LITERARYCRITICISM
Definition
What it is: Literary criticism means studying literature to understand what a text
does, what it means, and how it affects readers. It’s not just reading for fun; it’s
thinking carefully about why the author wrote it in a certain way.
How it works: Critics read closely, pay attention to words, sentences, and sounds,
and then connect those details to bigger ideas like culture, history, and beliefs. They
use ideas from different theories to help explain the text.
Core purposes
Explain meaning: Figure out what the text is trying to show or say and why that
matters to readers or society.
Evaluate quality: Decide what parts work well (like strong imagery or a convincing
mood) and what parts don’t (like unclear ideas or clumsy writing).
Explore context: Look at the world when the text was written—the politics, culture,
events, and personal life of the author—that shape what the text means.
Compare and contrast: Read this text alongside other works to see similarities,
differences, and how genres or movements influence interpretation.
Common approaches (brief overview)
Formalist/New Criticism: Focus on the text alone. Analyze how its parts fit together—
structure, imagery, word choices, symbols—without worrying about the author’s life
or history.
Historical/Cultural: See how the text reflects or challenges the time and place it was
created in. Consider social norms, politics, and events of that era.
Biographical: Look at the author’s life to gain insight into the text. Be careful not to
assume the author’s experiences explain everything.
Psychological: Use ideas about psychology to understand characters’ thoughts,
feelings, and choices, and how readers might respond emotionally.
Feminist/Gender Studies: Examine how gender, power, and sexuality shape the story
and its interpretation.
Marxist: Analyze class, money, work, and power to see how they influence characters
and society in the text.
Postcolonial: Investigate issues of colonialism, empire, identity, and how cultures
represent each other.
Structuralism/Post-Structuralism: Study the underlying systems and signs in the text
, and how meaning can change or be unstable.
Reader-Response: Emphasize what the reader brings to the text—personal feelings
and experiences—besides what the text itself says.
Interdisciplinary approaches: Bring in ideas from philosophy, linguistics, media, or
other fields to deepen the analysis.
Key concepts to know
Close reading: Acareful, detailed examination of a short passage to understand how
language creates meaning.
Theme: The big ideas or messages a text keeps returning to.
Motif and symbol: Repeated elements (like images or objects) that help reveal what
the text is about.
Intertextuality: How a text talks to other texts—quoting, referencing, or reimagining
them.
Genre conventions: The usual rules and expectations of a genre and how a text
follows or breaks them.
Context: The surrounding world (history, culture, politics) that affects how we read
the text.
Method and theory: The specific lens or framework a critic uses to analyze the text.
2.Evolution & history
The earliest evidence of literary criticism can be traced to classical antiquity in Greece, where
philosophersdebated the nature and purpose of art. Significant traditionsalso developed
independently in ancient India and China. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Ancient Greece
Formal literary criticism in the Western world iswidely regarded asstarting in ancient
Greece with the worksof Plato and Aristotle.
Plato'sRepublic(c. 380 BCE): Plato washighly skeptical of poetry and drama, arguing that art is
merely an "imitation of an imitation" and istherefore twice removed from reality. He was
concerned that the emotional power of art could corrupt citizensand mislead them from the
truth, leading him to famously advocate for poetsto be banished from hisideal republic.
Aristotle'sPoetics(c. 335 BCE): AsPlato'sstudent, Aristotle provided a more optimisticand
systematicdefense of art. HisPoeticsisthe first surviving work of literary theory and introduced
foundational conceptsstill used today, such as:
o Mimesis: The idea that art isa creative imitation of life and human actions.
Definition
What it is: Literary criticism means studying literature to understand what a text
does, what it means, and how it affects readers. It’s not just reading for fun; it’s
thinking carefully about why the author wrote it in a certain way.
How it works: Critics read closely, pay attention to words, sentences, and sounds,
and then connect those details to bigger ideas like culture, history, and beliefs. They
use ideas from different theories to help explain the text.
Core purposes
Explain meaning: Figure out what the text is trying to show or say and why that
matters to readers or society.
Evaluate quality: Decide what parts work well (like strong imagery or a convincing
mood) and what parts don’t (like unclear ideas or clumsy writing).
Explore context: Look at the world when the text was written—the politics, culture,
events, and personal life of the author—that shape what the text means.
Compare and contrast: Read this text alongside other works to see similarities,
differences, and how genres or movements influence interpretation.
Common approaches (brief overview)
Formalist/New Criticism: Focus on the text alone. Analyze how its parts fit together—
structure, imagery, word choices, symbols—without worrying about the author’s life
or history.
Historical/Cultural: See how the text reflects or challenges the time and place it was
created in. Consider social norms, politics, and events of that era.
Biographical: Look at the author’s life to gain insight into the text. Be careful not to
assume the author’s experiences explain everything.
Psychological: Use ideas about psychology to understand characters’ thoughts,
feelings, and choices, and how readers might respond emotionally.
Feminist/Gender Studies: Examine how gender, power, and sexuality shape the story
and its interpretation.
Marxist: Analyze class, money, work, and power to see how they influence characters
and society in the text.
Postcolonial: Investigate issues of colonialism, empire, identity, and how cultures
represent each other.
Structuralism/Post-Structuralism: Study the underlying systems and signs in the text
, and how meaning can change or be unstable.
Reader-Response: Emphasize what the reader brings to the text—personal feelings
and experiences—besides what the text itself says.
Interdisciplinary approaches: Bring in ideas from philosophy, linguistics, media, or
other fields to deepen the analysis.
Key concepts to know
Close reading: Acareful, detailed examination of a short passage to understand how
language creates meaning.
Theme: The big ideas or messages a text keeps returning to.
Motif and symbol: Repeated elements (like images or objects) that help reveal what
the text is about.
Intertextuality: How a text talks to other texts—quoting, referencing, or reimagining
them.
Genre conventions: The usual rules and expectations of a genre and how a text
follows or breaks them.
Context: The surrounding world (history, culture, politics) that affects how we read
the text.
Method and theory: The specific lens or framework a critic uses to analyze the text.
2.Evolution & history
The earliest evidence of literary criticism can be traced to classical antiquity in Greece, where
philosophersdebated the nature and purpose of art. Significant traditionsalso developed
independently in ancient India and China. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Ancient Greece
Formal literary criticism in the Western world iswidely regarded asstarting in ancient
Greece with the worksof Plato and Aristotle.
Plato'sRepublic(c. 380 BCE): Plato washighly skeptical of poetry and drama, arguing that art is
merely an "imitation of an imitation" and istherefore twice removed from reality. He was
concerned that the emotional power of art could corrupt citizensand mislead them from the
truth, leading him to famously advocate for poetsto be banished from hisideal republic.
Aristotle'sPoetics(c. 335 BCE): AsPlato'sstudent, Aristotle provided a more optimisticand
systematicdefense of art. HisPoeticsisthe first surviving work of literary theory and introduced
foundational conceptsstill used today, such as:
o Mimesis: The idea that art isa creative imitation of life and human actions.
