1. Seven Different Lenses
LITERARY CRITICISM
Seven Different Lenses

2. What is literary criticism?
Literary criticism are the various lenses you can use to analyze a piece of literature.
None is more “right” than any other.
They allow the critic to focus on aspects they think are most important to a specific text.

3. SCHOOLS OF LITERARY CRITICISM
MARXIST CRITICISM
PSYCHOANALYTICAL CRITICISM
ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM
NEW CRITICISM (FORMALISM)
READER-RESPONSE
NEW HISTORICISM
GENDER CRITICISM

4. MARXIST CRITICISM
Focuses mainly on social class and political ideologies within a text.
Asks how the text conforms to, contradicts, or challenges societal structures.
Based on the
writings and political
theories of Karl Marx.

5. Questions that a Marxist Critic might ask:
MARXIST CRITICISM
Questions that a Marxist Critic might ask:
What role does class play in the work?
How do characters overcome oppression?
In what ways does the work serve as propaganda for the status quo; or does it try to undermine it?
Are social conflicts being ignored?

6. PSYCHOANALYTICAL CRITICISM
Focuses on the characters and what is going on internally and their motivations.
Can also seek to understand the mind or intentions of the author.
Based on the works of Sigmund Freud (father of Psychology) and Carl Jung (ID, EGO, SUPEREGO).

7. PSYCHOANALYTICAL CRITICISM
Questions that a Psychoanalytical Critic might ask:
Why do characters act or not act on their desires?
In what way is the author expressing their fears about a topic in this novel?
Is the character a reflection of the author’s personality?

8. ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM Focuses on cultural archetypes and myths.
Places importance on reoccurring images, symbols and character types (hero, villain, etc).

9. Questions that a Archetypal Critic might ask:
ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM
Questions that a Archetypal Critic might ask:
How is the author using this symbol differently than in older texts?
How does a character contradict the classic image of their archetype?
Does an archetype represent something larger than itself?

10. NEW CRITICISM Also called “Formalist” criticism.
Focuses on the literary elements of the text, like metaphor, plot structure, symbolism, etc.
What you most often focus on in English classes.
Does not look at the author, time period, or anything else outside of the text.

11. Questions that a New Critic might ask:
NEW CRITICISM
Questions that a New Critic might ask:
How does this piece work as literature?
How and why is the author using literary devices?
Why did the author structure the plot a certain way?

12. READER-RESPONSE
Considers the reader as just as important as the text they are reading.
Explores the effects the text has on the reader.
Texts can be interpreted different ways based on who the reader is.

13. Questions that a Reader-response Critic might ask:
Why do people from one part of the world like this text more than those from another part?
What is the dominant interpretation of a text and why?
How has my experience with this text changed over the years?

14. NEW HISTORICISM
Assumes that every piece of literature is a product of its historical time period.
Literature is influenced by the political, social, and cultural climate of that time period.
Also questions how we look back and view that time period as opposed to those who were there.

15. Questions that a New Historicism Critic might ask:
How has the interpretation of this text changed over time?
What was this text’s impact on popular culture at the time it was released?
How was the author influenced by the historical time period?

16. GENDER CRITICISM
Examines how gender roles are reflected or contradicted in a literary text, or how the author’s gender impacts their work.
These critics typically argue that differences in men and women are cultural, not sexual.

17. Questions that a Gender Critic might ask:
GENDER CRITICISM
Questions that a Gender Critic might ask:
Would this novel be different if it were written by a man instead of a woman or vice versa?
How do characters defy gender stereotypes?
If a character is L.G.B.T. does it change my interpretation of the text at all?

18. Same Poem, Different Lense
How might the different schools of literary criticism interpret William Carlos Williams’ poem “The Red Wheelbarrow”?
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

19. Same Poem, Different Lense
Marxist Criticism: The wheelbarrow represents the working class, and Williams is perhaps calling attention to how much the rest of society -- the chickens -- depends upon their labor.
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

20. Same Poem, Different Lense
Psychoanalytical Criticism: In this poem, the poet is not questioning how dependent we are on simple tools, but instead making a desperate case that we are dependent on poetry, which the wheelbarrow represents, thereby revealing his own insecurities.
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

21. Same Poem, Different Lense
Archetypal Criticism: The use of water, a universal symbol of life, reinforces Williams’ notion that we depend so much on the agricultural efforts of those who help feed our society, as represented by the rain-covered wheelbarrow.
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

22. Same Poem, Different Lense
New Criticism (Formalism): Through his use of alternating three-word and one-word lines, Williams is depicting small wheelbarrows, and through them subtly drawing attention to the subject of his poem.
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

23. Same Poem, Different Lense
Reader-response: By refusing the give the reader anything more beyond this simple scene, Williams is challenging the reader to question the very notion of what a poem must be.
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

24. Same Poem, Different Lense
New Historicism: While contemporary readers of Williams’ poem would have connected strongly to his stark agricultural references, that impact is mostly lost on the digital generation who come across this classic poem for the first time.
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

25. Same Poem, Different Lense
Gender Criticism: By drawing a connection of dependency between the wheelbarrow and the chickens, was Williams also making a connection between traditional male roles of the working world and traditional dependent roles of women?
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

26. MARXIST CRITICISM
PSYCHOANALYTICAL CRITICISM
ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM
NEW CRITICISM (FORMALISM)
READER-RESPONSE
NEW HISTORICISM
GENDER CRITICISM