CRITIQUING A

LITERARY
SELECTION BASED
ON DIFFERENT
APPROACHES
LET'S PLAY
A GAME
ONE PICTURE, ONE
WORD
R__D
 THE
ANSWER IS...

READ
_T__C_U_E
THE ANSWER IS...

STRUCTURE
M__X
 THE
ANSWER IS...

MARX
_I_T__Y
 THE
ANSWER IS...

HISTORY
_EM___N_
 THE
ANSWER IS...

FEMININE
 STRUCTURALIST/
FORMALIST
MORALIST
DIFFERENT
MARXIST
APPROACHES
YOU CAN USE IN FEMINIST
A CRITIQUE HISTORICAL
READER-RESPONSE
 STRUCTURALIST

This approach pays attention to the

underlying elements that the text
has in common with similar texts.
These are common questions asked in a structuralist analysis:

• What patterns exist within the work that make it belong to the same
class as other works like it?

• What patterns within the text exist that may reflect patterns in the
culture from which the text emerged?

• What rules or codes of interpretation must be internalized in order

to decide what the text "means"?
 FORMALIST

It is an approach that studies

C
text as text.
Formalist analysis tends to focus on these questions:
• How do the parts of the text work together to make an inseparable
whole?

• How are the various elements of the work interconnected?

• Is there a central passage in the text that can be pointed to a

summing up the work?

•In poetry, how do the rhyme scheme and/or metric patterns

contribute to the meaning or overall effect of the text?
 MORALIST

It involves examining how a

text deals with the issue at its
center.
Moralist analysis tends to focus on these questions:

• Is a practical, moral, or ethical idea being

presented?

• How does the text play out given ethical principles?

• Does the work seem to build a positive or negative

influence on its readers?
 MARXIST

It examines how the text

represents and treats the power
dynamics between social classes.
Marxist analysis tends to focus on these questions:
•Who benefits from the production and acceptance
of the literary work?

• What social class is the author part of?

• What social class does the work supposedly

represent?
Marxist analysis tends to focus on these
questions:

• What values does it reinforce and what values

does it subvert?

• How do characters different social classes

interact or conflict?
 FEMINIST

It focuses on the dynamics of

different social groups is feminist
literary criticism.
Feminist analysis tends to focus on these questions:
• How is the relationship between men and women
portrayed in the text?

• What are the power relationships present between

men and women in the text?

• How are the roles for males and females defined?

• What constitutes masculinity and femininity?

• What does the text reveal about the

economic, social, psychological, and political
workings of patriarchy?

• What does the text's reception by the public

and by literary critics reveal about patriarchy?
 HISTORICAL

This approach assumes that a

work is influenced by the culture
and era that created it.
Historical analysis asks the following questions:

• What language or elements in the work reflect the "current

events" of the author's day?

• How have these events been interpreted and presented by

the author?

• How are these interpretations reflective of the author's

culture?
• How are these interpretations reflective of the author's
culture?

• Does the presentation in the work support or condemn a

particular event, or leading political figures of its time?
Can the work be seen to do both?

• Have any of the words in the text changed meanings

since the text was written?
 READER-RESPONSE

This approach gives importance to

your own experiences, principles,
and beliefs.
Reader-response analysis asks these questions:
• What does the text have to do with you, personally,
including your past, present, and future?

• Does the text reinforce or clash with your view of the

world, and do you believe it is right or wrong about that?

• How were your views and opinions challenged by this

text, if at all? Did yu change any of them, or learn
anything?
• How does it portray, handle, and address
things you consider to be important about
the world?

• What did the text do well and what did it do

poorly? Was it an enjoyable text as a piece
of entertainment or work of art?
LET'S READ!
ANALYZE THE SELECTION
IN PAGE 17, “WHY
WOMEN WASH THE
DISHES” THEN WRITE A
ONE-PARAGRAPH CRITIQUE
USING THE FEMINIST
APPROACH.
Feminist analysis guide questions:
1. How are men and women’s roles
portrayed in the story?
2. What are the power relationships
between men and women in the text?
3. How are the roles for males and
femaled defined?