This document discusses different approaches to literary criticism, focusing on the moralistic approach. It provides an overview of how moralism has been an important approach throughout history, from Plato emphasizing the moral attitude in works of art, to neo-humanists in the 20th century viewing literature as a criticism of life. A moralistic critic judges works based on ethical standards, believing the most important role of literature is to teach moral values and guide society in the right direction.

1. S. SUNYOGITA
PRINCIPLES OF LITERARY
CRITICISM
APPROACHES

2. APPROACHES
• One of the function of literary criticism is to
provide a link between the work of art and
the readers
• In that process he has evolved a few
theories.
“Approaches”

3. TYPES OF APPROACHES
Approach: a way of dealing with a situation
• Psychological
• Moralistic
• Archetypal
• Formalistic
• Sociological

4. APPROACHES
• Approach: a way of dealing with a situation
• Psychological: psychological insight
• Moralistic : Moral application to literature
• Archetypal: Social pattern common
• Formalistic: Analyzing literary work
• Sociological: Social Milieu

5. MORALISTIC CRITIC
• when a critic judges a work of art with ethical
standards his approach is termed moralistic
• Morality is being one of the principal issues in life
• To a moralistic critic, the content is more important than
the form of a work of art
• His business is to detect the moral aspect society in the
right place
• He is content if it educates, instructs or direct the society
in the right path
• Moralist discuss topic under “ethical appleal”

6. MORALISTIC CRITIC
• To the function of the literature is to first teach moral
values and them to delight
• The function of the moralist is to exhort, to a moralist a
work of art without didactic purpose is inconceviable.

7. THE BEGINNING OF MORALISM
• Right from Plato to the present day, critics have
emphasized on the writers duty to uplift the citizen, to
elevate their character and to make them more
serviceable to society.
• Plato is chiefly concerned with the moral attitude in the
work of art

8. • “Aristotle pleasure is the end of poetry but he does not
ruled out teaching if it is incidental to the pleasure that
the poem gives”
• “Horace views that poetry should both teach and delight
with a greater stress on teaching”.

9. RENAISSANCE PERIOD
• The Renaissance writers stressed the moral value in the
work of art
• To Sidney poetry is superior to philosophy, history, and
science because it has a moral end.

10. NEO CLASSICAL PERIOD
• The moralism continues in the neo classical period also
• To Dryden the poet is neither a teacher nor a bare
imitator, but a creator and his concern is to delight than
to instruct

11. • Alexander pope- a
staunch moralist
stressed the
importance of the
morals aspects in a
work of art
• Dr. Johson the great
champion of the 18th
century liked to judge
a work of art by its
moral content. He
praised Milton’s
“Paradise lost”
because it is a moral
poem

12. ROMANTIC PERIOD
• In the Romantic period also importance was given to the
didactic element in literature
• Wordsworth declared himself to be a teacher
• Shelly imagination is the best toll to make the poem
morally good

13. • Ruskin the moralist
declared that all the
fine arts must be
didactic, he praised
art because it is moral
• Arnold praised
Wordsworth, he
substituted poetry for
religion in an age
when peoples faith in
religion was shaken
by the progress of
science and the
evolution theory of
Darwin

14. TWENTIETH CENTURY
• In the twentieth century writes like H.G Wells and
Somerset Maugham stressed the value of moral in the
work of art
• D. H Lawrence a real work of art must have a moral

15. • T.S Eliot the Christian humanist declared that a
greatness of literature should be judged from moral or
religious standards

16. • T.S Eliot the Christian humanist declared that a
greatness of literature should be judged from moral or
religious standards

17. THE NEO- HUMANIST
• Neo humanist are a group of writes in the twentieth
century, whose main intrest in literature lies in literature
as criticism of life.
• Moral evaluation has been chiefly expressed by these
Neo- Humanist.
• The oppose Naturalism and Romanticism
• Irving Babbitt was the chief prophet of neo humanism

18. NEO- HUMANIST
• Norman Foerester
• Harry Hayden Clark
• G.R Eliot
• Robert shafer
• Gorham Muson