Reading Text Through

Sociocultural Context
Group Chicklit
 Sociocultural Context
O Sociocultural is framework that
emphasizes the responsibility of social
context in human learning.

O Mixture or interaction of the social and

cultural element.
O Sociocultural context refers to the idea that
language, rather than existing in isolation, is
closely linked to the culture and society in which
it is used. This means when language is learnt,
the sociocultural context in which it is used
needs to be taken into consideration as well.
O Society is composed of the individual who
makes up particular geographic regions.
O People, attitudes, beliefs are part of sociocultural
context.
 Marxism
Perspective
 Marxism Perspective
O According to this perspective, literature shows class
struggles and materialism.
O It looks into social classes portrayed in the work.
O It looks into how the text serves as a propaganda
material.
O It examines oppression, social conflicts, and solution to
those struggles.
 The Marxist critic simply is a careful reader or viewer
who keeps in mind issues of power and money, and
any of the following kinds of questions:

O What role does class play in the work;

what is the author's analysis of class
relations?
O How do characters overcome oppression?
O In what ways does the work serve as
propaganda for the status quo; or does it try to
undermine it?
O What does the work say about oppression; or
are social conflicts ignored or blamed
elsewhere?
O Does the work propose some form of utopian
vision as a solution to the problems
encountered in the work?
Feminist
Approach
 Feminist Approach
O Concerned with the role, position, and
influence of women in a literary text.
O This perspective examines the role of
women in the literature.
OIt looks on how the female character
may be empowered, or discriminated.
OAsserts that most “literature”
throughout time has been written by
men, for men.
OExamines the way that the female
consciousness is depicted by both
male and female writers.
 4 Basic Principles of Feminist Approach

1. Western civilization is patriarchal.

2. The concepts of gender are mainly cultural ideas
created by patriarchal societies.
3. Patriarchal ideals pervade “literature.”
4. Most “literature” through time has been gender-
biased.
Feminist critical questions:
1. To what extent does the representation of women
(and men) in the work reflect the time and place in
which the work was written?
2. How are the relationships between men and
women presented in the work?
3. Does the author present the work from within a
predominantly male or female perspective?
4. How do the facts of the author’s life relate to the
presentation of men and women in the work?
5. How do other works by the author correspond to
this one in their depiction of the power
relationships between men and women?
Queer
Theory
 Queer Theory
O Perspective with the queer or third gender.
O The term “queer theory” itself came from Teresa  de
Lauretis (1991) work in the feminist cultural studies
journal differences titled “Queer Theory: Lesbian and
Gay Sexualities”.
O In this perspective. The third gender (gay, lesbian, and
other characters or persona in literature that may fall
under queer are being examined.
 Typical questions in Queer Theory:
O What does the work contribute to our knowledge of
queer, gay, or lesbian experience and history, including
literary history?
O How is queer, gay, or lesbian. What are the politics
(ideological agendas) of specific gay, lesbian, or queer
works, and how are those politics revealed in...the
work's thematic content or portrayals of its characters?
O What are the poetics (literary devices and strategies) of
a specific lesbian, gay, or queer works?
O What does the work contribute experience coded in
texts that are by writers who are apparently
homosexual?
O What does the work reveal about the operations
(socially, politically, psychologically) homophobic?
O How does the literary text illustrate the problems of
sexuality and sexual "identity," that is the ways in
which human sexuality does not fall neatly into the
separate categories defined by the words homosexual
and heterosexual?
Moral/Intellectual
Approach
 Moral/Intellectual Approach
O The moral/intellectual approach is concerned with
content and values. The concern in moral/intellectual
criticism is not only to discover meaning but also to
determine whether works of literature are true and
significant.
O Examines values, lessons and morals presented in the
text.
O  To study literature from the moral/intellectual
perspective is therefore to determine whether a work
conveys a lesson or a message. One important
example in “Young Goodman Brown” is that
religious and moral beliefs should not be used to
justify the condemnation of others.
O  Another important answer is that attacks made from
the refuge of a religion or group, such as Goodman
Brown’s puritanical judgment, is dangerous because it
enables the judge to condemn without thought and
without personal responsibility.
Advantages:
O Determine whether a work conveys a lesson or
message and whether it can help readers lead
better lives and improve their understanding of
the world.
O Effective when analyzing works with obvious
moral values and when discussing the themes
present in the text
O Helps the reader connect literature to their own
lives and morals
Disadvantages:

O “Message hunting” reduces a work’s artistic value by

treating it like a sermon or political speech; but the
approach will be valuable as long as readers expect
literature to be applicable to their own lives
O Readers searching for a single message may ignore or
overlook the other messages within the literature
O Can be too harsh on a piece of literature by ignoring the
artistic aspects and focusing only on the
moral/intellectual content (i.e. if the text is too
thoroughly dissected)
Moral/Intellectual questions to be
asked:
O What ideas does the work contain?
O How strongly does the work bring forth its ideas?
O What application do the ideas have to the work’s
characters and situations?
O How may the ideas be evaluated intellectually? Morally?
THANK YOU
FOR
LISTENING!