EAPP REVIEW W3

• Objectives of the lecture and activity sheets

  • Identify the critical approaches used in writing a critique
  • Distinguish the features of the different critical approaches used in writing a critique
  • Analyze sample critiques and determine the critical approach used by the writer
  • Employ any of the critical approaches in writing a critique
• Critique is a formal analysis and evaluation of a text, production, or performance—either one's own or someone else's
• Critical approaches


  Different perspectives considered when looking at a piece of literature, aiding in interpreting literature
• Formalist Criticism emphasizes the form of a literary work to determine its meaning, focusing on literary elements and how they work to create meaning
• Reader-Response Approach


  A criticism that asserts that meaning in a text lies with how the reader responds to it, focusing on the act of reading and how it affects our perception of meaning in a text
• Guide questions for Formalist Approach

  • What is the title, setting, other elements etc. and to what extent it is symbolic?
  • What kind of language does the author use?
  • How do various elements of the work reinforce its meaning?
  • What is the effect of the plot, and what parts specifically produce that effect?
  • What figures of speech are used? (metaphors, similes, etc.)
  • Note the writer’s use of paradox, irony, symbol, plot, characterization, and style of narration.
  • How do the various elements interact to create meaning?
• Critique


  It 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
• Formalist Approach


  It examines a text as independent from its period, social setting, and author’s background, focusing on close readings of texts and analysis of the effects of literary elements and techniques on the text
• Reader-Response Approach


  • Excerpt of a Reader-Response Critique of Dead Stars by Paz Marquez Benitez
• The title of the work "Dead Stars" gives an idea of its meaning, referring to the possibility of a bright light coming from a dead star, symbolizing Alfredo's love for Julia in the story
• Psychological/Psychoanalytic Approach views a text as a revelation of its author’s mind and personality, focusing on hidden motivations of characters and their reflection of the writer
• Sociological Approach in literary criticism focuses on man’s relationship to society, politics, religion, and business, considering social contexts and values reflected in texts
• Psychoanalytic Critique of Hamlet by William Shakespeare focuses on the psychological complexities of Hamlet, including his relationship with his mother and the Oedipus Complex
• Marxist Approach in Sociological Criticism emphasizes economic and social conditions, power, politics, and money in literary texts
• Socioeconomic system may bring implications
• Conflict has arisen between the working class and the elite
• Social class has been emphasized and portrayed in the piece
• The scene depicts a parallelism in the circumstance of Alfredo and his new love, Julia, and Calixta and her live-in partner
• Speaker: 'Quote'
• The imbalanced societal power play is evident in the short story in the form of the treatment of the characters based on their class
• Dead Stars illustrates the gender roles ingrained in Filipino Society
• The story is a study of power imbalance brought about by gender
• Guide questions for Feminist Approach

  • How are women’s lives portrayed in the work?
  • Is the form and content of the work influenced by the writer’s gender?
  • How do the images of women in the story reflect patriarchal social forces that have impeded women’s efforts to achieve full equality with men?
  • What behavioral expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these expectations have?
  • If a female character were male, how would the story be different (and vice versa)?
  • How does culture view women vs. men? How is the relationship between men and women portrayed? What are the power relationships between men and women (or characters assuming male/female roles)?
• Feminist Approach is concerned with the role, position, and influence of women in a literary text
• Biographical Approach argues that we must take an author’s life and background into account when we study a text
• Guide questions for Biographical Approach

  • What aspects of the author’s personal life are relevant to this story?
  • Which of the author’s stated beliefs are reflected in the work?
  • Does the writer challenge or support the values of her contemporaries?
  • What seem to be the author’s major concerns? Do they reflect any of the writer’s personal experiences?
  • Do any of the events in the story correspond to events experienced by the author?
• William Golding acted as a bully in his elementary school and enjoyed hurting people
• William Golding joined the Royal Navy to fight for five years in WWII
• Jack and his group of "hunters" share similar characteristics to the Nazis in the way they seize power and create a scapegoat
• William Golding confessed that he has "always enjoyed Nazis because I am of that sort of nature"
• William Golding created plot events and characters in Lord of the Flies that parallel the Holocaust
• New Historicist Approach argues that every litera
• New Historicist Approach


  1. Provides background information necessary to understand how literary texts were perceived in their time

  2. Shows how literary texts reflect ideas and attitudes of the time in which they were written
• Golding created plot events and characters in Lord of the Flies that parallel the Holocaust
• Modern readers face issues in understanding Beowulf due to the events depicted and the values prized in the poem being far removed from their understanding of the world
• When the hunters murder the level-headed Piggy

  Golding proves that basic human nature opposes the ideals of rationalism
• Beowulf


  • Blending of ideals from Northern antiquity with Christian virtues
• Material practices


  Every expressive act is embedded in a network of material practices
• New Historicists: '“literature is conceived to mirror the period’s beliefs, but to mirror them, as it were, from a safe distance”'
• Golding joined the Royal Navy to fight for five years in WWII

  1940