4.1: Overview

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What is a Critical Analysis?

A “critical analysis” is a writing that seeks to more deeply understand a text, particularly a literary writing, by examining it from different perspectives. We will accomplish this by writing one paper, one step at a time, until it is perfect. Fortunately, the steps are laid out explicitly in the pages that follow, and in this order:

Close Reading (Summary) followed by the critical perspectives:
Reader Analysis
Text Analysis
Author Analysis
Context Analysis
Conclusion

Here “Critical” means “from a particular perspective” and “Analysis” means “looking at parts.”

What is a Close Reading?

A “close reading” means essentially answering the questions in the Summary/Introduction section below. In other words, if we are able to answer the Summary/Introduction questions, then we have accomplished a close reading, as well as an introduction to our paper.

Sections of a Critical Analysis

Note

These sections represent a cross-section of critical analysis and typically do not appear all together in the same analysis.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) - Sections of a Critical Analysis