Literary Theory – An Introduction

What is it?!

1. When you hear the word “theory”, what comes to mind? When have you encountered this word before?

2. Think of your favorite childhood movie or TV show. How did you view it as a child? When you see it now, what do you tend to notice? Describe the different “lenses” through which you viewed this work? What influenced that?

3. Time for some reading. Read:

  • Handout, page 1-8
  • Purdue Owl:

4. What’s the point of theory? What do you think it accomplishes?

Delving In

1. Pick 4 or 5 specific theories that resonated with you. For each, write a question that a person from that perspective would ask upon seeing an orange. For example, the reader-response theorist might ask: “What does the orange taste like? What does the orange remind us of?”

2. How do the theorists above view the orange? How do they approach their analysis? How do they seem to view the world?

3. Think of something in your own life or in the world around you that you think is worth thinking about. For example, it could be an interaction between friends, a school policy, a group at school, a political situation, etc. Consider the event or issues through two different theoretical lenses. What questions emerge? How do they affect your understanding of the issue?

4. Which theory or theories resonate most with you? Why?

Postcolonial Theory

1. What is it? Read handout, page 9-10. Take notes below:

2. How might you view this sentence from a postcolonial perspective? “Christopher Columbus discovered America.”

3. Read the poem “Sure You Can Ask me a Personal Question” (pg 11-12). Explain your postcolonial reading of the poem.

The God of Small Things

1. List 3-4 literary theories through which one could view The God of Small Things. The first will be…

  • Postcolonialism

2. Read “What is Postcolonial Literature?” (pg 13).Notes:

3. Complete the chart for The God of Small Things.

Postcolonial lens / lens / lens / lens
What are the assumptions of this lens?
List a moment in the text that exemplifies this perspective.
Given this perspective, what is the text trying to say?

4. Think about the messages that The God of Small Things might be trying to convey. How do literary lenses affect this?

End

1. What do you think is the use of theory when reading literature? When could this be useful in the future in REP? When is it not useful?

Activities and readings adapted from: Teacher’s College Columbia ( and University of Wisconsin (

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