Critical Frameworks (Ao3)
Feminist Critical Theory
Applicable Texts: Othello, TIOBE, Frankenstein, THMT, Romantic Poetry, Poems of the Decade
Feminist criticism looks at the representation of gender and also urges readers to consider
the implications of inequality.
1) The Male Gaze: The idea that, within literature, women are seen in the eyes of men
(typically beautiful or sexual). Women may also see other women through the male
gaze, but instead as competition. In feminist literary theory, it is a common criticism
for men to portray female characters as solely beautiful or sexual.
2) Garden of Eden (criticism of the female): Female deviance is seen in the Bible as
Eve was tempted by the snake and ate the apple. She gives the apple to Adam,
which results in the fall from God’s grace.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applicable Texts: Othello, TIOBE, Frankenstein, THMT, Romantic Poetry
Psychoanalytic criticism argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret
unconscious desires and anxieties of the author, and that a literary work is a manifestation of
the author's own neuroses. Typically, analysing a quality that isn’t there.
Psychoanalytic critics will ask such questions as, "What is Hamlet's problem?" or "Why can't
Brontë seem to portray any positive mother figures?"
1) Dream analysis: The Idea that dreams express unconscious desires.
- Manifest analysis: actual content of the dream
- Latent analysis: hidden meanings of the dream, through symbolism
Marxist Theory
Applicable Texts: Othello, TIOBE, Frankenstein, THMT, Romantic Poetry
Marxist criticism investigates how texts portray economic and other inequalities, and the
extent to which the text challenges these and indicates a need for change.
For example, this is evident through shifts in power between the oppressor and the
oppressed.
Feminist Critical Theory
Applicable Texts: Othello, TIOBE, Frankenstein, THMT, Romantic Poetry, Poems of the Decade
Feminist criticism looks at the representation of gender and also urges readers to consider
the implications of inequality.
1) The Male Gaze: The idea that, within literature, women are seen in the eyes of men
(typically beautiful or sexual). Women may also see other women through the male
gaze, but instead as competition. In feminist literary theory, it is a common criticism
for men to portray female characters as solely beautiful or sexual.
2) Garden of Eden (criticism of the female): Female deviance is seen in the Bible as
Eve was tempted by the snake and ate the apple. She gives the apple to Adam,
which results in the fall from God’s grace.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applicable Texts: Othello, TIOBE, Frankenstein, THMT, Romantic Poetry
Psychoanalytic criticism argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret
unconscious desires and anxieties of the author, and that a literary work is a manifestation of
the author's own neuroses. Typically, analysing a quality that isn’t there.
Psychoanalytic critics will ask such questions as, "What is Hamlet's problem?" or "Why can't
Brontë seem to portray any positive mother figures?"
1) Dream analysis: The Idea that dreams express unconscious desires.
- Manifest analysis: actual content of the dream
- Latent analysis: hidden meanings of the dream, through symbolism
Marxist Theory
Applicable Texts: Othello, TIOBE, Frankenstein, THMT, Romantic Poetry
Marxist criticism investigates how texts portray economic and other inequalities, and the
extent to which the text challenges these and indicates a need for change.
For example, this is evident through shifts in power between the oppressor and the
oppressed.
