Literary creation can be traced back to human history and literary criticism shares its age with literature. The study of literature as we understand it now began as a serious pursuit only after the Renaissance. In the age of Renaissance different people had different perceptions of literature. Literary study was a piece of historical study for those who looked upon it as a document of the past events. It was a search of moral truths for those who studied it as philosophy. Scholars studied it seriously so as to put forward its authenticity as a literary text. Literary criticism meaning, understanding and appreciating literature evolved gradually out of these studies. Most of the other disciplines had developed methods of studying …show more content…
The Greek term originated as early as in the fourth century. The term criticism, as applied to the study and analysis of a body of literary writing, developed only in the seventeenth century in Europe, and later became a common term. This wide and general use of the term criticism, meaning literary criticism encompasses three distinguishable fields of inquiry literary theory, literary history and literary criticism retaining the original Greek sense. Literary history, also called history of literature, treats the whole body of literary works as a process governed historically by time. It treats works as an integral part of a historical process” (Nagarajan, 2011). In the words of Robert Spiller, “it is concerned with describing and explaining the expression in literature of a people during a period of time, in a place and usually in a specific language” (Spiller, 1970). Literary theory lays down principles of literature, its categories and criteria and describes the features and forms that make up a literary work. It is a systematic account of the nature of literature. Literary criticism deals with the understanding and appreciation of specific works and authors. It has generally been the practice to use this term to include all literary …show more content…
Reflecting back historically, ancient critics and their criticism are valuable to us, they are representative of the Graeco-Roman tradition in the arts on which the entire edifice of western criticism rests. There is a great deal to be learnt from them. They looked into the nature and function of art. They were a source of inspiration to those who came later. Graeco-Roman tradition differs from our hoary Indian tradition which goes farther back in
As a precursor, the common understanding needs to be reached that: literature is an art, and has many mediums. Medium is the material or technique with which an artist works (Dictionary.com), for example: photographs, pastels, canvas, paper, ink, etc... There are technical, recreational, and otherwise artistic uses for all mediums. A small child taking pictures of a puppy with a disposable camera, a reporter taking precise pictures of a sporting event, and an artist taking close-up pictures of the dew as it drips off a tree are all different uses of the same medium in photography. Literature can be created with many different intentions and reasons, but the attempt to determine that something is not art based off of the motivation or intentions of the artist is quit meaningless.
Heberle, Mark. "Contemporary Literary Criticism." O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Vol. 74. New York, 2001. 312.
Poverty and homelessness are often, intertwined with the idea of gross mentality. illness and innate evil. In urban areas all across the United States, just like that of Seattle. in Sherman Alexie’s New Yorker piece, What You Pawn I Will Redeem, the downtrodden. are stereotyped as vicious addicts who would rob a child of its last penny if it meant a bottle of whiskey.
With all the different types of literature we have in our world, we also have a similar amount of interpretations of those pieces of literature. Each interpretation is as valid as the other. Literature not only allows the writer to create a wonderful world and a story, it allows the reader to fully embrace the story and find meaning out of it. There are also many different types of literary criticisms. These criticisms are vehicles or guidelines for us to use to understand the reading in a very specific way and really pinpoint the issues and overall theme of the story.
Bryfonski, Dedria, and Phyllis Carmel Mendelson, eds. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1978.
New Criticism attracts many readers to its methodologies by enticing them with clearly laid out steps to follow in order to criticize any work of literature. It dismisses the use of all outside sources, asserting that the only way to truly analyze a poem efficiently is to focus purely on the words in the poem. For this interpretation I followed all the steps necessary in order to properly analyze the poem. I came to a consensus on both the tension, and the resolving of it.
The notion of the author has often been disputed when it comes to critical literary studies. The argument centers around one basic question: Should the author be considered when looking at a text? There are numerous reasons given as to why the author is important or why the ...
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. Print.
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. Print.
Forum 19.4 (Winter 1985): 160-162. Rpt. inTwentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 192. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. Print.
Person, James E., Jr. “Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800.” http://go.galegroup.com. N.p., 1988. Web. 9 Dec. 2010. .
The study of Literature lends to an understanding of our history, our society and sometimes ourselves. With Literature, we see the Countries and People as they were. We experience the different climates,language and tone.
His first statement is that “Literary criticism is a description and evaluation of its object” (Brooks 19). The literary critic reports on the work that he is criticizing and picks out the meaning that he deems important, which might be different from what the next critic would pick out. To describe the work it is therefore already a subjective exercise, such as in Doctor Faustus, in the A-version of the text, some people ...
Historical Criticism is criticism that “considers how military, social, cultural, economic, scientific, intellectual, literary, and every other kind of history helps us to understand the author and the work” (Lynn 142). Simply stated, unlike the previously discussed criticisms, Historical Criticism connects a work to certain times or places, revealing its historical influences. Therefore, the reader is required to perform research in order to learn more about the author’s life, the author’s time period and culture, and the way of reasoning during that time. Accordingly, with a critical eye, the reader should relate the information back to the work which will provide the reader with a richer understanding of the reading as well as with author’s message to the reader (Lynn 29-31). Beyond “close reading”, the reader must research what establishes the foundation of the work. Although, below the foundation of a work there lies an even richer understanding of the