and
men)
 While biology determines our sex (male or female),
culture determines our gender (masculine or
feminine)
 (Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today)
 Sex and gender equality
 Stereotypical representations of gender
 Marginalization
Bechdel Test
 The Bechdel test asks if a work of
fiction (literature, drama, film, etc.)
features at least two women who talk to
each other about something other than
a man. The requirement that the two
women must be named is sometimes
added.
Hermeneutics of Suspicion
 A popular mode of critical discourse in today’s
academy is that of suspicion, or critique
 When we critique a text, we find underlying problems
or inconsistencies in its message
 Feminist scholars are often write critiques of literature
and culture that reveal problematic ideologies like
patriarchy, misogyny, sexism, homophobia, etc.
 Cinderella
 Consider the misogynist theme of abused-girl-
waiting-to-be-rescued-by-prince.
 Can Cinderella save herself? Why in need of
man? Can’t woman exist independent of man?
 Consider the values conveyed in the portrayal of
the “good girl” as physically beautiful and the
“wicked girls” as physically ugly
 Are women only valuable to men as sexualized
objects?
7. Marxist Criticism
 Karl Marx perceived human history to have
consisted of a series of struggles between
classes--between the oppressed and the
oppressing (“the haves” and “the have-
nots”).
 Marx thought that materialism was the
ultimate driving force in history
Marxist Approach
 Focus on the ideological content of a work
 Explicit and implicit assumptions and values
about race, culture, class, and power
 Texts are political in nature, responding to
larger social and material constructs
 Material, not psychological
Marxist Approach
 Marxist criticism examines the nature of
power structures within a novel.
 A Marxist critic asks questions like:
 Who has power? Who lacks power?
 What is the relationship between power and
wealth?
 Who is exploited by whom and why?
 How does power remain constant or shift
throughout a work of literature?
 What makes certain characters powerful or
powerless?
Marxist Approach
 It also examines commodities, possessions that give
power
 Typical commodities are things like land and money
but can also be things like social position, knowledge,
or even a person
 Marxist criticism can also examine what commodities
bring power and why within a work of literature
 Suspicion – Marxist scholars will seek to find problems
relating to capitalism, wealth inequality, class struggle,
etc.
Cinderella
 Consider Cinderella as a representative of the
proletariat:
 oppressed by her bourgeoisie stepmother and
stepsisters, who have stolen her rightful
inheritance and turned her into a servant in her
own home;
 desiring to join the ranks of the bourgeoisie by
marrying the prince.
 8. Postcolonial Theory
 focuses on the reading and writing of literature written
in previously or currently colonized countries. The
literature is composed of colonizing countries that deals
with colonization or colonized peoples.
 Greatly interested in the cultures of the colonizer and
the colonized, postcolonial theory seeks to critically
investigate what happens when two cultures clash and
one of them ideologically fashions itself as superior and
assumes dominance and control over the other.
 Depends on historical understanding of time and place.
 What colonizer-colonized relationships have we seen in
history?
Recently* Colonized Geographies
 Latin America
 Africa
 East and Southeast Asia
 South Asia
 Caribbean
 Polynesia
 United States
History is Written by the Victors
 What happens during and after colonization?
 what language do you speak?
 what culture do you follow?
 Hybridization – mixing of cultures (British and Indian
coming together and melding)
 Double Consciousness – holding two distinct cultures
simultaneously (being under British rule while still
practicing Indian cultural norms)
 Race/Ethnicity – who defines power structures along
race and ethnicity?
Application
 Cinderella as conquered individual, under the
tyrannical rule of stepmother (unnatural maternal
figure who “invades” the family)
 Undemocratically elected prince continues to build
riches on the backs of colonized paupers. The only way
Cinderella can escape poverty is playing the monarchy
game.
Better Applications of Postcolonial Theory
9. Reader Response Criticism
 analyzes the reader's role in the production of
meaning
 lies at the opposite end of the spectrum from
formalism
 the text itself has no meaning until it is read by a
reader
 The reader creates the meaning.
 can take into account the strategies employed by
the author to elicit a certain response from readers
 denies the possibility that works are universal (i.e.
that they will always mean more or less the same
thing to readers everywhere)
Reader Response Criticism
Advantages:
 recognizes that different people view works
differently and that people's interpretations
change over time.
Disadvantages:
 tends to make interpretation too subjective
 does not provide adequate criteria for evaluating
one reading in comparison to another
Cinderella
 How is the reader/audience meant to feel when
Cinderella finally wins over the Prince?
 Who is the most sympathetic character of the film?
Why are we drawn to these characters?
 CRITICAL APPROACHES PRIMER
 Biographical
 Formalism AP EXAM Questions 1 & 2 (poetry and prose analysis)
 New Historicism
 Social/Political Also helpful for Question 3 (open-ended)
 Cultural
 Psychological - Freud
 Mythological and Archetypal - Jung
 Feminist Also helpful for Question 3 (open-ended)

 Marxist Also helpful for Question 3 (open-ended)

 Postcolonial Theory Also helpful for Question 3 (open-ended)
 Reader Response
So, what’s the point?
 These approaches help us to pay attention to
some details in new and varied ways.
 How does Gatsby (1925) anticipate the Stock Market crash of 1929? Why is
it significant that Gatsby is a bootlegger?

 These theories can help us investigate

deeper themes or problems of the text we’re
studying.
 e.g. Does Daisy represent progress for women in Gatsby? What is
the problem if she doesn’t?
 e.g. Why is it significant that George (working class) kills Gatsby
(upper class)? Does the fact that he mistakenly identifies Gatsby as
the killer have any allegorical meaning?
For questions posed by each
theory,
REFER TO PAGES 1565-
1567 OF BEDFORD
TEXTBOOK
 Select a theory and write a few
critical statements about The
Lion King from that
perspective.
Formalism/New Criticism
New Historicism
Biographical
Psychological (Archetypes or Freud)
Feminist/Gender
Marxist
Postcolonial
Reader Response (Simba/Hamlet)