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| 5884159817 | Literary theories | Lenses through which we read texts | 0 | |
| 5884161628 | What are the 9 critical lenses? | Archetypal, Feminist, Marxist, New, Psychological and Psychoanalytic, Reader Response, Deconstruction, Historical, Structuralism | 1 | |
| 5884166930 | Archetypal Criticism | "Archetype" signifies narrative designs, character types, or images which are said to be identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature, as well as in myths, dreams, and even ritualized modes of social behavior. The archetypal similarities are held to reflect a set of universal, primitive, and elemental patterns, whose embodiment in a work evokes a response from the reader. Examples include the death-rebirth theme, the Promethean rebel-hero, and the fatal woman. | 2 | |
| 5884179280 | Feminist Criticism | Cultural and economic disabilities in a "patriarchal" society have prevented women from realizing their creative possibilities and a women's cultural identification is as a merely negative object. Gender is a cultural construct. Patriarchal ideology pervades writing we consider great literature. Focuses on relationships between the genders. Examples include seeing "Where Are You.." as the story of the physical and psychological dominance of men over women. | 3 | |
| 5884189905 | Marxist Criticism | Theory grounded on the economic and cultural theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles. The history and thinking of humanity is determined by its basic economic organization. Historical changes in the mode of production effect changes in the social classes. Human consciousness is constituted by an ideology. Explaining literature by revealing the economic, class, and ideological determinants of the writing; comparison to the social reality of that time. Examples include "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" being about the upper class attempting to maintain power over the lower class. | 4 | |
| 5884270837 | New Criticism | Theory directed against the prevailing concerns of critics. A poem should be regarded as an independent and self-sufficient object. Explication, or close reading, is the detailed and subtle analysis of the complex interrelations and ambiguities of components within a work (words, figures of speech, symbols). The principles of this theory are basically verbal, meaning literature is a unique kind of language (not scientific). The distinction between literary genres is not essential. | 5 | |
| 5884289529 | Psychological and Psychoanalytic Criticism | Theory that deals with literature as an expression, in fictional form, of the personality, state of mind, feelings, and desires of its author. This theory requires that we investigate the psychology of a character or an author to figure out the meaning of a text. | 6 | |
| 5884296507 | Reader Response Criticism | Theory that focuses on the activity of reading a work of literature. Features of the work itself are less important than the connection between a reader's personal experience and the text. | 7 | |
| 5884302313 | Deconstruction | Theory that declares literature means nothing because language means nothing. We have no way to know what the meaning of a text is because there is no way of knowing. You cannot assume you know what happened in stories with ambiguous endings. | 8 | |
| 5884307393 | Historical Criticism | Theory that requires the application of specific historical information about the time during which an author wrote. Examples include Faulkner's stories being written after World War II, explaining the darkness of them. | 9 | |
| 5884313946 | Structuralism | Theory that concentrates completely upon the text, bringing nothing else to it. It depends upon linguistic theory. Investigates the kinds of patterns that are built up and broken down within a text and uses them to get an interpretation of a text. | 10 |
