1. Interpreting Literature from a Critical Perspective
Critical Lens Theory
Interpreting Literature from a Critical Perspective

2. What is Critical Lens Theory?
the analysis of elements of a text through a particular identifiable perspective
The world looks different depending on what set of portal (or in this case, theories) you’re looking through!

3. Marxist Criticism
Using class differences as a vehicle to analyze interactions within a text.
Based on the economic and social theories of Karl Marx ( ).
Father of modern Communism
Believed that the main motivator in human development was the struggles between the classes.
Aka: The wealthy vs. bourgeois (middle- class) vs. Proletariat (the working class).

4. Marxist Criticism The Revolution –
Marx theorized that struggle would always exist between classes of every nation, with one group fighting for control over the others.
Once the elite and middle class were overthrown, the intellectuals would compose an equal society where everyone owns everything (also known as Socialism)

5. Marxist Criticism Typical questions:
Whom does it benefit if the work or effort is accepted/successful/believed, etc.?
What is the social class of the author?
Which class does the work claim to represent?
What values does it reinforce?
What values does it subvert?
What conflict can be seen between the values the work champions and those it portrays?
What social classes do the characters represent?
How do characters from different classes interact or conflict?

6. Psychoanalytic Criticism
Psychoanalysis – a theory about human nature, motivation, behavior, development and experience
Based on the psychological theories of Dr. Sigmund Freud (1856 –1939).
Subconscious - "...the notion that human beings are motivated, even driven, by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware...“
He believed that these were the results of childhood events that were repressed (pushed out of memory but remaining influential in our behaviors).
“Sometimes, a cigar is not just a cigar.”

7. Psychoanalytic Criticism
Components of Personality
Id – The oldest and most uncontrollable portion of the psyche.
Is driven by pleasure seeking and pain avoidance.
Functions completely in the subconscious.
Ego – Designed to deal with reality and ensure that impulses developed in the Id are carried out appropriately.
Superego –
holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from both parents and society - our sense of right and wrong.
Used for making judgments between right and wrong.

8. Psychoanalytic Criticism
Oedipus Complex - to describe a boy's feelings of desire for his mother and jealously and anger towards his father. Essentially, a boy feels like he is in competition with his father for possession of his mother. He views his father as a rival for her attentions and affections.
Typical Questions:
How do the operations of repression structure or inform the work?
Are there any oedipal dynamics - or any other family dynamics - are work here?
How can characters' behavior, narrative events, and/or images be explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind (for example...fear or fascination with death, sexuality - which includes love and romance as well as sexual behavior - as a primary indicator of psychological identity or the operations of ego-id-superego)?
What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its author?
What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the psychological motives of the reader?
Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or hidden meanings? Could there be a subconscious reason for the author using these "problem words"?
“Sometimes, a cigar is not just a cigar.”

9. Gender Studies and Feminist Criticism
Gender studies - explore issues of sexuality, gender, power, and often marginalized populations in literature and culture.
This criticism questions the gender presented within a text, but not limited to:
Power struggles between genders.
Discrimination due to sex or sexual orientation.
Faulted Masculinity.
LGBT Suppression and Pride.

10. Gender Studies Cont’d: What is Feminism?
Feminism, as we know it, evolved from a movement called Second Wave Feminism that was intended to increase female involvement in government in order to improve working conditions for women.
However, Feminism often has some very negative stereotypes tied to it.
What are some that you have heard?

11. Gender Studies Cont’d: What is Feminism?
Feminism – a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression for women.
Typical questions relating to gender studies:
What elements of the text can be perceived as being masculine (active, powerful) and feminine (passive, marginalized) and how do the characters support these traditional roles?
What are the politics (ideological agendas) of specific gay, lesbian, or queer works, and how are those politics revealed in...the work's thematic content or portrayals of its characters?
What are the power relationships between men and women (or characters assuming male/female roles)?
How are male and female roles defined?
What constitutes masculinity and femininity?
Do characters take on traits from opposite genders? How so? How does this change others’ reactions to them?
What does the work imply about the possibilities of sisterhood as a mode of resisting patriarchy?
What does the work say about women's creativity?
What does the history of the work's reception by the public and by the critics tell us about the operation of patriarchy?

12. Reader/Response
Reader-response criticism - encompasses various approaches to literature that explore and seek to explain the diversity (and often divergence) of readers' responses to literary works.
Focused on combining the act of reading with a reader’s personal experience to create “meaning”.
Based on the interactions of specific words and specific individuals who process the text (Complexity or simplicity of text, who the text is intended for).
Can also be supplemented by serious literary criticism.
Typical questions:
How does the interaction of text and reader create meaning?
What does a phrase-by-phrase analysis of a short literary text, or a key portion of a longer text, tell us about the reading experience prestructured by (built into) that text?
Do the sounds/shapes of the words as they appear on the page or how they are spoken by the reader enhance or change the meaning of the word/work?
How might we interpret a literary text to show that the reader's response is, or is analogous to, the topic of the story?
What does the body of criticism published about a literary text suggest about the critics who interpreted that text and/or about the reading experience produced by that text? (Tyson 191)

13. Film Analysis Mini-Project
By end of class on Wednesday, you will be responsible for carrying out a serious critical analysis for three popular childhood films.
You will present your findings along with the clips that bolster this argument.
Can be presented in form of a blog post.
Needs to include multimedia.
You may choose as few as one film or as many as three
However, you must use one criticism discussed in the notes.
Criticisms must be at least 5 sentences each and include a piece of multimedia.

14. Film Analysis Mini-Project
Film choices:
The Lion King
Harry Potter
Beauty and the Beast
Jungle Book
Finding Nemo
The Goonies
Aladdin
The Sandlot
The Little Mermaid
Wall-E
Frozen
Cars
Toy Story
Lilo and Stitch
Monsters Inc.
The Fox and The Hound
Lady and the Tramp
Alice in Wonderland
Wizard of Oz
Hook
Peter Pan
Space Jam
Cinderella
Willy Wonka