Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study,

evaluation Evaluation is a systematic determination and assessment of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. It can assist an organization, program, design, project or any other intervention or initiative ...

, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, m ...

, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Though the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists. Whether or not literary criticism should be considered a separate field of inquiry from

is a matter of some controversy. For example, the ''Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism'' draws no distinction between literary theory and literary criticism, and almost always uses the terms together to describe the same concept. Some critics consider literary criticism a practical application of literary theory, because criticism always deals directly with particular literary works, while theory may be more general or abstract. Literary criticism is often published in essay or book form. Academic literary critics teach in literature departments and publish in

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and ...

s, and more popular critics publish their reviews in broadly circulating periodicals such as ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read ...

'', ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'', the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review ...

'', the '' Dublin Review of Books'', '' The Nation'', '' Bookforum'', and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...

''.

History

Classical and medieval criticism

Literary criticism is thought to have existed as far back as the classical period. In the 4th century BC

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...

wrote the '' Poetics'', a typology and description of literary forms with many specific criticisms of contemporary works of art. ''Poetics'' developed for the first time the concepts of

mimesis Mimesis (; grc, μίμησις, ''mīmēsis'') is a term used in literary criticism and philosophy that carries a wide range of meanings, including ''imitatio'', imitation, nonsensuous similarity, receptivity, representation, mimicry, the ac ...

and

catharsis Catharsis (from Greek , , meaning "purification" or "cleansing" or "clarification") is the purification and purgation of emotions through dramatic art, or it may be any extreme emotional state that results in renewal and restoration. In its lite ...

, which are still crucial in literary studies.

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institutio ...

's attacks on poetry as imitative, secondary, and false were formative as well. The Sanskrit '' Natya Shastra'' includes literary criticism on ancient Indian literature and Sanskrit drama. Later classical and

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

criticism often focused on religious texts, and the several long religious traditions of

hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of Biblical hermeneutics, biblical texts, wisdom literature, and Philosophy, philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles ...

and textual

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretations ...

have had a profound influence on the study of secular texts. This was particularly the case for the literary traditions of the three

Abrahamic religions The Abrahamic religions are a group of religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organiza ...

: Jewish literature, Christian literature and Islamic literature. Literary criticism was also employed in other forms of medieval

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from ...

and

Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ar, الشعر العربي ''ash-shi‘ru al-‘Arabīyyu'') is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry ...

from the 9th century, notably by Al-Jahiz in his ''al-Bayan wa-'l-tabyin'' and ''al-Hayawan'', and by

Abdullah ibn al-Mu'tazz Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz ( ar, عبد الله بن المعتز, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muʿtazz; 861 – 17 December 908) was the son of the caliph al-Mu'tazz and a political figure, but is better known as a leading Arabic poet and the author o ...

in his ''Kitab al-Badi''.

Renaissance criticism

The literary criticism of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

developed classical ideas of unity of form and content into literary neoclassicism, proclaiming literature as central to culture, entrusting the poet and the author with preservation of a long literary tradition. The birth of Renaissance criticism was in 1498, with the recovery of classic texts, most notably, Giorgio Valla's

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

translation of

's ''Poetics''. The work of Aristotle, especially ''Poetics'', was the most important influence upon literary criticism until the late eighteenth century. Lodovico Castelvetro was one of the most influential Renaissance critics who wrote commentaries on Aristotle's ''Poetics'' in 1570.

Baroque criticism

The seventeenth-century witnessed the first full-fledged crisis in modernity of the core critical-aesthetic principles inherited from

classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations ...

, such as proportion, harmony, unity,

decorum Decorum (from the Latin: "right, proper") was a principle of classical rhetoric, poetry and theatrical theory concerning the fitness or otherwise of a style to a theatrical subject. The concept of ''decorum'' is also applied to prescribed limit ...

, that had long governed, guaranteed, and stabilized Western thinking about artworks. Although Classicism was very far from spent as a cultural force, it was to be gradually challenged by a rival movement, namely Baroque, that favoured the transgressive and the extreme, without laying claim to the unity, harmony, or decorum that supposedly distinguished both nature and its greatest imitator, namely ancient art. The key concepts of the Baroque aesthetic, such as " conceit' (''concetto''), "

wit Wit is a form of intelligent humour, the ability to say or write things that are clever and usually funny. Someone witty is a person who is skilled at making clever and funny remarks. Forms of wit include the quip, repartee, and wisecrack. Form ...

" (''acutezza'', ''ingegno''), and " wonder" (''meraviglia''), were not fully developed in literary theory until the publication of

Emanuele Tesauro Emanuele Tesauro (28 January 1592 – 26 February 1675) was an Italian philosopher, rhetorician, literary theorist, dramatist, Marinist poet, and historian. Tesauro is remembered chiefly for his seminal work ''Il cannocchiale aristotelico'' ( ...

's ''Il Cannocchiale aristotelico'' (The Aristotelian Telescope) in 1654. This seminal treatise – inspired by Giambattista Marino's epic ''Adone'' and the work of the Spanish Jesuit philosopher Baltasar Gracián – developed a theory of

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

as a universal language of images and as a supreme intellectual act, at once an artifice and an epistemologically privileged mode of access to truth.

Enlightenment criticism

In the

Enlightenment period The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...

(1700s–1800s), literary criticism became more popular. During this time

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

rates started to rise in the public; no longer was reading exclusive for the wealthy or scholarly. With the rise of the literate public, the swiftness of printing and commercialization of literature, criticism arose too. Reading was no longer viewed solely as educational or as a sacred source of religion; it was a form of entertainment. Literary criticism was influenced by the values and stylistic writing, including clear, bold, precise writing and the more controversial criteria of the author's religious beliefs. These critical reviews were published in many magazines, newspapers, and journals. The commercialization of literature and its mass production had its downside. The emergent literary market, which was expected to educate the public and keep them away from

superstition A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs an ...

and prejudice, increasingly diverged from the idealistic control of the Enlightenment theoreticians so that the business of Enlightenment became a business with the Enlightenment. This development – particularly of emergence of entertainment literature – was addressed through an intensification of criticism. Many works of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, ...

, for instance, were criticized including his book ''

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...

'', which one critic described as "the detestable story of the Yahoos".

19th-century Romantic criticism

The British

Romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

movement of the early nineteenth century introduced new

aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...

ideas to literary studies, including the idea that the object of literature need not always be beautiful, noble, or perfect, but that literature itself could elevate a common subject to the level of the

sublime Sublime may refer to: Entertainment * SuBLime, a comic imprint of Viz Media for BL manga * Sublime (band), an American ska punk band ** ''Sublime'' (album), 1996 * ''Sublime'' (film), a 2007 horror film * SubLime FM, a Dutch radio station dedic ...

. German Romanticism, which followed closely after the late development of German classicism, emphasized an aesthetic of fragmentation that can appear startlingly modern to the reader of English literature, and valued ''Witz'' – that is, "wit" or "humor" of a certain sort – more highly than the serious Anglophone Romanticism. The late nineteenth century brought renown to authors known more for their literary criticism than for their own literary work, such as Matthew Arnold.

The New Criticism

However important all of these aesthetic movements were as antecedents, current ideas about literary criticism derive almost entirely from the new direction taken in the early twentieth century. Early in the century the school of criticism known as Russian Formalism, and slightly later the New Criticism in Britain and in the United States, came to dominate the study and discussion of literature in the English-speaking world. Both schools emphasized the close reading of texts, elevating it far above generalizing discussion and speculation about either authorial intention (to say nothing of the author's psychology or biography, which became almost taboo subjects) or reader response. This emphasis on form and precise attention to "the words themselves" has persisted, after the decline of these critical doctrines themselves.

Theory

In 1957

Northrop Frye Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. Frye gained international fame with his first book, '' Fearful Symm ...

published the influential ''

Anatomy of Criticism ''Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays'' ( Princeton University Press, 1957) is a book by Canadian literary critic and theorist Northrop Frye that attempts to formulate an overall view of the scope, theory, principles, and techniques of literary ...

''. In his works Frye noted that some critics tend to embrace an ideology, and to judge literary pieces on the basis of their adherence to such ideology. This has been a highly influential viewpoint among modern conservative thinkers. E. Michael Jones, for example, argues in his ''Degenerate Moderns'' that Stanley Fish was influenced by his own adulterous affairs to reject classic literature that condemned adultery. Jürgen Habermas in ''Erkenntnis und Interesse'' 968('' Knowledge and Human Interests''), described literary critical theory in literary studies as a form of

: knowledge via interpretation to understand the meaning of human texts and symbolic expressionsincluding the interpretation of texts which themselves interpret other texts. Ferdinand de Saussure by Jullien Restored

Ferdinand de Saussure by Jullien Restored

In the British and American literary establishment, the New Criticism was more or less dominant until the late 1960s. Around that time Anglo-American university literature departments began to witness a rise of a more explicitly philosophical

, influenced by structuralism, then

post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...

, and other kinds of Continental philosophy. It continued until the mid-1980s, when interest in "theory" peaked. Many later critics, though undoubtedly still influenced by theoretical work, have been comfortable simply interpreting literature rather than writing explicitly about methodology and philosophical presumptions.

History of the book

Related to other forms of literary criticism, the history of the book is a field of interdisciplinary inquiry drawing on the methods of

bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

, cultural history, history of literature, and media theory. Principally concerned with the production, circulation, and reception of texts and their material forms, book history seeks to connect forms of textuality with their material aspects. Among the issues within the history of literature with which book history can be seen to intersect are: the development of authorship as a profession, the formation of reading audiences, the constraints of censorship and copyright, and the economics of literary form.

Current state

Today, approaches based in

and continental philosophy largely coexist in university literature departments, while conventional methods, some informed by the New Critics, also remain active. Disagreements over the goals and methods of literary criticism, which characterized both sides taken by critics during the "rise" of theory, have declined. Many critics feel that they now have a great plurality of methods and approaches from which to choose. Some critics work largely with theoretical texts, while others read traditional literature; interest in the literary canon is still great, but many critics are also interested in nontraditional texts and women's literature, as elaborated on by certain academic journals such as ''Contemporary Women's Writing'', while some critics influenced by cultural studies read popular texts like comic books or pulp/

genre fiction Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre. A num ...

. Ecocritics have drawn connections between literature and the natural sciences. Darwinian literary studies studies literature in the context of evolutionary influences on human nature. And postcritique has sought to develop new ways of reading and responding to literary texts that go beyond the interpretive methods of

critique Critique is a method of disciplined, systematic study of a written or oral discourse. Although critique is commonly understood as fault finding and negative judgment, Rodolphe Gasché (2007''The honor of thinking: critique, theory, philosophy' ...

. Many literary critics also work in

film criticism Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media out ...

or media studies. Some write intellectual history; others bring the results and methods of

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

to bear on reading literature.

Key texts

The Classical and medieval periods

: ''Ion'', ''Republic'', ''Cratylus'' *

: ''Poetics'', ''Rhetoric'' *

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ...

: ''Art of Poetry'' *

Longinus Longinus () is the name given to the unnamed Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and who in medieval and some modern Christian traditions is described as a convert to Christianity. His name first appeared in the apocryphal G ...

: ''On the Sublime'' *

Plotinus Plotinus (; grc-gre, Πλωτῖνος, ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a philosopher in the Hellenistic philosophy, Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neop ...

: ''On the Intellectual Beauties'' *

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...

: ''On Christian Doctrine'' *

Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, '' magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the t ...

: ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' *

Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known ...

: ''The Nature and Domain of Sacred Doctrine'' *

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His '' Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ...

: ''The Banquet'', ''Letter to Can Grande Della Scala'' * Boccaccio: ''Life of Dante'', ''Genealogy of the Gentile Gods'' *

Christine de Pizan Christine de Pizan or Pisan (), born Cristina da Pizzano (September 1364 – c. 1430), was an Italian poet and court writer for King Charles VI of France and several French dukes. Christine de Pizan served as a court writer in medieval Franc ...

: ''The Book of the City of Ladies'' * Bharata Muni: ''Natya Shastra'' * Rajashekhara: ''Inquiry into Literature'' *

Valmiki Valmiki (; Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, ) is celebrated as the harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic ''Ramayana'', dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on the attributi ...

: ''The Invention of Poetry'' (from the ''

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages e ...

'') *

Anandavardhana Ānandavardhana (c. 820–890 CE) was the author of ''Dhvanyāloka'', or ''A Light on Suggestion'' (''dhvani''), a work articulating the philosophy of "aesthetic suggestion" (''dhvani'', ''vyañjanā''). The philosopher Abhinavagupta (c. 950 – 1 ...

: ''Light on Suggestion'' *

Cao Pi Cao Pi () ( – 29 June 226), courtesy name Zihuan, was the first emperor of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period of China. He was the second son of Cao Cao, a warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty, but the eldest son ...

: ''A Discourse on Literature'' * Lu Ji: '' Rhymeprose on Literature'' * Liu Xie: '' The Literary Mind'' * Wang Changling: ''A Discussion of Literature and Meaning'' *Sikong Tu: ''The Twenty-Four Classes of Poetry''

The Renaissance period

* Lodovico Castelvetro: ''The ''Poetics'' of Aristotle Translated and Explained'' * Philip Sidney: ''An Apology for Poetry'' *

Jacopo Mazzoni Jacopo Mazzoni (Latinized as Jacobus Mazzonius) (27 November 1548 – 10 April 1598) was an Italian philosopher, a professor in Pisa, and friend of Galileo Galilei. His first name is sometimes reported as "Giacomo". Biography Giacopo (Jacopo) ...

: ''On the Defense of the Comedy of Dante'' *

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' ( Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

: ''Discourses on the Heroic Poem'' *

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

: ''The Advancement of Learning'' * Henry Reynolds: ''Mythomystes'' *John Mandaville: ''Composed in the mid-14th centurymost probably by a french physician''

The Enlightenment period

Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book '' Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influ ...

: ''Answer to Davenant's preface to ''Gondibert * Pierre Corneille: ''Of the Three Unities of Action, Time, and Place'' *

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the p ...

: ''An Essay of Dramatic Poesy'' *

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (; 1 November 1636 – 13 March 1711), often known simply as Boileau (, ), was a French poet and critic. He did much to reform the prevailing form of French poetry, in the same way that Blaise Pascal did to reform the ...

: ''The Art of Poetry'' * John Locke: ''An Essay Concerning Human Understanding'' * John Dennis: ''The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry'' *

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

: ''An Essay on Criticism'' *

Joseph Addison Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard ...

: ''On the Pleasures of the Imagination'' (''Spectator'' essays) * Giambattista Vico: ''The New Science'' *

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January New Style">NS/nowiki> 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish people">Anglo-Irish Politician">statesman, economist, and philosopher. Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of Parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 ...

: ''A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful'' *

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...

: ''Of the Standard of Taste'' *

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...

: ''On Fiction'', ''Rasselas'', ''Preface to ''Shakespeare * Edward Young: ''Conjectures on Original Composition'' * Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: ''Laocoön'' * Joshua Reynolds: ''Discourses on Art'' * Richard "Conversation" Sharpbr>Letters & Essays in Prose & Verse
* James Usher :''Clio: or a Discourse on Taste (1767)'' *

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promine ...

: ''The Paradox of Acting'' *

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aes ...

: ''

Critique of Judgment The ''Critique of Judgment'' (german: Kritik der Urteilskraft), also translated as the ''Critique of the Power of Judgment'', is a 1790 book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Sometimes referred to as the "third critique," the ''Critique o ...

'' * Mary Wollstonecraft: '' A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'' * William Blake: ''The Marriage of Heaven or Hell'', ''Letter to Thomas Butts'', ''Annotations to Reynolds' Discourses'', ''A Descriptive Catalogue'', ''A Vision of the Last Judgment'', ''On Homer's Poetry'' * Friedrich Schiller: ''Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man'' * Friedrich Schlegel: ''Critical Fragments'', ''Athenaeum Fragments'', ''On Incomprehensibility''

The 19th century

* William Wordsworth: ''Preface to the Second Edition of ''Lyrical Ballads * Anne Louise Germaine de Staël: ''Literature in its Relation to Social Institutions'' * Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling: ''On the Relation of the Plastic Arts to Nature'' * Samuel Taylor Coleridge: ''Shakespeare's Judgment Equal to His Genius'', ''On the Principles of Genial Criticism'', ''The Statesman's Manual'', ''Biographia Literaria'' * Wilhelm von Humboldt: ''Collected Works'' * John Keats: letters to Benjamin Bailey, George & Thomas Keats, John Taylor, and Richard Woodhouse *

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work '' The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the pr ...

: ''The World as Will and Idea'' *

Thomas Love Peacock Thomas Love Peacock (18 October 1785 – 23 January 1866) was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. He was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other's work. Peacock wrote satirical novels, ...

: ''

The Four Ages of Poetry "The Four Ages of Poetry", an essay of 1820 by Thomas Love Peacock, was both a significant study of poetry in its own right, and the stimulus for the Defence of Poetry by Shelley. Setting and tone Much of the ‘Four Ages’ is an attack from a ut ...

'' *

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his ach ...

: ''

A Defence of Poetry "A Defence of Poetry" is an essay by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 and first published posthumously in 1840 in ''Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments'' by Edward Moxon in London. It contains Shelley's ...

'' *

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

: ''Conversations with Eckermann'', ''Maxim No. 279'' *

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...

: ''The Philosophy of Fine Art'' *

Giacomo Leopardi Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one o ...

: ''Zibaldone'' (notebooks) * Francesco De Sanctis ''Critical Essays; History of the Italian Literature'' *

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, ...

: ''Symbols'' * John Stuart Mill: ''What is Poetry?'' *

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a cham ...

: ''The Poet'' * Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve: ''What Is a Classic?'' * James Russell Lowell: '' A Fable for Critics'' *

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

: '' The Poetic Principle'' * Matthew Arnold: ''Preface to the 1853 Edition of ''Poems, ''The Function of Criticism at the Present Time'', ''The Study of Poetry'' * Hippolyte Taine: ''History of English Literature and Language'' *

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited ...

: ''The Salon of 1859'' *

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

: '' The German Ideology'', '' Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'' * Søren Kierkegaard: ''Two Ages: A Literary Review'', ''The Concept of Irony'' *

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his c ...

: '' The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music'', ''Truth and Falsity in an Ultramoral Sense'' * Walter Pater: ''Studies in the History of the Renaissance'' *

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

: ''The Experimental Novel'' * Anatole France: ''The Adventures of the Soul'' *

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

: '' The Decay of Lying'' * Stéphane Mallarmé: ''The Evolution of Literature'', ''The Book: A Spiritual Mystery'', ''Mystery in Literature'' *

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

: '' What is Art?''

The 20th century

Benedetto Croce Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a ...

: ''Aesthetic'' * Antonio Gramsci : ''Prison Notebooks'' *

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel '' The Name of th ...

: ''The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas; The Open Work'' * A. C. Bradley: ''Poetry for Poetry's Sake'' *

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

: ''Creative Writers and Daydreaming'' *

Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure (; ; 26 November 1857 – 22 February 1913) was a Swiss Linguistics, linguist, Semiotics, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 2 ...

: ''Course in General Linguistics'' *

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...

: ''The Structural Study of Myth'' * T. E. Hulme: ''Romanticism and Classicism''; '' Bergson's Theory of Art'' *

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewi ...

: ''On Language as Such and On the Language of Man'' * Viktor Shklovsky: ''Art as Technique'' *

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...

: ''Tradition and the Individual Talent''; ''Hamlet and His Problems'' *

Irving Babbitt Irving Babbitt (August 2, 1865 – July 15, 1933) was an American academic and literary critic, noted for his founding role in a movement that became known as the New Humanism, a significant influence on literary discussion and conservative tho ...

: ''Romantic Melancholy'' *

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phil ...

: ''On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry'' *

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...

: ''The Formalist School of Poetry and Marxism'' * Boris Eikhenbaum: ''The Theory of the "Formal Method"'' *

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...

: ''A Room of One's Own'' *

I. A. Richards Ivor Armstrong Richards CH (26 February 1893 – 7 September 1979), known as I. A. Richards, was an English educator, literary critic, poet, and rhetorician. His work contributed to the foundations of the New Criticism, a formalist movement ...

: ''Practical Criticism'' * Mikhail Bakhtin: ''Epic and Novel: Toward a Methodology for the Study of the Novel'' * Georges Bataille: ''The Notion of Expenditure'' *

John Crowe Ransom John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 – July 3, 1974) was an American educator, scholar, literary critic, poet, essayist and editor. He is considered to be a founder of the New Criticism school of literary criticism. As a faculty member at Kenyon ...

: ''Poetry: A Note in Ontology''; ''Criticism as Pure Speculation'' * R. P. Blackmur: ''A Critic's Job of Work'' * Jacques Lacan: ''The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience''; ''The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason Since Freud'' *

György Lukács György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and aest ...

: ''The Ideal of the Harmonious Man in Bourgeois Aesthetics''; ''Art and Objective Truth'' * Paul Valéry: ''Poetry and Abstract Thought'' *

Kenneth Burke Kenneth Duva Burke (May 5, 1897 – November 19, 1993) was an American literary theorist, as well as poet, essayist, and novelist, who wrote on 20th-century philosophy, aesthetics, criticism, and rhetorical theory. As a literary theorist, Bur ...

: ''Literature as Equipment for Living'' * Ernst Cassirer: ''Art'' * W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley: ''The Intentional Fallacy'', ''The Affective Fallacy'' * Cleanth Brooks: ''The Heresy of Paraphrase''; ''Irony as a Principle of Structure'' * Jan Mukařovský: ''Standard Language and Poetic Language'' *

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialist, existentialism (and Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter ...

: ''Why Write?'' * Simone de Beauvoir: ''The Second Sex'' *

Ronald Crane Ronald Salmon Crane (January 5, 1886 – July 12, 1967) was a literary critic, historian, bibliographer, and professor. He is credited with the founding of the Chicago School of Literary Criticism. Early life Ronald Crane was born in Tecumseh, Mic ...

: ''Toward a More Adequate Criticism of Poetic Structure'' * Philip Wheelwright: ''The Burning Fountain'' * Theodor Adorno: ''Cultural Criticism and Society''; ''Aesthetic Theory'' * Roman Jakobson: ''The Metaphoric and Metonymic Poles'' *

: ''Anatomy of Criticism''; ''The Critical Path'' *

Gaston Bachelard Gaston Bachelard (; ; 27 June 1884 – 16 October 1962) was a French people, French philosopher. He made contributions in the fields of poetics and the philosophy of science. To the latter, he introduced the concepts of ''epistemological obstacl ...

: ''The Poetics of Space'' * Ernst Gombrich: ''Art and Illusion'' *

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centu ...

: ''The Nature of Language''; ''Language in the Poem''; '' Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry'' * E. D. Hirsch, Jr.: ''Objective Interpretation'' *

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

: ''Aspects of the Theory of Syntax'' * Jacques Derrida: ''Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences'' *

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popul ...

: ''The Structuralist Activity''; ''The Death of the Author'' *

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and ho ...

: ''Truth and Power''; ''What Is an Author?''; ''The Discourse on Language'' * Hans Robert Jauss: ''Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory'' * Georges Poulet: ''Phenomenology of Reading'' *

Raymond Williams Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contribut ...

: ''The Country and the City'' * Lionel Trilling: ''The Liberal Imagination''; * Julia Kristeva: ''From One Identity to Another''; ''Women's Time'' * Paul de Man: ''Semiology and Rhetoric''; ''The Rhetoric of Temporality'' * Harold Bloom: '' The Anxiety of Influence''; ''The Dialectics of Poetic Tradition''; ''Poetry, Revisionism, Repression'' *

Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and '' magnum opus'', '' Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...

: ''Colonialist Criticism'' * Stanley Fish: ''Normal Circumstances, Literal Language, Direct Speech Acts, the Ordinary, the Everyday, the Obvious, What Goes Without Saying, and Other Special Cases''; ''Is There a Text in This Class?'' * Edward Said: ''The World, the Text, and the Critic''; ''Secular Criticism'' * Elaine Showalter: ''Toward a Feminist Poetics'' * Sandra Gilbert and

Susan Gubar Susan D. Gubar (born November 30, 1944) is an American author and distinguished Professor Emerita of English and Women's Studies at Indiana University. She is best known for co-authoring the landmark feminist literary study '' The Madwoman in t ...

: ''Infection in the Sentence''; ''The Madwoman in the Attic'' *

Murray Krieger Murray Krieger (November 27, 1923 – August 5, 2000) was an American literary critic and theorist. He was a professor at the University of Minnesota, the University of Iowa from 1963, and then the University of California, Irvine. In 1999 ...

: ''"A Waking Dream": The Symbolic Alternative to Allegory'' * Gilles Deleuze and

Félix Guattari Pierre-Félix Guattari ( , ; 30 April 1930 – 29 August 1992) was a French psychoanalyst, political philosopher, semiotician, social activist, and screenwriter. He co-founded schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze, and ecosophy with Arne Næs ...

: '' Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' *

René Girard René Noël Théophile Girard (; ; 25 December 1923 – 4 November 2015) was a French polymath, historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science whose work belongs to the tradition of philosophical anthropology. Girard was the a ...

: ''The Sacrificial Crisis'' * Hélène Cixous: ''The Laugh of the Medusa'' * Jonathan Culler: ''Beyond Interpretation'' * Geoffrey Hartman: ''Literary Commentary as Literature'' * Wolfgang Iser: ''The Repertoire'' *

Hayden White Hayden V. White (July 12, 1928 – March 5, 2018) was an American historian in the tradition of literary criticism, perhaps most famous for his work '' Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe'' (1973/2014). Career ...

: ''The Historical Text as Literary Artifact'' *

Hans-Georg Gadamer Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; February 11, 1900 – March 13, 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 '' magnum opus'', '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''), on hermeneutics. Life Famil ...

: '' Truth and Method'' * Paul Ricoeur: ''The Metaphorical Process as Cognition, Imagination, and Feeling'' * Peter Szondi: ''On Textual Understanding'' * M. H. Abrams: ''How to Do Things with Texts'' * J. Hillis Miller: ''The Critic as Host'' *

Clifford Geertz Clifford James Geertz (; August 23, 1926 – October 30, 2006) was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology and who was considered "for three decade ...

: ''Blurred Genres: The Refiguration of Social Thought'' * Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: ''The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism'' * Tristan Tzara: ''Unpretentious Proclamation'' *

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

: ''The Surrealist Manifesto''; ''The Declaration of January 27, 1925'' * Mina Loy: ''Feminist Manifesto'' * Yokomitsu Riichi: ''Sensation and New Sensation'' *

Oswald de Andrade José Oswald de Souza Andrade (January 11, 1890 – October 22, 1954) was a Brazilian poet, novelist and cultural critic. He was born, spent most of his life and died in São Paulo. Andrade was one of the founders of Brazilian modernism and a m ...

: ''Cannibalist Manifesto'' *

and

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

: ''Manifesto: Towards a Free Revolutionary Art'' *

Hu Shih Hu Shih (; 17 December 1891 – 24 February 1962), also known as Hu Suh in early references, was a Chinese diplomat, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, and politician. Hu is widely recognized today as a key contributor to Chinese liberal ...

: ''Some Modest Proposals for the Reform of Literature'' * Octavio Paz: ''The Bow and the Lire''

References

External links

''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'':
Literary Criticism

Award Winners
Internet Public Library: Literary Criticism
Collection of Critical and Biographical Websites

(University of Zaragoza)
How to Do Literary Analysis: An Experimental Reflection Based on the Yellow Wall-Paper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Literary Criticism Aesthetics New Criticism Interpretation (philosophy)

History

Classical and medieval criticism

Renaissance criticism

Baroque criticism

Enlightenment criticism

19th-century Romantic criticism

The New Criticism

Theory

History of the book

Current state

Key texts

The Classical and medieval periods

The Renaissance period

The Enlightenment period

The 19th century

The 20th century

See also

References

External links