What is Literature and Literary Criticism

Literature and  Literary Criticism 

 

Literature The term " Literature " , as Raymond Williams has reminded us , is of comparatively recent origin Originally , it referred to , as indeed it still does , any written , printed matter on any subject . We still refer to medical “literature”, talk about availability or otherwise of “literature “on a subject etc. Earlier it signified something similar. It is from this source that the term, “literate " was derived. Sometime in the 19th century it began connoting specifically what was earlier covered under the broad rubric of “poetry “. As an academic discipline, “classics “and” rhetoric " preceded it. Literature's critical meaning is still visible in the use of the word “literature “. Matthew Arnold (1822-88) gave it the final seal of its current meaning of his famous essays. Now in its specialized use it means what poetry used to signify in earlier times. It includes all imaginative writing: poetry, fiction, drama. The rise of the notion of literature is intimately related to the growth of the print industry, when texts were easily duplicated in the wake of the steam - run printing machines during the Industrial Revolution (1750-1850) in Europe. Books became commodities as the capitalist market economy generated a middle class which had the leisure to read books. The idea of literature grew along with another allied concept, that of culture. Let us draw a simple relationship between these: agriculture Industrialization > leisure > literature culture.

 

Literacy Criticism Understanding and interpreting literacy experience, even when not articulated can be literary criticism. However, this can be an amateurish response. Alternatively, it could also be a highly sophisticated, professional one of the kind we generally read in review columns or journals. The poets and critic of English have battled over the question of the relative superiority or otherwise of criticism over creation: Wordsworth and Arnold, for example. Some enduring criticism has also come into being by way of “Defense of Poetry “. Such as Sidney's (1554-1586) and Shelley's (1792-1822) Essays. The classical criticism of the Greeks and Romans grew around attacks on and defense of the position of poets in a civil society. “Aesthetics” and " Poetics” were terms that were earlier used before the vogue of “Criticism " set in. You can find brief histories of such common words in Raymond William's book entitled keywords. And then, more recently, “theory " was introduced into our departments.