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Literary Theory An Introduction to
Psychoanalytic, Feminist,
Marxist, and Archetypal
Criticisms
Critical Lenses for the English Classroom
When a member of
my family complains that
he or she has bitten his
tongue, bruised her finger,
and so on, instead of
the expected sympathy
I put the question,
“Why did you do that?”
- Sigmund Freud
Psychological Criticism
At its essence, psych. criticism depends
on the basic concept of the
unconscious. The purpose of
psychological criticism is to direct
Freud’s question - “Why did you do
that?” - to authors, characters, and
readers.
How to do Psychological
Criticism
To fully delve into the unconscious, consider
these when analyzing texts:
• Isolation - Understanding something that
should be upsetting, but failing to react to it.
The person thus isolates an event or
stimulus, separating it from his/her feelings.
Ex. “Yes, my uncle murdered my father and
married my mother, but so what? I’ve got a
theology exam at UW next Tuesday, and I
just can’t worry about it now.”
Cont…
• Intellectualization - Analyzing and
rationalizing rather than feeling and reacting.
The topic isn’t forgotten or ignored; it’s just
turned into an intellectual issue. Ex. “I am
conducting a study on the incidence of ghost
appearances here in Denmark, and I am
especially interested in how often the ghost is
the father appearing to his son, as in my own
case.”
• Repression - Selectively forgetting about
whatever is troubling. Ex. “Ghost? What
ghost? Oh yeah, that ghost. Well, we better
go get some lunch.”
• Projection: Denying thoughts and feelings by
attributing them to someone else. Ex. “You
know, Horatio is just about paralyzed with
uncertainties and doubts. And I think he may
be sexually attracted to my mother, too.”
• Displacement: Shifting an emotion from its
real target to another one. Usually, a
threatening , powerful target is exchanged for
a safer one. Ex. “Don’t talk to me about
Claudius now. I’m busy plotting to kill those
sorry traitors Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.”
• Denial: Falsifying reality Ex. “I didn’t see any
ghost. My father is still alive.”
The Id, Ego, and Superego
Freud’s Tripartite Model of the Mind:
1. Id - irrational, instinctual, unconscious;
driven to fulfill pleasure principle
2. Ego - Rational, logical, conscious:
regulates Id, works with Superego
(battleground for Id and Superego)
3. Superego - Principled, moral, wholesome,
occupied with doing the right thing.
Psych. Criticism Cont…
• Literature is expression of author’s psyche
(unconscious) and like dreams needs to be
interpreted.
• Text is expression of secret/repressed life of
psychological struggle of the author.
• Look at characters in text and explain their
hidden desires/motives.
• Look at ways readers reveal other
obsessions/neuroses through reading of a
text.
• Find Oedipal conflicts
Feminist Criticism
A feminist critic sees cultural and economic
disabilities in a “patriarchal” society that have
hindered or prevented women from realizing
their creative possibilities and women’s cultural
identification as a merely negative object or
“other” to a man as the defining and dominating
“subject”
More on the Feminist Critic…Common
Assumptions:
• Our civilization is pervasively patriarchal.
• The concepts of “gender” are largely, if not
entirely, cultural constructs, effected by the
omnipresent patriarchal biases of our
civilization.
• This patriarchal ideology also pervades those
writings that have been considered “great”
literature. Such works lack autonomous
female role models, and leave the woman
reader an alien outsider or else solicit her to
identify against herself by assuming male
values and ways of perceiving, feeling,
acting.
Marxist
• Literature is a product of its environment
• Literature reflects societal tensions
(bourgeois vs. proletariat) as described
by Marx
• Awareness of class, race, and sexism
• Elucidates HOW social forces operate
within the text
Marxist
• Offers a critique of capitalism and how it
impedes social utopia/wholeness
• Focuses on content and not aesthetics
• Marxist art must offer social solutions