Shweta Kataria Essays (1767 words) - Aesthetics, Arts, Literature

Shweta Kataria Mr. Jaideep Pandey British Literature: 18th Century 28 th March 2017 Literary Criticism and its emerging trends Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature . Literary criticism is the play of the mind on a work of literature and it consists in asking and answering rational question about literature. Such an inquiry may be directed either towards literature in general leading to a better understanding of the nature and value of literature, and a better appreciation of the pleasure proper to literature. Such an inquiry by helping us to think rightly about literature enables us to gain the fullest enjoyment from it. In this way is built up a theory of literature, and the process of literary creation is examined and made intelligible . Through the years, it has developed and grown, and ultimately provides us with parameters on how to study literature. Because there are a million different ways to dissect written works, such as novels or poems, literary criticism provides some general guidelines to help us analyze, deconstruct, interpret and evalu ate. We usually see literary criticism in a book review or critical essay. Aristotle's practical contribution to criticism, as opposed to his ethical defense of literature, lies in his inductive treatment of the elements and kinds of poetry. Poetic modes are identified according to their means of imitation, the actions they imitate, the manner of imitation, and its effects. These distinctions assist the critic in judging each mode according to its proper ends instead of regarding beauty as a fixed entity. The ends of tragedy, as Aristotle conceived them, are best served by the harmonious disposition of six elements: plot, character, diction , thought, spectacle, and song. Classical and medi eval criticism Literary criticism is thought to have existed for as long as literature. In the 4th century BC Aristotle wrote the Poetics , a typology and description of literary forms with many specific criticisms of contemporary works of art. Poetics developed for the first time the concepts of mimesis and catharsis , which are still crucial in literary studies. Plato 's attacks on poetry as imitative, secondary, and false were formative as well . Later classical medieval criticism often focused on religious texts, and the several long religious tradition of hermeneutics and textual exegesis have had a profound influence on the study of secular texts. Renaissance criticism The literary criticism of the Renaissance developed classical ideas of unity of form and content into literary neoclassicism, proclaiming literature as central to culture, entrusting the poet and the author with preservation of a long literary tradition. The birth of Renaissance criticism was in 1498, with the recovery of classical texts, most notably, Giorgio Valla's latin translation of Aristotle's Poetics. The work of Aristotle, especially Poetics, was the most important influence Renaissance critics who wrote commentaries on Aristotle's Poetics in 1570. 19 th -century criticism The British Romantic movement of the early nineteenth century introduced new aesthetic ideas to literary study, including the idea that the object of literature need not always be beautiful, noble, or perfect, but that literature itself could elevate a common subject to the level of the sublime. German Romanticism, which followed closely after the late development of German classicism, emphasized an aesthetic of fragmentation that can appear startlingly modern to the reader of English literature, and valued Witz- that is, "wit" or "humour" of a certain sort- more highly than the serious Anglophone Romanticism. The late nineteenth century brought unknown to authors known more for critical writing than for their own work. The Changing Role of Critics and Criticism Views regarding the functions of criticism and the role of critics have kept on changing through the ages. Every age has tended to assign a different function or functions to criticism. The earliest systematic critic, Plato, for example, was concerned with the problem of defining the utility of poetry in the educational system of his ideal state, found poetry wanting, and so banished poets from his ideal commonwealth. His approach was fundamentally utilitarian, and he condemned poetry as immoral and untruthful. Following Plato's condemnation, critics for long centuries to come were pre-occupied with justifying imaginative literature, more specially poetry. Critics from the