SF3 - Lesson: Critical Lenses for Literature

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).