This document provides an overview of literary criticism as a subject. It defines literary criticism as the analysis and judgment of the merits and faults of literary works, informed by literary theory. It outlines the history and evolution of criticism from ancient Greece to modern times. It also describes three main forms of criticism - legislative, aesthetic, and descriptive criticism. The document concludes by listing some major figures in the development of English literary criticism from the 16th to 20th centuries.

1. III BA ENGLISH
SEMESTR V
MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY
MS. M. CHRISTINA SUSAN M.A., M. PHIL., PGDCA
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH,
N. M. S. SERMATHAI VASAN COLLEGE FOR WOMEN,
MADURAI.

2.  A term derived from the Greek words “krino”
meaning “ to judge” and “krites” meaning “a
judge or jury person”.
 In general, criticism is the expression of
disapproval of someone or something on the
basis of perceived faults and mistakes.
 In literary terms, criticism is the analysis and
judgment of the merits ad faults of a literary
work.

3. LITERARY THEORY LITERARY CRITICISM
• Refers to a set of ideas,
tools and principles
used in interpreting a
work of literature.
• Process of
understanding what the
nature of literature is
and provides a
theoretical framework
for analysis of
literature.
• Lens or framework
through which a critic
views a work.
• Evaluation and estimation
of literature.
• Art of judging and
commenting on the
qualities and character of
literary works.
• Is informed by literary
theory.
• Act of analysis.
• Began with the Greek
Philosophers-Plato
‘Republic’ and Aristotle
‘Poetics’ – provides the
first basic concept of
criticism

4. THE ART OF CRITICISM
THE CRITICAL METHOD:
• Literature [poetry, drama, fiction]- enjoyed in two ways:
Haphazardly as a lay man enjoys it.
- vague, confused
methodically as a trained man does.
-fully accounted for.
- criticism
• A critic is an ideal reader.
• Trained judgment on whatever he reads.
• Criticism is born of questioning.
• For criticism intellectual freedom is necessary.
• Atmosphere-questioning and inquiry are freely allowed.
LIMITATIONS:
• Trend of the age, attitude of the critic-tend to limit the critic’s freedom.
• Slave to one’s time and mental make-up
• No fixed principles of criticism to be applied indiscriminately to the works
of all ages and writers.
• The Principles of Criticism – various interpretations of literature or literary
activity, advanced from time to time.

5. THREE FORMS OF CRITICISM
Legislative Criticism
• Form of critical
endeavour which lays
down rules for the art
of writing.
• Based on standard
works of literature of
Greek and Latin.
• Addresses itself to the
writer rather than the
reader, whose
interests are
supposed to be safe
in the critic’s hands.
• Eg: whole of
Elizabethan Criticism
in England.
Aesthetic Criticism
• Treats literature as an
art
• Independent activity
of the mind, having an
end of its own.
• Probes the nature of
the literary art as such
and formulates its
theories accordingly.
• Eg: Sidney, Dryden,
Addison, Coleridge,
Walter Pater, Oscar
Wilde, I.A. Richards.
Descriptive Criticism
• Study of individual
works/writers: aims,
methods, effects.
• Latest- most popular
• Eg: Ben Jonson,
Dryden.

6. CRITICISM - BEGINNINGS
• EUROPE-art of criticism began in ancient Greece. -5th century BC.
• age of unprecedented intellectual awakening in Athens.
• scholars and learned men discoursed freely – religion, philosophy,
morality, politics, art, literature.
• Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Socrates, Aristophanes – lived in this
age.
• Aristophanes- applied – critical consideration to literature.
• Aristophanes- begins the first regular criticism of the western world.

7. I. THE BACKGROUND OF ENGLISH CRITICISM
THE GREEK MASTERS • PLATO
• ARISTOTLE
THE ROMAN CLASSICISTS
• HORACE
• QUINTILIAN
ENTER ROMANCE • LONGINUS
THE EMERGENCE OF THE
VERNACULAR
• DANTE

8. II. ENGLISH CRITICISM
THE BATTLE
OF TASTES
• SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
• BEN JONSON
THE TRIUMPH
OF CLASSICISM
• JOHN DRYDEN
• JOSEPH ADDISON
• ALEXANDER POPE
• DR. JOHNSON
THE
ROMANTIC
REVOLT
• WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
• S.T.COLERIDGE
THE
VICTORIAN
COMPROMISE
• MATTHEW ARNOLD
• WALTER PATER
THE AGE OF
INTERROGATION
• T.S.ELIOT
• I.A. RICHARDS
• F.R.LEAVIS

9. BOOK PRESCRIBED