The document introduces different approaches to literary theory and provides brief descriptions of how different theories can be used to interpret texts. It explains that literary theory offers various lenses through which to analyze and gain new insights from reading literature, but does not dictate one singular interpretation. Examples of different theories provided include feminist theory, Marxist theory, genre theory, and psychoanalytic theory. For each, it gives a short overview of what aspects of a text may be focused on from that theoretical perspective.