Sci+Fi+lit+crit+notes

Literary Criticism notes

Lit Crit – looking at a text from the point of view of a particular concern

Reader Response lens –
 * Do I like this book? Reading for fun.

Archetypal lens
 * Recurrent cultural symbolism
 * in structure: Hero’s journey
 * common patterns in stories
 * in symbols:
 * forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden
 * poison apple in Snow White
 * Jung’s idea of the “collective unconscious”

Gender Lens
 * Recognizes patterns in our culture
 * Patriarchal
 * Men’s power is open (overt)
 * Women are often passive objects
 * Women’s power is forced to be hidden (covert)
 * Neither men nor women have options in their traditional roles
 * Ties into many assumptions about
 * gender identity
 * gender preference
 * How does gender affect the roles in the text?

Privilege and Social Power lens
 * economic system of a society determines who is important – who has money?
 * Who has the most opportunities?
 * Who has the most power?
 * focuses on money and power

Ecological lens
 * looks at roles of humans in the environment
 * How does this work reflect the author’s or the culture’s attitude toward the land?
 * attitude toward ecological balance?

Post-colonial lens –
 * colonizing is when a powerful culture moves in and overwhelms a smaller one; the goal is to recreate the bigger culture in a new place
 * How does this text show the attitude of a conquering culture?
 * How does this text show the cultures that are being invaded or overrun?
 * What are the long term implications?


 * Successful colonialism depends on a process of “Othering” the colonized people, making them seem dramatically less human than the conquerors.
 * Literature written by the conquered culture attempts to reclaim culture and identity in spite of colonization