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Critical Approaches and Interpretation
Quick questions on Applying a critical lens explained: H2 Literature in English
7short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is a lens is a way of looking, not a verdict?Show answer
Every critical lens foregrounds certain questions and backgrounds others. A feminist lens asks about gender and power; a Marxist lens about class and economics; a postcolonial lens about empire and otherness; a reader-response lens about how meaning is made in the act of reading. None of these is the "true" reading. Each is a perspective that makes some features of a text vivid.
What is integrate theory with close reading?Show answer
The mark of a controlled critical answer is that theory and textual analysis are woven together. A weak answer front-loads a paragraph of theory and then reads the text as if the theory were not there; a strong answer lets a theoretical question shape each close reading, so the perspective is doing work on the words. Use the minimum of terminology needed and always cash it out in analysis: name the concern the lens raises, then prove your reading from the text.
What is jargon without analysis?Show answer
Reciting theoretical terms with no close reading attached. A lens must be cashed out in analysis of the words.
What is front-loaded theory?Show answer
A paragraph of abstract theory followed by reading that ignores it. Weave the perspective into the close reading.
What is q1?Show answer
Why is a critical lens a set of questions rather than a verdict? [2 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
What are the two beats of applying a lens well? [2 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
What judgement separates a thoughtful application of a lens from a mechanical one? [3 marks]
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