2015م - 1444هـ
A Critical Overview of Literary Criticism





A Critical Overview of Literary Criticism and Its Relevance to Literature Simhachalam Thamarana (Research Scholar) Department of English, Andhra University Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh India Abstract: A brief introduction to history of criticism is to be given at the outset. Then the indication of the word „Literary Criticism‟ along with the origin and development of Literary Criticism has to be examined. There are many ways in which criticism may be classified. There are some major critical theories such as mimetic, pragmatic, expressive, and objective.



One common dichotomy for criticism is Aristotelian vs. Platonic. Aristotelian criticism implies a judicial, logical, formal criticism that tends to find the values of a work either within the work itself or inseparably linked to the work where as Platonic criticism implies a moralistic, utilitarian view of art, where the values of a work are to be found in the usefulness of art for other and nonartistic purposes. Further the classification of Criticism is done according to the purpose that it is intended to serve i.e. to justify, to describe, to interpret, to judge, to discover various literary and its relevant aspects. This paper also examines various critical, literary concepts from Aristotle‟s Poetics to Husserl‟s Phenomenological criticism. Finally the conclusions are drawn by means of the review of literature indicated. Key Words: Literary Theory, Types of Criticism, Classicism, Romanticism, Historical Criticism, New Criticism, Phenomenological criticism.