Critical Lenses

Vince Brewton's article "Literary Theory" summarizes what literary theorists do as well as many of the movements and perspectives within literary criticism in general.

Most of the critical lenses are from whoever is marginalized: the poor (Marxism), the women (feminism), non-caucasians (ethnic and postcolonialism), non-heterosexuals (queer theory), and so forth.

What I used to gripe about while reading critics' takes on literature and plays was that I felt that they were not doing justice to the rest of the piece. All they could see was "this work is a triumph of the working woman" or "The closeness between the Chief and McMurphy symbolizes their repressed sexual desires for each other..." And I would angrily protest. "It has NOTHING TO DO with sexuality!"

We cannot fully escape the lenses we bring to the table of criticism. But I hope we can escape them enough to embrace the actual theme of the story. True, authors (of published stories...but you should have gotten that from the context ;) ) will write with lenses that may be antifeminist or white supremacist, and this we can analyze and discuss, and this can range from thick lenses to thin ones. And there is nothing wrong with analyzing what the author believes in, based on the text. But my hope is that while we strive to search for the lenses of the author, we do not let this search distract us from how the story touches us.

Oftentimes we criticize (in the academic sense) literature based on how it touches us. So if a story feels tinted with suppression or marginalization, this needs to be explored by the reader. But sometimes a story will simply touch us as tragic, situationally hopeless, or prophetic (to name a few arbitrary reactions).

I do not wish to dictate how others should approach literature, or suggest that there is a correct or incorrect way to approach it--and I apologize here and now if I have done this. Personally, I find it interesting to explore the cultural and political context of the author of a story, but I am first concerned with the story that the author has captured and brought to others--especially since it is up to the reader how the story will be taken in. Again, that is merely my preference.