Critical Lenses An introduction

Look at the following image– what does it make you think about? Jasper Johns, “Flag” ( ). Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Introduction We all see and understand things differently. Who we are, where we come from and what we’ve learned influence the ways we perceive the world and think about it. In an increasingly complex world, the sheer volume of information can be overwhelming, never mind the complexity of new media and variety of sources. Does that mean that we can never understand another person’s perspective or that anything goes?

No. Far from it. Instead, learning a variety of approaches and vocabulary from a number of perspectives helps us have conversations about the world and analyze it. This year, I want to introduce several systematic approaches to culture that will help you look at books, poems, films, websites, movies, songs… whatever… in new ways. I am calling them “Critical Lenses” (a.k.a Critical Theory). Sometimes they might help you express ideas for which you may have not had the vocabulary, sometimes they might give you a place to start when you didn’t have one, and sometimes they might remind you to consider different perspectives.

The First Five There are as many ways of looking at culture as there are people to look at it, but I want to begin with five lenses that will help us particularly well over the coming year. They are: Psycho-analytic Gender studies (aka feminism) Social class/Economics (aka Marxism) Mythical/Archetypal Formalism

Psycho-analytic Based on the work of Sigmund Freud and his followers, the psychological lens identifies elements of mental structures and processes as evidence of the author’s psychology. The main ones to consider are the three part self (ego-superego- id), the Oedipus complex, and dreams.

Gender studies People interested in how the genders (both male and female) are represented in a work. They are particularly interested in power relations between the sexes in different societies, though there are as many concerns as there are readers interested in this kind of study. There have been so many prominent schools of feminism in the United States dating back at least to the Seneca Falls Convention (1848), that I can’t write a list even of key figures, but keep bell hooks, Sandra Gilbert, Virginia Woolf, and others in mind.

Social Class/Economics Looking at a work through this lens entails examining how class, work and power inflect a work. Readers use this lens to examine inequality between classes and how power works. Also, look for evidence of the system of productions (works of art, meaning, etc.). Of course, Karl Marx’s philosophy put economics at the center, but recent social theory continues the trend without the political content.

Mythical/Archetypal This lens looks for universal figures like heroes, tricksters, damsels- in-distress, and so on as well as symbols (the snake, a dove) and motifs like a quest to understand a works underlying message. Karl Jung and Joseph Campbell are the most prominent thinkers in this field.

Formalism Formal readers examine only the work, itself. They analyze the language, poetic devices, composition and so on to understand the work on its own terms without worrying about the author/artist, the reader or society at large. In the US, the New Critics of the 1950’s pioneered this style, and it has been the dominant form of reading texts ever since. The “close reading” strategies you have learned are at its core.

Others– just a few to introduce them… ethnic studies structuralism post-structuralism post-colonial queer theory area studies reader response criticism historicism biography