1. Applying critical lenses to popular culture/media texts. Based on your reading as well as class discussions, briefly describe in your own words, the following literary theories. (Spend no more than a few minutes on this part of the exercise.)
psychological criticism
feminist literary theory
Marxist literary theory
reader-response theory
other? (Choose one as a group)
- Not all of the texts we encounter in everyday life are literary. “Cultural” texts can include music videos, television ads or programs, print ads, billboards, or films. Think of something you’ve read, heard, seen outside of class that particularly struck you as worth thinking about. Describe the example below. What lens might you use to help you understand this cultural text? How might that lens affect or increase your understanding?
- On the index card provided, please:
a) Describe your popular cultural text (bring in a clip or copy of the original, if possible).
b) Analyze that text through a critical lens
c) Conclude what the significance of the text is and why it is important to read it critically.
- Can we use critical lenses to “read” the world? Explain.
- Consider the examples from Chapter 10 of contemporary artifacts that were read by the students using critical lenses (see the examples of students’ responses below). List some aspects of youth culture that you think students should read if they are to become the “enlightened witnesses” that bell hooks describes.
For some examples of texts and images related to critical lenses, see some of Deborah Appleman’s PowerPoint presentations and handouts.
http://www.carleton.edu/departments/edst/faculty/Appleman/index.html
(For the first two PowerPoint presentations, ignore the note that the file was not able to locate the Shrek1.video).
The “Got Milk” Ad Slide 16 in the “Reading and Resisting Ideology, Or, What's a Theory For?” Presentation
Jenny’s Response
Description: Shows Rebecca Romijn is almost naked in this skimpy white bikini. She is holding a glass of milk and has a milk mustache. I think she is in Times Square. The most obvious feature is her “ideal” body. This disgusts me because this is supposed to be an advertisement for milk. I think it is saying a little more than just “drink milk.”
Analysis: The message sent is that she looks good from milk (I highly doubt that). While milk should be the most important part of the advertisement, it is clearly looked over because she’s half-naked. I doubt that anyone is going to look at the glass of milk first. The purpose of this half naked body has to be to get the attention of the trendy magazine reader.
Conclusion: Unfortunately the “Barbie” look is still looked at as ideal for women. It also says that women have to use their bodies to sell something.
A Victoria SecretTM Tiny Bikini ad
Laura’s Response
Description: I found a picture on the Victoria Secret website while browsing through the swimwear. As I was looking at the different swimsuits they have to offer I noticed something about every girl/picture. On each picture there would be a girl in her swimsuit, with oil on her body, making a sort of seductive look.
Analysis: Each girl on this entire website was extremely skinny. In order to sell their swimwear they got the skinniest and prettiest models. No where on their website, no one place is there an “average” sized or even “plus-sized” woman. This suggests the idea that if they would have an average or plus-sized model—their products would not sell. Victoria Secret is not the only place in the world that supports the message “skinny sells.”
Conclusion: In society today no major industry like Victoria Secret could sell their products using anything but skinny bodies. Today skinny is promoted by the media that it is the only was to look and it is the right way. Skinny gorgeous bodies are also used to get people looking at their websites and magazines and therefore seeing their products. Could Victoria Secret ever put a plus-sized model on their website or in their magazine? Or is it true that in our society only skinny sells.
*As I’m listening to all of the groups most of the girls in this class did feminist lenses. Just an observation. That was interesting to me.
An Dodge DurangoTM ad with “his” and “hers” bathroom images.
Ashton’s Response (female)
Description: There are four images, 2 or which are labeled “HIS”, and two are “HERS”. The “HIS” ones show a toilet sear left-up and a sloppily layed pair of muddy boots. The “HERS” pictures are of the same toilet, but the lid is down and a flower bouquet rests upon the top, and also a closet with numerous rows of neatly organized, spotless shoes. On the next page there is a picture of a Dodge Durango looking sleek and profound. Underneath it is the caption “Where capability and refinement come together.”
Analysis: The ad creates a large gap in characterizing men and women. Men are portrayed as sloppy, and women as neat and refined. Once the contrast has been made, the statement “ Where capability and refinement come together: appeals to a correspondence. If the women fill the “refinement” moiety, then men are deemed to possess the “capability.” Under feminist criticism, the labeling of women as refined and men as capable reinforces that sexual stereotype while simultaneously hoping to appeal to both sexes in order to get them to purchase the car. This attempt should not be appealing—it limits both genders by pigeonholing according to stereotypes.
Conclusion: The ad attempts to use stereotypes of men and women to sell their product as a means for the separate characteristics of men and women to meet. The established differences of men and women, however, work more to limit each sex than to overcome the division.
Jeremy’s Response (male)
Description: The advertisement is for Dodge Durango. In the 2-page magazine ad the front page shows the “man’s” bathroom with the toilet seat up and the “man’s” closet w/ a pair of dirty boots. The “woman’s” bathroom has a vase w/ flowers on top of the toilet and the seat is down, and the “woman’s” closet has tons of shoes that are organized on racks. The second page of the advertisement describes the masculine and feminine features of a car encompassed into one vehicle, the Durango.
Analysis: When we look at the ad through the lens of the feminist critic, it is extremely apparent of the stereotype of the typical dirty, masculine, relatively unorganized guy. The ad uses this mindset to highlight the “hemi” engine, the heavy duty tranny and towing capacity. The ad portrays the woman as someone who would most likely be concerned with the practicality and the aesthetics of the vehicle, based on the picture of a clean bathroom and closet w/ shoe racks and other misc. storage. The ad highlights the stereotypical woman’s interest in the car’s seating capacity, air-bag features, stereo system and DVD player.
Conclusion: This ad clearly uses stereotypical sexism in order to highlight the broad appeal of this vehicle. Though only slightly humorous, it reflects a outdated society and while as an effective ad it just leaves you with a feeling that they could have conveyed the same meaning in a different way.
Marxist lens
An article about famine in Ethiopia and an ad for diamonds: Slide 20 in the “Reading and Resisting Ideology, Or, What's a Theory For?” Presentation
Matt’s Response
Description: After we talked about Marxism and Of Mice and Men, I was looking at the NY Times A section and saw these two items facing each other. There’s a long article about famine in Ethiopia—I didn’t copy it all. Then right across the page is this ad for diamond earrings. I thought it was ironic enough and then I saw the price of the earrings, $10,500!
Analysis: Capitalism can be found alive and well in every corner of this paper. The news alternates with ads for luxury goods. The Marxist lens makes me think about the haves and have-nots as represented by these two artifacts. Where is the middle class?
Conclusion: I found the ad obscene next to the famine article. I wonder if the editorial staff even notices this stuff. Are people who can afford to buy earrings interested in the famine article? Do people who care about famine in Ethiopia tolerate earring ads? The typical reader of the NY Times lives between the earrings and the famine.
A CanonTM digital camera ad
Bridget’s Response
Description: This is a magazine advertisement. On one side it says “there’s digital” with a picture of a metal slide. On the other side it says “Then there’s canon digital” with a picture of a colorful rollercoaster.
Analysis: Looking at this test through the Marxist lens, it seems as though they are implying that the canon is only worthy of taking pictures of people at expensive amusement parks. The canon digital camera could never take a picture of a child playing on a simple slide. Therefore they are implying that if you cannot afford to take the family to an amusement park regularly then the canon digital camera is not for you.
Conclusion: This text implies that only those with a lot of money can afford the canon camera.
An ad about starving children in Africa
Ben’s Response
Description: This is an ad meant to bring attention to the plight of the children in Africa who are starving, diseased, etc. The baby in a bundle is being held in the beak of a vulture, which is a play on the stork-and-baby concept. The vulture itself is much larger than the baby, which makes the viewer assume the child is underweight and small.
Analysis: Looking at this ad from a Marxist perspective, it is obvious that there are some economic connotations underlying the ad. For one, Africa is very economically underprivileged, especially in comparison to the mostly American audience who will be viewing this magazine. Rather than totally blame the reader for neglecting poor children, the ad makes a gentler appeal while still trying to invoke the conscience of the reader.
Conclusion: The significance of this ad is simply that it is a poignant appeal to people who see it to not forget their downtrodden brothers and sisters. With a Marxist analysis, some important details about the economic and social undertones of the subject
Reader Response Lens
A FcukTM perfume ad showing a female and male
Sarah’s Response
Description: The ad is for fcuk perfume. The front has two people in a bed and the back shows two bottles of fcuk fragrances.
Analysis: I looked at this through reader response, which says meaning is found between the reader and the text. Since the front of the ad says “scent to bed” and the perfume is called fcuk (resembling another well known word) readers make mental connections. The ad intends to make people think about more than perfume. Thus inticing them to buy the product. The ad does not say anything provocative, but the reader finds such messages through reader response lenses.
Conclusion: The significance is that people can take advantage of your subconscious through advertisement. It must be read critically because it would be easy to be inticed by physical aspects when any other perfume may be just as good. You need to see through the immediate superficial appeal.
This Individual Assignment was followed by the following group assignment:
Reading the World: What Did You See?
Get together with two other classmates. Share your cultural texts. List what you each brought below:
What do your texts have in common? How are they different?
Now share your analyses. which lenses did you employ?
List below some of the more “profound” cxonclusions that resulted from your analyses of these cultural texts.
Can we use critical lenses to read the world? Explain.
Choose someone from your group to report to the class on your group’s discoveries.
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Bell Hooks would be pleased by the students’ ability to be “enlightened witnesses” to the cultural constructs and assumptions that surround them. Their ability to use critical lenses to read literary texts seems to translate into an ability to read the world as well. As Robert Scholes reminds us,
The relationship between the text and the world is not simply a fascinating problem for textual theory. It is, above all others, the problem that makes textual theory necessary.
2. Applying critical lenses to a poem. Read the poem “Mushrooms” by Sylvia Path.
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6642&poem=33187
Then, in small groups use the following handout to read the poem using each of a series of lens.
Literary Theory: Prisms of Possibilities
Please read the Sylvia Plath poem and discuss it in your group using the assigned lens. We will consider each lens when we reconvene as a large group.
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Reader Response |
Biographical |
Feminist |
Marxist |
What aspects of the poem lend themselves to this particular lens? |
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Cite specific textual passage(s) that supports this reading: |
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If you look through this lens, what themes or patterns are brought into shaper relief? |
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If you look through this lens, what questions emerge? |
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Do you believe in this reading? Why or why not? |
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When you have completed this exercise for this poem, find another poem that seems to show ambiguity of meaning and see if you can construct a similar activity of your own.
3. Applying critical lenses to another poem. Pick a partner. Then together, read the following poem.
On the Subway
Sharon Olds
The boy and I face each other.
His feet are huge, in black sneakers
laced with white in a complex pattern like a
set of international scars. We are stuck on
opposite sides of the car, a couple of
molecules stuck in a rod of light
rapidly moving through darkness. He has the
casual cold look of a mugger,
alert under hooded lids. He is wearing
red, like the inside of the body
exposed. I am wearing dark fur, the
whole skin of an animal taken and
used. I look at his raw face,
he looks at my fur coat, and I don't
know if I am in his power-
he could take my coat so easily, my
briefcase, my life-
or if he is in my power, the way I am
living off his life, eating the steak
he does not eat, as if I am taking
the food from his mouth. And he is black
and I am white, and without meaning or
trying to I must profit from his darkness,
the way he absorbs the murderous beams of the
nation's heart, as black cotton
absorbs the heat of the sun and holds it. There is
no way to know how easy this
white skin makes my life, this
life he could take so easily and
break across his knee like a stick the way his
own back is being broken, the
rod of his soul that at birth was dark and
fluid and rich as the heart of a seedling
ready to thrust up into any available light.
Formalist/New Critical lens
1. Read the poem aloud in your group.
2. Using the theory cards, glossaries, and any other information that you have, please
summarize what you think it means to apply a formalist lens to a text.
3. As a group, list some of the important poetic devices that Olds employs to convey her
meaning.
4. Underline lines that contain those poetic devices.
5. As a group, complete this sentence (more than one meaning statement might result).
Based on a formalist analysis we think the poem means
because
6. Does this reading raise larger questions about society for you?
7. Pick a reporter to summarize your group’s findings.
Feminist lens
1. Read the poem aloud in your group.
2. Using the theory cards, glossaries and any other information that you have, please
summarize what you think it means to apply a feminist lens to a text.
3. As a group, underline lines that are particularly relevant to a feminist reading.
4. As a group, complete this sentence (more than one meaning statement might result).
Based on a feminist reading, we think the poem means
because
5. What larger questions about society does this reading raise for you?
6. Pick a reporter to summarize your group’s findings.
Marxist lens
1. Read the poem aloud in your group.
2. Using the theory cards, glossaries, and any other information that you have, please
summarize what you think it means to apply a Marxist lens to a text.
3. As a group, underline lines that are particularly relevant to a Marxist reading.
4. As a group, complete this sentence (more than one meaning statement might result).
Based on a Marxist reading, we think the poem means
because
5. What larger questions about society does this reading raise for you?
6. Pick a reporter to summarize your group’s findings.
Reader response lens
1. Read the poem aloud in your group.
2. Using the theory cards, glossaries, and any other information that you have, please
summarize what you think it means to apply a reader-response lens to a text.
3. Have each person list the personal qualities and/or personal experiences that are
relevant to the poem.
4. Have each person underline lines that are particularly relevant to those personal
experiences.
5. Have each person in the group complete the following sentence:
Based on my own reading, I think the poem means
because
6. Pick a reporter to summarize your group’s findings.
Which lenses might be most helpful in approaching this poem with adolescents, and what leads you to this judgment? How might the use of critical lenses make the poem more teachable? (If you believe that they would not make the poem more accessible, explain why you believe this to be the case.)
4. Applying critical lenses to a contemporary issue. Recently a group of high school students were asked the following question:
Think of something you’ve heard about or seen outside of class that struck you as being worth serious thought and examination.
OR
Describe this event or issue and explain why it is important.
Here are some of the issues they described.
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The war in Iraq
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September 11
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The high school dress code
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Cliques and divisions within the school
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Government spying
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Racially motivated fights in school
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The increasing amount of the world population in poverty
Consider the adolescents with whom you are currently working. What issues might they need to read from a critical lens? How might you help them do so?
5. Creating activities for applying critical lenses to a text. Review the activities that Harry created for To Kill A Mockingbird. Harry used critical lenses to help address some of the more problematic aspects of this classic novel.
Select another novel from the high school canon, perhaps one discussed in Chapter 9 such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or The Scarlet Letter. What critical lenses might you employ if were to teach this novel, and why? What aspects of this novel might a particular critical lenses bring into sharper relief?
Using Harry’s handout as a model, create your own activity for the novel that you select.
6. Applying critical lenses to a canonical text. The Bedford/St. Martins press has a series called Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism, which surrounds a classic text with articles in which critics view the text from a variety of theoretical perspectives. You can view the selection of texts using the link below:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/browse.asp?disc=ENG&disc_name=English&@id_course=
1058000086&cd_booktype=LIRE&cd_subtype=TCSC
After familiarizing yourself with this series, select a text that does not appear on the Bedford St Martin’s list, preferably one that you anticipate teaching. Using this text, create a mini case study by finding at least three critical articles that discuss the text for a particular critical lens. You’ll find the list of additional readings on the webpage that accompanies this chapter to be particularly helpful for this assignment.
7. Creating a lesson plan based on applying critical lenses. Chapter 10 presents a unit by Tim, who taught Montana 1948 to his juniors and seniors in a contemporary literature class. Tim introduced four critical lenses—historical, feminist, Marxist, and reader-response—to help his students explore the novel. Using the basic considerations for lesson planning that we discussed in this chapter and in Chapter 3, create your own lesson plan in which you use a literary text and at least three critical lenses. As you prepare this lesson, think about a group of students with whom you are currently working or whom you are observing, and then respond to the following questions as you create your lesson plan.
Who are my students?
What kinds of literary experiences do they need?
Given their abilities and experiences, which text should I choose?
What approaches to those texts should I use?
8. Keeping a critical-lens reading journal. Keep a critical-lens reading journal as you read novels on your own. Set aside one page for each lens, and then jot down phrases, events, or actions of its characters that bring a particular lens to mind. (A terrific teacher we know has used this activity effectively with her students. They’ve kept lens journals for The Great Gatsby and Their Eyes Were Watching God with great success. This teacher found that the “lens journals” improved both class discussion and the students’ writing assignments by providing them with specific textual examples for each lens.
9. Analyzing The Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Smoke Signals. Here are some activities for use in analyzing Sherman Alexie’s The Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and the film, Smoke Signals, based on that novel. The screenplay of Smoke Signals, written by Alexie, which differs considerably from the final movie and includes Alexie's scene-by-scene commentary how the decisions were made to incorporate these changes.
Biographical information/links to writings of and about Sherman Alexie
http://www.miracosta.cc.ca.us/home/gfloren/alexie.htm
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/alexie/alexie.htm
http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A1
http://library.spokanefalls.edu/ShermanAlexie/Alexie_webpage.htm
There are also a number of interviews with Sherman Alexie in which he discusses several aspects the film and its creation.
http://www.fallsapart.com/interviews.html
http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/alexie_interview.html
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/alexie.html
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/alexie/fraser.htm
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/int/1998/07/02int.html
http://www.toxicuniverse.com/review.php?aid=1000346
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1397737
Alexie, “I Hated Tonto (Still Do)”
http://www.fallsapart.com/tonto.html
Webquest: background material and activities for studying these texts:
http://webpages.shepherd.edu/ltate/WebQuestAlexie.htm
Finally, there is a powerful poem called “Forgiving our Fathers” by Dick Lourie
http://www.class.uidaho.edu/cae_core/Links/Lourie%20poem.htm
that is excerpted and spoken aloud at the conclusion of the film. Both the original and the excerpted version are worthy of consideration by students.
- Compare the short stories with the film and screenplay. What do differences in these forms result in differences in the experience of the subject matter? Based on the Alexie’s comments in his interviews about the making of Smoke Signals, how do differences in form support or limit his vision/voice?
- Based on the online biographical material, discuss whether filmmakers like Alexie from underrepresented groups compromise their art for economic and other reasons? How do these factors contribute to the “censorship of neglect?”
- Discuss the concept of the "trickster figure" in much Native-American literature and how this figure relates to the tradition of "signifying" in African-American culture. Ask students to consider how Thomas-Builds-the-Fire acts as a trickster figure in the film. Then discuss how, as a result of colonialism and domination, many cultures have developed ways of critiquing the social order through the use of innuendo and humor rather than more direct forms of resistance.
- Discuss how the film juxtaposes stereotype and "realism," humor and pathos in a way that disrupts the viewer's notions of life on Indian reservations as well as notions of the dominant culture. In this sense, is the author a kind of trickster figure?
- Discuss how power relationships are portrayed in the film and how issues of race, ethnicity, class, place and gender complicate the characters' lives as well as life within and outside of the reservation.
- Discuss Thomas and Victor as young adults. Is it true that while teenagers in general are acutely focused on how others see them, those from post-colonial cultures possess what W.E.B. Dubois calls “double-consciousness”? If so, how are their lives as young adults influenced by this double-consciousness?
10. Looking at Star Wars through Critical Lenses. In small groups, discuss the following questions. You will be asked to share the fruits of your discussion with the whole class in your symposium.
- Try to recall the first time you saw this film. In what ways was this viewing different from your first viewing. What were some things you noticed that you didn't notice before? What seemed to be important this time that didn't come through in a previous viewing?
- Think back to our discussions of archetypes from last year. Describe how characters, plot, conflict or theme in Star Wars could be viewed in archetypal terms. For example, is this a classic story of good versus evil, is Princess Leah the typical heroine?
- Select the two lenses that you think might be most helpful in illuminating the film. Write down the theories below.
- Now come up with some statements about the film for each of the theories you named in question three. For example, if you select feminist criticism you might discuss the lack of female characters and evaluate the role of Princess Leah from a feminist perspective. If you choose reader-response theory you might describe how the film reminded each of you of a personal experience in your struggle with good and evil.
- After you discuss these interpretations, decide how to present them to the whole class. Your presentation should be no more than about ten minutes of your symposium.
11. What is the feminist lens? Feminist literary criticism helps us look at literature in a different light. It applies the philosophies and perspectives of feminism to the literature we read. There are many different kinds of feminist literary theory. Some theorists examine the language and symbols that are used and how that language and use of symbols is “gendered.” Others remind us that men and women write differently and analyze at how the gender of the author affects how literature is written. Many feminist critics look at how the characters, especially the female characters, are portrayed and ask us to consider how the portrayal of female characters “reinforces or undermines “ sexual stereotypes (Lynn, 1998). Feminist literary theory also suggests that the gender of the reader often affects our response to a text. For example, feminist critics may claim that certain male writers address their readers as if they were all men and exclude the female reader
Like feminism itself, feminist literary theory asks us to consider the relationships between men and women and their relative roles in society. Much feminist literary theory reminds us that the relationship between men and women in society is often unequal and reflects a particular patriarchal ideology. Those unequal relationships may appear in a variety of ways in the production of literature and within literary texts. Feminist theorists invites us to pay particular attention to the patterns of thought, behavior, values, and power in those relationships.
Feminist literary critics remind us that literary values, conventions, and even the production of literature, have themselves been historically shaped by men. They invite us to consider writings by women , both new and forgotten, and also ask us to consider viewing familiar literature through a feminist perspective.
- How do we apply the feminist lens?
We apply it by closely examining the portrayal of the characters, both female and male, the language of the text, the attitude of the author, and the relationship between the characters. We also consider the comments the author seems to be making about society as a whole.
- Application: Looking through the Feminist Lens
Select two female characters from novels with which you are very familiar. They could be from our summer reading, from works we have read together, or from texts you have read in previous English classes. For example, you might choose Daisy from The Great Gatsby, Hester Pryne from The Scarlet Letter, Sonya from Crime and Punishment, etc.
For each character, write two descriptive statements—one from a traditional masculine perspective and the second from a feminist perspective.
Character 1:
Traditional statement:
Feminist statement:
Character 2:
Traditional statement:
Feminist statement:
- Can the feminist lens be useful in everyday life? Please write a sentence about the following objects or situations using a traditional perspective and then applying the feminist lens:
• Mount Rushmore
• the Miss America pageant
• coverage of the Olympic women's hockey team
• the sex scandal in the White House
• anchors of national network news shows
• Madonna's lingerie
- Can you think of anything that has happened to you or to a friend of yours in the past two weeks that could be better explained or understood through a feminist lens? Pick a partner and share stories.
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