POSTMODERNISM
Depends heavily on IRONY. We need to be
aware that what the writer or the character
says may not be what she means; also,
that what we as readers ʻgetʼ from the text
might not be what the author intended.
There are no ʻdefiniteʼ messages, no ʻgood
and badʼ, and itʼs artificial to pretend that
the writer has more ʻinsightʼ than the
reader.
MARXISM
All texts are constructed, consciously or
not, as responses to a capitalist or post-
capitalist society. Itʼs all about power
relations, which in turn are structured
economically or politically. Characters and
writers are primarily motivated by their
socio-economic status; texts are studies of
economic and social systems in action.
STRUCTURALISM
A text is a linguistic structure or system. As
critical reader, our job is to focus on and
make sense of the linguistic structures in the
text. In a literary text, the focus will
presumably be on word and sentence
choice, structure, linguistic device, images,
metaphor and so on. Everything else springs
from those linguistic features.
FEMINISM
All texts are constructed, consciously or not,
as responses to gender-based social rules,
conventions and expectations. Itʼs all about
power relations, which are based more
powerfully than anything else on gender.
Texts are primarily studies of the
relationships and struggles between
genders and sexes.
HISTORICISM
The most important shaping feature of a
literary text is the historical context in
which it is written (as well, to a lesser
extent, as the historical context in which it
is set.) Understanding the historical
context, and the authorʼs relation to and
opinion of that contest, is the starting
point of any literary critique.
POST-COLONIALISM
Texts, especially those from post-colonial
societies or those written about one
culture from the point of view of a writer
from another, will reveal tensions betwen
cultures or between the past and present
states of that culture. These texts are
shaped by the cultures from which they
spring; those cultures are shaped by their
post-colonial status (or their status as
colonisers.)