[LottiFurmann]

Topic started by Mani M. Manivannan (@ cpe-24-221-181-57.ca.sprintbbd.net) on Wed May 2 02:14:57 .


W. H. Auden wrote:

What is the function of a critic. So far as I am concerned, he can do me one or more of the following services:

1. Introduce me to authors or works of which I was hitherto unaware.

2. Convince me that I have undervalued an author or a work because I had not read them carefully enough.

3. Show me relations between works of different ages and cultures which I could never have seen for myself because I do not know enough and never shall.

4. Give a "reading" of a work which increases my understanding of it.

5. Throw light upon the process of artistic "making."

6. Throw light upon the releation of art to life, science, economics, ethics, religion, etc.

- "The Dyer's Hand and Other Essays" (Random House, Inc., 1972)

Cleanth Brooks added in his articles of faith "That in a successful work, form and content cannot be separated and that form is meaning."

These are useful definitions of literary criticism, perhaps descriptions of a formalist criticism. Of course, there are other types of criticisms such as the Deconstruction, Jungian or archetypal, Historical, Marxist, Biographical, Psychoanalytical, Ethnic (minority?), etc. There is always the reader's criticism that usually is a single reader's perspective on something that they read. I invite readers to post their criticisms of something that they have read using Auden's guidelines in mind. Excerpts from professional critics are also welcome.