Literary Criticism: an

introduction
What is literary criticism?
Literary criticism describes the study, discussion,
evaluation, and interpretation of literature.
Literary criticism is made up of a number of
different types of critical approaches.
Critical approaches are very much like the lens
through which we view and understand a piece of
literature.
 Literary criticism may include some or all of
the following procedures, in varying
proportions:
The defense of literature against moralists
and censors;
Classification of a work according to its
genre, interpretation of its meaning;
Analysis of its structure and style, judgment of its
worth by comparison with other works,
estimation of its likely effect on readers, and
the establishment of general principles by
which literary works (both individually and in
categories, or as a whole) can be evaluated and
understood.
THE NATURE AND
FUNCTION OF LITERARY
CRITICISM
 The term criticism derives from the Greek term
kritikos, which was used in the 4th century B.C. It
means a judge of literature.
In the 2nd century A.D. its place was taken by the
term criticus, aimed at the interpretation of texts
and words and improvement of the works of
writers in Greek or Latin.

THE ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE

TERM CRITICISM
 In English, Dryden used it in the modern sense
in his preface to The State of Innocence (1677).
He writes : Criticism, as it was first instituted
by Aristotle, was meant a standard of judging
well.
Today, the term literary criticism aims at the
study of works of literature with emphasis on
their evaluation.
THE NATURE OF
CRITICISM
 To some people criticism appears to be secondary,
parasitic and inferior to creation.
It is stated that the creative artist is personal and
subjective, whereas a critic is impersonal,
dispassionate, and detached.

CRITICISM AND
CREATION
 Though the creative and critical faculties are
logically distinct, psychologically they are
interfused with each other.
There is a kind of criticism which exists before
art itself just as there is a kind of criticism
which follows art, taking art as its subject-
matter. There is no work of art, says Scott
James, which is not preceded by criticism.
 Thus, there is no antipathy but close affinity
between the critic and the creative artist.
Both poet and critic draw their light from
the sun of beauty and truth, and we may be
glad of both. (Grierson)
According to Scott James, The true critic is
an ally of the artist.
 A good critic has the same interest at heart as
the artist possesses. His never failing sympathy
and intuition qualify him to speak on behalf of
the artist.
Alexander Pope beautifully says, Both must
alike from Heaven derive their light,
These born to judge, as well as those to
write.
 A debatable question: Is literary criticism an art or an
exact science?
According to D. H. Lawrence, criticism can never be a
science. In first place, criticism is much too personal,
and secondly, it is concerned with values that science
ignores.
The touch-stone is emotion, not reason.

LITERARY CRITICISM &

SCIENTIFIC ACCURACY
A perfect judge will read each work of
wit
With the same spirit that its author
writ.
(Alexander Pope, An Essay on
Criticism )
THE FUNCTION OF
CRITICISM
In its strict sense, criticism means judgment. The
literary critic, therefore, is primarily an expert who
uses his special faculty and training to examine the
merits and defects of a piece of literary art or the
work of a given author and pronounce a verdict upon
it.

JUDGMENT
 The primary function of a literary critic is to arrive
at and pronounce a meaningful judgment of value.
I. A. Richards says : To set up as a critic is to set up
as a judge of values.
Literary criticism, says Rene Wellek, is judgment of
books, reviewing and finally the definition of taste,
of the tradition, of what is a classic.
 When a critic attempts to judge the value of a work of art
or literature, he can be said to have evaluated the work.
Evaluative, judicial, or normative criticism attempts to
judge the merits of the literature in relation to a literary,
social, moral, or other, value system. (Lee T. Lemon : A
Glossary for the Study of English)

EVALUATION
T. G. Williams says : The function of a
literary critic is the evaluation of what has
been written, in terms of aesthetic principles
appropriate to literature. (English Literature,
a Critical Survey)
 Poetry is a criticism (interpretation) of life. Criticism is an
interpretation of that interpretation.
The chief function of criticism is to enlighten and stimulate by
the proper interpretation of the works of literature.
If a great poet makes us partakers of his larger sense of the
meaning of life, a great critic may make us partakers of his larger
sense of the meaning of literature.

INTERPRETATION
 Walter Pater aptly says: Criticism is the art of
interpreting art.
Carlyles regard for criticism:
Criticism stands like an interpreter between the
inspired and the uninspired; between the prophet
and those who hear the melody of his words, and
catch the glimpse of their material meaning, but
understand not their deeper import.
According to Hume, the ideal critic
possessed five attributes: "strong sense,
united to delicate sentiment, improved by
practice, perfected by comparison, and
cleared of all prejudice."

QUALITIES OF A GOOD
CRITIC
 A good critic must have superior sensibility.
He must also have wide erudition.
A good critic must be entirely impersonal and
objective.
He must try to discipline his personal prejudices
and whims.
A critic must also have a highly developed sense
of tradition.
 An ideal critic must have knowledge of
technical details of a poem, its genesis,
setting, etc.
Analysis and comparison, methodically, with
sensitiveness, intelligence, curiosity, intensity
of passion and infinite knowledge: all these
are necessary to the great critic. T. S. Eliot
WHY DO WE NEED TO
STUDY LITERATURE?
THERE HAVE BEEN GREAT
SOCIETIES THAT DID NOT USE THE
WHEEL, BUT THERE HAVE BEEN NO
SOCIETIES THAT DID NOT TELL
STORIES. -URSULA K. LEGUIN
YOU CANNOT
APPRECIATE SOMETHING
YOU DONT
UNDERSTAND.
LITERARY STANDARDS
Literature appeals to everyone,
regardless of culture, race, sex, and
time which are all considered
significant.

UNIVERSALITY
Literature has an aesthetic
appeal and thus possesses a
sense of beauty.

ARTISTRY
It stimulates critical thinking that
enriches mental processes of abstract
and reasoning, making man realize the
fundamental of truths of life and its
nature.

INTELLECTUAL
VALUE
It unravels mans emotional power to define
symbolism, nuances, implied meanings,
images and messages, giving and evoking
visions above and beyond the plane of
ordinary life and experience.

SUGGESTIVENESS
Literature elevates the spirit and
the soul and thus has the power
to motivate and to inspire.

SPIRITUAL VALUE
Literature endures across time and draws out the
time factor:
Timeliness occurring at a particular time.
Timelessness remaining invariable throughout
time.

PERMANENCE
Literature presents peculiar ways on how
man sees life as evidence by the formation
of his ideas, form, structures, and
expressions which are marked by their
memorable substance.

STYLE
CRITICAL THINKING AND
THE PLEASURES OF
LITERATURE
 Finding fault with the
literature
- with the characters in
stories
- the language of poems
- the ideas and plots

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING

WHEN APPLIED TO LITERATURE?
 Encouraged to think critically
- think about not only what happens in the story but also why
the things happen and what the significance of those events
might be
-attend to detail,
-look for patterns and connections
-make inferences
-formulate conclusions

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING

WHEN APPLIED TO LITERATURE?
Ask questions about
- the motivation and values of characters
- the meaning of images and symbols
- the writers attitude about the characters
- the form of a poem, the structure of a story, the
dialogue in a play

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING

WHEN APPLIED TO LITERATURE?
We read stories largely for the emotional and
intellectual pleasures they bring us the pleasure
of being surprised or disturbed by an unexpected
turn of events or of being satisfied as our
expectations are met.
Stories, however, do more than entertain.

THE PLEASURES OF
FICTION
Stories also instruct us by showing us things about our
world we had not known before, or perhaps enabling us to
see things we do know about, but in another way.
In reading fiction, we share the imaginative vision of
another person, adopting, however briefly, his or her way
of perceiving the world.
Through reading a wide variety of stories, we can enter
many different imaginative worlds.
In the process we can enlarge our imaginative capacities
and deepen our perception of the world.
THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT
A STORY
In reading Learning to Be Silent, we enjoy:

the crispness and directness of dialogue

the slightly different ways each of them
violates the promise to keep silent
the author paces the narrative (just like a
well-told joke, we sense a buildup toward a
deftly delivered punch line)
In reading Learning to Be Silent, we ask (think
critically):

what its point might be

what is central, what is essential, what the
truths the story conveys
why such a story be told in the first place
and by whom
Set yourself a quota of possibilities, three or four
ways of interpreting the story
Then you may decide that one of these
possibilities is more important than the others
and it addresses the central issue of the story
better than the others.
CONSIDERING MULTIPLE
PERSPECTIVES: SETTING A QUOTA
OF POSSIBILITIES
Our first perspective is the failure of the
students to keep their vow of silence.
Now, think and see the story in the opposite
view.

REVERSING PERSPECTIVE: SEEING

FROM OPPOSITE SIDES
Sometimes, when we are trying to solve a problem,
we get stuck because we keep looking in the same
place, at the same details, and thinking along the
same lines. In such situations, we need to head in a
new direction, to look at something else, try
something different.

SHIFTING ATTENTION AMONG

DETAILS
What is context?
When we ask why a story is told or by
whom, we are asking about context
conditions outside the text itself.

CONSIDERING CONTEXTS
LITERATURE AND CRITICAL
THINKING STRATEGIES

Setting a quota of possibilities

Seeing from opposite ideas
Shifting attention among details
Considering contexts
We read poetry for many pleasures it offers pleasures of sound and
speech, of symbol and image, of rhythm and rhyme, of feeling and
thought.
Some of poetrys pleasured are verbal, some are intellectual, and some
are emotional.
We respond to the words in poems, to the ideas they spark and to the
feelings the generate of sorrow, pity, fear or joy. And we respond to the
sheer physical force of poems to the way they make our skin tingle and
our feet tap in time to a rhythmic beat.

THE PLEASURES OF
POETRY
Poetry sharpens our perception of the world around us since poems draw their
energy from the fresh observation of life.
Poem reveal to us things we didnt know we knew; the heighten our perception
of things we knew only vaguely before reading them.
Poems can make us feel more acutely and increase our receptiveness to
beauty.
Poems stimulate our imaginations.
Reading poetry improves our ability understand and use language since poems
are made of words at their most successful, the best words in the best order.

THE PLEASURES OF
POETRY
THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT A
POEM
ROBERT FROST
(1874-1963)

Dust of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
CONSIDER FORM AND STRUCTURE
Dust of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
MAKE CONNECTIONS
Dust of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
MAKE CONNECTIONS
Employing the thinking strategy of setting a quota of alternatives,
we can try to characterize the relationship of the stanzas in half a
dozen ways:
1. as cause leading to effect
2. as external event triggering internal response
3. as the natural world influencing human feeling and response
4. as an action triggering a reaction
5. as a subject of a sentence followed by its predicate
6. as a movement from outdoors to indoors, from crow to
person, from sorrow to joy
Contexts of Dust of Snow
Subject: NATURE (more specifically the relationship
between the natural world and the human world)
Poem that describe or record a change of mood, a
movement from to +, from to .
Our own actual experience

CRITICAL THINKING AND

CONTEXTS
Unlike the other genres of fiction and poetry, drama is
meant to be performed on a stage by actors rather than
read off a page by readers.
Much of dramas pleasure comes from the way the
language of the plays script its printed text comes
alive in the speech of living actors.

THE PLEASURES OF
DRAMA
When we watch a play, we appreciate the way the actors walk
the talk, the ways they interact with each other, as well as
their facial expressions and bodily gestures.
The smallest gestures, such as the lowering of a hand, and the
slightest facial movement, such as the raising of an eyebrow,
contribute to our sense of the plays human reality.

THE PLEASURES OF
DRAMA
APPROACHING LITERATURE
WITH CRITICAL THINKING:
EXPERIENCE,
INTERPRETATION,
EVALUATION
When we read a literary work, something happens to us.
A poem may provoke our thinking, evoke a memory, or elicit an
emotional response.
A short story may arouse our curiosity, engage our feelings, or
stimulate our thinking.
A play may bring us to laughter or tears, and a piece of creative
nonfiction may connect in some way with our experience.

EXPERIENCE
This kind of response is subjective, impressionistic and emotional,
and this is not enough for critical understanding.
If we want to think critically about our experience, we need to ask
questions, like, why we find something funny or sad, exciting or
boring. As we think about those questions and our answers to
them, we can move toward interpretation and evaluation of them.

EXPERIENCE
Our understanding of literary works results from our effort
to analyze and interpret them, to make sense of their
implied meanings.
Our interpretation of literature provides an intellectual
counterpart to our emotional experience of literary works.

INTERPRETATION
When we interpret poems and plays, stories and essays, we
concern ourselves less with how they affect us and more with
what they mean.
Interpretation, in short, aims at understanding.

INTERPRETATION
 Become familiar with its basic elements or
characteristics with plot, character, and setting in
fiction for example; with imagery, syntax, and
sound effects in poetry; with dialogue, stage
directions, and structure in plays.

HOW DO WE COME TO UNDERSTAND

(INTERPRET) WORKS OF LITERATURE?
 Understand the basis of analysis more generally.
- observe (details, language, form)
- seek connections among the details
-make inferences, or educated guesses
-check and test inferences as we read
-formulate provisional interpretations
-conclude about meaning and significance

HOW DO WE COME TO UNDERSTAND

(INTERPRET) WORKS OF LITERATURE?
Complimenting our personal and subjective
responses to literary works and our analysis and
interpretation of them is a consideration of their
values social, cultural, political, and moral.

EVALUATION
While the bombardment was knocking the trench to
pieces at Fosalta, he lay very flat and sweated and
prayed oh Jesus Christ get me out of here. Dear Jesus
please get me out. Christ please please please Christ.
If youll only keep me from getting killed Ill do
anything you say. I believe in you and Ill tell every
one in the world that you are the only one that
matters. Please please dear Jesus. The shelling
moved further up the line. We went to work on the
trench and in the morning the sun came up and the
day was hot and muggy, and cheerful and quiet. The
next night back at Mestre he did not tell the girl he
went upstairs with at the Villa Rossa about Jesus. And
he never told anybody.
BASIC TYPES OF
LITERARY CRITICISM
In traditional criticism, you examine how the authors
life, his or her biographical information, is reflected in
the work. You research all facets of his background and
find traces of his or her
experiences shown in the text. Question how the work
shows pieces of the authors past,
his/her interests, biases, etc.

TRADITIONAL
CRITICISM
This type of criticism can include discussions of society, of social
relationships, and of historical events which might affect society
during the time period of the work.
In Sociological Criticism, you should examine all types of politics--
for example Marxism, feminism, totalitarianism, primitivism--not
just conservatism and liberalism.

SOCIOLOGICAL
CRITICISM
Concentrate on how society in the various political
"isms" distinguish between members of various races,
social classes, sexes, or cultures. The sociological critic
looks for themes of oppression and liberation; such
themes may concern an individual, a family, a small
group, or an entire society.
Below is a list of a few questions--but certainly not all--that you
might want to consider as sociological critics:

--What world events play a role in the plot? In other words, what
was occurring during this time period, in general society or in
the political realm, that is developed in the work?
--What do individual characters say? How does the opinion of
the individuals differ from that of the author?
--What does it say about primitive societies?
--Who is actually "civilized" in the book? Who are the most primitive?
--What different society groups are in the book? What is the relationship
between each of them? How is it reflected? Why do they behave
towards each other the way they do? How do the different groups affect
the political "ism" in society?
--How does this work comment on war, hunger, sex, religion, education,
ethics?
--What view of the family is given? Do the relationships of the family
members change in the work?
--How different is the society of the novel from our society? How similar
is it?
Literature is the only place where totalitarian society can be resisted...
Detachment gives significance and power...
Popular art is an expression of the economic system which shapes it. Modern
technology has profoundly altered the status of art...
No longer the preserve of a special elite...
New media destroy the "religious" feeling toward art...
Art becomes designed for "reproducibility"...
Art is more open to politics.

MARXISM
Mythological criticism deals with instinctual, deep
chords in human nature that are touched by
certain types of events, character situations, conflicts,
etc. Based on communal beliefs,
mythology is affiliated with religion, anthropology, and
cultural history.

MYTHOLOGICAL/
ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM
An archetype is a motif (theme) or image which is
found in myths of people widely separated by time
or place. Because of this, it has universal
significance. Situations, conflicts, and characters
can be archetypal.
For Mythological/Archetypal Criticism you might want to ask
yourselves--among other questions--the following:
-Are there any strong Communal Beliefs:
1. Belief in Supreme Being(s) creator, judge, prime mover,
religion, fate
2. Belief in power of nature--Mother Nature, natural disasters,
magical places (holy wells, sacred rocks, etc.)
-What images are used
1. Water: birth, death, resurrection; life cycle; eternity
2. Colors
red: blood; sacrifice; violence
green: hope, fertility; death, decay
black: the unknown; death; evil
blue: virginal, Mary
3. Numbers
three: spiritual unity; male
four: life cycle; four seasons; four elements; female
seven: powerful because it unites three and four; perfect
4. Garden: paradise; innocence; unspoiled beauty
5. Tree: immorality; inexhaustible life
-What Motifs are used:
1. Creation
2. Immortality
3. Wise Old Man (Woman) [savior, guru]: appears when hero is desperate
4. Woman: birth, protection; witch, whore, danger
5. Hero archetypes
--the quest: hero undertakes journey and performs impossible task to
save his/her people
--Initiation: hero undergoes ordeals to achieve maturity. phases:
separation, transformation, and return
--Sacrificial scapegoat: the hero must die to save his/her people
--Victim
--What archetypal situations, conflicts, and characters do you see?
This type of criticism concerns itself with the parts of a text
and how the parts fit together to make a whole. Because of
this, it does not bring in any information outside of the text:
biography of the author, historical or literary allusions,
mythological patterns, or the psychoanalytical traits of the
characters (except those traits specifically described in the
text.)

FORMALIST
CRITICISM
-The formalist critic examines each part of the text: the
46 chapters, the 15 parts, the characters, the settings,
the tone, the point of view, the diction, the fictional
world in which the characters live. After analyzing each
part of the text, the critic then describes how they work
together.
-When exploring a work using Formalist Criticism, you will look at
the parts, and then you will discuss the craft of putting these
parts together. In preparing your presentation, you might want to
ask yourself--among many other questions the following:
Do you see each part (or chapter) as "a novel in miniature)?
Does each chapter (part) describe
only one major event?
 How much time is devoted to each setting? Is the book evenly
divided between the different
settings, or is one setting given more space? Why would the
author do this?
What point of view is used? Does this help or hinder the
reader's understanding of the novel? Why do you think the
author chose this point of view? Is the narrator reliable?
Imagine if the author chose another character to narrate the
story; choose one character who might be a good narrator of
the story, what would not get told? What would be told in
greater detail? Would anything be changed? Would that
character be a reliable narrator? Spend a few minutes rewriting
a section of the text from another point of view. Discuss the
implications and results.
How are the characters developed? How do you learn
about them--through direct description, the narration of
events, or another character's comments? Or is it a
combination of methods? Is this effective? Why?
Does the fictional world mirror the actual world, or is it
total fantasy? Could it happen? Why?
Are there too many coincidences? Are there recognizable
links between causes and effects, or is
there just a series of unrelated incidents?
Does the ending give you a sense of closure? What is the
significance of the ending?
Is the title appropriate? Why or why not?
How do all these parts fit together? What
literary devices does the author use to unite
the parts into a whole? What are the symbols
and allusions, for example, that contribute to
the total effect of the work?
Since this type of criticism is based on Freudian principles, it is best
explained by briefly discussing--and simplifying--some terminology used.
Oedipus complex: an attachment (usually in early childhood) of a boy to his
mother. This is usually accompanied by hostility and aggression toward the
father, for the father is seen as a rival. The Oedipus complex is to a boy's
relationship toward his mother and father as the Electra complex is to a girl
and her relationship toward her father and mother.

PSYCHOANALYTIC
CRITICISM
Aggressive phase: urges rebellion against those in authority. For
the young, this authority may be the father; for the mature, it
may be a boss, the police, a government official, etc. Because
such aggressiveness must be controlled, it often causes a conflict
between a person's desires and duty and can result in severe
guilt. Therein often lies the main conflict in a novel.
Reaction formation: an undesirable attitude is suppressed
and replaced by an extreme form of its opposite. Hate is
replaced by love; cruelty, by gentleness; stubbornness, by
compliance.
Denial: the refusal to admit an unpleasant reality.
Projection: attributing a desire or feeling to another
person.
Psychic zones:
id: insistent, lustful, selfish, amoral, pleasure-seeking ego:
rational; helps regulate the id, particularly in the individual's
relation to his/her society and with its members
superego: the conscience, values gleaned from parents and
society
ego: the resolution between the id and the superego, a
balancing force
Emphasis: How works can be understood, the conventions that
enable readers to make sense of them. Examine how the work is built,
constructed.
There are "rules" that govern interpretation of texts. Look at
exposition, flashbacks, foreshadowing, syntax, diction. Ask yourself,
How is the work put together to develop meaning?
To be a skilled reader means that one knows the conventions of
meaning which allow a person to make sense of it.

STRUCTURALIST
Women readers bring different perceptions/expectations to
literary experience Challenge to the "canon"--the whole body
of texts that make up the tradition
Concerned with literary representations of the
female...exclusion of the female voice from literature, criticism,
theory
Stereotypes of women

FEMINIST CRITICISM
Images of women in literature...exclusion of women
from literary history in patriarchal societies...connection
between social and literary mistreatment of women...
Females obscured by "patriarchal values...Search for
the "female imagination," the "female plot"
Challenging of the most basic assumptions