CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES

Another series of “lenses” which helps us to understand, digest, and analyze stories are critical
perspectives. Critical perspectives are rich, systematic ways of looking at literature. While
most of these perspectives are detailed (or even complicated) and many scholars spend their
entire career putting these perspectives into practice, we are going to look at stripped down
versions of some of the most common. Feel free to go online and research further any of these
perspectives that grab your attention.

Remember, the point of these perspectives is to help us as readers learn from and apply these
works to the world around us. No matter how old the piece is, we can still learn ideas about
human nature, relationships, history, culture, etc. All literature contains lessons to be learned; by
using a variety of critical perspectives, we have another way to uncover those lessons.

Here is the list of perspectives to consider during your reading this semester. I have tried to
include examples for each one; hopefully, I’ve chosen works you know.

Reader-Response criticism suggests that the “meaning” of the work is not merely something put
into the work by the writer; rather, the “meaning” is an interpretation created or produced by the
reader as well as the writer.
Example: Most of us would say that the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel discusses the
problems of the poor, the downfalls of greed, and the importance of blood-bonds in the family
(some versions have a bad stepmother). Reader-Response criticism would ask what you
personally, as the reader, got out of the story. Perhaps when you read the story you most connect
with the feeling of abandonment Hansel and Gretel must have felt. That meaning, under Reader-
Response criticism, becomes important simply because it was evoked from you as the reader.

Archetypal criticism discusses countless typical experiences, symbols, and patterns and claims
both the writer and the reader share unconscious memories which are touched by the story.
Famous Psychologist Carl Jung uncovered these ideas. Jung worked with Freud at one point, but
then split from him. However, Freudian overtones are prevalent in this theory. Ideas like the
color black=evil and white=good, water=cleansing, serpent=devil are something all humans
understand in our “collective unconscious.” When these ideas are used in literature, we all
simply understand them.
Example: The idea of the “witch” is common in literature. This is a version of “the bad
guy,” and you all understand that we don’t need to be told why the bad guy is bad, just that he is
bad. We automatically assume all kinds of dastardly deeds which this person is likely to commit,
and we immediately dislike the character. In Hansel and Gretel, we are told that the owner of
the house of sweets is a witch. We probably don’t need any more information, but the story
chooses to tell us that on top of (or perhaps because of) being a witch, she eats little children.

Hero/Myth Cycle – Joseph Campbell noticed and researched the typical pattern that takes place
in mythological and hero-based stories. Often there are elements of this cycle in stories that are
not overtly heroic or mythological adventures. The basic cycle is this:
 Examples: Luke Skywalker’s journey in Star Wars: A New Hope, Frodo’s journey in The
Lord of the Rings, etc.
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Historical criticism studies a work within its historical context. It is difficult to read
Frankenstein without understanding the ideas of the age in which it was produced. Without
understanding the time period, readers will miss some of the author’s points. (i.e. the cultural
feeling toward researchers who desecrated the human body).

Marxist criticism sees literature as the product of economic forces of the period. Any Dickens
story would fit well into this idea. Would Pip or Oliver be the characters they were if there

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wasn’t economical poverty in 19th Century London?

Psychoanalytical criticism takes the ideas of Freud and applies them to the piece. For example,
under Psychoanalytical criticism, Hamlet is about a man obsessed with the love life of his
mother, not about a son trying to catch his father’s murderer.

New Historicism insists there is no “history” in the sense of a narrative of indisputable past
events, but only our version of the past.

Biographical criticism looks at the background, life, and times of the author. When you delve
into Edgar Allen Poe’s life, you get a good understanding of why he wrote the way he did. (Is it

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surprising that a man who lost the three most important women in his life consistently writes
stories about death, despair, and the loss of love?)

Psychological criticism is usually a type of biographical criticism because it examines the author

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and the author’s writings in the framework of Psychology. It may use a variety of psychological
approaches and may study the psychology of the characters or even the readers.

Feminist criticism studies the work from the general position of the advocacy and
encouragement of equal rights and opportunities for women – politically, socially,
psychologically, personally, and aesthetically. Recent feminist criticism has emphasized and
explored the differences between men and women.