How to Critique Literature

A literature critique, sometimes called a literary analysis or a literary critical analysis, is an examination of a piece of literature. The scope of a critique of literature may be to examine a single aspect of the work, or the work in its entirety, and involves breaking the literary piece apart into its separate components and evaluating how they fit together to accomplish the piece's purpose. Literary critiques are commonly executed by students, scholars and literary critics, but anyone can learn how to critique literature by following these steps.

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Steps

1. 1
   Read the literary piece you plan on critiquing. Pay close attention to the meaning of the title, which will allude to the central purpose of the book. Also, be sure to look up any words and re-read any passages that you fail to understand.
2. 2
   Examine the components of the literature.
   • Plot. It is the story-line of the literature piece. A plot may be an abstract, psychological journey, or a simple chain of events.
   • Setting. Evaluate how the choice of setting affects the work's theme and mood.
   • Characters. Differentiate between the main and secondary characters and identify their roles and purposes in the work. Take special note of the main character's path through the piece (i.e. how the character changes, what challenges the character faces, etc.).
   • Conflict development, climax, and resolution. These elements are all part of the plot, but should be examined separately, for their placement in the plot's development plays a contributing factor to the author's success in conveying the literature's meaning.
   • Themes. Decipher what the writer is trying to communicate with the literature, and what the piece is saying about human nature.
   • Point of view. Consider the storyteller and how that choice contributes to the literature's purpose.
3. 3
   Form an interpretation for your literary criticism, taking the literary components into consideration. Decide what you think of the author's intended meaning and how successful you feel the author is at conveying the same.
4. 4
   Summarize your interpretation with a concise thesis statement; the purpose of your literary critique is to support your thesis.
5. 5
   Prove your interpretation. Use specific examples from the literature text and supporting documentation from outside sources to back you up on your thesis.
   • Find patterns in the literature that support the interpretation you are supposing in your literary analysis. Cite instances of repetition and metaphor.
   • Illuminate the symbolism of the literary work and explain how it works to support your interpretation of the it's meaning.
   • Include quotations and passages from literature in your criticism as evidence of your critique.
   • Use supporting arguments from other literary critiques.

Tips

• If you don't feel you have a good grasp of all the specific components of the literature after the first reading of a literary work, read it over again, with the components in mind, before you critique.
• Be careful not to requite the entire work when you critique literature. It is your job to evaluate the work's meaning, not to outline its plot.
• You should always consider how the writer's techniques contribute to the overall meaning of the text.