1

1| Literary Criticism

UNIT 1: An Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism

1.0 Intended Learning Outcomes
a. Identify important terms, dates and other concepts relative to the definition and
historical development of Literary Theory and Criticism.
b. Explicate the relationship between Literary Theory and Criticism.
c. Discuss the importance and practical use of Literary criticism.
d. Create a timeline about the development and evolution in the practice of literary
criticism.

1.1 Introduction
Unit 1 introduces you to the two important terms in this course – Literary Theory
and Criticism. This also highlights the relationship between and among literature, literary
theory and literary criticism as well as the notable developments in the practice of literary
criticism which are a must to know and considered pre-requisites to literary analysis. This
also gives you a glimpse of the common literary theories that you will be dealing in the
subsequent units of this course.
The activities incorporated in this learning material will help you understand the
what’s and why’s of literary criticism.

Before you proceed to the discussion proper, please answer the pre-test via the google form
sent in your FB group.

1.2 Topics
1.2.1 What is Literary Theory?
In literary criticism, a theory is the specific method, approach, or viewpoint a critic
or reader has staked out from which he or she interprets, analyzes, and evaluates works
of literature – and often the world (Fard, 2016).
Literary theory:
⁻ is the body of ideas and methods we use in the practical reading of literature
⁻ is a description of the underlying principles, one might say the tools, by which we
attempt to understand literature;
⁻ formulates the relationship between author and work;
⁻ develops the significance of race, class, and gender for literary study, both from the
standpoint of the biography of the author and an analysis of their thematic presence
within texts;
⁻ offers varying approaches for understanding the role of historical context in
interpretation as well as the relevance of linguistic and unconscious elements of the
text; and
⁻ In recent years, has sought to explain the degree to which the text is more the
product of a culture than an individual author and in turn how those texts help to
create the culture.
There are numerous literary theories. Some you may find useful, some not so
useful. That is for you to judge. But you should learn how each theory or approach
works before you make your final judgment.

C. M. D. Hamo-ay
 2
1| Literary Criticism
A very basic way of thinking about
literary theory is that these ideas act as
different lenses critics use to view and talk
about art, literature, and even culture.
These different lenses allow critics to
consider works of art based on certain
assumptions within that school of theory.
The different lenses also allow critics to
focus on particular aspects of a work they
consider important
(https://owl.purdue.edu).
For example, if a critic is working with
certain Marxist theories, he/she might
focus on how the characters in a story
interact based on their economic situation.
If a critic is working with post-colonial theories, he/she might consider the same story but look at
how characters from colonial powers (Britain, France, and even America) treat characters from,
say, Africa or the Caribbean.

1.2.2 Literature and Literary Theory

Traditionally, literature is regarded as a homogenous body of works with similar
characteristics which are read in similar ways by an undifferentiated audience. Literature, as a
body of writing, together with its moral or aesthetic qualities, can be seen as a site of struggle where
meanings are contested rather than regarded as something possessing timeless and universal
values and truths.
Today, with the impact of literary theory to the study of literature, the latter is seen as an
area in the state of flux. However, literary theories can offer various ways of reading, interpreting,
and analyzing literature. These theories do not offer any easy solutions as to what literature is, or
what its study should be, but this should not be taken as a negative feature. In addition, these
theories aim to explain or demystify some of the assumptions or beliefs implicit in literature.

1.2.3 What is Literary Criticism?

Sometimes the word criticism puts people off, because in everyday use it has negative
connotations. We usually think of a “critic” as the kind of grumpy person who seems to exist
solely to find problems and stress faults. The word means more than that, however. It comes from
the Greek verb kritikos, which means “to judge or to decide”. In its original sense, a critic is simply
a person who expresses an informed judgment or opinion about the meaning, value, truth, beauty,
or artistry of something.
LITERARY CRITICISM is the discipline of interpreting, analyzing and evaluating works of
literature. Literature is most commonly defined as works of writing that have lasted over the years
because they deal with ideas of timeless and universal interest with
exceptional artistry and power. This can include poems, stories, novels, plays, essays, memoirs,
and so on. Each of the three main activities of literary criticism – interpreting, analyzing, and
evaluating -- gives rise to different questions (Fard, 2016).

C. M. D. Hamo-ay
 3
1| Literary Criticism

L The Interpretive Question: What does this work of literature mean?

I When we interpret a work, we set forth one or more of its possible
T meanings. Reading is like a potluck picnic to which the writer brings the
E words and the readers bring the meanings. Literary works speak to us all
R in different ways, and one of the pleasures of talking about books is the
A chance to check out all the different ideas other readers bring to the picnic.
R
Y The Analytic Question: How does this piece of literature work? When
we analyze a text, we get under the hood to see how the engine operates.
C Analysis is technical: pulling things apart, examining relationships,
R figuring out effects. We are not asking what a poem means anymore but
I how the author makes it click.
T
I The Evaluative Question: Is this work of literature any good? When
C evaluate a work, we form a personal judgment about its work: Is this a
I great novel or a rotten one? Why? Does this poem have any value? Why?
S What does this work of literature add – or subtract – from the world?
M

In addition, LITERARY CRITICISM is the comparison, analysis, interpretation, and/or

evaluation of works of literature. Literary criticism is essentially an opinion, supported by
evidence, relating to theme, style, setting or historical or political context. It usually includes
discussion of the work’s content and integrates your ideas with other insights gained from
research. Literary criticism may have a positive or a negative bias and may be a study of an
individual piece of literature or an author’s body of work.
Although criticism may include some of the following elements in order to support an idea,
literary criticism is NOT a plot summary, a biography of the author, or simply finding fault with
the literature.
Researching, reading, and writing works of literary criticism will help you to make better
sense of the work, form judgments about literature, study ideas from different points of view, and
determine on an individual level whether a literary work is worth reading.
1.2.4 Literature, Literary Theory and Literary Criticism

+ = LITERARY CRITICISM

To come up with a good analysis, judgment, interpretation or evaluation (literary criticism)

of a certain literary text (literature), we need to use a particular tool, method or approach (literary
theory).

C. M. D. Hamo-ay
 4
1| Literary Criticism
1.2.5 History of Literary Criticism
Literary criticism begins with the Greeks, but little
of their work has survived. Aristotle’s Poetics is mostly
devoted to drama; and Plato’s theories of literature are
scarcely literary criticism. From the Romans the major
works are Horace’s Ars Poetica and the works on rhetoric
composed by Cicero and Quintilian. The first important
critical essay in the Christian era is Louginus’s On His
Sublime, and the first medieval critic of n ote was Dante
who, in his De Vulgari Eloquentic, addressed himself to the
problems of language appropriate to poetry.
The Renaissance writers and critics for the most part
followed the Classical rules on the principle that the
ancients were bound to have been right; but there were some attempts at originality. For
example, Vida’s Poetica (1527), a treatise on the art of poetry; du Bellay’s Deffense et
Zllustration (1549); and Lope de Vega’s New Art of Making Comedies (1609). In England there
is little criticism of note until Puttenhan’s The Art of English Poeise (1589) and Sidney’s
Apologie for poetrie (1595), which is important because it is a detailed examination of the art
of poetry and a discussion of the state of English poetry at the time.
For nearly a hundred years the major critical works to appear tended to reinforce the
classical tradition and rules. Some of the main works were Ben Jonson’s Timber; or Discoveries
(1640), Pierre Corneille’s Discours (1660) and Boileau’s L’Art Poetique (1673). With Dryden,
however, in his Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668) – not to mention his prefaces, dedications and
open-mindedness whose critical essays are works of art in themselves. He, if anybody, showed
the way to the people functions of criticism.
In the 18th century G.B.Vico, the Italian critic and philosopher, was the pioneer of the
historical approach to literature. Historicism, as it is called, completely changed, in the long
run, critical methods. It enabled people to realize that the rules that held good for the Classical
writers do not necessarily hold good in a later age, and that there were not absolute principles
and rules by which literature could be judged (which was Dr. Johnson’s point of view).
There was thus a reaction against Neoclassicism, an increasing interest in literatures other
than those of Greece and Rome, and a greater variety of opinions about literature, about the
language to be used, and about the creative and imaginative faculties and processes of the
writer. The new views found expression in Wordsworth’s Preface to the Second Edition of the
Lyrical Ballads (1800), Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria (1817), Shelley’s Defense of Poetry
(1820) – a reply to Peacock’s ironical debunking in The Four Ages of Poetry (1820) and The
Philosophy of Composition (1846), and Matthew Arnold’s Essay in Criticism (1865, 1888).
The writings of Walter Pater on culture and art, especially The Renaissance (1873) and
Appreciations (1889) had profound influence on critical thinking.
By the second half of the 19th century, many different critical theories had begun to
proliferate, as is clear from a study of the philosophy of aestheticism, the doctrine of art for
art’s sake and the work of the Symbolist poets. There were fewer rules of any kind as more
and more writers experimented. At the same time the work of the best critics continued in the
tradition and method of Vico. Sainte-Beuve, which his immense range of learning and his keen
sense of critical and judicious detachment, was the supreme exponent of historicism.

C. M. D. Hamo-ay
 5
1| Literary Criticism
Recent criticism has tended to be more and more closely analytical in the evaluation and
interpretation of literature, as is evident in the achievements of major critics like M.ll Abrams,
Eric Auerbach, I.A. Richards and others.

1.2.6 Developments in Literary Theory and the Practice of Literary Criticism

➢ Most criticisms prior to the 1950’s could be described as author-centered.
➢ In the 1950’s, a number of critics argued that attention could be focused primarily on the
literary work and not the author. They suggested that the critic’s main concern was with
the language and form of the text being read not with the author.
➢ More recently, a number of theorists have introduced the literary theory known as
‘reader theory’ or ‘reception theory’. This focuses on the reader as the central figure in
reading and critical process.

1.2.7 A Glimpse of the Literary Theories and Critical Approaches

Described below are five common critical approaches to the literature (X.J. Kennedy & D.
Gioia, 1995):
1) Formalist Criticism. This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human
knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms.” All the elements necessary for
understanding the work are contained within the work itself. Of particular interest to the
formalist critic are the elements of form—style, structure, tone, imagery, etc.—that are
found within the text. A primary goal for formalist critics is to determine how such
elements work together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers.
2) Reader-Response Criticism. This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that “literature”
exists not as an artifact upon a printed page but as a transaction between the physical text
and the mind of a reader. It attempts “to describe what happens in the reader’s mind while
interpreting a text” and reflects that reading, like writing, is a creative process. According
to reader-response critics, literary texts do not “contain” a meaning; meanings derive only
from the act of individual readings. Hence, two different readers may derive completely
different interpretations of the same literary text; likewise, a reader who re-reads a work
years later may find the work shockingly different. Reader-response criticism, then,
emphasizes how “religious, cultural, and social values affect readings; it also overlaps with
gender criticism in exploring how men and women read the same text with different
assumptions.” Though this approach rejects the notion that a single “correct” reading exists
for a literary work, it does not consider all readings permissible: “Each text creates limits
to its possible interpretations.”
3) Psychological Criticism. This approach reflects the effect that modern psychology has had
upon both literature and literary criticism. Fundamental figures in psychological criticism
include Sigmund Freud, whose “psychoanalytic theories changed our notions of human
behavior by exploring new or controversial areas like wish-fulfillment, sexuality, the
unconscious, and repression” as well as expanding our understanding of how “language
and symbols operate by demonstrating their ability to reflect unconscious fears or desires”;
and Carl Jung, whose theories about the unconscious are also a key foundation
of Mythological Criticism.

C. M. D. Hamo-ay
 6
1| Literary Criticism
4) Marxist Criticism. This approach aims to explain literature in relation to society – that
literature can only be properly understood within a larger framework of social reality.
Based on the theories of Karl Marx (and so influenced by philosopher Georg Wilhelm
Friedrich Hegel), this school concerns itself with class differences, economic and otherwise,
as well as the implications and complications of the capitalist system: "Marxism attempts
to reveal the ways in which our socioeconomic system is the ultimate source of our
experience" (Tyson 277).
5) Gender Criticism. This approach “examines how sexual identity influences the creation
and reception of literary works.” Originally an offshoot of feminist movements, gender
criticism today includes a number of approaches, including the so-called “masculinist”
approach recently advocated by poet Robert Bly. The bulk of gender criticism, however, is
feminist and takes as a central precept that the patriarchal attitudes that have dominated
western thought have resulted, consciously or unconsciously, in literature “full of
unexamined ‘male-produced’ assumptions.” Feminist criticism attempts to correct this
imbalance by analyzing and combatting such attitudes—by questioning, for example, why
none of the characters in Shakespeare’s play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband
to murder a wife accused of adultery. Other goals of feminist critics include “analyzing
how sexual identity influences the reader of a text” and “examining how the images of men
and women in imaginative literature reflect or reject the social forces that have historically
kept the sexes from achieving total equality.”

1.2.8 Practical Use of Literary Criticism

According to Fard (2016), the discipline of literary criticism is valuable for a number of reasons,
including the following:
1) Literary criticism improves your general reading skills, giving you more tools to help solve
problems of understanding as you read.
2) Literary criticism can help you in college by expanding your awareness of different
approaches, thus giving you more ways to respond to what you read.
3) Literary criticism supports the development of critical thinking skills. It encourages you to
identify your own reading habits and to explore beyond their boundaries. It can also give
you a sense of confidence and responsibility about developing your own critical standards
and judgments and not having to surrender your opinion to other’s interpretations. It
sharpens your general interpretive, analytic, and evaluative skills, and it improves your
ability to make a good argument by encouraging the habit of backing up your opinions
with reasons and textual evidence.
For all these reasons, literary criticism can help you develop your skills as an independent
thinker and reader.

You have just learned the introductory concepts about Literary Criticism --- the definition of the
important terms, relationship among Literature, Literary Theory and Criticism, the practical use of
the discipline and a glimpse of the common literary theories. It is hoped that what you learned here
would help you in understanding and dealing with the succeeding units.

This time, please check the file and take ASSESSMENT No. 1 sent to your ENG 20 FB Group.
Good luck! 😊

C. M. D. Hamo-ay
 7
1| Literary Criticism

1.3 References
Fard, S.F. (2016). A Short Introduction to Literary Criticism. International Journal of
Humanities and Cultural Studies ISSN 2356-5926, 328-327.
https://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/article/view/814
Kennedy, X.J. & Gioia, D. (1995). Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.
Harper Collins
Pagliawan, D.L. (2017). Literary Criticism: A Resource, A Guide, A Reader. Texts and Visuals
Purdue University. (n.d.) Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism.
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/literary
theory_and_schools_of_criticism/index.html
Rosales, R.D. (2012). Literary Criticism Reconsidered. Jimczyville Publications
Waidner-Spahr Library. (25 August 2020). Criticism: Literature, Film & Drama: Literature
Criticism. https://libguides.dickinson.edu/criticism

1.4 Acknowledgment
The images, tables, figures and information contained in this module were taken
from the references cited above.

C. M. D. Hamo-ay