Types of Literary Theories

1. Types of Literary Theories Utilizing the Metaphor of a Critical Lens

2. Part 1 • Reader Response • Talking to the Text • Read Aloud

3. What is Critical Lens Theory? • A theory provides an angle or perspective you will take when you look at a text. • Each lens is a view point or opinion. • It doesn’t mean that the theories’ perspectives will necessarily disagree.

4. Reader Response Theory • This is the relationship between the text and the reader. • The reader must find meaning in the literature itself. • Who is the piece written for and why? • What interpretations are created? • Because we don’t read in a vacuum, we are creating an argument based on what we know- not just on text. • Basically, this is what you [the readers] think.

5. Reel

6. Talking to the Text • When we Talk to the Text, we will exam a picture, text, paper, or experience to explore how our internal thoughts and feelings individually. We will record these ideas on the text itself, post-it notes, or our journals. We will consider our terminology, author’s purpose, background knowledge, questions, ideas, emotions, and vocabulary when analyzing the text. By doing so, we will have a record on the text itself our initial reaction and continuing consideration of the text as we consider it for ourselves.

7. Birds

8. Candy Cigarette

9. Homework • Read “A&P” on page 833 through a Reader Response Lens utilizing Talking to the Text.

10. A&PReader Response • Background: the story came to Updike when he was driving past the store and saw girls who looked “surprisingly naked.” What do you think about the story?

11. Part 2 • Feminist Lens • Marxist Lens • Structural/Archetypal Lens • Psychoanalytic Lens

12. 1. Feminist Lens • This perspective takes into account the feelings and actions associated with the male and female characteristics in a work of literature.

13. “No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.” –Carrie Chapman Catt

14. Feminist Lens • Reinforce or undermine economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women. • Men = thought, aggression, assertion, rationalism • Women = feeling, passivity, non-rationalism, (all which keep them from holding positions of power)

15. A&P with Feminist Lens Questions • How is the relationship of men/women portrayed? • What is power relationship between men and women? • How are gender roles defined? • What constitutes masculinity v femininity (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically)? • Do characters take on traits of the opposite gender? • What does the work imply about the possibility of sisterhood forming to resist patriarchy? • What does the work say about women's’ creativity?

16. 2. Marxist Lens • Karl Marx thought the world consisted of a series of class struggles: oppressor v oppressed. • Literature expresses class struggle and materialism where a quest for wealth often defines a character.

17. Marxist Lens “Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.”–Karl Marx

18. A&Pwith Marxist Lens Questions • What role does class play in the story? • How does a character overcome oppression? • In what way is the work propaganda for status quo? Or does it undermine status quo? • Status quo: Keeping things the way they currently are • Are social conflicts ignored or blamed? • Does the literature propose a Utopian (perfected) vision to the current society?

19. 3. Structural/Archetypal Lens • The text is shaped by myths of the cultural recurring images, symbols, patterns, and motifs. • Characters like the witch, the scapegoat, the hero, or the wise old man • Situations like birth, death, rebirth, or sacrifice • Settings like forests, water, or caves All of these things make us think a certain way to predict the text.

20. Structural/Archetypal Lens “You can’t look at a text as if it were in a vacuum- everyone recognizes story patterns and symbols in text.” – Karl Jung

21. A&Pwith Archetypal Lens Questions • How do characters in text mirror archetypal figures? • Does it mirror literary patterns? • Is the protagonist a hero? • Does the hero embark on a journey? • Is there a journey to the underworld or land of the dead? • What trials does the narrator face? • What is the reward for overcoming them?

22. 4. Psychoanalytic Lens • This lens is based on Freudian Theories of psychology. • People’s behaviors are based on the unconscious, and they are driven by desire, fear, need, and conflict. • Mostly from childhood events • Children need parents and from the relationship with or without them, children are developed.

23. Psychoanalytic Lens ID: Location of drives (libido) EGO: Defense against power of drive SUPEREGO: Houses judgment of self and others (unconscious)

24. A&Pwith Psychoanalytic Questions • How does the idea of repression inform the work? • Are there family dynamics at work here? • How is the character’s behavior in line with ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO? • What does the work say about the author? • What does your interpretation say about you as a reader?

25. Homework: Read Charlotte Perkins The Yellow Wall Paper on page 1149 utilizing one of the four lenses discussed in Part 2 (Feminist, Marxist, Archetypal, or Psychoanalytic) and Talking to the Text.