Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A Critic
Etymology
• 1580s: Critic is "one who passes judgment," from
M.Fr. critique (14c.), from L. criticus "a judge,
literary critic," from Gk. kritikos "able to make
judgments," from krinein "to separate, decide."
Meaning "one who judges merits of books, plays,
etc.“
• 17th and 18th centuries: the critic was considered
a judge who finds the faults and merits of a
literary work.
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A Literary Critic
• A literary critic is not someone who merely
evaluates the worth or quality of a piece of
literature but, rather, is someone who argues on
behalf of an interpretation or understanding of the
particular meaning(s) of literary texts.
• The task of a literary critic is to explain and
attempt to reach a critical understanding of what
literary texts mean in terms of their aesthetic, as
well as social, political, and cultural statements and
suggestions.
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A Literary Critic
• A literary critic does more than simply discuss or
evaluate the importance of a literary text;
rather,
Literary Theory
• 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.
Literary Theory
• Modern literary criticism is often
informed by literary theory, which is
the philosophical discussion of its
methods and goals.
• E.g. if a critic is working with certain Marxist
theories, s/he might focus on how the characters
in a story interact based on their economic
situation.
• If a critic is working with post-colonial theories,
s/he 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.
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Literary Theory. . .
• Literary theory proposes particular, systematic
approaches to literary texts that impose a particular
line of intellectual reasoning to it.
Related terms
• A critical analysis is an in-depth examination of
some aspect of the literary work
• you may examine any element of the text:
character development, conflicts, narrative point
of view, etc.
• Book review/Literary review
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Any Question?
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1. Mimetic Theory of
Arts:
• Mimetic theory sees a work of literature as if it is
reflecting the universe like a mirror.
2. Pragmatic Theory of
•Arts:
It sees literature as designed to achieve its effects on
the audience (instructions, aesthetics, joy etc), and
judge it according to the successful achievement of
this assumed aim.
• Pragmatic theories emphasize on the
reader’s relation to the work. The work is
treated as something that is constructed to
achieve certain effects on the audience.
• Effects may be for the aesthetic pleasure,
instruction or any kind of emotion.
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3. Expressive Theory
• Expressive theories center on the artist.
Wordsworth’s definition of the poetry as the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings is typical
and nearly all Romantic and 19th Century criticism
generally regards art as primarily concerned with
expressing the poet’s feelings or psyche.
• It examines text as an expression of the writer’s
feelings, imagination and personality. It tends to
judge the work by its sincerity or the extent to which
it has successfully revealed the author’s state of
mind.
• Romantic Critics such as Coleridge and
Wordsworth were expressive critics in this sense.
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4. Objective Theory
• focus more on the text without the influences of
the writer or the reader.
• The text here is supreme and once this text is
produced the writers fizzles out and the only
interpretation to be gotten is what can be
inferred from the text, the direct message which
the text itself has which has to be inferred within
the text.
• to them there is no correspondence between the
universe and the work and we cannot know the
true nature of either the audience or the author.
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Author/Artist Audience
Works of Pragmatic Theory
Expressive Theory
Literature
Text
Objective Theory
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1. Historical/Biographical Approach
2. Moral/Philosophical Approach
• Modern approaches
Formalism/New Criticism
Psychoanalytical Approach
Feminism
Marxism, etc
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Historical/Biographical Approach
• views literature as the reflection of an author's life
and times (or of the characters' life and times).
• it is necessary to know about the author and the
political, economical, and sociological context of
his times in order to truly understand his
works.
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Historical/Biographical
Advantages:
• works well for some which are obviously political
or biographical in nature.
• places allusions in their proper classical,
political, or biblical background.
Disadvantages:
• "the intentional fallacy"
• tends to reduce art to the level of biography and
make it relative (to the times) rather than
universal.
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A Checklist of Historical Critical Questions:
• When was the work written? When was it published? How was it
received by the critics and public and why?
• What does the work’s reception reveal about the standards of taste
and value during the time it was published and reviewed?
• What social attitudes and cultural practices related to the action of
the word were prevalent during the time the work was written and
published?
• What kinds of power relationships does the word describe, reflect,
or embody?
• How do the power relationships reflected in the literary work
manifest themselves in the cultural practices and social institutions
prevalent during the time the work was written and published?
• To what extent can we understand the past as it is reflected in the
literary work? To what extent does the work reflect differences from
the ideas and values of its time?
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Moral/Philosophical
Advantages:
• useful for works which do present an
obvious moral philosophy
• useful when considering the themes
of works
• does not view literature merely as "art" isolated
from all moral implications
• recognizes that literature can affect readers and
that the message of a work is important.
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Moral/Philosophical
Disadvantages:
• such an approach can be too "judgmental"
• Some believe literature should be judged
primarily (if not solely) on its artistic merits, not
its moral or philosophical content.
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Questions?