Emily: Glasses and Critical Lenses

Emily: Why I Chose the Feminist Lens

I look through a lens everyday. Of course it’s not a critical lens, but my glasses. Sometimes when I take off my glasses my entire perspective changes.

For this project I’ll be hypothetically putting on the Feminist critical lens. The Feminist lens focuses on how women are portrayed in literature, in my case, how women are portrayed in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

I chose the Feminist lens because from what I know, both The Scarlet Letter and Lolita have commentary on women and how they are viewed. It will be interesting to compare the differences and similarities of how women’s roles are changed throughout literature and through different author’s perspective. Additionally, I’m female, so I want to compare my beliefs as a woman to those of the books and how believe people view women now.

Another critical lens that I also considered was the Psychoanalytic lens, which tries to see the hidden thoughts of the author and characters. However, I decided that I was not the best person to look through this lens because I did not take psychology unlike some of my peers. Thus, I chose the lens that most closely resonates with me, the Feminist lens.

Both The Scarlet Letter and Lolita are different than my typical genres (which is majority fantasy, with sci-fi, realistic fiction, and other young adult books intermixed), but I hope both are enjoyable and that looking through the Feminist critical lens will allow me to look into the world of literature differently.