Moulay Ismail University

Faculty Of Letters And Humanities

English Department

Master program
Communication in contexts
Approaches To Criticism

Prof. Kh. Amar

Reda Lamtiri
Reda_lamtiri@hotmail.com
 Criticism

Outline:

 Criticism, Art, what are they? Any

relations?
 Functions of Literary Criticism.
 The double task of Criticism.
 New Criticism.
 Criticism

 Criticism, Art, what are they? Any

relations?
Criticism
 Criticism

Criticism:
 The word ‘Criticism’ is derived from the Greek root ‘krinei’
which means to judge and the term ‘kritikos’ which
means a judge of literature.
 Criticism is the reasoned consideration of literary works
and issues. It applies, as a term, to any argumentation
about literature, whether or not specific works are
analyzed. Plato’s cautions against the risky
consequences of poetic inspiration in general in his
Republic are thus often taken as the earliest important
example of literary criticism.
"literary criticism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite. 
Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010.
 Criticism

Art:
 Over the centuries art has been considered to be
imitation and expression. Traditionally the word art has
referred to skill in the making of something and the artist
is the one who makes it.
 What the artist makes is considered in some respect
imitative of the real world. A painting may mirror some
small portion of nature. A statue may imitate a person or
animal. A play imitates the human characteristics in real
life situations. A shoe both imitates and protects the foot.
It was only in the 19th century that art came to be looked
upon as expression because it expresses the feelings,
ideas, and notions of the artist as well as the skill
involved.
 Criticism


Literary criticism is an independent field of
study. It justifies the literary work. It is a
systematic study of literature. It examines
the excellencies and defects of a literary
work and finally evaluates its artistic worth.
 Criticism

 Functions of Literary Criticism:

People specialized in the field of Criticism are called

critics.
Critics may appreciate a work of art, but their
professional task is to analyze, evaluate, and
describe it according to some standards and relating to
some conceptual frameworks. A critic's business is not
only to appreciate but to know. Every critic must
understand the nature and quality of the art being
criticized. A literary critic, for example, must have a
thorough knowledge of the work being written.
 Criticism

The critic’s chief duty is to interpret

and expose the taste and value of
the targeted literary work. From this
regard the main goal of Criticism is :
1-To interpret
2-To evaluate
3-To justify
 Criticism

1- Interpretation:

Interpretation includes assessment and

appreciation. The critic analyses and
formulates the meaning he elucidates by
direct examination of the artistic and moral
principles he encounters in the targeted
literary work.
 Criticism

2- Evaluation:

The critic’s role is to study and examine the

literary work carefully and decide how
good or bad it is.
 Criticism

 3- Justification:

a critic is an interpreter first and a judge

later he should judge it impartially, without
personal likes and dislikes, prejudices and
predilections.(The notion of objectivity)
 Criticism

 Matthew Arnold, “Criticism is a

disinterested endeavor to learn and
propagate the best that is known and
thought in the world.”

 T. S. Eliot, “Criticism is the commentation

and exposition of works of art by means of
written words.”
 Criticism

 The double task of Criticism:

Objectivity versus subjectivity

Criticism
Objectivity Subjectivity

What makes one critic's assumptions any

truer than another's ?
 Criticism


The critic’s job is not as easy as making a
simple comment on a literary work,
because he has to handle this latter
tactfully, bearing in mind and being
concsious that he may fail in the trap of
subjectivity.
New Criticism
 New Criticism is a type of formalist literary criticism that
developed in the 1920s-30s and peaked in the 1940s-
50s. New Critics treat a work of literature as if it were
self-contained. They do not consider the reader's
response, author's intention, or historical and cultural
contexts. New Critics perform a close reading of the text,
and believe the structure and meaning of the text should
not be examined separately. New Critics especially
appreciate the use of literary devices in a text. The New
Criticism has sometimes been called an objective
approach to literature, similar to the approach students in
public schools are taught to take.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Criticism)
 Criticism
 New Criticism:
New Criticism goes under the general name of
‘Formalism’. Later it came to be called
‘Modernism’.
 T.S Eliot is one of the central figures who
provided foundational texts for New Criticism.
 Modernists believe that a work can be read
objectively and accurately in light of its actual
structure, form, aestheticity and unity.
Criticism