This document provides an overview of a lesson on writing a critique. It defines what a critique is and discusses how to write one by studying the work, taking notes, and understanding the main argument. It then summarizes seven different approaches to critique: formalist, gender criticism, feminist criticism, historical, reader-response, structuralism, and sociological. Each approach is briefly defined in one or two sentences.
8. What is critique?
A critique is a careful analysis of an argument to
determine what is said, how well the points are made,
what assumptions underlie the argument, what issues
are overlooked, and what implications are drawn from
such observations. It is a systematic, yet personal
response and evaluation of what you read.
9. Critiques can be used to carefully analyze a
variety of works such as:
• Creative works – novels, exhibits, film, images, poetry;
• Research – monographs, journal articles, systematic
reviews, theories;
• Media – news reports, feature articles.
10. How to write a critique?
• Study the work under discussion.
• Make notes on key parts of the work.
• Develop an understanding of the main argument
or purpose being expressed in the work.
• Consider how the work relates to a broader issue
or context.
11. Different approaches in writing a critique:
1.
Formalist
2. Gender
Criticism
3. Feminist
criticism
4.
Historical
5. Reader-Response
Criticism
6. Structuralism
7.
Sociological
12. This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human
knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms.” All the
elements necessary for understanding the work are contained
within the work itself.
Formalistic Approach
• Of particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of
form—style, structure, tone, imagery, etc.—that are found
within the text.
13. This approach “examines how sexual identity influences the
creation and reception of literary works.” Originally an
offshoot of feminist movements, gender criticism today
includes a number of approaches, including the so-called
“masculinist” approach recently advocated by poet Robert Bly.
Gender Criticism
14. Feminist criticism
Feminist critics include “analyzing how sexual
identity influences the reader of a text” and
“examining how the images of men and women in
imaginative literature reflect or reject the social
forces that have historically kept the sexes from
achieving total equality.”
15. Historical
This approach “seeks to understand a literary work
by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual
context that produced it—a context that necessarily
includes the artist’s biography and milieu.
16. Reader-Response Criticism
This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that
“literature” exists not as an artifact upon a printed page
but as a transaction between the physical text and the
mind of a reader.
17. Structuralism
Focused on how human behavior is determined by social,
cultural and psychological structures. It tended to offer a single
unified approach to human life that would embrace all
disciplines. The essence of structuralism is the belief that “things
cannot be understood in isolation, they have to be seen in the
context of larger structures which contain them.
