The psychological lens seeks to derive meaning in literature through the psychological conditions and motivations of the characters. This perspective was originally based on Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic work and Carl Jung's theory of archetypes, although contemporary applications of this lens also include modern scientific understandings of psychological conditions.
The biographical lens analyzes how the author's place in history affected them and their work, concerning historical context and the prevailing values of that time period. An application of this lens would involve researching the author's biography and life, as well as developing a thorough understanding of the period in which the work was produced. While not all works explicitly contain political, religious, economic, and cultural content, these values indiscriminately influence the life of the author. By taking into consideration the biography of the author and their personal beliefs, one can uncover subliminal, subversive, or symbolic meaning in the text that would have otherwise not been considered. Using this lens helps one understand the context of the work, which may be critical to its understanding, and how the author's upbringing impacts the final product.
Biographical
An application of the psychological lens takes into consideration any explicit and implicit psychological motivations, archetypes, and states of mind that drive the work's narrative. A Freudian analysis would assess the possibility of any psychological complexes that can be inferred from what the author writes in the text. The Oedipus and Electra Complex, for example, would explain the behaviour of a character that grows dependent on their respective parent even into adulthood. Finding complexes in fictional characters can be nuanced and requires critical analysis as well as a degree of interference as such states are usually not explicitly stated. As such, psychologically analyzing characters requires one to meld their understanding of literary devices to be able to understand implicit meaning along with their understanding of psychology. Freud's theory of defense mechanisms can also provide a foundational understanding behind the underlying motivation of characters within the text - his idea of the id, ego, and superego, along with defense mechanisms, seek to explain the rational and irrational side of human behaviour. With an application of Freud's idea that a) humans have a carnal, rational, and judicial side to their psyche and b) many of our irrational behaviours can be deduced to our attempt to cope with an uncomfortable idea or truth, the behaviour of characters within most works can be understood with significant ease. Meanwhile, Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious and archetypes attempts to explain the repetitive character behaviours and personalities that are repeated across all works. With the idea that fictional characters are formed out of our collectively unconscious ideas of figures and outlines, a Jungian analysis of a work frames characters within the mold that they derive from. Rather than seeking to explain their behaviour through the influence of external factors within the work, the archetype lens asserts that characters fall within a certain framework that the author has simply reshaped. The archetype lens can help one understand similarities between characters and how to identify common characteristics between narratives and figures. The broader psychological lens can help one understand the implicit motivations that drive characters with real-world complexes and states of mind.
The feminist lens examines how the work supports, undermines, or ignores the political, socioeconomic, and psychological oppression of women in traditionally patriarchal societies. The gender lens broadens this view to include the LGBTQ+ community, as well as further exploring how gender roles, dominance, hierarchies, and family status are influenced by and influence depictions of gender in works. Furthermore, the feminist/gender lens takes into consideration how these depictions ultimately impact affected individuals in society. Notably, this lens also analyses how such tropes influence the gender majority with ideas such as toxic masculinity stemming from this perspective. This lens helps one understand the depiction of characters through the basis of how the author took into consideration their gender and sexual identity. The feminist/gender lens can help to identify tropes that help to explain more one-dimensional characters while also providing an understanding of how such depictions are harmful to society as a whole.
The socioeconomic lens examines the power dynamic, wealth inequalities, and socioeconomic statuses of characters within the work and how they influence the greater ideological meaning behind it. A Marxist lens specifically analyzes the relationship between the working class and the upper class within the text and how this everlasting unequal relationship contributes to conflict within the work. This lens lends itself to finding themes of exploitation, classism, socioeconomic oppression, worker unity, materialism, and racism. An application of this lens would involve analyzing the power dynamics between prominent factions, characters, and/or social groups within the work while inferring how any existing inequalities may contribute to conflict within the story. As Marxism is based on the idea of materialism, this lens would focus on the materialistic drive behind characters and how that influences their behaviour. Taking these factors into consideration, one can then use the socioeconomic lens to judge the ideological or political nature of the work. Thus, this lens helps one to develop a political understanding of the work, as well as to understand the power struggles within the work that contribute to any overarching conflicts.
Socioeconomic/Marxist
The formalist lens relies on the use of literature and literary devices for understanding the work rather than utilizing external perspectives with loaded backgrounds. An application of this lens requires an attentive, careful reading of the work to gather both implicit and explicit meaning in the text. Furthermore, one must take into consideration the author's usage of devices like paradox, irony, imagery, symbolism, and metaphors when considering both the literal and greater meaning of the work. Through this lens, one learns how the author's use of language, prose, vocabulary, and literary devices contribute to the work's meaning. This lens may also lend itself to creative interpretation when considering these factors and encourages repeat analyses and further discussion to evaluate the strength of formalist examinations.
Formalist
The historicism lens takes into consideration the prevailing values, beliefs, politics, and cultural norms at the period the work was produced, and views literature through this historicist perspective. Whilst considering these factors, one can analyze how the work was influenced by its history and place in time as well as how the work may have contributed, positively or negatively, to its zeitgeist. An application of this lens would examine dated tropes, names, use of language, cultural references, cultural conflict, and prevalence of religious and political themes within the text. Without the application of the historicism lens, some works may be either inaccessible due to the dated language and references or the racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory content within the text. Thus, with this lens, one can use their understanding of history to develop a better understanding of the text, while also developing a better understanding of that period in the process.
Historicism
The New Historicism lens examines the work through the perspective of those not present within the work due to historical conflict. This lens seeks to fill any gaps in understanding that a historicism lens would skip over as the perspectives of the oppressed and minorities may not be as prevalent as their dominators. Thus, this lens seeks to address how this inequality may have influenced the understanding of the work and to take into consideration the voices or perspectives of the ones that aren't depicted or are otherwise portrayed unfairly or inaccurately. With this lens, one can learn about important perspectives that may not have been explicitly stated within the work or addressed with other literary lenses, and as a result, further their understanding of the works' implicit meaning and history.
New Historicism
Post-colonial
The post-colonial lens examines literature produced in previously or currently colonized nations to further develop an understanding of the work. In a similar vein to the new historicism lens, the post-colonial lens takes into consideration the cultural clashes, colonial history, oppressive government, immigration, and conflict when deducing the meaning of the work. This lens lends itself to interpretations of themes of independence, subjugation, unity, division, and identity. A contemporary post-colonial lens would also take into consideration the immigration that has occurred as a result of colonization in affected countries, and how this history affects first, second, and third-generation immigrants. With the post-colonial lens, one can learn important context about the work that could be essential to its understanding. When taking into consideration the relevant power dynamics and cultural clashes that have occurred where the work takes place, one can frame their understanding of the work within this framework of a post-colonial context.
The feminist/gender lens and Marxist lens are commonly used in tandem with each other due to the intersectionality of such issues. The gender roles that harmfully impact women are in part due to the socioeconomic workings of society that demand such roles be filled. As such, the feminist lens draws upon the Marxist lens to criticize the 'stay-at-home mom, working dad' pattern that has prevailed in Western countries. Ergo, potential connections can be made between the gender roles that have been set in stone and the socioeconomic expectations of individual and family units in society.
A proper understanding of the author's history and place in time can help one examine the form of the work more effectively. The specific usage of some literary devices may be antiquated and so, understanding the language and popular culture at the time the work was written can help one to better identify and understand these literary devices. (e.g. Shakespeare)
The biographical and historicism lenses are very closely related as both require viewing the work with historical context. In the application of both lenses, one must develop a proper understanding of the respective period's prominent beliefs, significant world events, and cultural norms. The focus in the biographical lens, however, is to use these factors to understand the author's psyche and how their lifehood influenced the work.
The Historicism and New Historicism lenses are intrinsically connected. Both lenses seek to view the work through a historicist perspective, but the focal point differs. While the historicism lens focuses on the prevailing values of the time to paint a picture of the prominent world, the new historicism lens seeks to focus on the less prevalent groups.
Similar to the connection between the post-colonial lens and the new historicism lens, the post-colonial lens and the historicism lens are intrinsically linked as the post-colonial lens requires one to analyze the period and historical background of the work. Works produced shortly after emancipation, colonization, and independence can be analyzed by both lenses to develop a better understanding of them.
The New Historicism lens can independently use the post-colonial lens in its application when taking into consideration the perspectives of the subjugated and voiceless. Both lenses require an understanding of historical power dynamics and how regional conflict affected the representation of respective nations in the work and other related media.