ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC

AND PROFESSIONAL
PURPOSES
Lesson 4
How do you judge something or
someone?
DO YOU CONSIDER VARIOUS
ASPECTS OF THE SUBJECT YOU
ARE JUDGING, OR DO YOU
JUST FOCUS ON ONLY ONE
ASPECT?
 LESSON 4

CRITICAL APPROACHES
IN CRITICIZING A
TEXT/LITERATURE
 MOST ESSENTIAL LEARNING COMPETENCY

Use appropriate critical

approach in writing a
critique such as
formalism, feminism, etc.
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. understand the differences among

the critical approaches; and
2. express the importance of using
appropriate critical approach when
writing a review/ reaction paper/
critique.
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

What is a critique?
It is careful judgment in which you
give your opinion about the good
and bad parts of something (such as
a piece of writing or a work of art).
 4 CRITICAL APPROACHES

Formalism
Feminism
Marxist Criticism
Reader-Response Criticism
 CRITICAL APPROACHES

Formalism
 FORMALISM (CRITICAL APPROACHES)
Formalism
❑ literary works contain intrinsic
properties and treats each work as
a distinct work of art Manzan
(2016).
❑ The main focus is on the text itself
not on the historical and
biographical contexts of the work.
 FORMALISM (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Formalism

✔ Author’s techniques in resolving

contradictions within the work
✔ Central passage that sums up the entirety
of the work
 FORMALISM (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Formalism
✔ Contribution of parts and the work as a whole to
its aesthetic quality
✔ Relationship of the form and the content
✔ Interconnectedness of various parts of the work
✔ The use of imagery to develop the symbols in the
work
✔ Paradox, ambiguity, and irony in the work
 FORMALISM (CRITICAL APPROACHES)
Formalism
Example
✔ Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18. In here, one would
focus on the language, meter, rhyme scheme
among others. It would not take into consideration
the life and times of Shakespeare as well as the
other factors that might have influenced or
inspired him in writing the piece. It focuses on the
sonnet’s language and structure and sees the
piece as a literary entity itself.
 CRITICAL APPROACHES

Feminism
 FEMINISM (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Feminism

✔ an approach that focuses on how

literature presents women as subjects
of various forms of oppression in terms
of socio-political, psychological, and
economic aspects.
 FEMINISM (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Feminism
✔ It also reveals how aspects of our culture are
patriarchal - that is, men are seen as
dominant and women are seen as the
weaker sex.
For example, a father is the head of the
household and makes the rules while the
mother stays home and takes care of the
children.
 FEMINISM (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Feminism
✔ 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
 FEMINISM (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Feminism
✔ How women are socially, politically,
psychologically, and economically
oppressed by patriarchy
✔ How patriarchal ideology is an
overpowering presence
 FEMINISM (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Feminism
Example

This critical approach may be used to

analyze how women characters in Disney
animated films are portrayed. One may
also use this to analyze double standards in
the society, as well as gender roles
assigned to women.
CRITICAL APPROACHES

Marxist
Criticism
 MARXIST (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Marxist Criticism
✔ From the name of Karl Marx, a German
philosopher and scholar who theorized
about society and history, this approach
is anchored on the belief that the society
is based on an unjust system that
privileges capitalism over the working
class.
 MARXIST (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Marxist Criticism

✔ This approach explores how elements of

the class struggle – primarily how the
differences between capitalist class
(rich) and the working class (poor)are
reflected in the text (Mata et.al, 2016).
 MARXIST (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Marxist Criticism
According to Manzan (2016), 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
 MARXIST (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Marxist Criticism
Example
In analyzing Jose Rizal’s El Filibusterismo, one will
have to look into the social divisions depicted in
the novel especially on Chapter 1 - Sa Ibabaw
ng Kubyerta where the passengers are
separated based on their classes - the rich ones
on the upper deck while the have nots on the
lower deck.
 CRITICAL APPROACHES

Reader-Response
Criticism
 READER-RESPONSE (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Reader-Response

According to Manzan (2016),

Reader-Response Criticism is
concerned with the reviewer’s
reaction as an audience of a work.
 READER-RESPONSE (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Reader-Response
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.
 READER-RESPONSE (CRITICAL APPROACHES)

Reader-Response
✔ 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
 ACTIVITY

Direction: Identify what

critical approach should be
best used in analyzing the
following.
 Formalism. Feminism. Marxist Criticism.
ACTIVITY Reader-Response Criticism

1.Twelve districts in the Hunger

Games trilogy by Suzanne
Collins are struggling
economically and socially.
They eventually rebelled
against the Capitol.
Answer: Marxist Criticism
 Formalism. Feminism. Marxist Criticism.
ACTIVITY Reader-Response Criticism

2. The Biblical portrayal of

Eve as the origin of sin and
death in the world.

Answer: Feminism
 Formalism. Feminism. Marxist Criticism.
ACTIVITY Reader-Response Criticism

3. In Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s

Frankenstein (1818), the monster
doesn’t exist, so to speak, until the
reader reads Frankenstein and
reanimates it to life, becoming a
cocreator of the text (Introduction
to Literature, 2009).
Answer: Reader-Response Criticism
 Formalism. Feminism. Marxist Criticism.
ACTIVITY Reader-Response Criticism

4. In Harry Potter series,

Hermione's characterization is
reflected in her hysterical, timid
and fearful behaviour.
Rowling’s language was used
to describe her behaviour
(Mikulan, 2009).
Answer: Formalism
 ACTIVITY

5. Cinderella cannot go to the

ball because she was
considered as a person not
worthy for such kind of
privileges, to meet the prince
and attend the ball (Hira, n.d.).
Answer: Feminism
 CRITICAL APPROACHES

Formalism
Feminism
Marxist Criticism
Reader-Response Criticism