>> Secondary reading
At A-level, your teacher may or may not suggest that you read critics' opinions on the work that you’re reading.
It is always useful to see how others have approached a subject or an author, and to engage your own thinking with their approach. It is probably unwise, however, to read just one critic: you risk either becoming too influenced by his or her opinion, or allowing your own thoughts to be directed solely towards refuting that point of view.
Remember that any work of criticism itself has origins and a historical context. Certain criticial preoccupations and styles or argument are characteristic of (or perhaps cut across) the moment and place of their productionl criticism has no ‘absolutes’, any more than the literature it addresses. This does not mean that all arguments or readings are equal: it simply means that you need to be clear about what you are doing in claiming one view to be better than another. Always acknowledge quotations from other critics and be sure to make a note of edition and page number, so that you can return to the source at a later point.
