critics in essays

hi im writing my first uni assessed essay, its on the reliability of reading identity from physical appearance in the novel 'the french lieutenant's woman'. can any one advise me how many references to critics i should make. im struggling to find even one that is relevant. arg

Reply 1

viviki

its a pretty famous novel there surely have to be some relevent critics. I used to put a fair few references in mine.

Reply 2

Beelzebub

I think one of my lecturers said 80% own ideas and 20% critics is a good balance... or somewhere around there anywhere. 70-30 perhaps. Not sure. All those introductory lectures just kind of merge and blur in my head.

Reply 3

Da Bachtopus

As many as are necessary. If you've read some criticism but don't see the need to refer to it or quote it explicitly, just put it in the bibliography.

Reply 4

buttons7

i dunno, for my uni essays i generally read selectively from several books of criticism and quote/reference where it's relevant. i think i normally end up with we are told to use criticism to inform our own ideas; knowing the major critical stances on a work is a good starting point, from which you can develop your own ideas. umm yeh here's a bit of one of my essays to try and show what i mean:

'William Bankes is unable to understand her work - which reduces buildings, trees, a mother and child, to simple shades and nuances on a canvas, albeit “without irreverence”. Whitworth suggests that, for Lily, “the lack of representational clarity is less important than the harmony that [she] establishes between the colours and form on the canvas,” thus implying that the overall image is more than simply the sum of its composite parts. Indeed, this appears to apply to Woolf's work more generally...'

Reply 5

Possession

How about critics in exam essays? I've got a literary theory and criticism exam coming up, if I want to quote critics do I have to remember the references?

Reply 6

buttons7

i don't think so. you'll probably have to be able to say "certain critics would argue that..." and i guess it's better if you can reference them by name, but i imagine an examiner isn't going to be harsh if you can't remember the exact quote, full name and page reference lol. i think in exam situations the most important thing is to know the book itself, and have some idea of the criticism, rather than killing yourself trying to learn masses of critical material word for word. that said, i'm only in the first year myself, so i can't be sure; i just would be suprised if you needed to be able to make detailed references (apart from to very important things).

Reply 7

slk999

What I would do is search through relevant texts on French Lieutenants' woman and just pick out bits by as many different critics as possible and then when you find a relevant place in your essay, just embed them. I'm doing AS at the moment and on the spec we don't really need them, but I'm putting them in anyway as good practice. Once you've made a point and something from a critic supports it, just start another paragraph and say: "Indeed, as this critic says, "........." which suggests......" you get the idea. Critics are there to help you, but by all means you don't have to agree with what they say.

Reply 8

litlawmichelle

Remember when trying to find criticism you don't just have to find it on the author you're writing about. If there's a theory on identity in the novel, or representations of identity, or something like that, you can apply it to your particular text.

For every quote you use, you're supposed to write twice as much about it - this stops you just putting, xy says and yz states.. etc etc

I'm sorry but I disagree with Rich above. :redface:

Don't go for as many different critics as possible and don't use them just to support what you're saying. My tutors say only quote if you're going to contradict something, or develop an argument further. Thats the way to get a first anyway, apparently.. As for using as many different critics as possible, this usually isn't very helpful because you can't ever really examine their argument, you just make fleeting points. I'd suggest closely looking at only a few critics. Read widely, but don't quote them all. Otherwise your essay becomes a sea of quotes with no original thought.

Quoting in exams - you'll be told all this closer to exams I expect, but you don't need page references etc. Maybe just the critics name and work if you can remember it. Don't worry too much about this.

Hope that helps,

Michelle :biggrin:

Reply 9

slk999

litlawmichelle

Sorry if I was misleading, which I clearly was. I meant that if you use 5 quotes from the same critic, then that's not too good, I've been told that when I use critics, try and vary which one, not just use 1 and use about 4 quotes from them. I didn't really mean load your essay with them. Hope that sorts that out :smile:

Reply 10

~Jen~

Apparently it's still possible to get a first without reading any secondary criticism throughout your entire degree. What matters most are your own ideas...

Reply 11

mousey

It helps to have a critic that contrasts with your own ideas though, but largely yes i agree. xx

Reply 12

litlawmichelle

I don't think thats possible for the majority of people to be honest, unless you've got a seriously original and unthought of theory. In short, I wouldn't try it, ever.