Page 49 - Aldi Lukman Nurhakim_How to Write Critical Esays: A Guide for Students of Literature

48 How to write critical essays
however discreetly—by scholars recommending this hierarchy
that Everyman is anonymous whereas Dr Faustus was written
by Kit Marlowe about whose life we know a few racy stories.
I am only suggesting that you should read historical and
biographical works critically—not that you should ignore them.
For many of the tasks undertaken early in a literary
apprenticeship, some mapping of the available texts and of the
ways in which they can be related is absolutely essential, and
learning about an author’s life may well stimulate you into
returning to the works with renewed curiosity. Moreover, an
intelligent biographer will offer you a portrait of the society
which formed the author’s so-called personality, and explain
what assumptions in the original readership the texts had to
anticipate. The language of the work that you mean to
appreciate is arguably the language of a particular tribe at one
time in its history. Of course, if you believe in genius and its
magically transforming power, you may want to concentrate
upon the originality with which a gifted author deploys that
vocabulary. Even this, however, requires some knowledge of
what all members of a given social group once defined as
sensible or senseless. Only those who have learnt to speak a
common language can measure the extent to which some texts
put it to uncommon use.

Published criticism

Some students find that the wider their wanderings among the
critics the more they can discover in the text itself. They return
to the text alerted to the range of ways in which it can be
enjoyed and curious about their own sense of priorities. It helps
them in fact to read more thoughtfully and observantly.
Others find published criticism distracting or inhibiting.
They tend to be overwhelmed by memories of someone else’s
emphases. They feel nervous about their own interest in issues
which published critics have ignored. They may even find that
they have simply spent so much time reading critical articles
that they have too little left to gain a confident knowledge of
the text itself.
Provided that you explore other people’s opinions to
stimulate yourself into discovering and defining your own,