Literary Lenses

Painless Critical Theory

Multiple Perspectives

• “’A man with one theory is lost. He needs several of them, or lots! He should stuff them in his pockets like newspapers.’” (Appleman 12)

New Criticism

• Two Words…

–CLOSE READING!!!

New Criticism

• Explication=ExplorationExplication—(n)1: the act of making clear or removing obscurity from the meaning of a

word or symbol or expression etc. 2: a detailed explanation of the meaning of something

• Explore the literary work for itself, as an independent piece

• Look for interrelations between components of the work.

• Consider all words, figures of speech, symbols

Reader Response

• Bring your own “ideology” (there’s that word

again…) to the literature.

• Here, you’re invited to impose your previous experiences and current thoughts on the literature in order to determine meaning.

Reader Response

• Note: You can’t ALWAYS be right, unfortunately.

Some rules to follow…

Reader Response

• Rule #1: Consider yourself/categorize yourself, the reader.

• Reflect on your place in the world, your beliefs, your gender, your occupation, etc.

Reader Response

• Rule #2: Read the text closely.

Be sure whatever you have to say about the piece is actually related to what the words convey. You are Not permitted to just like, dislike, or completely disregard the piece of literature. Your criticism must be based on something concrete about You in relation to the literature.

Reader Response

• Rule #3: Finally, decide on a meaning that has taken Your experience, thoughts, etc. AS WELL AS the TEXT into consideration.

• A visual…

Reader Response

Reader-------MEANING-------Text

Marxism

“’No book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.’’ (Appleman 60)

Marxism

• Based on cultural/societal issues• Historically, our ways of thinking are based

on “material production” or economic organization (class systems).

• Social classes are like walls.– Can you overcome the class into which you

were born?

Feminist Criticism

Feminist critics see cultural and economic disabilities in a “patriarchal” society that have hindered or prevented women from utilizing their creative possibilities and women’s cultural identification as a merely negative object or “other” to man.

Feminist Criticism

– Are we living in a patriarchal society???

Feminist Criticism

• Our civilization is patriarchal.• The concepts of “gender” are cultural constructs

of our patriarchal/biased society.• Patriarchal ideology pervades great literature;

such works lack autonomous female role models, are addressed to male readers, alienate the female reader.

• Females must enact their male values in order to relate to these great works of literature.

Feminist Criticism

• NOTE: When considering “gender” think of it as an “act” rather than a right.

– Do you know women who enact their male characteristics to get ahead?

– Males who enact female roles?

Historicist Criticism

Requires consideration of…• Social• Political• Economic• Cultural• Intellectual