If my wasted degree taught me anything, it's that english professors usually encourage students to write their papers with a feminist/marxist criticism bent.
To be honest classical marxist criticism has some interesting things to say; I think it identifies some real issues with how corporations/the powerful manipulate culture for profit ("The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception"), but of course their solutions are all wrong. It's also (at least what I've read) way more approachable than the mid-century French theorists.
Don't forget the main branches of literary criticism if a student is writing a paper:
If my wasted degree taught me anything, it's that english professors usually encourage students to write their papers with a feminist/marxist criticism bent.
To be honest classical marxist criticism has some interesting things to say; I think it identifies some real issues with how corporations/the powerful manipulate culture for profit ("The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception"), but of course their solutions are all wrong. It's also (at least what I've read) way more approachable than the mid-century French theorists.
I still have nightmares about Derrida. What an asshat.