Introducing Literary Criticism A Graphic - Owen Holland 2015

What Is Literary Criticism?

What Is Literary Criticism?

This is a (short) introduction to literary criticism. It is a book about literary criticism and so, by necessity, it is not a book of literary criticism. It’s a truism to say that the literary critic’s object of study is literature. A book about literary criticism, then, is only indirectly a book about literature. For this reason, thorny questions as to what constitutes “literature” will have to be left aside at the outset, but it covers: novels, poems and plays, certainly, and much else besides. A literary critic, or a philosopher, might well ask: what is literature?

WHAT IS WRITING? WHY DOES ONE WRITE? FOR WHOM?

The French philosopher, literary critic and communist, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905—80) asked these very questions in 1947.

Our question is somewhat different: “What is literary criticism?” We might start with a broad generalization, and say that it includes any writing that claims to make judgements about the value, or otherwise, of literature in general or particular literary works. Arriving at such judgements is likely to entail interpretation (or close reading), comparison and informed analysis. Judgement might also involve claims about the intrinsic worth of literature, the aesthetic* merits and formal qualities of specific works, or their cultural and historical significance.

THOSE WHO POINT TO THE HISTORICAL CONTINGENCY OF LITERARY VALUE MIGHT NOT NECESSARILY AGREE WITH THOSE WHO ASSERT ITS INTRINSIC WORTH.

We will look at questions like this later on.

* Terms marked with an asterisk are explained in the Glossary on here-here.