Owen Holland

What Is Literary Criticism?
This is a (short) introduction to literary criticism.

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.

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.

the literary critic’s object of study is hardly a straightforward matter.

D THE SPHERE OF ETHICS ARE ABSOLUTELY DISTINCT.

For a literary critic, then, defining one’s object, or area, of study can be a contentious issue.

Learning through Imitation

Our gift for seeing similarity is nothing but a weak rudiment of the once powerful compulsion to become similar and also to behave mimetically. And the lost faculty of becoming similar extended far beyond the narrow perceptual world in which we are still capable of seeing similarities.

The best way of becoming a literary critic, then, is to read widely in the work of other literary critics, while also paying careful attention to the literary critic’s object of study.