Theoretical criticism, practical criticism, theories,experimental or applied criticism, dof perspective, mint to world and world to mind direction of fit

1. Difference between Practical
and Theoretical Criticism
Hema Goswami
Sem -1
Paper -3 Literary theory and criticism-western-1
Submitted to Department of English MKBU
Enrollment no. 2069108420180020
Roll no. 15
Email id- hemagoswami474@gmail.com
Year 2017-2019

2. Literary
criticism
Theoretical
criticism
Practical
criticism

3. Theoretical criticism
• Examines literary
work in the light of
certain theories
• Uses a text as a
support
• Meaningfulness of
a theory

4. Practical criticism
• It is relatively a young discipline.
•Began in 1920s
•Started by I.A Richards, the Cambridge critic.
•Close analysis of text.

5. William Empson
 Seven types of
Ambiguity
 Most influential
student
 Profound impact
on New criticism

6. PRACTICAL CRITICISM
Experimental
Also called applied
criticism
THEORETICAL
CRITICISM
It is not experimental
It is opposite of applied
criticism
Display world-to-mind Display mind-to-world
It represent the world
as being a certain way
It represent the world as
to be made a certain way

7. Use of DOF to elaborate ‘mind to world’
and ‘world to mind’
• DOF- direction of fit
• Practical and theoretical
criticism displays
different directions of fit.

8. DOF in Theoretical Criticism
• Beliefs have a ‘mind to
world’ DOF(direction
of fit)
• They aim at fitting the
world, at being true.
Display mind-to-world

9. DOF in Practical Criticism
• Desires, on the other
hand have ‘world to
mind’ DOF(direction of
fit)
• They aim to change the
world to fit the desires
and not vice versa.
Display world-to-mind

10. The two content analysis
Indicative speech
• Theoretical criticism
displays logical
properties as an
indicative speech.
• Example- ‘The kitchen
door is shut’
• In the above example
someone is making an
assertion.
Imperative speech
• Practical criticism
displays logical
properties as an
imperative speech.
• Example- ‘Shut the
kitchen door’
• In the above example
someone is giving
command

12. Reference
• http://www.averyarcher.com/Pratical_vs_The
oretical_Attitudes__Display_Copy_.pdf
• https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/classroom/pra
crit.htm
• http://www.thefreedictionary.com/theoretical
+criticism