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How to write a cultural theory essay

I do contemporary cultural theory. I am writing about a poem in my essay I just have no clue how to structure it.
Like
Intro would be context and description essentially
Should I do a paragraph on how the poem has already been understood?
should I split the body into different cultural references that the poem makes?

Reply 1

cheadle

what does the assignment brief ask you to do? what are the assessment criteria?

Reply 2

Stew24

Original post by cheadle

what does the assignment brief ask you to do? what are the assessment criteria?

choose a poem or short extract and propose an extended close reading

Reply 3

cheadle

There is quite a bit of useful material online on how to do this kind of essay. Such as

https://www.york.ac.uk/english/writing-at-york/writing-resources/close-reading/

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/second/en227/closereading/

Given that this is a cultural studies essay, you are presumably also being asked to look to the cultural references within the poem.

These could include historical context, biographical details, sex & gender, ethnicity, social class, etc etc etc.

I think the trick here is to pick a poem that has a lot of the kind of aterial you might look to analyse embedded in it.