CRITICAL APPROACHES IN

WRITING A CRITIQUE
 There are various ways or standpoints by
which you can analyze and critique a certain
material. You can critique a material based on
its technical aspects, its approach to gender,
your reaction as the audience, or through its
portrayal of class struggle and social
structure.
 FORMALISM
It claims that literary works contain
intrinsic properties and treats each work as a
distinct work of art. In short, it posits that the
key to understanding a text is through the text
itself; the historical context, the author, or any
other external contexts are not necessary in
interpreting the meaning.
 FOLLOWING ARE THE COMMON ASPECTS
LOOKED INTO FORMALISM:
 Author’s techniques in resolving contradictions
within the work
 Central passage that sums up the entirety of the
work
 Contribution of parts and the work as a whole to
its aesthetic quality
 Relationship of the form and the content
 Use of imagery to develop the symbols in the
work
 Interconnectedness of various parts of the work

 Paradox, ambiguity, and irony in the work

 Unity in the work

 FEMINISM
It focuses on how literature presents
women as subjects of socio-political,
psychological, and economic oppression.
It also reveals how aspects of our culture
are patriarchal, i.e., how our culture views
men as superior and women as inferior.
The common aspects looked into when using
feminism are as follows:
 How culture determines gender
 How gender equality (or lack of it) is
presented in the text
 How gender issues are presented in literary
works and other aspects of human
production and daily life
 How women are socially, politically,
psychologically, and economically oppressed
by patriarchy
 How patriarchal ideology is an overpowering
presence
 READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM
It is concerned with the reviewer’s reaction
as an audience of a work. This approach
claims that the reader’s role cannot be
separated from the understanding of the work;
a text does not have meaning until the reader
reads it and interprets it. Readers are
therefore not passive and distant, but are
active consumers of the material presented to
them.
The common aspects looked into when using
reader response criticism are as follows:
 Interaction between the reader and the text in
creating meaning
 The impact of the reader’s delivery of sounds
and visuals on enhancing and changing
meaning
 MARXIST CRITICISM
It is concerned with differences between
economic classes and implications of a
capitalist system, such as the continuing
conflicts between the working class and the
elite. Hence, it attempts to reveal that the
ultimate source of people’s experience is the
socioeconomic system.
The common aspects looked into when using
Marxist criticism are as follows:
 Social class as represented in the work
 Social class of the writer/creator
 Social class of the characters
 Conflicts and interactions between
economic classes