Why Do We Read Chapter 4 in Mastering Practical Criticism?

Week 2

Word count: 375

Question: Why do we read chapter 4 in Mastering Practical Criticism?

Chapter 4 is all about the tools of analysis and the features of text in all three genres - poetry, prose and drama. Lindy Miller addresses you, the reader directly throughout this chapter.

In the beginning Miller is giving hints and tips on how to succeed in practical criticism telling the reader how to and how not to read this chapter for both A-level and undergraduate students, addressing both separately in different paragraphs. She recommends that the chapter be red “thoroughly” and “preferably chronologically” but that it should not be thought of as “representing a definitive and comprehensive body of knowledge and ‘facts’ about literary devices.” Miller then goes on to break down each feature of text and how we need to perceive each text e.g. “form and structure”

She explains what form and structure is and then gives an example of the poem “40 love” by Roger McGough. Miller uses this poem as it is a simple poem structured like a tennis court to reflect the distance and tensions between a couple as they play tennis and the net between them that doesn't leave when they leave the tennis court.

Why do we read this?

This chapter is used to introduce you, or help you with your grasp of the various tools used in practical criticism and to understand features of text and how the effect it. It breaks down each different tool, describes it and raises questions that as a practical critic we should be asking ourselves when we comb through a piece of literature and analyze it. She uses all three genres in order to allow the reader to begin recognising these features in all of them not just one. This is therefore why the chapter is red as it gives a greater understanding of the things that need to be done. This chapter helps understand that everything within s text whether it be a simile or full stop has a meaning and isn't there accidently but has been placed there...