The reader-response lens focuses on aspects of literary texts that stimulate and shape a reader's responses and focus on the conclusions these help them to reach. Because these responses happen throughout the reading process and are a direct result of a reader's past experiences, reconstructing them accurately can be difficult.
The sociological lens focuses on society, historical events and social relationships that might have affected people during the period of the literary work. Marxism, feminism and liberalism are some of the socio-political terms that might have classified groups of people in the past. This literary lens often considers world events that were taking place, how opinions of the characters differed from the prevalent worldview of the time, and shows the different socio-political groups within the literary work. Then, these observations are contrasted with current society.
The mythological/archetypal lens is based on Carl Jung's theory that the human psyche has two levels of the unconscious -- one with repressed memories of the individual and another with the unconscious communal memories. This type of literary lens examines religion, anthropology, cultural history and other aspects of human nature and shows how these affect the character situations, events and conflicts within the literary work. Some of the most common archetypal themes are heavenly ascent, the concept of paradise or hell and parent loss, among others.
The formalist lens looks at how literary components fit together by examining the settings, tone, diction, point of view and fictional world of the characters. Once these components are determined and interpreted, they are put together within the context of the author's creation.
The psychoanalytic lens is based on Sigmund Freud's theory that the human psyche is composed of the unconscious id, the mediating superego and the conscious ego. This type of lens views a literary work as an expression of the state of mind, personality, feelings and desires of the author and looks for the distinction between the psychological motives of the writer.