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Defining Literary Theory and Criticism: Pondicherry University
Defining Literary Theory and Criticism: Pondicherry University
NEYA . S ( 18356062 )
DR. H. KALPANA
8 AUGUST 2019
LITERARY THEORY
The term theory has its origin from the Greek word ‘theoria’ meaning contemplation or
speculation. Literary theory is the speculation of literature in its broad sense. It is the systematic
account of the nature of literature and helps in understanding the relation of a text to its author,
reader as well as the society. It is an equivalent of the first principles of the study of literature.
Literary theory in simple terms, provide different frameworks which in turn is used to evaluate
Theory in general is abstract and is completely objective and so is literary theory because
it gives the rules and regulations upon which a literary work should be written. It is intertwined
approach. Literary theory which has initially started from Liberal Humanism has now branched
LITERARY CRITICISM
The term Criticism is from the Greek word ‘kritikos’ meaning judgement. Literary
criticism thus means judging literature. It is also the study, evaluation and the interpretation of
literature. It judges the value of any work and evaluates the work according to its aesthetic value,
historical, social, cultural significance of the work and also the usage of language.
literary theory to some objects of literary studies like a text or a group of texts, a writer or a
group of writers, a literary movement or an era. While literary theory is the study of the
principles of literature, its categories, criteria and the like; literary criticism is the study of
concrete works of art. On the other hand the subject- matter of literary criticism is an art, and
criticism is evidently something of an art too. Literary criticism could be thus considered as a
parasitic form of literary expression, an art based on pre-existing art, a second hand imitation of
creative power.
Literary criticism is a structure of thought and knowledge existing in its own right, with
some measure of independence from the art it deals with. In technical terms, literary theory is
Literary theory answers certain questions like ‘What is Literature?’, ‘What techniques do
the writers of literature deploy?’, ‘What is the connection between literature and other aspects of
human culture? , ‘What is the connection between words and meaning in literature?’ and so on.
It also helps a reader to apply multiple lenses to the same text and see how different texts
inter-connect with each other because the entire conceptual apparatus of human beings is
Literary theory in a way liberated literary works from the siege of the so called ‘elitist
readers’, who claimed that the works of literature can be appreciated only by people from a
particular cultural and literary breeding. It thus threw open the literary works to a kind of
and the work. Only with the application of any theory could one know what a ‘literary work’ is
in the first place or how one should read it. Hostility to theory usually means an opposition to
People generally have a notion that literature is ordinary and is instantly available to
anyone and could be understood by anybody. Literary theory defies this and proves to be
complex and a bit different from this ‘image’ of literature. Its complexity lies in the systematic
approach just like any other scientific theory and thus it shows that literature is no inferior to
science.
show that what readers take for granted as “common sense” is in fact a historical construction, a
particular theory that has come to seem so natural to the readers that they don’t even think of it
as a theory.
Literary theory thus deals with the rules of language along with the themes and other such
Literary theory broadly includes three topics – literary criticism, literary history and
theory in the literal sense. Literature doesn’t exist in vacuum and so does literary theory. It
encompasses many fields such as politics, economics, anthropology, psychology, gender and so
on.
Theory now is not restricted to literary texts or literary approaches to, say, the novel, but
has widened out into other domains especially into non- literary fields like comics, movies, video
Literary theory in recent years has sought to explain the degree to which the text is all the
more the product of a culture than an individual author and in turn how those texts help to create
the culture thus leading to the emergence of a new field – the cultural theory.
Technically theory seeks changes in the social realms of reading or the making of
meaning in the law or even the acts of writing histories – in the sense it helps a reading practice,
REFERENCE
Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. New York; Sterling. 2009.
Print.
1983. Print.
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism. New Jersey; Princeton University Press, 1957.
Print.