Function of CRITICISM_BA III_english Spl_Semester V

 (E-content developed by Dr N A Jarandikar)

Function of CRITICISM

1.   Judgement:

• In its strict sense, criticism means judgement. The literary critic, therefore, is primarily an expert who uses his special faculty and training to examine the merits and defects of a piece of literary art or the work of a given author and pronounce a verdict upon it.

•  The primary function of a literary critic is to arrive at and pronounce a meaningful judgement of value.

• I. A. Richards says: “To set up as a critic is to set up as a judge of values.”

• Literary criticism, says Rene Wellek, “is judgement of books, reviewing and finally the definition of taste, of the tradition, of what is a classic.”

2.   Evaluation:

• When a critic attempts to judge the value of a work of art or literature, he can be said to have evaluated the work.

• T. G. Williams says: “The function of a literary critic is the evaluation of what has been written, in terms of aesthetic principles appropriate to literature.” (English Literature, a Critical Survey)

3.   Interpretation:

• If judgement be the real end of criticism, interpretation may be employed as a means to that end.

• Poetry is a ‘criticism (interpretation) of life’. Criticism is an interpretation of that interpretation.

• The chief function of criticism is to enlighten and stimulate by the proper interpretation of the works of literature.

• If a great poet makes us partakers of his larger sense of the meaning of life, a great critic may make us partakers of his larger sense of the meaning of literature.

• Walter Pater aptly says: “Criticism is the art of interpreting art.”

• Matthew Arnold defines criticism as “a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.”

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