A History of Literary Criticism - From Plato to the Present

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Finn

A comprehensive scholarly survey of literary criticism spanning classical Greece to twentieth-century theoretical movements. The book traces intellectual and political contexts shaping approaches to criticism, then follows major traditions in rhetoric, Roman-era perspectives, medieval thinkers, and the rise of early modern and Enlightenment aesthetics. It continues through romanticism, realism, symbolism, and twentieth-century frameworks including psychoanalytic criticism, formalism, structuralism, deconstruction, feminist criticism, reception theory, and postcolonial criticism, concluding with reference material and index.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages849

Reading Time21 h 47 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Part I Ancient Greek Criticism

Classical Literary Criticism: Intellectual and Political Backgrounds

Plato

Aristotle

Part II The Traditions of Rhetoric

Greek Rhetoric

The Hellenistic Period and Roman Rhetoric

Part III Greek and Latin Criticism During the Roman Empire

Horace

Longinus

Neo-Platonism

Part IV The Medieval Era

The Early Middle Ages

The Later Middle Ages

Transitions: Medieval Humanism

Part V The Early Modern Period to the Enlightenment

The Early Modern Period

Neoclassical Literary Criticism

The Enlightenment

Part VI The Earlier Nineteenth Century and Romanticism

The Kantian System and Kant’s Aesthetics

Hegel

Romanticism (I): Germany and France

Romanticism (II): England and America

Part VII The Later Nineteenth Century

Realism and Naturalism

Symbolism and Aestheticism

The Heterological Thinkers

Marxism

Part VIII The Twentieth Century

The Twentieth Century: Backgrounds and Perspectives

Psychoanalytic Criticism

Formalisms

Structuralism

Deconstruction

Feminist Criticism

Reader-Response and Reception Theory

Postcolonial Criticism

New Historicism

Epilogue

Selective Bibliography

Index

A History of Literary Criticism For Yasmeen A History of Literary Criticism From Plato to the Present M. A. R. Habib © 2005 by M. A. R. Habib BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of M. A. R. Habib to be identiﬁed as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1 2005 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Habib, Rafey. A history of literary criticism: from Plato to the present / M. A. R. Habib. [p. cm](p. cm). Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-631-23200-1 (hard cover: alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-631-23200-1 (hard cover: alk. paper) 1. Criticism—History. I. Title. PN86 .H23 2005 801′.95′09—dc22 2005004898 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10/12.5pt Minion by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: [www.blackwellpublishing.com](www.blackwellpublishing.com) CONTENTS Acknowledgments viii Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works ix Introduction 1 Part I Ancient Greek Criticism 7 Classical Literary Criticism: Intellectual and Political Backgrounds 9 1 Plato (428–ca. 347 bc) 19 2 Aristotle (384–322 bc) 41 Part II The Traditions of Rhetoric 63 3 Greek Rhetoric 65 Protagoras, Gorgias, Antiphon, Lysias, Isocrates, Plato, Aristotle 4 The Hellenistic Period and Roman Rhetoric 80 Rhetorica, Cicero, Quintilian Part III Greek and Latin Criticism During the Roman Empire 103 5 Horace (65–8 bc) 105 6 Longinus (First Century ad) 118 7 Neo-Platonism 129 Plotinus, Macrobius, Boethius Part IV The Medieval Era 149 8 The Early Middle Ages 151 St. Augustine contents 9 The Later Middle Ages 166 Hugh of St. Victor, John of Salisbury, Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Ibn Rushd (Averroës), St. Thomas Aquinas 10 Transitions: Medieval Humanism 215 Giovanni Boccaccio, Christine de Pisan Part V The Early Modern Period to the Enlightenment 227 11 The Early Modern Period 229 Giambattista Giraldi, Lodovico Castelvetro, Giacopo Mazzoni, Torquato Tasso, Joachim Du Bellay, Pierre de Ronsard, Sir Philip Sidney, George Gascoigne, George Puttenham 12 Neoclassical Literary Criticism 273 Pierre Corneille, Nicolas Boileau, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Aphra Behn, Samuel Johnson 13 The Enlightenment 311 John Locke, Joseph Addison, Giambattista Vico, David Hume, Edmund Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft Part VI The Earlier Nineteenth Century and Romanticism 347 Introduction to the Modern Period 349 14 The Kantian System and Kant’s Aesthetics 357 15 G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831) 382 16 Romanticism (I): Germany and France 408 Friedrich von Schiller, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Germaine de Staël 17 Romanticism (II): England and America 428 William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe Part VII The Later Nineteenth Century 467 18 Realism and Naturalism 469 George Eliot, Émile Zola, William Dean Howells, Henry

FAQs

What time periods does the book cover?

It covers literary criticism from ancient Greek thinkers through the twentieth century, moving through medieval, early modern, Enlightenment, nineteenth-century, and modern theoretical traditions.

Which major criticism frameworks appear in the twentieth-century section?

The twentieth century includes psychoanalytic criticism, formalism, structuralism, deconstruction, feminist criticism, reader-response and reception theory, postcolonial criticism, and new historicism.

Does the book focus only on individual authors?

No. It combines author-centered chapters with broader traditions and background contexts, linking critical approaches to intellectual and political settings.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Finn