A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study,

evaluation In common usage, evaluation is a systematic determination and assessment of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of Standardization, standards. It can assist an organization, program, design, project or any o ...

, 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 analysis of literature's goals and methods. Although 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 or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the ...

s, and more popular critics publish their reviews in broadly circulating periodicals such as '' The Times Literary Supplement'', '' The New York Times Book Review'', ''

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 ...

'', the ''

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

'', the '' Dublin Review of Books'', ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'', '' Bookforum'', and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

''.

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 (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

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

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

and

catharsis Catharsis is from the Ancient Greek word , , meaning "purification" or "cleansing", commonly used to refer to the purification and purgation of thoughts and emotions by way of expressing them. The desired result is an emotional state of renewal an ...

, which are still crucial in literary studies. Later classical and

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

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 texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. As necessary, hermeneutics may include the art of understanding and communication. ...

and textual

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (philosophy), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern us ...

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 term Abrahamic religions is used to group together monotheistic religions revering the Biblical figure Abraham, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The religions share doctrinal, historical, and geographic overlap that contrasts them wit ...

: Jewish literature, Christian literature and

Islamic literature Islamic literature is literature written by Muslim people, influenced by an Islamic culture, Islamic cultural perspective, or literature that portrays Islam. It can be written in any language and portray any country or region. It includes many lite ...

. Literary criticism was also employed in other forms of medieval

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( / 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 (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquett ...

and

Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existe ...

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 in his ''Kitab al-Badi''.

Renaissance criticism

The literary criticism of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

developed classical ideas of unity of form and content into literary

neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

, 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 Giorgio Valla (Latin: ''Georgius Valla''; Piacenza 1447–Venice January 23, 1500) was an Italian academic, mathematician, philologist and translator. Life He was born in Piacenza in 1447. He was the son of Andrea Valla and Cornelia Corvini. At ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

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 known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

, such as proportion, harmony, unity, decorum, that had long governed, guaranteed, and stabilized Western thinking about artworks. Although

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...

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 The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

aesthetic, such as " conceit' (''concetto''), " wit" ('' acutezza'', ''ingegno''), and " wonder" (''meraviglia''), were not fully developed in literary theory until the publication of Emanuele Tesauro'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 usually meant to cr ...

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

literacy Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

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 (supernatural), magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly app ...

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 writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...

, for instance, were criticized including his book ''

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', originally titled ''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 clerg ...

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

19th-century Romantic criticism

The British Romantic movement of the early nineteenth century introduced new

aesthetic Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...

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 enlighten and add to the knowledge of a common subject to the level of the sublime.

German Romanticism German Romanticism () was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism, the German vari ...

, which followed closely after the late development of German

classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...

, emphasized an understanding and beauty 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 New Criticism was a Formalism (literature), formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of l ...

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: together known as Wimsatt and Beardsley's intentional fallacy and affective fallacy. 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 published the influential '' Anatomy of Criticism''. 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 Jürgen Habermas ( , ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt S ...

, 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

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 Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns t ...

, then

post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...

, and other kinds of

Continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a group of philosophies prominent in 20th-century continental Europe that derive from a broadly Kantianism, Kantian tradition.Continental philosophers usually identify such conditions with the transcendental subject or ...

. It continued until the 1990s when interest in "concept" 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.

Current state

Today, approaches based in

and

continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a group of philosophies prominent in 20th-century continental Europe that derive from a broadly Kantianism, Kantian tradition.Continental philosophers usually identify such conditions with the transcendental subject or ...

largely coexist in university literature departments, while conventional methods, some informed by the

New Critics New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned a ...

, 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. 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 Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...

read popular texts like comic books or pulp/

genre fiction In the book-trade, genre fiction, also known as formula fiction, or commercial fiction,Girolimon, Mars"Types of Genres: A Literary Guide" Southern New Hampshire University, 11 December 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2024. encompasses fictional ...

. Ecocritics have drawn connections between literature and the natural sciences. Darwinian literary studies studies literature in the context of

evolutionary Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certa ...

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 frequently 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: Academic criticism by film studies, film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish ...

or media studies.

History of the book

Related to other forms of literary criticism, the history of the book is a field of an inter-disciplinary 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 ''bibliograph ...

, 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.

Major twentieth-century schools of critical analysis

Historicist approaches

* New Historicism

Formalist approaches

* Russian Formalism *

Narratology Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. The term is an anglicisation of French ''narratologie'', coined by Tzvetan Todorov (''Grammaire du Décaméron'', 1969). Its theoretica ...

Structuralism Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns t ...

Post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...

* Deconstructionism * Literary Modernism * Post-modernism * Reader-response criticism * Semiotic literary criticism *

Genre studies Genre studies is an academic subject which studies genre theory as a branch of general critical theory in several different fields, including art, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition studies. Literary genre studies is a Structurali ...

Hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. As necessary, hermeneutics may include the art of understanding and communication. ...

Political approaches

* Marxist literary criticism *

Cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...

Postcolonialism Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and extractivism, exploitation of colonized pe ...

* Feminist literary criticism * Ecocriticism

Psychological approaches

* Archetypal literary criticism *

Phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...

* Psychoanalytic literary criticism * New Humanism

Race and sexuality approaches

African-American literature African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved African woman who became the first African American to publish a book of poetry, which was publis ...

Queer theory Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of queer studies (formerly often known as gay and lesbian studies) and women's studies. The term "queer theory" is broadly associated with the study a ...

Critical race theory Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic field focused on the relationships between Social constructionism, social conceptions of Race and ethnicity in the United States census, race and ethnicity, Law in the United States, social and political ...

Affect theory Affect theory is a theory that seeks to organize affects, sometimes used interchangeably with emotions or subjectively experienced feelings, into discrete categories and to typify their physiological, social, interpersonal, and internalized manife ...

* Disability studies

Key texts

Classical and medieval periods

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

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

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

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

: ''Art of Poetry'' * Longinus: ''On the Sublime'' * Plotinus: ''On the Intellectual Beauties'' * St. Augustine: ''On Christian Doctrine'' *

Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480–524 AD), was a Roman Roman Senate, senator, Roman consul, consul, ''magister officiorum'', polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middl ...

: ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' *

Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

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

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

: ''The Banquet'', ''Letter to Cangrande Della Scala'' * Boccaccio: ''Life of Dante'', ''Genealogy of the Gentile Gods'' * Christine de Pizan: ''The Book of the City of Ladies'' * Bharata Muni: ''Natya Shastra'' * Rajashekhara: ''Inquiry into Literature'' * Valmiki: ''The Invention of Poetry'' (from the ''

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

'') * Anandavardhana: ''Light on Suggestion'' *

Cao Pi Cao Pi () (late 187 – 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 ...

: ''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''

Renaissance period

* Lodovico Castelvetro: ''The ''Poetics'' of Aristotle Translated and Explained'' *

Philip Sidney Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan age. His works include a sonnet sequence, ' ...

: ''An Apology for Poetry'' * Jacopo Mazzoni: ''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) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

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

Enlightenment period

Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan (Hobbes book), Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory. He is considered t ...

: ''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 of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (En ...

: ''An Essay of Dramatic Poesy'' * Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux: ''The Art of Poetry'' *

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thi ...

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

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early ...

: ''An Essay on Criticism'' *

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

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

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January ew Style, NS1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish Politician, statesman, journalist, writer, literary critic, philosopher, and parliamentary orator who is regarded as the founder of the Social philosophy, soc ...

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

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...

: ''Of the Standard of Taste'' *

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

: ''On Fiction'', ''Rasselas'', ''Preface to ''Shakespeare * Edward Young: ''Conjectures on Original Composition'' *

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (; ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a German philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the dev ...

: ''Laocoön'' *

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...

: ''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 along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during th ...

: ''The Paradox of Acting'' *

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

: ''

Critique of Judgment The ''Critique of Judgment'' (), 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 of Judgment'' follows the ''Crit ...

'' * Mary Wollstonecraft: '' A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'' *

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

: ''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 Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

: ''Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man'' * Friedrich Schlegel: ''Critical Fragments'', ''Athenaeum Fragments'', ''On Incomprehensibility''

19th century

John Neal John Neal (August 25, 1793 – June 20, 1876) was an American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist. Considered both eccentric and influential, he delivered speeches and published essays, novels, poems, and short stories between the 1 ...

: ''

American Writers The Lists of American writers include: United States By ethnicity *List of African-American writers *List of Asian American writers, List of Asian-American writers *List of Cuban American writers, List of Cuban-American writers *List of Egypti ...

'' *

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...

: ''Preface to the Second Edition of ''Lyrical Ballads * Anne Louise Germaine de Staël: ''Literature in its Relation to Social Institutions'' *

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (; 27 January 1775 – 20 August 1854), later (after 1812) von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him be ...

: ''On the Relation of the Plastic Arts to Nature'' *

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth ...

: ''Shakespeare's Judgment Equal to His Genius'', ''On the Principles of Genial Criticism'', ''The Statesman's Manual'', ''Biographia Literaria'' *

Wilhelm von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a German philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1949, the university was named aft ...

: ''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 known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the Phenomenon, phenomenal world as ...

: ''The World as Will and Idea'' * Thomas Love Peacock: '' The Four Ages of Poetry'' * Percy Bysshe Shelley: '' A Defence of Poetry'' *

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

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

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy and t ...

: ''The Philosophy of Fine Art'' * Giacomo Leopardi: ''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. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

: ''Symbols'' *

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism and social liberalism, he contributed widely to s ...

: ''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, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

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

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

: '' 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, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...

: ''The Salon of 1859'' *

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

: '' The German Ideology'', '' Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'' *

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , ; ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danes, Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical tex ...

: ''Two Ages: A Literary Review'', ''The Concept of Irony'' *

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

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

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

: '' The Decay of Lying'' *

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French Symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools o ...

: ''The Evolution of Literature'', ''The Book: A Spiritual Mystery'', ''Mystery in Literature'' *

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

: '' What is Art?''

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. A Cultural liberalism, poli ...

: ''Aesthetic'' *

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , ; ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosophy, Marxist philosopher, Linguistics, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, Political philosophy, political the ...

: ''Prison Notebooks'' * Umberto Eco: ''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 seen as originating fro ...

: ''Creative Writers and Daydreaming'' * Ferdinand de Saussure: ''Course in General Linguistics'' *

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

: ''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, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Jewish mysticism, Western M ...

: ''On Language as Such and On the Language of Man'' * Viktor Shklovsky: ''Art as Technique'' * T. S. Eliot: ''Tradition and the Individual Talent''; ''Hamlet and His Problems'' * Irving Babbitt: ''Romantic Melancholy'' *

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...

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

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

: ''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 and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

: ''A Room of One's Own'' * I. A. Richards: ''Practical Criticism'' *

Mikhail Bakhtin Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian people, Russian philosopher and literary critic who worked on the phi ...

: ''Epic and Novel: Toward a Methodology for the Study of the Novel'' *

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

: ''The Notion of Expenditure'' * John Crowe Ransom: ''Poetry: A Note in Ontology''; ''Criticism as Pure Speculation'' * R. P. Blackmur: ''A Critic's Job of Work'' *

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...

: ''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 Bernát György Löwinger; ; ; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, literary critic, and Aesthetics, aesthetician. He was one of the founders of Western Marxism, an inter ...

: ''The Ideal of the Harmonious Man in Bourgeois Aesthetics''; ''Art and Objective Truth'' *

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, m ...

: ''Poetry and Abstract Thought'' * Kenneth Burke: ''Literature as Equipment for Living'' * Ernst Cassirer: ''Art'' * W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley: ''The Intentional Fallacy'', ''The Affective Fallacy'' *

Cleanth Brooks Cleanth Brooks ( ; October 16, 1906 – May 10, 1994) was an American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-20th century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher ...

: ''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 a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

: ''Why Write?'' * Simone de Beauvoir: ''The Second Sex'' * Ronald Crane: ''Toward a More Adequate Criticism of Poetic Structure'' * Philip Wheelwright: ''The Burning Fountain'' *

Theodor Adorno Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor. List of people with the given name Theodor * Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher * Theodor Aman, Romanian painter * Theodor Blue ...

: ''Cultural Criticism and Society''; ''Aesthetic Theory'' *

Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (, ; 18 July 1982) was a Russian linguist and literary theorist. A pioneer of structural linguistics, Jakobson was one of the most celebrated and influential linguists of the twentieth century. With Nikolai Trubetzk ...

: ''The Metaphoric and Metonymic Poles'' * Northrop Frye: ''Anatomy of Criticism''; ''The Critical Path'' * Gaston Bachelard: ''The Poetics of Space'' * Ernst Gombrich: ''Art and Illusion'' *

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...

: ''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 professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

: ''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 – 25 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 popu ...

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

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

: ''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 contribu ...

: ''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 Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...

: '' The Anxiety of Influence''; ''The Dialectics of Poetic Tradition''; ''Poetry, Revisionism, Repression'' * Chinua Achebe: ''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 Edward Wadie Said (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of Postcolonialism, post-co ...

: ''The World, the Text, and the Critic''; ''Secular Criticism'' * Elaine Showalter: ''Toward a Feminist Poetics'' * Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar: ''Infection in the Sentence''; ''The Madwoman in the Attic'' * Murray Krieger: ''"A Waking Dream": The Symbolic Alternative to Allegory'' *

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze (18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes o ...

and

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

: ''

Anti-Oedipus ''Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' () is a 1972 book by French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the former a philosopher and the latter a psychoanalyst. It is the first volume of their collaborative work ''Capitalism and Sch ...

: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' * René Girard: ''The Sacrificial Crisis'' * Hélène Cixous: ''The Laugh of the Medusa'' *

Jonathan Culler Jonathan Culler (born 1944) is an American literary critic. He was Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cornell University. His published works are in the fields of structuralism, literary theory and literary criti ...

: ''Beyond Interpretation'' * Geoffrey Hartman: ''Literary Commentary as Literature'' * Wolfgang Iser: ''The Repertoire'' * Hayden White: ''The Historical Text as Literary Artifact'' * Hans-Georg Gadamer: '' 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 decades&n ...

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

Tristan Tzara Tristan Tzara (; ; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, c ...

: ''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'') ...

: ''The Surrealist Manifesto''; ''The Declaration of 27 January 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 in, spent most of his life in, and died in São Paulo. Andrade was one of the founders of Brazilian modernism ...

: ''Cannibalist Manifesto'' *

and Diego Rivera: ''Manifesto: Towards a Free Revolutionary Art'' * Hu Shih: ''Some Modest Proposals for the Reform of Literature'' * Octavio Paz: ''The Bow and the Lire''

References

External links

*
Literary Criticism
at the ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'' * *
Internet Public Library: Literary Criticism
Collection of Critical and Biographical Websites
How to Do Literary Analysis: An Experimental Reflection Based on the Yellow Wall-Paper

Award Winners * Richards, I. A. (1928),
Principles of literary criticism
'. United States: Harcourt, Brace and Company. {{DEFAULTSORT:Literary Criticism Aesthetics Interpretation (philosophy) New Criticism

History

Classical and medieval criticism

Renaissance criticism

Baroque criticism

Enlightenment criticism

19th-century Romantic criticism

The New Criticism

Theory

Current state

History of the book

Major twentieth-century schools of critical analysis

Historicist approaches

Formalist approaches

Political approaches

Psychological approaches

Race and sexuality approaches

Key texts

Classical and medieval periods

Renaissance period

Enlightenment period

19th century

20th century

See also

References

External links