Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide

This chapter begins with a summary of the kinds of questions that each critical lens might ask about a work of literature:

• Psychoanalytic criticism: How does the text reflect psychological dynamics?

• Marxist criticism: To what extent does the text reflect capitalist ideologies?

• Feminist criticism: To what extent does the text reflect the patriarchy?

• New criticism: Does the text have “organic unity and a theme of universal significance” (463)?

• Reader-response criticism: How does the reader’s understanding of the text relate to the text itself, and how does the text shape that understanding?

• Structuralist criticism: What is the “structural system” of the text?

• Deconstructive criticism: What do the text’s contradictions reveal about its ideologies?

• New historicism: How does the text reflect and perpetuate ideological discourses in the culture it was made in and/or received?

• Cultural criticism: How do “working-class cultural productions” reflect hegemonic ideologies (464)?

• Lesbian, gay, and queer criticism: How does the text present LGBTQ+ people? How does it problematize traditional understandings of gender and sexuality?

• African American criticism: How does the text present Black people? To what extent does the text reflect racist ideologies?

• Postcolonial criticism: How does the text present cultural difference? To what extent does the text reflect colonialist ideologies?

• Ecocriticism: How does the text reflect the natural world? Is it ecocentric, anthropocentric, and/or androcentric?

Tyson notes that most critical theories are explicitly political and reflect a desire for a better, more just world, even if some, like reader-response theory, can be used to “apolitical” ends. She advises that critical theories are tools that can be used in nearly any combination desired but that the theories one chooses to use should take into account one’s ability with the theory(-ies) and the text to be analyzed. She argues that all critical theories have some flaws, but that does not mean they are not useful for “literary interpretation.” 

Tyson concludes with a reflection on her analyses of The Great Gatsby. She notes that while all the critical interpretations find “flaws” with the work, it is nevertheless “one of the most lyrically beautiful, masterfully crafted works ever produced” (467). This tension between a work’s “appalling” ideologies and its “incomparable artistry” is something that critical theory brings to light.