Writing an Introduction to your Critical Review

Writing an Introduction to your Critical Review

For this part of the assignment, you need to provide a thorough introduction to your chosen text. This can take a variety of formats, and may include some or all of the following:

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1. Opening Paragraph: what novel have you chosen and why? What is the main focus of your study (this might be covered in more detail later in your assignment, but it is fine to introduce it here). Explain/ justify your title and how it relates to the novel you are studying. Then, present a brief outline of what you are going to cover in this part of the assignment. This could follow the outline below, to a greater or lesser degree. Of course, you might not include all of this, depending on your focus, or you may need to vary the order that you present the information in.

2. Author Background: Provide a bit of biographical detail about the author. Try to limit yourself to a discussion of details which are relevant to the novel you are studying. I don’t need to know what the author’s favourite colour is, but it might be useful to know other important details about their identity, especially if this has somehow had an influence on their work and/ or its reception. You could also include a short discussion of other work the author has published, but be brief and try to avoid overly descriptive writing (I don’t need to know the plot of every other novel the author has written, but if they have written other work which is significant to your discussion, it might be useful to include it).

3. Genre: What type of novel is this? Does it fit into more than one genre? In what ways does it conform to the conventions of genre, and is there anything new or unique or confrontational about the book? Has this book spawned a new literary genre? In what way does this novel differ from either other examples in the genre or those texts that came after it? Most importantly, what makes this novel worthy of academic attention/ critique? Why is it considered literary?

4. Brief plot synopsis: Don’t spend too long on this! Students sometimes have a tendency to over-describe plots – I don’t expect minute detail. Limit yourself to the main plot points. Consider the ways in which the action in this novel leads to the inevitable climax and resolution. Also, what sort of structure does the novel follow – is the story chronological or non-linear? Is there anything else important about what the narrative describes or how the story is told, e.g. is it an epistolary novel? You could mention other elements here, such as theme or point of view, but remember you will be discussing these in more depth in the next section. Stay focussed on introducing the novel.

5. Context: A discussion of context might include the literary, historical, social and/or political landscape within which your text is placed. For example, some novels on the list are closely linked with others, such as the relationship between Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre. Some novels have broken with established norms in order to create entirely new literary forms. Novels are often closely related to the time in which they were written: what particular social, political, historical events or ideas is your novel engaging with? For example, a discussion of Jane Eyre would be incomplete without considering the structures of social class and gender roles in Victorian England.

6. Literary Theory: Here you should mention (briefly) which theory or theories can best be applied in the analysis of the novel (you will develop this further in the following part of the assignment) and why it is suited to your text. For example, Jane Eyre can be interpreted using Marxist, Feminist, Post-Colonial, and/ or Psychoanalytic theories, among others. Often a combination of approaches is useful in order to discuss a novel; if this is the case, discuss the directions your analysis is likely to take.

7. Conclusion: Summarise your key points so far. Perhaps you could end with a short discussion of why the book is considered a classic work of literature.

8. Bibliography: Don’t forget to include a CORRECTLY FORMATTED bibliography – as well as suitable in-text citations as you write. You may well find that you need additional sources and wider reading than what you included in your preliminary bibliography: do make sure you add these to your bibliography for this You have all been given copies of Cite Them Right in your Academic Practice module: use it!! In particular, you should note how to cite the introduction to your text and/ or chapters in edited books.