What is Literary Criticism?

Literary criticism is analysis, interpretation and evaluation of authors and their works of literature, which can include novels, short stories, essays, plays and poetry.

• Literary "criticism" is not necessarily negative; "criticism" means a thoughtful critique of an author's work or an author's style in order to better understand the meaning, symbolism or influences of a particular piece or a body of literature.

• Literary critical analysis may be written for the general public, students, or a scholarly audience.

  • Popular literary criticism is written for the general public. Local newspapers, such as the Seattle Times, and magazines, such as Entertainment Weekly or O, contain book reviews that generally provide brief summaries and recommendations. Some reviews for the general public, such as those found in The New Yorker or The New York Times Book Review may offer insightful analysis and discussion.

  • Introductory analysis for students introduce literary works, authors, and critical perspectives, without presenting original criticism. Look for Topic & Overviews in the database Gale Literature or historical, cultural, and biographical overviews. 

  • Scholarly literary criticism is generally found in scholarly literary journals, such as Critique or The Journal of Ethnic Fiction, as well as in some books. Scholarly literary criticism presents original and sophisticated analysis for an academic audience.

Features of Scholarly Literary Criticism

• Most, though not all, scholarly analysis goes through a rigorous peer review process by other experts in the field before publication. 

• Scholarly literary criticism engages with a written work in a thoughtful, sophisticated, and sustained manner. While literary criticism from a reference book provides you with introductory terminology, context, an overview of interpretation, and more, scholarly criticism presents an original interpretation of a text.

• Scholarly literary criticism analyzes specific passages, characters, themes, and/ or language, from a written work.

• Scholarly literary criticism brings the critic's particular theoretical framework, biases, and questions, to bear upon the text.

• Articles are written by scholars in a subject area for an academic or professional audience. Check for author affiliations or credentials in the database record or at the beginning or end of an article.

• Scholarly literary criticism may be extensively cited, if the author references the work of other thinkers. Some scholarly literary criticism engages primarily and closely with the text itself, rather than with other the ideas of other scholars. (Scholarly articles in the sciences and social sciences are, as a rule, extensively and thoroughly cited.)

There is no one correct scholarly reading of a text. That said, be sure to build your own analysis with examples and support from the written work you're analyzing, as well as the other scholarly sources with which you are "conversing."