Literary criticism has existed since ancient Greece. Early critics like Plato and Aristotle focused on morality and structure. Later critics examined additional elements like language, social context, and reader response. Literary criticism serves two main purposes: evaluating quality and assessing cultural/moral values. There are several approaches to criticism, including formalism examining literary elements, moralism viewing literature through ethics, and sociology analyzing social context. Psychology also draws on theory to understand text, author, and reader deeper.

2. o Greeks – 5th Century
inaugurated the formal study of
literary Criticism
o Plato – 427-347 BC
morality (rationality)
o Aristotle – 384-322 BC
Structure (Objectives)

3. o Horace – 65-8 BC
“The best writings teach and delight”
o Longinus – 1st Century A.D.
First comparative critic
o Dante Aligheiri
language (vernacular)
o Sir Philip Sidney
Eclectic in criticism

4. Literary criticism has probably
existed for as long as literature.
Later classical and medieval
criticism often focused on religious
texts, and the several long religious
traditions.

5. Importance of Literary Criticism
Evaluation of literary works involves
Two kinds of judgment:
1. Assessment of quality and value
2. Assessment of cultural, social, and
moral values they display.

6. Importance of
Literary Criticism
1. Appreciation towards a
certain literary piece.
2. Understanding reality
from fiction
3. Stimulate emotional
responses

7. Approaches of Literary Criticism:
1. The Formalistic Approach
2. Moralistic Approach
3. Psychological Approach
4. Sociological Approach
5. Impressionistic Approach

8. The Formalistic Approach
 Determine meaning
 Focus on literary elements
1. plot
2. Characters
3. Setting
4. Structure

9. Moralistic Approach
o Literature viewed to discuss man
and its nature
o Presents man as essentially rational

10. Psychological Approach
Draws upon psychoanalytic theories
to understand more fully the text,
the writer and the reader.

11. Sociological Approach
Expression man within a
given social situation.

12. Impressionistic Approach
o Elucidate reacting-response
o Seek how the piece has
communicated

14. The song is a commentary on the double
standards that that often exist between men
and women and a story of role reversal. She
explores what it would be like if she did all
the things he did to her every day.

15. The woman in the song has been taken for granted but
at the same time she doesn't want to let go and lose
everything that she once had. It's unclear at the end
whether she is final about not taking him back or if
there is a note of hope that someday he'll realize what
he's been doing to her and become a better man.