Critical Approaches to Literature and Criticism
1. Reader-Response—Focuses on the reader (or "audience") and his or her experience of a literary work, in
contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content and form of the
work.
2. Feminist Criticism—Focuses on female representation in literature, paying attention to female points of
view, concerns, and values. Three underlying assumptions in this approach are: Western Society is
pervasively patriarchal, male centered and controlled, and is organized in such a way as to subordinate women;
the concept of gender is socially constructed, not biologically determined; and that patriarchal ideology
pervades those writings which have been considered “great works of literature.”
3. Queer Theory—Combined area of gay and lesbian studies and criticism, including studies of variations in
biological sex, gender identity, and sexual desires. Emphasis on dismantling the key binary oppositions of
Western culture: male/ female, heterosexual/ homosexual, etc. by which the first category is assigned privilege,
power, and centrality, while the second is derogated, subordinated, and marginalized.
4. Marxist Criticism—Focuses on how literary works are products of the economic and ideological
determinants specific to that era. Critics examine the relationship of a literary product to the actual economic
and social reality of its time and place (Class stratification, class relations, and dominant ideology).
5. Historical Criticism—Focuses on examining a text primarily in relation to the historical and cultural
conditions of its production, and also of its later critical interpretations. Cultural materialism, a mode of NHC,
argues that whatever the “textuality” of history, a culture and its literary products are always conditioned by
the real material forces and relations of production in their historical era.
6. Psychological Criticism—Focuses on a work of literature primarily as an expression, in fictional form, of
the state of mind and the structure of personality of the individual author. In other words, a literary text is
related to its author’s mental and emotional traits. Furthest extension is Psychoanalytic Criticism, emphasis
on phallic symbols, wombs, breasts, etc. Theorists include Lacan and Klein.
7. New Criticism—The proper concern of literary criticism is not with the external circumstances or effects
or historical position of a work, but with a detailed consideration of the work itself as an independent entity.
Emphasis on “the words on the page.” Study of poetry focuses on the “autonomy of the work as existing for
its own sake,” analysis of words, figures of speech, and symbols. Distinctive procedure is close reading and
attention to recurrent images; these critics delight in “tension,” “irony,” and “paradox.” (Similar to Formalism
or Neo-Aristotelian)
8. Deconstruction—Focuses on the practice of reading a text in order to “subvert” or “undermine” the
assumption that the text can be interpreted coherently to have a universal determinate meaning. Typically,
deconstructive readings closely examine the conflicting forces/meanings within the text in order to show that
the text has an indefinite array of possible readings/significations.
9. Archetypal/Mythic Criticism—Focuses on recurrent narrative designs, patterns of action, character types,
or images which are said to be identifiable in a wide variety of literary works, myths, dreams, and even
ritualized modes of behavior. Critics tend to emphasize the mythical patterns in literature, such as the deathrebirth theme and journey of the hero.
10. Cultural Criticism—This lens examines the text from the perspective of cultural attitudes and often
focuses on individuals within society who are marginalized or face discrimination in some way. Cultural
criticism may consider race, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexuality or other characteristics that separate
individuals in society and potentially lead to one feeling or being treated as “less than” another. It suggests that
being included or excluded from the dominant culture changes the way one may view the text.
11. Modernism/Post-Modernism—Modernism is a rejection of traditional forms of literature (chronological
plots, continuous narratives, closed endings etc.) in favor of experimental forms. They have nostalgia for the
past that they feel is lost so Modernist texts often include multiple allusions. Post-Modernists follow the same
principles but celebrate the new forms of fragmentation rather than lamenting them.
 Look for ironies within a text
 Analyze fragmentation and a mixing of genres and forms
 Blurs the line between “high” literature (classics) and popular literature (NY Times Bestsellers)
12. Mythological Criticism—This approach emphasizes “the recurrent universal patterns underlying most
literary works.” Combining the insights from anthropology, psychology, history, and comparative religion,
mythological criticism “explores the artist’s common humanity by tracing how the individual imagination uses
myths and symbols common to different cultures and epochs.” One key concept in mythological criticism is
the archetype, “a symbol, character, situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response,” which entered
literary criticism from Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. According to Jung, all individuals share a “‘collective
unconscious,’ a set of primal memories common to the human race, existing below each person’s conscious
mind”—often deriving from primordial phenomena such as the sun, moon, fire, night, and blood, archetypes
according to Jung “trigger the collective unconscious.” Another critic, Northrop Frye, defined archetypes in a
more limited way as “a symbol, usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as
an element of one’s literary experience as a whole.” Regardless of the definition of archetype they use,
mythological critics tend to view literary works in the broader context of works sharing a similar pattern.
13. Post-Colonialism Criticism—Post-colonialism literature is most commonly written about countries that
have been previously colonized. A post-colonial lens would approach literature and look for what effects
colonization has left on a society or on individual characters. This criticism looks through literature with the
post-colonial theory. It shows history and the effects that colonization can leave on a civilization even after
they have gained independence. The post-colonialism critical lens interprets the challenges and changes of a
previously colonized nation as the effects of colonization. The major important symbols are oppression and
power. There is an identity between the colonizer and the colonized. The goal of the critical lens is to seek to
understand the behavior of characters or the society. It can be analyzed by the setting and the actions or
behaviors depicted by characters in literature can be attributed to their country being previously colonized.
Characters or society can feel torn between the identities of their native culture and the culture of the
colonizing country. A reader needs to have a good grasp of historical knowledge in order to fully apply the
post colonialism lens to literature. A reader has to be aware of the previous or current colonial status of any
countries or societies that are presented in a work of literature.
14. Moral/Ethical Criticism—The moral/intellectual critical approach is concerned with content and values.
The approach is as old as literature itself, for literature is a traditional mode of imparting morality, philosophy,
and religion. The concern in moral/intellectual criticism is not only to discover meaning but also to determine
whether works of literature are both true and significant. To study literature from the moral/intellectual
perspective is therefore to determine whether a work conveys a lesson or message and whether it can help
readers lead better lives and improve their understanding of the world: What ideas does the work contain?
How strongly does the work bring forth its ideas? What application do the ideas have to the work’s characters
and situations? How may the ideas be evaluated intellectually? Morally? Discussions based on such
questions do not imply that literature is primarily a medium of moral and intellectual exhortation. Ideally,
moral/intellectual criticism should differ from sermonizing to the degree that readers should always be left with
their own decisions about whether to assimilate the ideas of a work and about whether the ideas—and values—
are personally or morally acceptable. Sophisticated critics have sometimes demeaned the moral/intellectual
approach on the grounds that “message hunting” reduces a work’s artistic value by treating it like a sermon or
political speech; but the approach will be valuable as long as readers expect literature to be applicable to their
own lives.
For more on Literary Theory, check out the Purdue Online Writing Lab:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/1/