''Difficulties Faced by Literary Critic''
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Literary criticism is the art of judging literature that is , of deciding how far and for which reasons a work of literature may ve regarded as good or bad. The essential duty of a literature critic is valuation. But since any satisifactory judgment of a work of literature must depend upon an understanding of its rue nature, literary interpretation and appreciation are legitimately regarded as a valuable kind of critical activity.
To judge, evaluate, assess, implies the existence of laws, standards, criteria and principles. These are what we need. These are what we must try to formulate. The natural approach to the problem is to suppose that the principles of literary criticism will consist of a series of statements about desirable qualities or essential characteristic, by refrence to which we could decide degrees of goodness or badness in a poem, novel , play or any other form of writing . We hope that our valuations will then be objective that is to say, valid for other readers as well as for ourselves. We should like to feel confident that we judge works of literature to be beautiful or true or good because they really are so , and not merely because we ourselves suppose them to be so .
Since the time of the ancient Greeks, a great deal of effort has been spent in endeavouring to define what constitutes ''greatness'' in the art. Some of the favourite or persuasively argued attributes are: beauty, truth, sincerity, personality, impersonality, unity, clarity, integrity, authencity, maturity, simplicity and complexity. Works of literature have been praised for being morally improving, disinterested, life in having, passionate, intense, restrained, objective, subjective, sublime, precise, self aware, unseldconsious, particular, universal, and for innumerable other virtues. But the practical appilication of the criteria which are implied the these words causes great fiddiculty. When pressed into use and subjected to analysis , they begin to crumble in our hands . Truth and beauty are notoriously difficult concepts to define in logical terms. But extracted, and elevate into general criteria, they immediately become less plausible. The difficulties which face the literary critics who endeavour to formulate the theorotical bases of his activity, are as follows:
(1) Limitations of a critic:
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No critic is without limitations of mind, moral, political and religious. He has prejudices, both those of his own age and of his own invention. He is a living man who has friends and enemies. He blunders; he nods. He may become lost in philosophical obscurity or entangled in fashions pf psychology. The vocabulary he has inherited stubbornly resist his refurbishment(polish). He is sometimes tight for the wrong reasons; and he may judge wrong on the best of principles. If he is humble, he seeks help from the the creative writer and, recieving no more than rhetorical platitudes , may regretfully conclude that the poet, although he knows how to do it. Often does not know how it is done. If he himself is creative writer, his preoccupation with his his problems of expression may lead his critical faculties completely astray. If he is not himself a creative writer, he may little geniune understanding of the impulse behind literary expression.
(2) Uncertainties about the Materials and Tools:
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There are certain basic uncertanties, both about the materials for the critic's study and the tools with which he works.(a) There is a lack of definitness about the object , he is expected to be judging. The real thing on which he exercise his taste and delivers his opinions(the work of literature) is not something conveniently existing in space and time, like a Cathedral or Chinese Jar. What he has to deal with his experience, in time, as he reads a bo
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Literary criticism is the art of judging literature that is , of deciding how far and for which reasons a work of literature may ve regarded as good or bad. The essential duty of a literature critic is valuation. But since any satisifactory judgment of a work of literature must depend upon an understanding of its rue nature, literary interpretation and appreciation are legitimately regarded as a valuable kind of critical activity.
To judge, evaluate, assess, implies the existence of laws, standards, criteria and principles. These are what we need. These are what we must try to formulate. The natural approach to the problem is to suppose that the principles of literary criticism will consist of a series of statements about desirable qualities or essential characteristic, by refrence to which we could decide degrees of goodness or badness in a poem, novel , play or any other form of writing . We hope that our valuations will then be objective that is to say, valid for other readers as well as for ourselves. We should like to feel confident that we judge works of literature to be beautiful or true or good because they really are so , and not merely because we ourselves suppose them to be so .
Since the time of the ancient Greeks, a great deal of effort has been spent in endeavouring to define what constitutes ''greatness'' in the art. Some of the favourite or persuasively argued attributes are: beauty, truth, sincerity, personality, impersonality, unity, clarity, integrity, authencity, maturity, simplicity and complexity. Works of literature have been praised for being morally improving, disinterested, life in having, passionate, intense, restrained, objective, subjective, sublime, precise, self aware, unseldconsious, particular, universal, and for innumerable other virtues. But the practical appilication of the criteria which are implied the these words causes great fiddiculty. When pressed into use and subjected to analysis , they begin to crumble in our hands . Truth and beauty are notoriously difficult concepts to define in logical terms. But extracted, and elevate into general criteria, they immediately become less plausible. The difficulties which face the literary critics who endeavour to formulate the theorotical bases of his activity, are as follows:
(1) Limitations of a critic:
___________________
No critic is without limitations of mind, moral, political and religious. He has prejudices, both those of his own age and of his own invention. He is a living man who has friends and enemies. He blunders; he nods. He may become lost in philosophical obscurity or entangled in fashions pf psychology. The vocabulary he has inherited stubbornly resist his refurbishment(polish). He is sometimes tight for the wrong reasons; and he may judge wrong on the best of principles. If he is humble, he seeks help from the the creative writer and, recieving no more than rhetorical platitudes , may regretfully conclude that the poet, although he knows how to do it. Often does not know how it is done. If he himself is creative writer, his preoccupation with his his problems of expression may lead his critical faculties completely astray. If he is not himself a creative writer, he may little geniune understanding of the impulse behind literary expression.
(2) Uncertainties about the Materials and Tools:
___________________________________ ___
There are certain basic uncertanties, both about the materials for the critic's study and the tools with which he works.(a) There is a lack of definitness about the object , he is expected to be judging. The real thing on which he exercise his taste and delivers his opinions(the work of literature) is not something conveniently existing in space and time, like a Cathedral or Chinese Jar. What he has to deal with his experience, in time, as he reads a bo
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