Literary Criticism and Analysis

Literary Criticism

• Literary criticism is a disciplined activity that studies, analyzes, interprets, and evaluates a work of art.
• It formulates aesthetic and methodological principles to evaluate a text.
• Literary criticism is not a discipline in itself, but must be related to a work of art.
• Without a work of art, the activity of criticism cannot exist.

Function of Literary Criticism

• Literary criticism helps us explore questions that define our humanity.
• It evaluates our actions and increases our appreciation and enjoyment of both a literary work and our fellow human beings.

Analyzing a Work of Art

• Literary critics ask basic questions about a text's philosophical, psychological, functional, and descriptive nature.
• These questions have been debated since the time of Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle.
• By asking these questions, readers can participate in an ongoing discussion of the value, worth, and enjoyment of a text.

Literary Theory

• Literary critics involve themselves in either theoretical or practical criticism.
• A literary theory is a framework that guides our practical criticism.
• Every reader espouses some kind of literary theory, which may be conscious or unconscious, complete or incomplete, informed or ill-informed, eclectic or unified.
• A well-defined, logical, and clearly articulated theory enables readers to develop a method to justify, order, and clarify their own appraisals of a text.

Definition of Literature

• The root meaning of literature refers primarily to the written word.
• A broad definition of literature considers any written work to be literary, including city telephone books, cookbooks, and road atlases.
• A narrower definition of literature equates it with works of the imagination or creative writing, excluding written works like telephone books and cookbooks.
• Defining literature as an art does not provide a consistent rule for determining what is considered a work of literature.

Characteristics of Literature

• Literature possesses an appealing aesthetic quality that contributes to its primary purpose: the telling of a story.
• Literature's primary aim is to tell a story, which may simultaneously communicate facts.
• Literature concretizes an array of human values, emotions, actions, and ideas in story form.
• It allows readers to imaginatively experience the lives of characters, observing people in action, making decisions, and embodying human characteristics.

Ontological Nature of Literature

• The question of whether literature exists in and of itself or requires an audience to become literature is debatable.
• An examination of a text's total artistic situation, including the work itself, the artist, the universe or world it represents, and the audience, can help answer this question.

History of Literary Criticism

• The first recorded instances of criticism go back to dramatic festivals in ancient Athens.
• A notable literary critical discussion occurs in Aristophanes' play The Frogs, which stages a contest between two literary theories representing older and younger generations.
• For ancient Greeks, poetry was an important element in the educational process, extending to morality, religion, and civic responsibility.

Learn about the principles and methods of literary criticism, including its role in evaluating and interpreting works of art. Discover how literary critics formulate aesthetic and methodological principles to analyze texts.