Principles & History of Literary Criticism – Chapter 1 : Fundamentals of Criticism, Study notes of English Literature

Download Principles & History of Literary Criticism – Chapter 1 : Fundamentals of Criticism and more Study notes English Literature in PDF only on Docsity!

1 FUNDAMENTALS OF CRITICISM eee Literary criticism is, in a sense, as old as and indeed twin-born with literary creation, for all creation involves, in the sphere of art, the more or less conscious perception and selection of what is essential and contributes signifi- cantly to the beauty, power or truth of the resultant piece of art, and the rejection of all else. The silent operation of the critical sensibility of the creative artist is an inevitable, if not always discernibly evident part of the creative process. Thus, itbecomes one of the major tasks of the literary critic to articulate what remains silent during the process of creation. In this sense, criticism is not a late birth of the creative spirit but is connate with it and guides and governs its operation, even when, as with Milton, celestial patronesses indulge in nocturnal affairs with their chosen literary darlings here below ‘dictating easy’ such ‘unpre- meditated verse’ as Lycidas and Paradise Lost and the final version of the Ode to a Nightingale. (S. Ramaswami & V. S. Seturaman) The critical study of literature is the principal task of a teacher. He would do well to remember J. H. Rosenfield’s words in Daedalus (1969) : ‘Education fails if it leaves untouched the basic values held by the student. By this | mean his ethical sense, his power of intellectual analysis, his capacity for emotional reactions, his spiritual life. These lie close to the fundament of his character, and few means of communication reach that so effectively as the fine arts. When the experience of a work of art takes place at the fullest potential of its power, when it involves the man’s rational faculties as well as his intuitive wordless reactions to the eloquence of form then his capacities to feel and understand are expanded, he learns to transcend his limited self.’ In Malamud's God's Grace the protagonist Calvin Cohn, after the destruction of the world by a thermo-nuclear: holocaust, explains tu the Chimp Buzz that to be human isto be responsive to and protective of life and civilization. The creative artist and’ the critical thinker are one in this endeavour. ‘ The word ‘Criticism’ defined The word ‘criticism’ has been derived from the Greek word ‘Kritikos’ which means ‘able to discern, and judge’, and whoever does 1i.9 act of judging is called a critic, Though the word ‘Kritikos’ occurs in ancient Greek and Roman books of rhetoric and poetics, In English literature it was tirst_ used by Dryden in the preface to The State of Jnnocence (1677). He wrote, “Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, meant a standard of judging well". With Pope's Essay on Criticism (1711) the word ‘criticism’ was firmly established in English Literature. The function of a critic is to criticise a work of art, bring out its excellences, point out its defects, and thus finally Judge Its artistic qualities. In C Scanned with OKEN Scanner