Critical Theory/Literary Lenses

Critical/literary theory can be described as accomplishing all of the following EXCEPT-

• Allows critics to focus on specific parts of a work that are meaningful

• Suggests focal points critics can use to analyze culture, literature & art

• Considering works of art based on assumptions within a school of theory

• Proves that readers of a literary work can interpret better than the author

This theory is concerned with the way those with economic power exploit those without it.

• Critical Race Theory

• Psychoanalytic

• Marxist/Socialist

• New Criticism

Examines gender as a social/cultural construct, and determines how sexual roles are reflected on, blurred, crossed, or contradicted in a literary work.

• Gender/Queer Theory

• New Historicism

• Psychoanalytic Criticism

• Marxist Criticism

Seeks to reconnect a work with the time period in which it was produced and identify it with the cultural and political movements of the time. Assumes every work is the product of the time it was written.

• New Historicism

• Postmodern Criticism

• Post-Colonial Criticism

• Formalism

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.9

CCSS.RL.11-12.9

Concerned with literature produced by colonial powers and works produced by those who were/are colonized.

• New Historicism

• Postmodern Criticism

• Post-Colonial Criticism

• Formalism

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.6

CCSS.RL.11-12.6

Concerned with "the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women."

• Formalism

• Feminist Criticism

• Postmodern Criticism

• Gender Studies

Looks at a text through the ideas of the "father of modern psychology", Sigmund Freud. Particularly concerned with the repressed and subconscious messages a text sends, about either the author or characters.

• Formalism

• Gender Studies

• Postmodern Criticism

• Psychoanalytic Criticism

In the Disney film Pocahontas, John Smith refers to Pocahontas as a "savage" and states that the English have settled in America to teach the native people how to become civilized, build roads, and speak English. Which school of criticism might best be used to examine this scene?

• New Historicism

• Post-Colonialism

• Marxist Theory

• Queer/Gender Theory

This theory notices narrative styles, character types, symbols and images that are repeated frequently in literature.

• New Historicism

• Psychological

• Marxist/Socialist

• Archetypal

In The Little Mermaid, Ursula steals Ariel's voice and tells her that she'll still have "[her] looks, [her] pretty face" and not to "underestimate the importance of body language." This might be critiqued by which theory?

• Gender/Queer

• Feminist

• Archetypal

• Marxist/Socialist