AP Critical Lenses for Literature

Before we move on to the lesson, take a moment to complete this survey:

Understanding Critical Theory

So, what was the purpose of that survey? Each response is connected to a type of critical theory or lens. The following table from that handout links the responses to a particular type of critical lens:

**Connecting Survey Responses to Critical Lenses**
Survey Response	Critical Lens
How it teaches values and lessons	Moral/Intellectual
How it shows us about different people and time periods	Topical/Historical
How well written the work is	New Critical/Formalist
How it makes me think about something different	Structuralist
How it relates to events in my life	Feminist and Gender Studies
How it relates to society	Economic/Marxist/Post-Colonial
How it can help me understand my own behavior	Psychological/Psychoanalytic
How it relates to other literary works	Archetypal/Symbolic/Mythic
How I can think about distinct pieces of the work, broken down	Deconstructionist
How it entertains me	Reader-Response

The Four Main Critical Lenses for the AP Exam

While it is useful to see all of these possible lenses for literary critique, when writing for the AP Exam, there are four in particular that you will want to make your focus:

Feminist and Gender Studies
Economic/Marxist/Post-Colonial
Psychological/Psychoanalytic
Archetypal/Symbolic/Mythic

Let's explore each of these more carefully. Select each tab to learn more about these lenses.

Feminist and Gender Studies
Economic/Marxist/Post-Colonial
Psychological/Psychoanalytic
Archetypal/Symbolic/Mythic

The Feminist and Gender Studies critical lens essentially focuses upon the role of gender as a means for understanding literature. The simplest way to start this type of critical investigation with literature is to start with questions about how men and women differ in the text:

Is the story told from a masculine or feminine point of view?
Does the author have more sympathy or hostility towards one gender over the other?
What exactly is the author saying about gender in the novel?
Is the text causing us to think about gender in a new light?

This type of criticism is especially useful for understanding works that have strong female, or LGBT characters.

The Economic/Marxist/Post-Colonial critical lens essentially focuses upon the role of power often with social class or imperialism for understanding literature. The simplest way to start this type of critical investigation with literature is to start with questions about how the relationship between oppressor and oppressed function in the text. Often these are the conflict between rich and poor, but can be applied to any group with power over another group (i.e. Colonial power with a local population, or a majority group with an oppressed minority population).

Is the story told from the point of view of the oppressed or oppressor?
Does the author have more sympathy or hostility towards one group or another?
What exactly is the author saying about power in the novel?
Is the text causing us to think about power in a new light?

This type of criticism is especially useful for understanding works that have characters who suffer for reasons that appear to be out of their control.

The Archetypal/Symbolic/Mythic critical lens essentially focuses upon the role of patterns for understanding literature. The simplest way to explore this type of critical investigation with literature is to start with questions about the larger patterns of human existence.

Does the character have control over his or her actions?
Does the character seem to be a victim of fate, or responsible for the outcome?
Does the author have sympathy for the character’s fate?
Is the text causing us to think about our own subconscious actions in a new light?

This type of criticism is especially useful for understanding works that have characters who suffer for reasons that appear to be out of their control.

The Archetypal/Symbolic/Mythic critical lens essentially focuses upon the role of patterns for understanding literature. The simplest way to explore this type of critical investigation with literature is to start with questions about the larger patterns of human existence.

For example, when characters eat (or drink, smoke, play video games, etc.) together this is seen as positive, while characters who argue at the table and never get to eat is not seen as positive.
Or excluding someone from a meal is considered negative for that character (if you’ve read Lord of the Flies, Piggy is never offered meat by Jack).
Likewise, the seasons, weather, and locations all tend to have universal significance for people.

Of course, like any good pattern, these can be complex. Winter might be seen as both a time of death and cold, but from this comes a sense of community and expectation of something beginning again. The December/January holiday season illustrates this complexity well.

This type of criticism is especially useful for understanding works that have a lot of description (especially 19th century novels).

Video Presentation

In this video presentation, we will review our understanding of several critical lenses. Make sure that your volume is turned up.
Note: references to specific works of literature may not be applicable to our current studies. Use the information in this video for a review of the critical points of the lesson.

Practice Activity

Reflection

Now that you have a basic understanding of critical lenses, the next two micro lessons will explore how these lenses can be applied to various works. Doing so will give you more depth to your thematic understanding of the works.

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