Approaches in writing

critique Marxist and

Feminist
 What is the Marxist criticism approach in
writing a critique?

A method of identifying political and

social issues by relating them to
conflicts between people from different
socioeconomic classes.
 Who is the founder of Marxist
criticism?
Karl Marx started Marxist criticism. Karl Marx was a 19 th
century German thinker most famous for developing a
notion of communism in The Communist Manifesto. His
notion of communism was not simply a utopia presented in
a vacuum, it was a political program meant to critique the
social conditions of capitalism.
 Popular Marxist Criticism Books

• Behold the Dreamers Imbolo Mbue.

• The Illegal Lawrence Hill.
• Water for Elephants Sara Gruen.
What is the feminist approach in writing a
critique?

Feminist literary criticism explores the

social relationships and roles of men
and women.
 What are the techniques of feminist
criticism in writing?
When applying feminist criticism to literature,
one must look at how the characters are
portrayed, the language used in the work, the
author’s viewpoint, and the interactions
between the characters.
 Who is the founder of feminist
criticism?
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf is rightly considered the founder of modern
feminist literary criticism. Prior to her landmark
contributions to the field, in particular her feminist manifesto
of literary criticism, A Room of One’s Own (1929), very few
works register in historical accounts of its genesis
 Feminist literary criticism examples

• Simone de Beauvoir’s argument that men perceive

women as ‘the Other’.
• Elaine Showalter’s three phases in women’s writing.
• Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s Madwoman
Thesis.