Literary Theories

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Literary Theories

Post Colonial Theory

Analyzing texts from countries or cultures that have been oppressed by European colonial powers.

When using the post colonial lens, aim to undertsand the history and point of view behind colonies that have been stripped of their culture, land, resources etc.

How the Birtish empire exercised its controll over parts of Africa for example.

Cultural genocide

Hegemony: Dominating another country or clan of people.

Feminist Theory

Understanding a text through women's perpesctives. How women write their own experiences and representations.

When using the feminist lens, we aim to undertand gender inequality through texts. Recurring themes in feminist texts could be discriminination, voting rights, cultural norms, stereotypes, etc.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) by Mary Wollstonecraft is one the earliest texts about feminist philosophy.

Formalist Theory

Focues on elements of Fiction. It is a unity of plot, themes and characters, through the use of tone, point of view, imagery, action, etc.

The formalist theory is completly ignoring the author's influences on the text, social and historical contexts and ignoring details and just focusing on the structural aspects of a text.

focuses on the form of the text. Ex. themes, genre, etc.

Ignoring the character's development and meanings

Archetypal Theory

Recurring images, characters, narrative, designs and themes. Helps the reader deconstruct a story using a specific pattern.

For example:

In order to understand the Archetypal Lens, we have to use the "Hero's Journey" and character archetypes.

Character archetypes such as the Hero, the Shadow, the Mentor, the threshold guardians, etc.

Joseph Campbell's Monomyth story circle

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