Literary Criticism and Consciousness Raising

Abstract

This article presents one perspective of literary criticism in studying literature. The authorbelieves that certain critical approaches - Marxism, Feminism, and Postcolonialism - play importantroles in expanding readersû perception of society along with the study of literature. The threetheories share common tenets in explaining a society in terms of binary opposition of peoplefithepowerful group that imposes ideologies onto the society and the powerless who are suppressed bythose ideologies. While Marxism explains that the ruling class and the capitalist are powerful incapitalist society, feminism indicates that men are dominant and control the system of thinking inpatriarchal society. However, the binary concepts of postcolonialism extend to communities worldwide,dividing the world into colonizing and colonized nations. The three theories suggest that capitalist,patriarchal, and colonial ideologies are false consciousness because they do not represent thesociety as a whole. Studying literature through the lenses of these critical approaches providesstudents with critical eyes for seeing a society with true understanding as well as raising actualconsciousness within the society.Keywords : Literary criticism, Marxism, Feminism, Postcolonialism, Consciousness raising,