criticism

crit·i·cism

C0753000 (krĭt′ĭ-sĭz′əm)n.1. The act of criticizing, especially adversely.2. A critical comment or judgment.3. a. The practice of analyzing, classifying, interpreting, or evaluating literary or other artistic works. b. A critical article or essay; a critique. c. The investigation of the origin and history of literary documents; textual criticism.

criticism

(ˈkrɪtɪˌsɪzəm) n1. the act or an instance of making an unfavourable or severe judgment, comment, etc2. (Art Terms) the analysis or evaluation of a work of art, literature, etc3. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) the analysis or evaluation of a work of art, literature, etc4. (Art Terms) the occupation of a critic5. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) the occupation of a critic6. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) a work that sets out to evaluate or analyse7. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) Also called: textual criticism the investigation of a particular text, with related material, in order to establish an authentic text

crit•i•cism

(ˈkrɪt əˌsɪz əm)

n. 1. an act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything. 2. an act of passing severe judgment; censure. 3. an unfavorable comment or judgment. 4. the act or occupation of analyzing and evaluating a literary or artistic work, musical or dramatic performance, etc. 5. a critique. 6. any of various methods of studying texts or documents for the purpose of dating them, evaluating their authenticity, etc. [1600–10]

Criticism

See also literature; philosophy
anagrapha review or critique.Aristotelian criticisma critical theory, doctrine, or approach based upon the method used by Aristotle in the Poetics, implying a formal, logical approach to literary analysis that is centered on the work itself. Cf. Platonic criticism.chorizontistRare. a critic of Homeric literature who claims the Iliad and the Odyssey had different authors.contextualisma school of literary criticism that focuses on the work as an autonomous entity, whose meaning should be derived solely from an examination of the work itself. Cf. New Criticism. — contextualist, n., adj.empirio-criticismthe type of criticism whose aim is the reduction of knowledge to descriptions of pure experience and the elimination of such aspects as metaphysics. — empiriocritical, adj.epicrisisa detailed criticism of a book, dissertation, or other writing.exegesisa critical interpretation or explication, especially of biblical and other religious texts. — exegetic, exegetical, adj.formal criticisma critical approach, doctrine, or technique that places heavy emphasis on style, form, or technique in art or literature, seeing these as more important than or even determining content.formalisma critical emphasis upon style, arrangement, and artistic means with limited attention to content, — formalist, n. — formalistic, adj.Freudianismthe application of the theories of the personality developed by Freud to the development of characters and other aspects of artistic creation. Cf. psychoanalytical criticism. — Freudian, n., adj.genre criticisma critical approach, doctrine, or technique that emphasizes, in evaluating a work, the genre or medium in which it can be placed rather than seeing it entirely as an autonomous entity.hypercriticismthe practice of unreasonable or unjustly severe criticism; faultfinding. — hypercritic, n., adj. — hypercritical, adj.Jungian criticisma critical approach, doctrine, or practice that applies the theories of Jungian psychology to works of art and literature, especially with regard to Jungian theories of myth, archetype, and symbol. Cf. mythic criticism.mimesisan imitation, used in literary criticism to designate Aristotle’s theory of imitation. — mimetic, adj.mythic criticisma critical approach or technique that seeks mythic meaning or imagery in literature, looking beyond the immediate context of the work in time and place. Cf. Jungian criticism.New Criticisma critical approach to literature that concentrates upon analysis and explication of individual texts and considers historical and biographical information less important than an awareness of the work’s formal structure. — New Critic, n.new humanisman American antirealist, antinaturalist, and anti-Romantic literary and critical movement of circa 1915-1933, whose principal exponents were Babbitt, More, and Foerster, influenced by Matthew Arnold, and whose aims were to show the importance of reason and will in a context of rectitude and dignity. — new humanist, n., adj.Platonic criticisma critical approach or doctrine based upon and applying the ideas and values of Plato and Platonism, implying a literary analysis which finds the value of a work in its extrinsic qualities and historical context, as well as in its non-artistic usefulness. Cf. Aristotelian criticism.practical criticisma practical approach to literary criticism, in which the text is approached in universal terms with little recourse to an elaborate apparatus of reference outside the text. Cf. theoretical criticism.psychoanalytical criticisman approach to criticism or a critical technique that applies the principles, theories and practices of psychoanalysis to literature, both in the analysis of the work and of the author. See also Freudianism.purismin criticism, rigid or strict evaluation of a work of art or literature in terms of a code of standards of the critic or of a school of style or criticism related to or distinct from the critic, artist, or writer. See also art; language; literature. — purist, n., adj.self-criticismthe action of finding one’s own faults and shortcomings. — self-critical, adj.textual criticismthe close study of a particular literary work in order to establish its original text. — textual critic, n.theoretical criticisma critical approach or doctrine that examines a literary work in the light of certain theories of literature or uses the text as a support for the development of literary theory. Cf. practical criticism.Zoilismthe practice of making bitter, carping, and belittling critical judgments. — Zoilus, Zoili, n.

Criticism

See Also: CRITICISM, LITERARY AND DRAMATIC

(They were) as critical as a fan-club —William McIlvanney
Blaming X [one group of an industry] for the decline of business is like blaming the iceberg for the demise of the Titanic —Bill Soutar, Publisher’s Weekly, 1985
Soutar was speaking specifically about poor business in his field of soft cover book distribution.
Criticism is like champagne: nothing more execrable if bad, nothing more excellent if good —Charles Caleb Colton
Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots —Frank A. Clark, Reader’s Digest, September, 1971
Criticizing, like charity, should begin at home —B. C. Forbes
Impersonal criticism is like an impersonal fist fight, or an impersonal marriage, and as successful —George Jean Nathan
Like people rummaging in boxes for a knife, everyone searched deep in his memory for a grievance —Marguerite Yourcenar
Long harangue [of complaints] … it was like a three-hour movie with no intermission —Elizabeth Spencer
See Also: SLOWNESS
Muttering thin complaints like little children called from play —James Crumley
Rattling off her woes like mea culpas —Rita Mae Brown
Safe from criticsm as a stutter or a squint —Henry James
(Mothers) scolded in voices like amplified hens —Rumer Godden
See Also: VOICES, HARSH
Shot grievances like beads across an abacus —Cynthia Ozick
Sounded like a cranky old man who needs a stray Airedale to kick —New York Times editorial criticizing New York Mayor Edward Koch for his remark about the Soviet government’s arrest of an American journalist, September 17, 1986
Squeaking like little pigs coming out of the barn door —Congressman Dale Lotta (Ohio), April 9, 1987

Criticism

(See also FAULTFINDING.)

blue-pencil To delete or excise, alter or abridge; to mark for correction or improvement. Used of written matter exclusively, blue-pencil derives from the blue pencil used by many editors to make manuscript changes and comments.

damn with faint praise To praise in such restrained or indifferent terms as to render the praise worthless; to condemn by using words which, at best, express mediocrity. Its first use was probably by Alexander Pope in his 1735 Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot:

Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer.

peanut gallery See INSIGNIFICANCE.

pot shot A random, offhand criticism or condemnation; a censorious remark shot from the hip, lacking forethought and direction. Webster’s Third cites C. H. Page’s reference to

subjects which require serious discussion, not verbal potshots.

Pot shot originally referred to the indiscriminate, haphazard nature of shots taken at game with the simple intention of providing a meal, i.e., filling the pot. By transference, the term acquired the sense of a shot taken at a defenseless person or thing at close range from an advantageous position.

slings and arrows Barbed attacks, stinging criticism; any suffering or affliction, usually intentionally directed or inflicted. The words come from the famous soliloquy in which Hamlet contemplates suicide:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. (III, i)

As commonly used, the expression often retains the suffer of the original phrase, but usually completes the thought by substituting another object for outrageous fortune, as in the following:

En route to the United States the enterprise has suffered the slings and arrows of detractors as diverse as George Meany and Joseph Papp. (Roland Gelatt, in Saturday Review, February, 1979)

stop-watch critic A hidebound formalist, whose focus is so riveted on traditional criteria or irrelevant minutiae that he fails to attend to or even see the true and total object of his concern. Laurence Sterne gave us the term in Tristram Shandy.

“And how did Garrick speak the soliloquy last night?” “Oh, against all the rule, my lord, most ungrammatically. Betwixt the substantive and the adjective, which should agree together in number, case, and gender, he made a breach, thus—stopping as if the point wanted settling; and betwixt the nominative case, which, your lordship knows, should govern the verb, he suspended his voice in the epilogue a dozen times, three seconds and three-fifths by a stop-watch, my lord, each time.”

“Admirable grammarian! But in suspending his voice was the sense suspended likewise? Did no expression of attitude or countenance fill up the chasm? Was the eye silent? Did you narrowly look?” “I looked only at the stop-watch, my lord.” “Excellent observer!”

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	criticism - disapproval expressed by pointing out faults or shortcomings; "the senator received severe criticism from his opponent"unfavorable judgmentattack - strong criticism; "he published an unexpected attack on my work"disapproval - the expression of disapprovalbrickbat - blunt criticismcarping, faultfinding - persistent petty and unjustified criticismflack, flak, attack, blast, fire - intense adverse criticism; "Clinton directed his fire at the Republican Party"; "the government has come under attack"; "don't give me any flak"thrust - verbal criticism; "he enlivened his editorials with barbed thrusts at politicians"potshot - criticism aimed at an easy target and made without careful consideration; "reporters took potshots at the mayor"rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to take the rebuke with a smile on his face"slating - a severely critical attack; "the reviewers gave his book a sound slating"static - angry criticism; "they will probably give you a lot of static about your editorial"stricture - severe criticism
	2.	criticism - a serious examination and judgment of something; "constructive criticism is always appreciated"critiquecritical analysis, critical appraisal - an appraisal based on careful analytical evaluationexamen - a critical study (as of a writer's work)knock, roast - negative criticismself-criticism - criticism of yourself
	3.	criticism - a written evaluation of a work of literatureliterary criticismpiece of writing, written material, writing - the work of a writer; anything expressed in letters of the alphabet (especially when considered from the point of view of style and effect); "the writing in her novels is excellent"; "that editorial was a fine piece of writing"explication de texte - a method of literary criticism that analyzes details of a text in order to reveal its structure and meaningtextual criticism - comparison of a particular text with related materials in order to establish authenticitynew criticism - literary criticism based on close analysis of the textanalysis - a form of literary criticism in which the structure of a piece of writing is analyzedcritical review, critique, review article, review - an essay or article that gives a critical evaluation (as of a book or play)

criticism

noun1. fault-finding, censure, disapproval, disparagement, stick (slang), knocking (informal), panning (informal), slamming (slang), slating (informal), flak (informal), slagging (slang), strictures, bad press, denigration, brickbats (informal), character assassination, sideswipe, critical remarks, animadversion The policy had repeatedly come under strong criticism.2. analysis, review, notice, assessment, judgment, commentary, evaluation, appreciation, appraisal, critique, elucidation Her work includes novels, poetry and literary criticism.

criticism

noun1. A comment expressing fault:blame, censure, condemnation, denunciation, reprehension, reprobation.Informal: pan.Slang: knock.2. Evaluative and critical discourse:critique, notice, review.

Translations

批评

critic

(ˈkritik) noun1. a person who judges or comments on books, art etc. He is the book critic for the local newspaper. 评论家，批评家 2. a person who finds fault. His critics would say that he is unsuitable for the job.爱挑剔的人ˈcritical adjective1. judging and analysing. He has written several critical works on Shakespeare.评论性的2. fault-finding. He tends to be critical of his children. 挑剔的，苛求的 3. of, at or having the nature of, a crisis; very serious. a critical shortage of food; After the accident, his condition was critical.危急的ˈcritically adverb 批判性地，苛求地 ˈcriticize, ˈcriticise (-saiz) verb1. to find fault (with). He's always criticizing her. 挑剔，批评，非难 2. to give an opinion of or judgement on a book etc. 评论ˈcriticism noun批评

criticism

→ 批评zhCN

criticism

criticism,

the interpretation and evaluation of literature and the arts. It exists in a variety of literary forms: dialogues (Plato, John Dryden), verse (Horace, Alexander Pope), letters (John Keats), essays (Matthew Arnold, W. H. Auden), and treatises (Philip Sydney, Percy Bysshe Shelley). There are several categories of criticism: theoretical, practical, textual, judicial, biographical, and impressionistic. However, as the American critic M. H. Abrams has pointed out in The Mirror and the Lamp (1953), all criticism, no matter what its form, type, or provenance, emphasizes one of four relationships: the mimetic, the work's connection to reality; the pragmatic, its effect on the audience; the expressive, its connection to the author; and the objective, the work as an independent, self-sufficient creation.

From its beginning criticism has concerned philosophers. Plato raised the question of the authenticity of poetic knowledge in the Ion, in which both poet and performer are forced to admit ignorance about the source of their inspiration and the function of their craft. In his Poetics, Aristotle focused on tragic drama to discover its effect—the purgation of the audience's emotions (see tragedytragedy,
form of drama that depicts the suffering of a heroic individual who is often overcome by the very obstacles he is struggling to remove. The protagonist may be brought low by a character flaw or, as Hegel stated, caught in a "collision of equally justified ethical aims.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Roman civilization produced two critics who were poets rather than philosophers. Horace declared in the Ars Poetica (c.13 B.C.) that poetry must be "dulce et utile"—"sweet and useful." In his On the Sublime (1st cent. A.D.) the Greek Longinus presented the view that poetry must be the divinely inspired utterance of the poet's impassioned soul. Interestingly, each of these pronouncements was an accurate description of the author's own work rather than a set of rules for all poetry. Thus, the ancients can be credited with delineating the two major types of criticism: theoretical, which attempts to state general principles about the value of art (Plato, Aristotle), and practical, which examines particular works, genres, or writers in light of theoretical criteria (Horace, Longinus).

Textual criticism, the comparison of different texts and versions of particular works with the aim of arriving at an incorrupt "master version," has been perhaps most familiar over the centuries in biblical criticism. Textual critics of note include St. Augustine and St. Jerome (the Bible), and later, Samuel Johnson and H. H. Furness (Shakespeare).

Renaissance critics ignored their recent heritage—the medieval attitude toward art as a form of prayer—and looked to the classics, Aristotle's works in particular, for usable models. Philip Sydney maintained in his Defense of Poetry (1595) that poetry must engage and uplift the emotions of its audience with "heart ravishing knowledge." In his Poetics (1561) the Italian critic Julius Caesar Scaliger transformed Aristotle's description of the dramatic unities of time, setting, and plot into exigencies, which were strictly adhered to by the neoclassical dramatists of 17th-century France and England. In his Essay on Criticism (1711) Alexander Pope added an important section on the criticism of critics: those who do their job best always "survey the Whole, not seek slight faults to find." Because the general tone of criticism of this period was prescriptive, it is called judicial criticism.

Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets (1779–81) was the first thorough-going exercise in biographical criticism, the attempt to relate a writer's background and life to his works. The revolution from neoclassicism to romanticism is seen in the works of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who emphasized the importance of emotion and imagination in literature. In his Preface to the Second Edition of the Lyrical Ballads (1800), Wordsworth described the lyric as "emotion recollected in tranquility," and Coleridge, in his Biographia Literaria (1817), defined imagination as "the repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation," rather than as a mere mechanical flight of fancy. The radical shift in emphasis was further delineated by John Keats in his letters and by Percy Bysshe Shelley in his Defense of Poetry (1821)—"poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." Some critics celebrated "art for art's sake," with no moral strings attached, such as Arthur Symons in The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899). Henry James, an important novelist and critic of the novel, stressed the possibilities of point of view for further developing the narrative form in his essay "The Art of Fiction" (1893). The emphasis in criticism of this period on the reaction of the critic to the work under scrutiny led to the use of the term impressionistic criticism.

The 20th cent. has been called the Age of Criticism. Such major disciplines as psychology and anthropology, and such ideologies as Christian theology and Marxist dialectic, were found to have valid application to works of literature. Freudian analysis became a tool for literary biographers. Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious also became a tool, along with anthropological methodology, for critics like T. S. Eliot (in The Sacred Wood, 1920) and Northrop Frye (in Anatomy of Criticism, 1957), who sought to trace similarities of pattern in literatures of disparate cultures and ages. By means of the so-called New Criticism—the technique of close reading, which largely ignores biographical and historical concerns—such critics as Cleanth Brooks, Allen Tate, and Lionel Trilling revived the notion of a poem as an autonomous art object. Notable among academic and journalistic critics who used a combination of critical approaches to enlighten their readers are Edmund Wilson (in such works as The Triple Thinkers, 1938), W. H. Auden (in The Dyer's Hand, 1962), and George Steiner (in Language and Silence, 1970). Feminist and multicultural literary criticism also were important forces throughout the second half of the 20th cent. Structuralism in its literary critical form was a dominant theory from the 1960s into the 1970s, largely due to the work of French theorists Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault. During the 1980s and into the 1990s deconstructiondeconstruction,
in linguistics, philosophy, and literary theory, the exposure and undermining of the metaphysical assumptions involved in systematic attempts to ground knowledge, especially in academic disciplines such as structuralism and semiotics.
..... Click the link for more information. , influenced by such figures as Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man, dominated academic criticism. In addition, the historical approach of such New Historicists as Stephen Greenblatt also found a number of adherents. In general, a critical eclecticism characterized literary criticism at the end of the 20th cent.

There have been a variety of critical trends in music and art criticism also. The approach has ranged from practical to theoretical, from G. B. Shaw's music reviews in the London press of the 1880s to treatises like Alfred Einstein's Mozart (1945) and Charles Rosen's Classical Style (1971). From the 1960s to the end of the 20th cent. new genres of music criticism emerged that took for their subject jazz, rock, ethnic, and other specialized forms of music. The spectrum of art criticism includes such works as Robin George Collingwood's Principles of Art (1938), André Malraux's Voices of Silence (1952), the writings of Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg, and the more recent criticism of such figures as Michael Freed, Barbara Rose, and Adam Gopnik. Newer areas for critical scrutiny include film, architecture, and urban planning. Notable film critics include James Agee, Andre Bazin, Pauline Kael, and Janet Maslin. Architectural criticism by Ada Louise Huxtable and others and studies of the city by Lewis MumfordMumford, Lewis,
1895–1990, American social philosopher, b. Flushing, N.Y.; educ. City College of New York, Columbia, New York Univ., and the New School for Social Research.
..... Click the link for more information. and Jane JacobsJacobs, Jane,
1916–2006, American-Canadian urbanologist, b. Scranton, Pa., as Jane Butzner. She moved to New York City in the 1930s, was an editor (1952–64) of Architectural Forum magazine, and wrote (mid-1950s) on urban affairs and architecture for
..... Click the link for more information. broke new ground for critical scrutiny.

Bibliography

See G. Saintsbury, A History of Criticism (3 vol., 1961); R. Wellek, A History of Modern Criticism (4 vol., 1955–65); W. C. Greene, The Choices of Criticism (1965); P. Barry, Issues in Contemporary Literary Theory (1987); B. Bergonzi, Exploding English (1990).

Criticism

(1) The examination (analysis) of something in order to provide an evaluation.

(2) A negative opinion of something, an indication of short-comings. Criticism is broadly applied in scholarship, art, and society. Scientific or scholarly criticism, depending on its object, is part of several scholarly disciplines: literary criticism is a subdivision of the study of literature; art criticism, of art studies; and theater criticism, of drama study, for example. Criticism in a class society is an essential element of the class (political and ideological) struggle. Both criticism and self-criticism play an important part in socialist society.

Criticism

Blackwood’s MagazineScottish literary magazine founded in 1817, notorious for its Tory bias and vicious criticism. [Br. Lit.: Benét 111]Bludyer, Mr.a “slashing” book reviewer with savage humor. [Br. Lit.: Pendennis]Bolo, Miss“looked a small armoury of daggers” at those who made mistakes. [Br. Lit.: Pickwick Papers]Dutch unclestrict elder who scolds and moralizes. [Br. Slang: Lurie, 122–123]Edinburgh Reviewinfluential literary and political review, founded in 1802, inaugurating new literary standards. [Br. Lit.: Barnhart, 375]Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zopharrebuke Job for his complaints. [O.T.: Job 4–31]Essay on Criticismdidactic poem on rules by which a critic should be guided. [Br. Lit.: Pope Essay on Criticism in Magill IV, 287]Joabadmonishes David for ingratitude to troops and servants. [O.T.: II Samuel 19:1–8]MichalDavid’s wife; castigates him for boyish exulting. [O.T.: II Samuel 6:20]Monday morning quarterbackfootball spectator who, in hind-sight, points out where team went wrong. [Am. Sports and Folklore: Misc.]Sanballat and Tobiahjeered Jews’ attempt to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. [O.T.: Nehemiah 4:1–3]Theonsatirical poet of trenchant wit. [Rom. Lit.: Brewer Dictionary, 1073]Zoilusmalicious and contentious rhetorician; “Homer’s scourge.” [Gk. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 1175]

criticism

1. the analysis or evaluation of a work of art, literature, etc. 2. a work that sets out to evaluate or analyse 3. the investigation of a particular text, with related material, in order to establish an authentic text

criticism

crit·i·cism

criticism

crit•i•cism

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barrage of criticism

open (oneself) (up) to criticism

open to criticism

open oneself to criticism

open to criticism

criticism

criticism,

Bibliography

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Synonyms for criticism

noun fault-finding

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noun analysis

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Synonyms for criticism

noun a comment expressing fault

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noun evaluative and critical discourse

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Synonyms for criticism

noun disapproval expressed by pointing out faults or shortcomings

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Related Words

noun a serious examination and judgment of something

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noun a written evaluation of a work of literature

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