Notes
What lenses do
- A critical lens is a set of questions that guides interpretation. Close reading studies the text's language and structure.
- Always support a claim with specific evidence from the text.
Common lenses
- Historical/biographical: the time, place and author's life.
- Feminist: gender, power, voice and representation.
- Psychological: the mind. Freud's id, ego, superego; the unconscious; Jung's archetypes.
- Marxist: class, wealth and power; bourgeoisie vs proletariat; ideology.
- Reader-response: meaning arises from the reader's interaction with the text.
Applying a lens
- State the lens, make a claim, give evidence, explain the link and note what the lens leaves out.
Topics in this unit
Each topic has its own short notes and practice.
Practice
The critic connects the text to its period.
The interpretation relies on the unconscious.
Feminist criticism examines gender and power.
Economic power and class conflict mark Marxist analysis.
It names a lens, quotes the text and interprets it.
Different lenses highlight different features.
Free response
Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.
Free-response question
Read this original passage: "Mara swept the grand hall each morning before the family woke, careful not to make a sound. The master's son, Edwin, tossed her a coin and laughed, never learning her last name. 'You are lucky,' he said, 'to have honest work.' She smiled, and counted the coins after he left."
(a) Using a Marxist lens, describe the class relationship shown in the passage.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Mara is a servant who performs labor for a wealthy family, while Edwin represents the owning class. He holds power through money and has no interest in her as a person, since he never learns her name.
Check off the points you earned:
(b) Choose one detail and explain what it suggests about economic power.
Show the answer and scoring guide
The coin shows how wealth is used to reward and control. Edwin treats pay as a favor ("You are lucky"), which hides that Mara depends on the family to survive. Her counting the coins shows she cannot afford to ignore how little she receives.
Check off the points you earned:
(c) Explain how a feminist or reader-response lens would shift the reading of the same passage.
Show the answer and scoring guide
A feminist lens would ask how Mara's gender and class together limit her voice and choices. A reader-response lens would focus on how a reader reacts to Edwin's attitude and what personal experiences shape that reaction.
Check off the points you earned: