Can anyone introduce me to the basics of literary criticism?

Answer 1

http://www.wikipedia.org

Wiki can. There is a good entry on the subject... just put 'literary criticism' in the search box.

The entry isn't long, but keep scrolling down until you have definitely reached the end.

If there are words you are unsure of and they are highlighted, click on them to see where they take you. If they seem to take you to a dead-end, make a note of them to look up in a dictionary (which so few people seem to have...)

or here: http://www.wiktionary.org

Luck--

Answer 2

Criticism , as a word,implies something negative, but with Literature it can also be positive. The basis of literary criticism is ANALYSIS of different aspects of Literature. The most common aspects are character, language, themes, atmosphere and setting and viewpoint. It's all about thinking about the EFFECT on the reader of the writing. To be good at literary criticism you need to make a point about an aspect of the text which you can prove by reference to the text and quotation. In addition, you should add your own personal response. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, discussion, and interpretation of literature. It isn't like a book review ("this literature is good, this literature is bad") - every time you write an essay, that's a piece of "criticism." You're ferreting out the significant details within the work of literature to discover its meaning and inform your interpretation of the piece.

There are many critical "lenses" through which you can interpret literature. For example, feminist criticism looks at text specifically for issues pertaining to women (comparing the author's treatment of male and female characters, for example), while Marxist critics are interested in class and economic issues within a text (how the upper and working class characters interact, perhaps).

There are several critical movements that have shaped the study of literature on a large scale. They are, briefly, as follows:

Deconstructionism: The text itself is less important than the unspoken underlying assumptions or philosophies. Deconstructionists "break down" the piece until they can get at its most basic, most inherent ideas.

New Historicism: Literature isn't created in a vacuum. New Historicists believe you have to understand the time, place, and social context in which the work was created to be able to interpret and understand it's meaning.

New Criticism: The focus is on "close reading" of the text, without looking at outside sources such as author biographies. The New Critic believes that the work can be interpreted independent of historical context - that everything you need to understand it is present in the text itself.

Reader-response Criticism: The reader is an active agent who completes the work's meaning through his own interpretation. Each reader's interpretation is equally valid based on his or her individual response to the text - and because each reader brings different emotions, background knowledge, etc, each interpretation will be unique.


If you are interested in literary criticism, you might want to check out Northrup Frye's "Anatomy of Criticism" - it's the seminal work on the subject. Harold Bloom ("The Western Canon", "Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?") is one of the most well-respected authors of literary criticism writing today.

Answer 4

I A Richards - Practical Criticism. As someone else wrote, Harold Bloom and Northrop Frye.

Answer 5

Literary criticism meanz criticising 1 on what 1 writes...
It maybe cricising sum1 for what they write iin books. or what they write for magazines..newspapers..or journals...
We criticise the 1 for writing skills or their views...
Or for breaking nay kind of literary laws lyk rhyme scheme en u write poems..or anything such !!