Critical Approaches
This refers to two different techniques:
1. Being able to take the views of others who have written or directed the text you are looking at and being able to make use of their opinions analytically.
Working example:
When John Drakakis analysed the language of Brabantio as it descends from order to disorder he claims the ‘metre and rhythm collide as Brabantio wrestles for control.’ It is easy to agree with this statement when you consider the text:
‘How didst thou know ‘twas she? (O thou deceivest me
Past thought!) What said she to you? Get more tapers,
Raise all my kindred, are they married, think you?’
The regular rhythm is gone, as Drakakis observes. The phrases are short, and run into one another. But Shakespeare also includes many questions and exclamation marks to show his desperation and confusion. It is not merely Brabantio trying to hold on to control. It is in fact the panic of an old man who has lost his precious daughter and his control almost completely. Brabantio’s reaction is matched by Othello later in the play. He too loses control and this common reaction might make us sympathise more with Othello.
N.B.
Being able to take someone else’s idea, build on it or identify and develop its weaknesses is a key skill that hopefully we will develop over the next few weeks.
- Approaching text from a particular academic point of view
Examples of critical positions that have been adopted by critics in the past:
ü Structuralist/Post-structuralist
ü Psychoanalytic
ü Feminist
ü Marxist
ü Race/Post-colonial
ü Cultural materialist/new historicist
ü Genre Theory
ü Moral
ü Great authors
A critic adopting a feminist approach for example believes that ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ are ideas constructed by our culture, and it is important to be aware of this when reading texts from periods and cultures different from out own. Feminists interested in how women are represented in texts written by men, and how these texts display the power relations between the sexes.
So when reading Othello from a feminist perspective you might pay much more attention to Desdemona and her treatment at the hands of men.
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