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Viewing Literature Through a Critical LENS. Building to the Comparison of Antigone and Dead Poets Society Mrs. Reichert English 10 Honors. After we read Antigone and watch Dead Poets Society.
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Viewing Literature Through a Critical LENS Building to the Comparison of Antigone and Dead Poets Society Mrs. Reichert English 10 Honors
After we read Antigone and watch Dead Poets Society • You will work with a group to develop a thesis statement and give a presentation defending it, viewing the play and film through a particular critical lens of your choosing. • Objectives: • Students will develop their own criticisms of literature. • Students will learn to create thesis statements based upon their own observations. • Students will use textual evidence to support their interpretation of the text.
Critical Lens • “Critical”: Examining and searching for meanings in something. • “Lens”: A point-of-view through which you examine something. • In literary theory, readers interpret what they read through several different “critical lenses,” based on their personal experiences, as well as their focus and their experience with the text. • We’ll look at two theories: Feminist and Marxist
Feminist Criticism • Looks at literature through the eyes of a feminist. • Examines the way the literature reflects how society perceives women and girls. • For this, you will want to focus specifically on how the women in the play behave and how they are treated. • Focus on the women in the play and the film.
Feminist Criticism: Questions • How is a character’s experience different based on his/ her gender? • Who has the power? • Is there anything offensive, unjust, or oppressive happening to women?
Feminist Criticism: Questions • Does the social context connect to the treatment of women in this text? • How are women characterized or perceived by other characters? What does this mean about the way women are seen here? • Are the impressions of women the author’s or the character’s?
Marxist Criticism • Examines a piece of literature as a struggle between the individual and the establishment. • Establishment: A place with rigid rules, ideas about right and wrong, and ideas about how to shape members
Marxist Criticism: Questions • Who is the individual? Who represents the establishment? • Who are the powerful and the powerless in this story? Why are they powerful? • How are the individual and the establishment in conflict? • What is oppressed in the individual? • Who triumphs? How?
Other Things to consider • Determine thematic subjects as you see them in Antigone and Dead Poets Society. • Focus your criticism on a theme. • In using your critical lens, how do Sophocles and DPS Director Peter Weir demonstrate this theme? • What lines and evidence specifically deal with your critical lens? In other words, what stands out to you regarding either a feminist or a Marxist lens?