What is Literary Criticism?

When reading, the reader typically forms an interpretation of the work. A person's interpretation
of a work is often based on life experience, culture, and influences. Some readers and critics take
these interpretations and write a literary criticism. The definition of literary criticism is the
analysis, comparison, evaluation, and interpretation of a work of literature. Often engaging in
debates with other critics to help prove their points and make value judgments, literary critics
hope to provide a reader with meaningful connections. While most written literary criticism dates
from the twentieth century, questions about the social value of literature date back to the time of
Plato and Aristotle. In his Poetics, Aristotle stressed the importance of literary art. He was able
to provide universal insights for an audience that critics today have adapted when writing literary
criticism.

Literary Criticism vs. Literary Theory

While some may use these terms synonymously, and although they are related, there is a
difference between literary criticism and literary theory. Literary criticism, the study of a literary
text, can begin with a particular literary theory. Literary theory is the idea that guides literary
criticism. Theory helps to differentiate literary texts from the others; it works to classify literary
texts into categories and schools of thought. One way to think of literary theory is that it acts as
a critical lens, or a way to view a particular work. A critical lens allows a critic to analyze a text
within a specific theory. Using a critical lens, the critic evaluates the literary text based on
assumptions within a specific literary theory and then develops a literary criticism.
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Types of Literary Criticism

There are many types of literary criticism. All literary criticism is an opinion that is based on
evidence that relates to history or culture. All literary criticism discusses the work and connects
the work to insights based on a literary theory.

Traditional Criticism
Traditional criticism evaluates an author's biographical information: their culture, background,
and history. Critics who look through a traditional critical lens believe that by understanding an
author's biography and the period in which the work was written, they can truly evaluate a work.

Sociological Criticism
Sociological criticism evaluates a text based on its relation to a particular society and its larger
social context. Viewing a text through this critical lens includes studying an author's place within
a society and how an audience receives a wor

New Criticism
New criticism broke from traditional criticism. Where traditional criticism focuses on
biography and history, new criticism views the work from a closed reading and ignores
historical, political, or biographical context. Often used when evaluating poetry and hoping to
provide more intellectual rigor, this critical lens focuses on the structure and form of a literary
work instead of any emotion it may evoke.

Reader-Response Criticism
Where new criticism focuses on the form and structure of a work apart from any
emotion, reader-response criticism relies on the emotions of the reader to evaluate a literary
text. This critical lens examines the effect a text can have on different readers. Reader-response
criticism assumes that a work of literature has no single correct meaning and no single method
of analysis. It relies on the belief that a work has no meaning until a reader experiences it.

Feminist Criticism
A Feminist critical lens evaluates and interprets a work through the perspective of feminism.
Some Feminist criticism analyzes the gender of an author in order to understand how a piece
of literature is written. Other feminist critics analyze the portrayal of females in works and how
they might reinforce stereotypes. Still, other Feminist criticism looks at the gender of the reader
and their response to a work.

Literature Criticism
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.

Examples of some types of literary criticism are:

 Biographical
 Comparative
 Ethical
 Expressive
 Feminist
 Historical
 Mimetic
 Pragmatic
 Psychological
 Social
 Textual
 Theoretical
Literary Criticism

1. CRITICISM The paradigms and the possibilities… LITERARY

2. What is a critic? •Why do we critic? •How do we critic?
3.  ORIGIN • Greek word ”krinein” meaning “to judge”, and the idea of evaluation has always been
inherent in the term. •The noun “kritikos” meaning a “judge” of literature has a very long history and
was in use as early as the 4th century B.C.
4.  WHO IS A CRITIC? one who expresses a reasoned opinion on any matter especially involving a
judgment of its value, truth, righteousness, beauty, or technique
5.  WHAT IS CRITICISM? • The expression of disapproval of someone or something based on
perceived faults or mistakes: "he ignored the criticisms of his friends". • The analysis and judgment of
a literary or artistic work: "methods of criticism supported by literary theories".
6.  CRITICISM Let’s define LITERARY
7.  Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature.
8.  "Literary criticism is the evaluation of literary works. This includes the classification by genre,
analysis of structure, and judgement of value."
9.  "Literary criticism asks what literature is, what it does, and what it is worth."
10. Literary criticism is the method used to interpret any given work of literature. The different schools of
literary criticism provide us with lenses which ultimately reveal important aspects of the literary work.
11.  It is criticism not because it is negative or corrective, but rather because those who write criticisms
ask hard, analytical , crucial, or critical questions about the works they read.
12. WHY DO WE HAVE TO ANALYZE? • Talking about experiences enhances our enjoyment of them
• Talking about experiences involves the search for meaning which increases our understanding of
them "The life which is unexamined is not worth living.“ Socrates
13. TO FURTHER EXPLAIN … Literary criticism helps us to understand what is important about the
text • Its author • its structure • its context: social, economic, historical • what is written • how the text
influences the reader
14. Literary criticism helps us to understand the relationship between authors, readers, and texts • The act
of literary criticism ultimately enhances the enjoyment of our reading of the literary work
15. PARADIGMS … • Formalism • Marxism • Feminism • Psychoanalytic • Cultural Criticism •
Structuralism • Post-structuralism • Archetypal
16.  LITERARY CRITICISM MAP THE 4 CRITICAL VARIABLES of LITERARY THEORY &
CRITICISM
17.  UNDERSTANDING THE MAP • The work itself is placed in the center because all approaches must
deal, to some extent or another, with the text itself. • Formalism and deconstruction are placed here
also because they deal primarily with the text and not with any of the outside considerations such as
author, the real world, audience, or other literature. Meaning, formalists argue, is inherent in the text.
Because meaning is determinant, all other considerations are irrelevant. • Deconstructionists also
subject texts to careful, formal analysis; however, they reach an opposite conclusion: there is no
meaning in language.
18. CONT'D … • A historical approach relies heavily on the author and his world. In the historical view,
it is important to understand the author and his world in order to understand his intent and to make
sense of his work. In this view, the work is informed by the author's beliefs, prejudices, time, and
history, and to fully understand the work, we must understand the author and his age. • An intertextual
approach is concerned with comparing the work in question to other literature, to get a broader
picture. • Reader-Response is concerned with how the work is viewed by the audience. In this
approach, the reader creates meaning, not the author or the work.
19. CONT'D … • Mimetic criticism seeks to see how well a work accords with the real world (is it
accurate? correct? moral? ). • Then, beyond the real world are approaches dealing with the spiritual
and the symbolic--the images connecting people throughout time and cultures (archetypes). This is
mimetic in a sense too, but the congruency looked for is not so much with the real world as with
 something beyond the real world--something tying in all the worlds/times/cultures inhabited by
humans.
20.  CONT'D … • The Psychological approach is placed outside these poles because it can fit in many
places, depending how it is applied: (1) Historical if diagnosing the author himself (2) Mimetic if
considering if characters are acting by "real world" standards and with recognizable psychological
motivations (3) Archetypal when the idea of the Jungian collective unconscious is included (4)
Reader-Response when the psychology of the reader--why he sees what he sees in the text--is
examined.
21. CONT'D … • Likewise, Feminist, Minority, Marxist, and other such approaches may fit in: (1)
Historical if the author's attitudes are being examined in relation to his times (i.e. was Shakespeare a
feminist for his times, though he might not be considered so today?) (2) Mimetic--when asking how
well characters accord with the real world. Does a black character act like a black person would, or is
he a stereotype? Are women being portrayed accurately? Does the work show a realistic economic
picture of the world?
22.  WHAT DOES THIS LITERARY WORK MEAN? THERE ARE SO MANY POSSIBLE
ANSWERS • Different approaches or lenses help us to discover rich and deeper meaning • Each lens
has its strengths and weaknesses • Each lens is valuable • Try to become a pluralist rather than an
inflexible supporter of one
23. 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.
24. YOUR TASK •Learn your theory like your life depends on it
25. FOLLOW THIS PROCESS Know & present the following information: • Key person(s) who
influenced the theory; proponents • Background information about the theory • Strengths of the theory
• Weaknesses of the theory • Interpretation of the selection of literature using the theory