There are many different ways someone can read a text. Literary theories are different ways people have attempted to view or "interpret" texts. Examining a text through a different theory is like putting on a different set of glasses each time we read.

The first part of this quarter, we will take a look at these different theories and then apply them to our reading as we continue to move through different eras and pieces of American literature.

There are a number of theories used. The main theories we will be looking at are:

-Feminism

-Marxism

-New Historicism/Cultural

-Psychoanalytic Criticism