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A genre ofarts criticism,literary criticismorliterary studiesis the study,evaluation,and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced byliterary theory,which is thephilosophical analysisof literature's goals and methods. Although the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists.

Whether or not literary criticism should be considered a separate field of inquiry fromliterary theoryis a matter of some controversy. For example,The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism[1]draws no distinction between literary theory and literary criticism, and almost always uses the terms together to describe the same concept. Some critics consider literary criticism a practical application of literary theory, because criticism always deals directly with particular literary works, while theory may be more general or abstract.

Literary criticism is often published in essay or book form. Academic literary critics teach in literature departments and publish inacademic journals,and more popular critics publish theirreviewsin broadly circulating periodicals such asThe Times Literary Supplement,The New York Times Book Review,The New York Review of Books,theLondon Review of Books,theDublin Review of Books,The Nation,Bookforum,andThe New Yorker.

History[edit]

Classical and medieval criticism[edit]

Literary criticism is thought to have existed as far back as the classical period.[2]In the 4th century BCAristotlewrote thePoetics,a typology and description of literary forms with many specific criticisms of contemporary works of art.Poeticsdeveloped for the first time the concepts ofmimesisandcatharsis,which are still crucial in literary studies.Plato's attacks on poetry as imitative, secondary, and false were formative as well. The SanskritNatya Shastraincludes literary criticism on ancientIndian literatureand Sanskrit drama.

Later classical andmedievalcriticism often focused on religious texts, and the several long religious traditions ofhermeneuticsand textualexegesishave had a profound influence on the study of secular texts. This was particularly the case for the literary traditions of the threeAbrahamic religions:Jewish literature,Christian literatureandIslamic literature.

Literary criticism was also employed in other forms of medievalArabic literatureandArabic poetryfrom the 9th century, notably byAl-Jahizin hisal-Bayan wa-'l-tabyinandal-Hayawan,and byAbdullah ibn al-Mu'tazzin hisKitab al-Badi.[3]

Renaissance criticism[edit]

The literary criticism of theRenaissancedeveloped classical ideas of unity of form and content into literaryneoclassicism,proclaiming literature as central to culture, entrusting the poet and the author with preservation of a long literary tradition. The birth of Renaissance criticism was in 1498, with the recovery of classic texts, most notably,Giorgio Valla'sLatintranslation ofAristotle'sPoetics.The work of Aristotle, especiallyPoetics,was the most important influence upon literary criticism until the late eighteenth century.Lodovico Castelvetrowas one of the most influential Renaissance critics who wrote commentaries on Aristotle'sPoeticsin 1570.

Baroque criticism[edit]

The seventeenth-century witnessed the first full-fledged crisis in modernity of the core critical-aesthetic principles inherited fromclassical antiquity,such as proportion, harmony, unity,decorum,that had long governed, guaranteed, and stabilized Western thinking about artworks.[4]AlthoughClassicismwas very far from spent as a cultural force, it was to be gradually challenged by a rival movement, namely Baroque, that favoured the transgressive and the extreme, without laying claim to the unity, harmony, or decorum that supposedly distinguished both nature and its greatest imitator, namely ancient art. The key concepts of theBaroqueaesthetic, such as "conceit' (concetto), "wit"(acutezza,ingegno), and "wonder"(meraviglia), were not fully developed in literary theory until the publication ofEmanuele Tesauro'sIl Cannocchiale aristotelico(The Aristotelian Telescope) in 1654. This seminal treatise – inspired byGiambattista Marino's epicAdoneand the work of the Spanish Jesuit philosopherBaltasar Gracián– developed a theory ofmetaphoras a universal language of images and as a supreme intellectual act, at once an artifice and an epistemologically privileged mode of access to truth.

Enlightenment criticism[edit]

Samuel Johnson,one of the most influential writers and critics of the 18th century. See:Samuel Johnson's literary criticism.

In theEnlightenment period(1700s–1800s), literary criticism became more popular. During this timeliteracyrates started to rise in the public;[5]no longer was reading exclusive for the wealthy or scholarly. With the rise of the literate public, the swiftness of printing and commercialization of literature, criticism arose too.[6]Reading was no longer viewed solely as educational or as a sacred source of religion; it was a form of entertainment.[7]Literary criticism was influenced by the values and stylistic writing, including clear, bold, precise writing and the more controversial criteria of the author's religious beliefs.[8]These critical reviews were published in many magazines, newspapers, and journals. The commercialization of literature and its mass production had its downside. The emergent literary market, which was expected to educate the public and keep them away fromsuperstitionand prejudice, increasingly diverged from the idealistic control of the Enlightenment theoreticians so that the business of Enlightenment became a business with the Enlightenment.[9]This development – particularly of emergence of entertainment literature – was addressed through an intensification of criticism.[9]Many works ofJonathan Swift,for instance, were criticized including his bookGulliver's Travels,which one critic described as "the detestable story of the Yahoos".[8]

19th-century Romantic criticism[edit]

The BritishRomanticmovement of the early nineteenth century introduced newaestheticideas to literary studies, including the idea that the object of literature need not always be beautiful, noble, or perfect, but that literature itself could elevate a common subject to the level of thesublime.German Romanticism,which followed closely after the late development of Germanclassicism,emphasized an aesthetic of fragmentation that can appear startlingly modern to the reader of English literature, and valuedWitz– that is, "wit" or "humor" of a certain sort – more highly than the serious Anglophone Romanticism. The late nineteenth century brought renown to authors known more for their literary criticism than for their own literary work, such asMatthew Arnold.

The New Criticism[edit]

However important all of these aesthetic movements were as antecedents, current ideas about literary criticism derive almost entirely from the new direction taken in the early twentieth century. Early in the century the school of criticism known asRussian Formalism,and slightly later theNew Criticismin Britain and in the United States, came to dominate the study and discussion of literature in the English-speaking world. Both schools emphasized theclose readingof texts, elevating it far above generalizing discussion and speculation about eitherauthorial intention(to say nothing of the author's psychology or biography, which became almost taboo subjects) orreader response.This emphasis on form and precise attention to "the words themselves" has persisted, after the decline of these critical doctrines themselves.[citation needed]

Theory[edit]

In 1957Northrop Fryepublished the influentialAnatomy of Criticism.In his works Frye noted that some critics tend to embrace an ideology, and to judge literary pieces on the basis of their adherence to such ideology. This has been a highly influential viewpoint among modern conservative thinkers. E. Michael Jones, for example, argues in hisDegenerate ModernsthatStanley Fishwas influenced by his own adulterous affairs to reject classic literature that condemned adultery.[10]Jürgen Habermas,inErkenntnis und Interesse[1968] (Knowledge and Human Interests), described literary critical theory in literary studies as a form ofhermeneutics:knowledge via interpretation to understand the meaning of human texts and symbolic expressions – including the interpretation of texts which themselves interpret other texts.

Ferdinand de Saussure's theories oflinguisticsandsemioticswere influential in developingstructuralistapproach to literary criticism.

In the British and American literary establishment, theNew Criticismwas more or less dominant until the late 1960s. Around that time Anglo-American university literature departments began to witness a rise of a more explicitly philosophicalliterary theory,influenced bystructuralism,thenpost-structuralism,and other kinds ofContinental philosophy.It continued until the mid-1980s, when interest in "theory" peaked. Many later critics, though undoubtedly still influenced by theoretical work, have been comfortable simply interpreting literature rather than writing explicitly about methodology and philosophical presumptions.

Current state[edit]

Today, approaches based inliterary theoryandcontinental philosophylargely coexist in university literature departments, while conventional methods, some informed by theNew Critics,also remain active. Disagreements over the goals and methods of literary criticism, which characterized both sides taken by critics during the "rise" of theory, have declined.

Some critics work largely with theoretical texts, while others read traditional literature; interest in the literarycanonis still great, but many critics are also interested in nontraditional texts andwomen's literature,as elaborated on by certain academic journals such asContemporary Women's Writing,[11]while some critics influenced bycultural studiesread popular texts like comic books orpulp/genre fiction.Ecocriticshave drawn connections between literature and the natural sciences.Darwinian literary studiesstudies literature in the context ofevolutionaryinfluences on human nature. Andpostcritiquehas sought to develop new ways of reading and responding to literary texts that go beyond the interpretive methods ofcritique.Many literary critics also work infilm criticismormedia studies.

History of the book[edit]

Related to other forms of literary criticism, thehistory of the bookis a field of interdisciplinary inquiry drawing on the methods ofbibliography,cultural history,history of literature,andmedia theory.Principally concerned with the production, circulation, and reception of texts and their material forms, book history seeks to connect forms of textuality with their material aspects.

Among the issues within the history of literature with which book history can be seen to intersect are: the development of authorship as a profession, the formation of reading audiences, the constraints of censorship and copyright, and the economics of literary form.

Major twentieth-century schools of critical analysis[edit]

Historicist approaches
Formalist approaches
Political approaches
Psychological approaches
Race and sexuality approaches

Key texts[edit]

Further information:Critical theory,Feminist literary criticism,andList of American literary critics

Classical and medieval periods[edit]

Renaissance period[edit]

Enlightenment period[edit]

19th century[edit]

20th century[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism(2nd ed.). Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2005.ISBN978-0-8018-8010-0.OCLC54374476.
  2. ^"Literary Theory | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy".Archivedfrom the original on 27 November 2020.Retrieved1 December2020.
  3. ^van. Gelder, G. J. H. (1982).Beyond the Line: Classical Arabic Literary Critics on the Coherence and Unity of the Poem.Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 1–2.ISBN978-90-04-06854-4.OCLC10350183.
  4. ^Jon R. Snyder,L’estetica del Barocco(Bologna: Il Mulino, 2005), 21–22.
  5. ^Van Horn Melton, James (2001).The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 82.ISBN978-0-521-46573-1.
  6. ^Voskuhl, Adelheid (2013).Androids in the Enlightenment: Mechanics, Artisans, and Cultures of the Self.Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 71–72.ISBN978-0-226-03402-7.
  7. ^Murray, Stuart (2009).The Library: An Illustrated History.New York: Skyhorse. pp. 132–133.ISBN978-1-61608-453-0.OCLC277203534.
  8. ^abRegan, Shaun; Dawson, Books (2013).Reading 1759: Literary Culture in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain and France.Lewisburg [Pa.]: Bucknell University Press. pp. 125–130.ISBN978-1-61148-478-6.
  9. ^abHohendahl, Peter Uwe;Berghahn, Klaus L. (1988).A History of German Literary Criticism: 173–1980.Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 25.ISBN978-0-8032-7232-3.
  10. ^Jones, E. Michael (1991).Degenerate Moderns: Modernity as Rationalized Sexual Misbehaviour.San Francisco:Ignatius Press.pp.79–84.ISBN978-0-89870-447-1.OCLC28241358.
  11. ^"Contemporary Women's Writing | Oxford Academic".OUP Academic.Archivedfrom the original on 7 August 2019.Retrieved1 August2019.
  12. ^Ussher, J. (1767).Clio Or, a Discourse on Taste: Addressed to a Young Lady.Davies. p. 3.Retrieved10 October2014.

External links[edit]

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