Literary Theories and Snow

White
Feminist Criticism
Exploring women’s
redefinition of their
identity in writing.
- Snow White’s life with
the dwarves as
important to her
education as a
submissive female who
learns lessons of service,
selflessness, and
domesticity.
Literary Theories and Snow
White
Marxist Theory  The role of the
Seeing society as dwarves is similar to
that of the peasant
a class struggle. classes in that it
echoes the value of
hard work and
solidarity needed for
survival. These
dwarves support the
fairytale’s social
order.
 Four Critical Lenses
or The Four Faces of Cinderella
Marxist Feminist Deconstructionist Psychoanalytical
Edward Said
 In Said’s famous critical work
The World, The Critic, and the
Text he claimed there were four
ways to read a text:
1. Literally: By analyzing the words
on the page.
2. Critically: Through the
interpretation of literary scholars.
3. Authorial: Through the biography
of an author.
4. Worldly: Through the way the
public has responded to the text.
The Four Faces of
Cinderella
 The four most popular
critical lenses used in
literary criticism are: a
Marxist lens, a Feminist
lens, a Deconstructionist
lens, and a
Psychoanalytical lens .
 We will be using the
fairy tale of Cinderella
to demonstrate how
these lenses can unpack
a text.
Karl Marx and Marxism
 Origins: Karl Marx:
1818 -1883
 Founder of Marxism
and famous work
called Das Kapital
which critiqued the
economic system of
Capitalism.
The Marxist Literary Lens
Thesis: A group of elite people control
most of the wealth of the world,
leaving everyone else poor and
powerless.
Characteristics:
 Sympathy for the working class and

hatred of the middle and wealthy

wealth one has.

 Characters in opposition to each

other because of a power struggle.

 Characters who dream of a better life.

 Class warfare between the rich and

the poor.
A Marxist reading of Cinderella
 Cinderella is exploited by her rich
relatives.
 She exploits the mice, birds, and fairy
godmother who help her for no pay.
 Cinderella has no wealth and her only
hope is to marry the prince.
 Class structure with Cinderella (poor)
who does all the work, Step Sisters
(middle class) who yearn to marry the
rich prince, prince (wealthy) who
controls the power in the kingdom
decides who he will marry.
 In the original fable, the animals
gouge out the eyes of the step sisters
and drive them out of town
symbolizing the violent clashes
between the rich and the poor.
Feminism
 Origins: originated in the
Women’s Suffrage
Movement of the late
nineteenth century that
fought for the rights for
women to vote.
 In the 1970’s, the movement
shifted to having legal
rights for women such as
legal abortions, legal birth
control, and laws ensuring
women had the same rights
in the work force as men.
The Feminist Literary Lens
Thesis: Women are dominated by
men and thus are stereotyped.
Typically male authors include a
gender bias in their writing that
demeans women.
Characteristics:
 Male characters are
strong/dominant and female
characters are weak/passive.
 Negative stereotypes regarding
women and sexuality.
 Women striving to survive in a
male-dominated society.
 Power struggle between men and
women.
A Feminist Reading of
Cinderella
 Cinderella’s happiness depends
on men.
 After Cinderella’s father dies, she
is forced to live with the evil step-
sisters.
 She becomes happy after she
marries the prince.
 In order to attract the prince, she
must impress him with her looks.
 The prince only knows her by her
beauty and the missing glass
slipper.
 Without men, Cinderella has no
control over her life.
Jacques Derrida and
Deconstructionism
 Origins: Jacques Derrida
: 1930 – 1944.
 Jacques Derrida was a
French philosopher and
literary critic who wrote
extensively that texts
need to be
deconstructed, or torn
apart, like a dissection to
determine their
underlying flaws in logic
and structure.
The Deconstructionist Literary
Lens
 Thesis: We can challenge traditional assumptions
by unraveling the ideas that ground those
traditions. Furthermore, life is multifaceted and
includes many viewpoints to exist.
 Characteristics:
 The world follows a binary, or oppositional
structure: good/evil, rich/poor, male/female,
smart/stupid, etc.
 Reversal of values approved by society: Batman
is evil because he works outside the law, while
the Joker is good because he is creative,
intelligent, and funny.
 Unravel Traditional Beliefs: “The Declaration of
Independence” espouses freedoms like freedom
of speech and to assemble, however, these were
used in opposition to England so the colonist
could rebel.
 Multifaceted Viewpoints: Howard Zinn writes
from the Arawaks’ perspective in The People’s
History of the United States to give a voice to a
society that had no voice in American history.
A Deconstructionists Reading of
Cinderella
 Cinderella is not an innocent heroine,
but a daydreamer who disobeyed
those who had authority over her.
 Cinderella is obsessed with
appearance, over substance.
 The step-sisters had more rights than
Cinderella, and with the fairy
godmother as an accomplice,
disrupted the order in society.
 The glass slipper represents
Cinderella’s vanity and how her
looks superseded everything and
everyone else.
 Cinderella is portrayed as a positive
person, but in reality, is vain, selfish,
immature, and power hungry.
Sigmund Freud and
Psychoanalysis
Origins: Sigmund Freud: 1856 – 1939.
Sigmund Freud is known as the
founder of psychology which is the
study of human behavior. In his
famous work The Interpretation of
Dreams, Freud argues that humans
have a sub-consciousness that
controls our desires. Our sub-
conscious is divided into the “Id”
or uncontrolled desires, the “Ego”
the realistic desires or the part of
our personality we share with the
world, and the “Super Ego” or our
critical and moralistic selves.
The common metaphor used to
represent this is a person going
through a conflict with an angel
and devil sitting on each shoulder.
The Psychoanalytical Literary Lens
Thesis: Our sub-conscious desires controls our
actions.
Characteristics:
ID: involves basic desires such as food,
aggression, and sex. It’s prime motive is
survival. Someone influenced by his/her Id
is considered less developed.
SUPEREGO: involves morality and is
opposed to the Id. It is formed from
standards acquired from your upbringing
and society. Someone who is acting
primarily under the influence of the
Superego denies him/herself of pleasure
and develops obsessive/compulsive
disorders.
EGO: is a healthy balance of the Id and
Superego. Someone who is acting primarily
on his ego will have his/her desires fulfilled
in a manner acceptable to society.
When a psychoanalytical lens is applied to
literature, it follows a character’s
development throughout a story.
A Psychoanalytical Reading of
Cinderella
 Cinderella initially is driven by her
Superego because she denies her
desires in order to please her
stepmother and stepsisters.
 However, her dreams reflect the Id
waiting to come out.
 When her fairy godmother grants her
wishes, she breaks out of the
Superego dominance.
 Cinderella gives in to her Id by
leaving her job and going to the
party, something she was forbidden
to do.
 Because she fell in love with the
prince and got married, this
exemplifies the emergence of her Ego
because marriage is a socially
acceptable relationship.