Later in the 1960s and 1970s, Edmund Leach and his students Mary Douglas and Nur Yalman, among others, introduced French structuralism in the style of Lévi-Strauss ; while British anthropology has continued to emphasize social organization and economics over purely symbolic or literary topics, differences among British, French, and American sociocultural anthropologies have diminished with increasing dialogue and borrowing of both theory and methods.

Some say that literary criticism is a subset of literary theory.

According to one theory, the term was loaned to Russian, where-in literary language-it first appeared in " Elysei ", a 1771 poem by V. Maikov.

As a term, critical theory has two meanings with different origins and histories: the first originated in sociology and the second originated in literary criticism, whereby it is used and applied as an umbrella term that can describe a theory founded upon critique ; thus, the theorist Max Horkheimer described a theory as critical in so far as it seeks " to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them.

To use an epistemological distinction introduced by Jürgen Habermas in Erkenntnis und Interesse ( Knowledge and Human Interests ), critical theory in literary studies is ultimately a form of hermeneutics, i. e. knowledge via interpretation to understand the meaning of human texts and symbolic expressions — including the interpretation of texts which are themselves implicitly or explicitly the interpretation of other texts.

From this perspective, much literary critical theory, since it is focused on interpretation and explanation rather than on social transformation, would be regarded as positivistic or traditional rather than critical theory in the Kantian or Marxian sense.

The second meaning of critical theory is the theory used in literary criticism and in the analysis and understanding of literature.

This is discussed in greater detail under literary theory.

Literary scholars first used this term in the 1960s and 1970s, and the term has only come into broad use since the 1980s, especially as theory used in literary studies has increasingly been influenced by European philosophy and social theory.

This version of " critical " theory derives from the notion of literary criticism as establishing and enhancing the understanding and evaluation of literature in the search for truth.

Some consider literary theory merely an aesthetic concern, as articulated, for example, in Joseph Addison's notion of a critic as one who helps understand and interpret literary works: " A true critic ought to dwell rather upon excellences than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

Starting in the 1960s, literary scholars, reacting against this, began to use analytical tools from critical social theory-initially semiotic, linguistic, and interpretive theory, then structuralism, Lacanian psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, and deconstruction as well as Continental philosophy, especially phenomenology and hermeneutics, and various other forms of neo-Marxian theory.

Thus literary criticism became highly theoretical and some of those practicing it began referring to the theoretical dimension of their work as " critical theory "-a philosophically inspired theory of literary criticism.

Most students of literature, whether they call themselves scholars or critics, are ready to argue that it is possible to understand literary works as well as to enjoy them.

Criticism is as old as literary art and we can set the stage for our study of three moderns if we see how certain critics in the past have dealt with the ethical aspects of literature.

Some critics however regarded Christie's plotting abilities as considerably exceeding her literary ones.

Judges are selected from amongst leading literary critics, writers, academics and leading public figures.

" It may not have attracted the " real punks ," but it did ensnare many new readers, and it provided the sort of movement that postmodern literary critics found alluring.

Category: French literary critics

The second part of Cervantes ' Don Quixote, finished as a direct result of the Avellaneda book, has come to be regarded by some literary critics as superior to the first part, because of its greater depth of characterization, its discussions, mostly between Quixote and Sancho, on diverse subjects, and its philosophical insights.

The translation, as literary critics claim, was not based on Cervantes ' text but mostly upon a French work by Filleau de Saint-Martin and upon notes which Thomas Shelton had written previously.

The general view of historians and critics is that the story of the Golem of Prague was a German literary invention of the early 19th century.

From these, the Gothic genre per se gave way to modern horror fiction, regarded by some literary critics as a branch of the Gothic although others use the term to cover the entire genre.

Category: Swedish literary critics

Lovecraft's style has often been criticised by unsympathetic critics, yet scholars such as S. T. Joshi have shown that Lovecraft consciously utilised a variety of literary devices to form a unique style of his own-these include conscious archaism, prose-poetic techniques combined with essay-form techniques, alliteration, anaphora, crescendo, transferred epithet, metaphor, symbolism and colloquialism.

Category: Scottish literary critics

It was harshly panned by both contemporary and later literary critics, with even kinder critics regarding the work as " a long-winded sob story " which many have found to be " simply unreadable ," and this negative response has been speculated to be the reason Salinger decided to quit publishing.

Category: American literary critics

Category: French literary critics

Category: French literary critics

Category: Dutch literary critics

Category: Canadian literary critics

Anderson notes that " either the encounter with Fortinbras ' army nor Hamlet's brush with buccaneers appears in any of the play's sources – to the puzzlement of numerous literary critics.

* Several literary critics have noted the influence of phrenology ( and physiognomy ) in Edgar Allan Poe's fiction.

Intellectual and academic critics have often judged Plautus's work as crude ; yet his influence on later literature is impressive — especially on two literary giants, Shakespeare and Molière.

" Literature scholar Norman Holland argued that post-structuralism was flawed due to reliance on Saussure's linguistic model, which was seriously challenged by the 1950s and was soon abandoned by linguists: " Saussure's views are not held, so far as I know, by modern linguists, only by literary critics and the occasional philosopher.

Only '' a New York hick would expect to find the literary life in Greenwich Village, at any point, later than Walt Whitman's day.

Equally penetrating in its fashion is the following remark by a lady in the course of a literary conversation: `` So much has already been written about everything that you can't find out anything about it ''.

M. Fragiska mentions an archeological find of celery dating to the 9th century BC, at Kastanas ; however, the literary evidence for ancient Greece is far more abundant.

Vincent B. Leitch, 2001 ) for some commentary on Christine de Pizan ’ s life, literary works, rhetorical contributions and other relevant sources that one may find useful.

The band's album debut, Tin Machine ( 1989 ), was initially popular, though its politicised lyrics did not find universal approval: Bowie described one song as " a simplistic, naive, radical, laying-it-down about the emergence of neo-Nazis "; in the view of biographer Christopher Sandford, " It took nerve to denounce drugs, fascism and TV [...] in terms that reached the literary level of a comic book.

Berglin's strips, usually in four panels, tend to find their humour in a sometimes absurd mix of everyday situations and literary and philosophical references or reflections.

Goebbels was embittered by the frustration of his literary career ; his novel did not find a publisher until 1929 and his plays were never staged.

Marcus Aurelius ' Stoic tome Meditations, written in Greek while on campaign between 170 and 180, is still revered as a literary monument to a philosophy of service and duty, describing how to find and preserve equanimity in the midst of conflict by following nature as a source of guidance and inspiration.

One can find dozens of books of literary theory bogged down in signifiers and signifieds, but only a handful that refer to Chomsky.

He became part owner, chief editor, and an active contributor to the literary journal Magazin für Literatur, where he hoped to find a readership sympathetic to his philosophy.

Some critics have also tried to apply the theory to individual works, but the effort to find unique structures in individual literary works runs counter to the structuralist program and has an affinity with New Criticism.

" Of " The Pit and the Pendulum " in particular he said, " does not seem to me to have permanent literary value of any kind ... Analyse the Pit and the Pendulum and you find an appeal to the nerves by tawdry physical affrightments.

Pym's literary career is noteworthy for the long hiatus between 1963 and 1977 when, despite early success and continuing popularity, she was unable to find a publisher for her richly comic novels.

Because French was a language acquired at school and university, Huston found that the combination of her eventual command of the language and her distance from it as a non-native speaker helped her to find her literary voice.

Described as " the most eclectic and unpredictable of the literary world's annual gongs ", Michelle Pauli posed the question in relation to the longlist for the 2004 edition: " Where would you find Michael Dobbs and Tony Parsons up against Umberto Eco and Milan Kundera for a € 100, 000 prize?

Brunvand discovered 383 oral examples of Type 901 spread over all of Europe, whereas he could find only 35 literary examples, leading him to the conclusion that if Shakespeare took this story from anywhere, he most likely took it from the oral tradition.

Reading the Kuttner ( and Moore ) novel, readers are bound to find similarities in theme and in specific instances: some character names are common to both works, and they share the fantasy literary device of moving a present day, realistic character from the familiar world into a fantastical, alternate reality world, exposing the character to this shift as the reader experiences it.

As Hugh Walpole's literary executor, and being unable to find a potential biographer who would tackle the job to his satisfaction, Hart-Davis proposed to Walpole's publishers, Macmillan, that he should write the biography himself, to which Harold Macmillan replied that he couldn't think of a better person to do it.

" Shakespeare scholar Paul A. Cantor argues that this association is appropriate — the warlike Klingons find their literary matches in the characters Othello, Mark Antony, and Macbeth — but that it also reinforces a claim that the end of the Cold War means the end of heroic literature such as Shakespeare's.

It is a literary mirror and, from the outset, describes what Harry had not learned, namely " to find contentment in himself and his own life.

Much of the early literature of the new nation struggled to find a uniquely American voice in existing literary genre, and this tendency was also reflected in novels.

In all of the various references to Leigh Hunt, including his autobiography, little mention is made of his family but he did manage to find time among his literary pursuits to get married and produce a large family.

In the great literary figures you will find people who know at least as much of human nature as the psychiatrists and psychologists try to do.

Inspired by the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 and the Curse of the Pharaohs, producer Carl Laemmle Jr. commissioned story editor Richard Shayer to find a literary novel to form a basis for an Egyptian-themed horror film, just as Dracula and Frankenstein informed their previous hits.