Check for Understanding
Critical Lenses Objective 1
“learn about the different critical lenses that scholars use to analyze a text (feminist,
historical/biographical, socio-political, Post-colonial, psychoanalytical)”
You will be ready for this section of the Content Assessment when you are able to define each of the
lenses covered in this playlist. Fill out the following chart for each lens:
Critical Lens
Feminist
Historical/Biographical
Socio-political
Post-colonial
Psychoanalytical
Description
Important Questions
Answer Key
Critical Lens
Feminist
Historical/Biographical
Socio-political
Post-colonial
Psychoanalytical
Description
Looks at the text in terms of
gender roles, gender
stereotypes, and disparities
between the gender. Explores
which gender holds power and
what relationships between
genders look like.
Important Questions
Does the text have a primarily
male or female viewpoint?
Which gender holds power in
the text?
What assumptions does the
text make about men or
women?
Looks at the text in terms of
how it was influenced by the
historical events during the
time in which it was written OR
how it was influenced by the
author’s experiences
How was this text received
when it came out?
What social values or attitudes
might have affected this text?
Does the author refer to real
historical events?
How might the author’s
personal experience have
affected the text?
What kinds of power structures
exist in the text?
How do political, economic, and
social forces drive the
characters?
Is there a “culture of power” in
the text? Is there evidence of
oppression in the text?
How did colonization affect the
colonized? How did it affect the
colonizers?
What kinds of resistance(s)
was there to colonial control?
How does the text use language
to portray characters?
Looks at the text through the
viewpoint of power structures,
especially social, political, and
economic. Similar to Historical,
but much more narrow.
Looks at the text through the
viewpoint of understanding
how countries were effected by
colonialism. In particular, the
text looks at the relationship
between the colonized and the
colonizer. Important to note
that it explores the idea that
themes/experiences are NOT
necessarily universal.
The psychoanalytical lens tries
to explore the hidden
motivations and desires of
characters in a text;
particularly using the theories
of Sigmund Freud.
What are the unconscious
wishes of this character?
How do the images and
metaphors in this text reveal
something about the character?
What would Freud say about
this character or text?