Using Critics

There will be some components of your English Literature course that will require you to include critical material in your writing. This can seem daunting at first as some critical material is written in a complex way which can often feel designed to confuse but reading what academics and scholars have said about your texts is a really useful way of developing your own ideas and arguments. It can also help you write a more balanced essay as you will be considering other perspectives from your own.

You need to do more than simply refer to what a critic has said, you must engage with it and consider their ideas in detail.

Finding Critical Material

Your teacher may supply you with this material to start off with, but you may be left to find it yourself. If this is the case, ask your school librarian before you turn to the internet. Your library may subscribe to the English Review (English Review – Hodder Education Magazines) which has some excellent articles about the key A Level texts which are a gentle way into critical reading. Your librarian should also be able to point you in the direction of any critical texts in your library.

If you can’t find anything in your library, then try the internet but do so with caution – there is a lot of rubbish out there! Remember that anything you find is just an opinion or interpretation so don’t assume that because it is ‘published’ on the internet, it is correct or even a valid argument.

 

Ways to use Critical Material in your writing

If you’re not sure what to do with critical ideas, consider one of these ideas:

1. Compare the critic’s idea with your own interpretation, identifying any connections or differences
2. Agree with the point made by a critic and identify further evidence from your text to develop this idea.
3. Disagree with the critic’s view and identify evidence from the text which supports your interpretation and proves the critic wrong.
4. Refine the critic’s view by identifying one element of their view which you agree with and another you would like to adjust, giving evidence for your suggestions.
5. Use selected parts of the critical work to either support or contrast with your own argument.

Useful sentence starters for embedding critics

• Kastan argues that…which is helpful in…
• Adelman suggests that…which supports the idea that…
• Mack’s idea that… is interesting because…
• When Nuttall says that… it ignores the fact that…
• Kerrigan’s point that… is too simplistic; instead, it could be argued that…
• Although Hazlitt writes that…, the audience might disagree

Where to include critical material

There is not a rule about where critical ideas should go in your essay, but you must ensure the point links to the specific idea that you are discussing.

If you’re using the PEARL structure I have suggested before, you would make a link to a critical idea in the ‘respond’ part as it is your response to what the critic has said that the examiner wants to read about. This is a good place to put it if you want to use critical ideas to develop or prove your own idea.

However, if your whole thesis depends on a particular critical reading, it may be appropriate to introduce the idea in your introduction and use parts of the critic’s argument in your signpost (point) sentences.

Tips:

• If a critic is very hard to read, try skimming the text first to search for the key term you’re interested in and then focus on that particular part.
• Only include a critic who benefits your discussion and is relevant to your topic; don’t just add them for the sake of it.
• It’s a good idea to include at least one critic you disagree with in your essay.
• You can use critics in new contexts i.e. apply Ellen Pollacks’ idea of passive womanhood to Ophelia in Hamlet or Elizabeth in Frankenstein.
• If there are no textual critics, find critics relating to that genre, artistic movement or cultural context i.e. you might not find as many critics writing about Never Let Me Go, but you could find critics who have written about dystopian fiction or Japanese writers. Alternatively, consider your text in the light of critical theory.
• Beware of plagiarism! Don’t pass off a critic’s view as your own; acknowledge it in a footnote or bracketed reference.

 

Example paragraph:

The presentation of the women in Wilde’s comedy of manners, and specifically the degree to which they can be viewed as independent, is quite ambiguous. In his book entitled ‘Oscar Wilde’, John Sloan said that Wilde’s drama “reflected daring attitudes to…social and sexual issues of the day such as independent womanhood…” Sloan’s idea of what constitutes independence seems at odds with the modern understanding of that word. Whilst it could be argued that Gwendolen desires independence from her mother’s strict rules (“…when you do become engaged to someone, I…will inform you of the fact” TIOBE, pg16), she only makes this break by moving to be the wife of Jack, thus bypassing independence completely. When Jack leaves the room to find the handbag, Gwendolen’s declaration that she “will wait here for [him] all [her] life” (TIOBE, pg 69) suggests dependence on him. The verb ‘wait’ suggests both waiting in terms of time as well as ‘waiting on’ someone – neither of which indicate much independence. Also, the exaggeration in her words contradicts Sloan’s identification of women’s independence in Wilde’s work.

• Topic of discussion signposted in the first sentence
• Clear introduction of critical work in the next sentence which engages with the concept identified in the topic sentence
• Direct quotation from the critic’s work
• Personal response to that quotation followed by evidence which both supports and refutes it
• Uses words from the critic which shows engagement and then argues with it
• Clear statement of your own view of the critic’s idea.

 

Critical Theories

If you can’t find a specific critic to engage with, you can try applying a recognised critical theory to your text instead. The most common and useful ones to an English student are listed below but there are many others which could be equally valid for your text.

Feminist Reading

• Effect of gender inequality and the patriarchy on society, culture and individual
• Highlights oppression of women
• Advocates social change and gender equality

Marxist Reading

• Views society in terms of class struggles and economic conditions
• Criticises capitalism for creating inequality
• Imagines a socialist system based on shared ownership and fairness

Psychological Reading

• Considers the power and appeal of the irrational
• Explores dreams, especially subconscious desires and the ways in which illicit dreams are controlled and suppressed
• Believes in the alternation of attraction and repulsion
• Feelings of guilt
• Examines complex relationship between parents and children
• Believes in the double (or opposites)