Types of Literary Criticism

There are many different schools of theory that give readers a special vocabulary to dissect any given
literary text. Here are some of the most significant theories:

1. Practical criticism: This study of literature encourages readers to examine the text without
regarding any of the outside context—like the author, the date and place of writing, or any other
contextual information that may enlighten the reader.
2. Cultural studies: In direct opposition to practical criticism, cultural theory examines a text within the
context of its socio-cultural environment. Cultural critics believe a text should be read entirely
through the lens of the text's cultural context.
3. Formalism: Formalism compels readers to judge the artistic merit of literature by examining its
formal elements, like language and technical skill. Formalism favors a literary canon of works that
exemplify the highest standards of literature, as determined by formalist critics.
4. Reader-response: Reader-response criticism is rooted in the belief that a reader's reaction to or
interpretation of a text is as valuable a source of critical study as the text itself.
5. The new criticism: New critics focused on examining the formal and structural elements of
literature, as opposed to the emotional or moral elements. Poet T.S. Eliot and critics Cleanth
Brooks and John Crowe Ransom pioneered the school of the new criticism.
6. Psychoanalytic criticism: Using Sigmund Freud’s principles of psychoanalysis—like dream
interpretation—psychoanalytic criticism looks to the neuroses and psychological states of
characters in literature to interpret a text's meaning. Other notable psychoanalytic critics include
Jacques Lacan and Julia Kristeva.
7. Marxist theory: Socialist thinker Karl Marx established this branch of literary theory alongside
Marxism, his political and sociological ideology. Marxist theory examines literature along the lines
of class relations and socialist ideals.
8. Post-modernism: Post-modernist literary criticism emerged in the middle of the twentieth century to
reflect the fractured and dissonant experience of twentieth-century life. While there are many
competing definitions of postmodernism, it is most commonly understood as rejecting modernist
ideas of unified narrative.
9. Post-structuralism: Post-structuralist literary theory abandoned ideas of formal and structural
cohesion, questioning any assumed “universal truths” as reliant on the social structure that
influenced them. One of the writers who shaped post-structuralist theory is, Roland Barthes—the
father of semiotics, or the study of signs and symbols in art.
10. Deconstruction: Proposed by Jacques Derrida, deconstructionists pick apart a text’s ideas or
arguments, looking for contradictions that render any singular reading of a text impossible.
11. Postcolonial theory: Postcolonial theory challenges the dominance of Western thought in literature,
examining the impacts of colonialism in critical theory. Edward Said's book Orientalism is a
foundational text of postcolonial theory.
12. Feminist criticism: As the feminist movement gained steam in the mid-twentieth century, literary
critics began looking to gender studies for new modes of literary criticism. One of the earliest
proponents of feminist criticism was Virginia Woolf in her seminal essay “A Room of One's Own.”
Other notable feminist critics include Elaine Showalter and Hélène Cixous.
13. Queer theory: Queer theory followed feminist theory by further interrogating gender roles in literary
studies, particularly through the lens of sexual orientation and gender identity.
14. Critical race theory: Critical race theory emerged during the civil rights movement in the United
States. It is primarily concerned with examining the law, criminal justice, and cultural texts through
the lens of race. Some leading critics of CRT include Kimberlé Crenshaw and Derrick Bell.
15. Critical disability theory: Critical disability theory is one of a growing number of intersectional fields
of critical study. Critical disability theorists believe racist and ableist views go hand-in-hand and
seek to examine ableist societal structures.