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