Criticism and Literary Theory

Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals. Literary criticism has probably existed for as long as literature. Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. Literary theory is the body of ideas and methods we use in the practical reading of literature. Literary theory is description of the underlying principles, one might say the tools, by which we attempt to understand literature and offers varying approaches for understanding the role of historical context in interpretation as well as the relevance of linguistic and unconscious elements of the text.