In the post-truth era — characterized by lies, propaganda and fake news — many have raised the issue of the meanings in the literature. It is the task of the interpreter to find the meaning and the truth in any literature text.

Meanings and truth can be found through literary criticism and analysis. This can either be done by using the traditional schools of literary criticism or adopting the new perspectives in literary criticism.

Addressing new perspectives and insights in literary criticism in the posttruth era, the following questions should be answered: How do we get the truth in the text or its meaning? How do we get the meaning in post-truth era literature? And finally, how can the new perspectives of literary criticism be applied to criticize any literary text?

One way to answer these questions is through the didactic approach to literary criticism. The meaning of a literary text is a lesson, and the teacher is the author.

The teacher is tasked with teaching his/her students, who are the readers. The book’s author is considered a great educator leading the reader through life. He/she is the intellectual who is enlightened and whom society follows. The literary work can make people better. The meaning in the literature, which is considered the truth, can be taught by reading the literature.

This approach regards the truth to be ethical and this can be traced back to an article in the New York Times by Kirsch (2017) entitled, “Lie to Me: Fiction in the Post Truth Era”. The author cites Charles Van Doren, an actor in the Twenty-One quiz show scandal in 1961, comparing him to Donald Trump to gauge the measure of change over the past five decades. However, it was revealed that Doren had been given answers to the game show questions.

Most television viewers believed the contest was real and not staged. Similarly, Kirsch (2017) points out early English novels by Clarissa (1748) and Moll Flanders (1722), which were anonymously published with titles showing that they were true stories.

However, he points out that these authors engaged in sophisticated projects whereby the line between fiction and truth became hard to identify. People love truths in literature but label books as “fiction”, so they can never be accused of lying. Above all, the problem is that many more people seem to like being lied too.

Speaking of truth from the authors in their literary works, it seems that throughout history all censors have had a similar approach when criticizing literature.

To censors, literature is just like a textbook that can be abandoned when it contains wrong or outdated information. Therefore, it is the solemn duty of the censors to protect society from harmful lessons they might take from such literary works.

Censors generally take a didactic approach toward the arts. In Huckleberry Finn, if the offensive words are removed, it is because an individual might learn racism. Just as violent video games and heavy metal music must be banned because they might promote or encourage violence.

Similarly, the fake news and blatant lies of Donald Trump should be avoided because they might promote intolerance, hatred and violence in the post-truth era. Another manifestation of the didactic approach is the commissioned propagandist literatures by the proponents of different ideologies or even the state.

Yet these dishonorable forms of the didactic approach should not completely dissuade literary critics from using this approach in their literary criticism. This approach is also bolstered by a rich tradition.

The moral angle to the didactic approach is very old just like literary criticism. The ancient representative of this view, who is also regarded as the grandfather of this thought, was Horace, when he claimed that the aim of poetry was to teach by delighting the reader.

Despite the fact that this view is mostly evident when studying classical criticism, and despite the fact that in modern schools and since the time of aesthetics the didactic approach seems to have weakened its grip, become unfashionable or been forgotten, beyond the confines of academia, no other approach is dominant or popular. In the post-truth era, hack writing and government censorship is still rampant, ranging from the banning of books, videos and films to age ratings.

Furthermore, present literature written for adults and children, as well as the way schools and parents deal with literature, all point to the fact the didactic approach is still in use.

Similarly, most schools of criticism adhere to the didactic approach. Queer criticism, post colonialism, African-American criticism, feminism and Marxism all affirm or infer that the reader will learn different values from the literary texts they read.

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The writer, a lecturer of literary studies at Andalas University, is currently a doctoral student at Deakin University.

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