Literary Criticism - An Introduction to Literary Criticism

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Ezra

A short introduction to literary criticism explaining how critics study literature indirectly through judgments about the value of literary works. It clarifies that literary criticism typically involves interpretation or close reading, comparison, and informed analysis, addressing aesthetic merits, formal qualities, and cultural or historical significance. Using the question “What is literary criticism?” and the related problem of what counts as “literature,” the text points readers to later discussions and defines key terms in a glossary.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages313

Reading Time8 h 2 min

AccessFree to download

What Is Literary Criticism?

For All Time?

Aesthetics vs Morality

Learning through Imitation

The Critic as Chameleon

A (Very) Brief History of Literary Criticism

The Theory of Forms

The Three Unities

Catharsis

Defenders of Poetry: Sidney and Shelley

Pope’s Criticism

Published by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39–41 North Road, London N7 9DP Email: [info@iconbooks.com](info@iconbooks.com) [www.introducingbooks.com](www.introducingbooks.com)[ ](www.introducingbooks.com)[ISBN: 978-184831-905-9](ISBN: 978-184831-905-9)[ ](ISBN: 978-184831-905-9)Text copyright © 2015 Icon Books Ltd Illustrations copyright © 2015 Icon Books Ltd The author and illustrator has asserted their moral rights Originating editor: Kiera Jamison No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Contents Cover Title Page Copyright What Is Literary Criticism? For All Time? Aesthetics vs Morality Learning through Imitation The Critic as Chameleon A (Very) Brief History of Literary Criticism The Theory of Forms The Three Unities Catharsis Defenders of Poetry: Sidney and Shelley Pope’s Criticism Ancients and Moderns Neoclassicism The English Civil War and Literary Battle Lines The Romantic Individual Coleridge and Wordsworth: Romanticizing English Literature The Function of Criticism The Development of“English Literature” as a Discipline Attacks on a Professional Literary Discipline Aestheticism The Critic as Artist T.S. Eliot: The Poet as Critic Modernism Woolf and the Struggle of the Female Author Some 20th-Century Approaches: Three Types of Formalism Practical Criticism New Criticism Russian Formalism From Literary Criticism to Literary Theory Structuralism Applications of Structuralism From Structuralism to Post-Structuralism Marxist Literary Theory Psychoanalysis Some Versions of Historicism New Historicism and Cultural Materialism Feminism Intersectionality Gender Studies Key Figures in the Development of Gay and Lesbian Studies Homosexual Identity and Critical Re-Readings Postcolonial Studies Can the Master ’s Tools Dismantle the Master ’s House? Orientalism Ecocriticism Concluding Remarks Glossary Further Reading About the Authors Index 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 tobe 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? 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. We will look at questions like this later on. * Terms marked with an asterisk are explained in the Glossary on here-here.

FAQs

What is the main subject of the book?

The book focuses on literary criticism as a field of study, while emphasizing that a book about criticism is only indirectly about literature.

What does literary criticism typically involve?

It usually requires interpretation or close reading, comparison, and informed analysis to make judgments about literary value.

How does the text relate the questions of “literature” and “literary criticism”?

It notes that thorny questions about what counts as “literature” are left aside at the outset, then frames the central inquiry as “What is literary criticism?”

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Ezra