Applying Critical Perspectives in Essays

This final lesson brings everything together. You have studied eight critical approaches — feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytic, post-colonial, New Historicist, structuralist/post-structuralist, narratological, and eco-critical/emerging. Now you need to use them effectively in exam conditions. This lesson provides practical strategies for integrating critical theory into your essays without name-dropping, losing your own voice, or sacrificing close reading.

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The Golden Rules

Rule 1: Theory Serves the Text, Not the Other Way Round

The examiner does not want a summary of feminist theory or a biography of Jacques Derrida. They want to see you use critical concepts to produce readings of literary texts.

Wrong	Right
"Feminist criticism is a type of literary criticism that examines gender in literature. Kate Millett wrote Sexual Politics in 1970."	"Millett's argument that literary representations of sexuality are always political illuminates Atwood's presentation of the Ceremony — a ritualised act of sexual violence legitimised by state and scripture."

The difference: the first summarises theory; the second uses theory to read a text.

Rule 2: Name Concepts, Not Just Critics

It is more useful to name a concept than to name a person: