I had a question, what should we do if our related texts does not have any critics that we can integrate and respond to enhance our responses?
Hi!
Great question. This is often the case with related texts since we can pick what we want to study based on our own interests and preferences.
Firstly, I would double check to make sure that there really are no critics. You can uncover a lot of new resources on Google Scholar, Sydney Studies in English, JSTOR, Informit. Get yourself a free State Library card and the world (well at least the academic world) is your oyster!
If you can't find any resources there, then check if there have been reviews in literary or film magazines for your text. These are also fair game to be integrated in your essay.
In the case that there are either no critics (or no useful critics) then what I would suggest is to quote from the theories of scholars in literature and film studies. What do I mean by this? Often scholars don't write in relation to a particular text, but to the cultural trends and genres that texts exist in. You can then apply those more abstract ideas to your text.
For example, my related text in Extension was the 2017 historical biopic
Jackie. I applied the idea of the 'historical imagination' in film from writers like Hayden White and Robert Rosenstone to analyse why the film chose to depict history inaccurately on purpose to convey an 'emotional truth' about Jackie's interiority. Similarly, you can find more broad theories that apply to the text you are studying and quote those to prove your points.
Tl;dr exhaust all avenues you have to find critics and when you reach that point apply more general theories to the specific text you are studying