(adapted from Terry Barrett, Criticizing Photographs: An Introduction to Understanding Images. Mayfield, 1990)
1. Comparative Interpretation: Comparing texts to other texts, by the same person who produced the texts, by others at the same time, by others at other times.
2. Archetypal Interpretation: Looking for archetypal (impersonal, mythical, universal) elements.
3. Psychoanalytic Interpretation: Looking for elements of sublimated desire, coping with reality, & other Freudian themes.
4. Feminist Interpretation: Considering the portrayal of women, or the implications from a woman's perspective, or the contribution to patriarchy or the resistance to it.
5. Formalist Interpretation: Looking for formal elements, that is, the elements that are not about content or subject, but about technique or treatment.
6. Semiotic Interpretation: Not what the text means, but how it means. An examination of the meaning-bearing signs.
7. Marxist Interpretation: Considering the implications for class. Considering the production of the text, the social reality out of which it came. Considering the propogation of the text.
8. Interpretation based on Stylistic Influences: Considering the stylistic forebears, the text-producers who were the inspiration for the present text or image.
9. Biographical Interpretation: Answering the question, "why does the text-producer make texts like this?" Connecting the person's life with the texts or images.
10. Intentionalist Interpretation: Determining what the producer of the text intended.
11. Interpretations based on technique: What difference does the medium make? What difference does the method of production make?
Example: Thomas Kinkade paintings, and another site.