English Theory Lenses

Unit One: Literary Theory Unit

1. What is Literary Criticism? What function does it serve? How is it helpful to students in the study of English?

Analyzes, interprets, and evaluates works of literature to improve critical thinking, detailed reading, seeing new perspectives, and develop further understanding of the text and the world around students.

2. Literary Critical Theories

a. Feminist

the feminist movement as a whole with its relation to literature.

Feminism is a movement that attempts to eliminate societal discrimination against women. Women are oppressed and devalued, and would like to achieve equality among the sexes, as well as changing ideologies, politics, and social movements.

b. Marxist

class, power, social and political relations evaluated in literature

Marxism was a social movement against industrialization and capitalism, and the theory views how different classes are represented, oppressed and characterized socioeconomically.

Started by Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, who wrote the communist manifesto, ideas that society should be classless, unite and share communally. 

c. Psychoanalytical

a character’s mind and motivation behind their behaviours and actions

based on Sigmund Freud’s theories about the human psyche, human actions are driven by unconscious sexual desires.

-> Carl Jung criticized Sigmund Freud and said that humans should integrate spirituality instead of relying on logic, and for unity between the conscious and unconscious.

Jungian Personality Structure

Ego: dynamic and fragile carrier of the conscious, it is the mission to become aware of its own limitations.

Persona: the outside, idealized presentation to impress others and hide a person's true self

Shadow: the negative and bad qualities of a person that one suppresses because it could cause shame or anxiety.

Personal Unconscious: a person’s memories, thoughts, and feelings that are accessible to the unconscious. (wishes, impulses, repressed memories)

Collective Unconscious: the most inaccessible part of the unconscious shared by all people. (evolution, archetype, human experiences)

Anima/Animus: represents the opposite gender that is repressed when a person develops their gender identity.

Self Realization: a person attempts to understand their experience, realize their true self, develop healthy attitudes, and reconcile differences between the conscious and unconscious.

d. Reader-Response

focuses on the reader’s own perspective.

In the traditional view of reading, the reader accepts the meaning being sent by the author. They have the same view.

In the reader response view, there is a connection of the reader to the text. Their own perspective and experiences are applied.

The flaw here is that it makes meaning depend too much on the reader’s feelings and experiences, which can lead to people understanding the same text in very different ways. This can ignore the author's true meaning or the bigger historical and cultural background.

e. Post-Colonial

the lasting effects of colonization, following the establishment of independence in a colony.

Colonialism: the dominance of a strong nation over another weaker one, subjected to political domination through brute force of extra markets, stealing resources and manpower from the colonies.

The Four Types

1. Exploitation Colonialism

Extracting resources and people for labor

resources were being exported through trade, direct export of goods, and people (slaves)

Plantation Colonies

Creating semi permanent profit farms with local or enslaved labor + spreading Western religion/culture

settlers went to the new colony to establish a semi permanent base to promote western religion and culture among indigenous people.

2. Internal Colonialism

​​Control and oppression within a single country

uneven structural power and development of regions (apartheid, residential schools)

3. Settler Colonialism

Large numbers of colonizers settling permanently, replacing Indigenous populations

immigration at a large scale as an outcome of religious, economic, or political issues or to avoid persecution.

4. Surrogate Colonialism

Colonial power supports a third group to settle and dominate Indigenous lands

the colonizer encourages settling by providing support to a group to take land from the indigenous