Literature Review

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to write a literature review that maps the existing scholarly conversation on your topic, identifies gaps, and positions your argument in relation to what has already been argued.

What Is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a critical survey of existing scholarship on your topic. It is not a summary of each source in sequence — it is an organized analysis of what scholars have argued, where they agree, where they disagree, and what has not yet been adequately addressed.

Purpose: to show that you know the existing conversation and to identify where your project fits in it.

The literature review positions your argument — it tells the reader: "Here is what has been said before; here is what I am adding."

Types of Organization

Chronological: how thinking has evolved over time.

"Early scholarship focused on X; by the 1990s, critics shifted attention to Y; more recently, Z has emerged as the dominant framework."

Thematic: organized around the major debates or approaches.

"Critics are divided on two main questions: the relationship between X and Y, and the role of Z. I argue that..."

Methodological: organized by different critical approaches.

"Feminist critics have argued... Postcolonial scholars have contended... Historical approaches have shown..."

Mapping the Conversation

When writing the literature review, you are building a map of a scholarly conversation. Your job is to:

1. Identify the major positions
2. Show where they agree and disagree
3. Identify the gap — what has not been adequately addressed
4. Position your project — how does it fill that gap?

Positioning Language

When writing the literature review, use language that shows the relationships between positions:

"While X argues..., Y complicates this by..."

"Both X and Y share the assumption that..., though they diverge on..."

"Despite X's important contribution, their analysis does not adequately account for..."

"My project builds on X's framework by extending it to..."

What the Literature Review Is NOT

❌ A list of summaries: "Smith says X. Jones says Y. Williams says Z."

❌ A comprehensive survey of every source: focus on the most significant arguments, not every paper ever written.