NOTRE DAME OF SALAMAN COLLEGE, INC.

Founded in 1965 by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI)

Owned by the Archdiocese of Cotabato
Administered by the Diocesan Clergy of Cotabato (DCC)
“Service for the Love of God through Mary”
(B.E.S.T.)
Amare est Servire!

COURSE WORK PLAN & HANDOUTS

SECOND SEMESTER 2025-2026
Course : ELT 117
Program/ Year : BSED ENGLISH 3
Descriptive Title : LITERARY CRITICISM
Course Instructor : Romy O. Delos Santos Jr., MIE
jrrods_oming@[Link]/ jrrodsoming2020@[Link]
Course Description:
This course provides the pre-service English teachers with opportunities to study the basic
approaches to literary theory and criticism and their application to selected literary works. They
will be able to demonstrate content knowledge and application of literary criticism and critical
theory approaches relevant to literature and English language teaching. Moreover, this will
allow them to determine instructional implications in applying literature teaching strategies that
will promote critical thinking and other higher order thinking skills through original critiques
of literary pieces.
The course outcomes include the following:
• discuss, analyze, and interpret a poetic text demonstrating their content knowledge and applying the
basic approaches to literary theory and criticism relevant to the body of literature and English language
teaching;
• analyze literary periods/movements using a definitive text/author thereby promoting critical thinking
and other higher order thinking skills in literary criticism and critical theory approaches; and
• write an original critique paper addressing problems in critical theory from the classical to modern times
as applied to literary works, and drawing implications to English language and literature teaching.

Module 1: Introduction to Literary Criticism

Learning Outcomes:
• review literature studies focusing on literary genres;
• define literary criticism and identify its purposes;
• differentiate significant terms related to literary criticism; and
• show interest in acquiring a deeper understanding of texts through literary criticism.

Introduction:
For all its shortcomings, literary criticism still provides the poet with the tools for self-evaluation and
self-improvement. It introduces work of periods and cultures different in theme and treatment.
Literary criticism comes in various shapes and aims. At best it poses searching questions of the writer,
and insists that he understands how the arts, the sciences and philosophy have different but coexisting concepts
of truth and meaning. Art in the end cannot be divorced from contemporary life, and that consideration leads
on to literary theory.
Literary critics have many skills, but those which the practicing poet needs to acquire are close reading,
explanation and evaluation. The originating emotion still clots the lines or, in striving for originality, the work
becomes mixed-up, pretentious or incoherent. The incomprehensible can always be taken for the profound of
course, and no doubt much get published for that reason, but only the beginner will see publication as the sole
purpose of writing. Poems take too much of the writer's time and emotional lifeblood not to be made as good as
possible, and dishonesty will spoil even the best talents. Poems grow through evaluation that dialogue between

NDSC: ELT 117 Literary Criticism Page 1

Name: ___________________________________________________ Program/ Year: BSED English Third Year
what has been written and what was originally hoped for, between what the poems say now and what they
might with further work. Self-appraisal is inescapable.
But the critic's eye is a rare gift, rarer than sainthood, Housman thought, and matters have lately become
more controversial. Criticism is not fashionable, and has been replaced by literary theory in many university
departments. The criticism that continues to be written naturally concentrates on established figures. The
remainder, the reviewing/criticism appraising the great torrent that pours off the small presses, is often partisan,
shallow and/or doggedly optimistic. Even the aims of criticism seem somewhat doubtful. No single critical
approach seems invariably successful, and insights from differing approaches do not necessarily cohere.
Nothing brings finality of judgment, moreover, and one critic's findings can be undone by another's ingenuity.
Much more damaging, the premises even of literary theory have been uprooted by radical theory.
Purposes of Theory
What does literary criticism hope to achieve? There are many schools of thought, but all take as their
starting point the analysis of the reader's or listener's response. Poems may be complex, requiring a good deal
of explanation or even correction of corrupt scripts, but there has to be an immediate impact of some sort: not
very strong, and not blatantly emotional necessarily, but something that allows the critic to ask: how is this
obtained? How significant is it? How does it compare with similar works? No impact and there is nothing to
analyze. The work has failed, at least where that particular reader is concerned, and no amount of critical
cleverness, literary allusions and information will bully him into responding to what he cannot feel.
But who is the reader? Each and every one, as Stanley Fish might claim, or Milton's "select audience
though few"? Poets may not make money but they still have markets to consider. Whom are they writing for —
the editors of leading magazines, friends, society at large, or themselves? And to say something significant about
the world around them, to resolve personal quandaries, to gain a literary reputation with those who count? In
an ideal world all aims might be served by the one work, but the world is not ideal, and aims needed to be sorted
out.
It is the original intention or purpose of writing; that much historical and sociological analysis attempts
to understand. In Shakespeare or Chaucer, and much more so in the poetry of ancient Greece or China, there are
different conventions to appreciate, and many words cannot be fully translated. The difficulties afflict more than
the professional translator or literary scholar, as modern poetry very much uses recherché imagery and far-flung
allusion. A simple word like "faith" would be very differently appreciated in the church-going communities of
small-town America and the Nietzsche-reading intelligentsia of London's Hampstead. The meaning, the literal
meaning of the poem, might be the same but not the insights that gave the poem its real subject matter.
With conventions come the expectations of the audience. Sidney wrote for the great country house,
Shakespeare for the public stage; Middleton for the City. Their work is different in rhetoric, diction and imagery,
and had to be. Social distinctions may be much less marked today, but the intellectual traditions continue. Poets
are very choosy about their venues. Writers who live in California will keep a Manhattan address. Poems that
work well on the page will not necessarily rise to a public performance. All this is obvious, what professional
prose writers think about before accepting a commission, but is commonly overlooked by the beginning poet.

Is Objectivity Possible?
Since poets love their creations, and must do to continue writing, how objective can they be? Again, there
is much disagreement.
Some poets, stunned by yet another wrong-headed review, come to believe that they alone, or at least a
small circle of like-minded poets, have any real critical ability. Only they really know what is good and not so
good in their own work. And anyone attending workshops regularly may well agree.
But few academic critics will accept that poets make the sounder judgments. Not a demarcation dispute,
they say, but simple experience and logic. Artists are notoriously partisan, and look at colleagues' work to learn
and borrow. And consider a Beethoven sonata: we can all distinguish between the beginner and the
accomplished pianist even though possessing no piano-playing skills of our own. True, but the analogy is not
exact. Poems are written in a language we all read and speak. Even to use language correctly calls on enormously
complex skills, so that poetry may be but a small addition, a thin specialization. On that scale the differences
between good and bad in poetry may be analogous to deciding between two almost equally good pieces of
piano-playing. That exceeds the competence of most of us, and we hand over to the usual competition panel of
musicians and conductors.
Certainly we can accept that critics and poets intend different things, namely articles and poems. And
that there is nothing to stop the poet becoming an excellent critic (many have or academic critics from the

NDSC: ELT 117 Literary Criticism Page 2

Name: ___________________________________________________ Program/ Year: BSED English Third Year
learning the difficult art of writing poetry. The experience may well be enriching for both. But the question is
more insidious. What exactly is it that the critic produces in his article, and how does it shape the reader's
response? An earlier generation (much earlier, that encountered by I. A. Richards in his pioneering reading
experiments at Cambridge) sought to make poems out of their responses. Artists do influence each other, and
imitation is no doubt the sincerest form of flattery. But Richard's examinees, and perhaps inevitably, without the
time and skills to do a decent job, turned in very juvenile work; Richards could dismiss the approach as entirely
wrong-headed. Analysis was what was wanted — not adroit phrases but method, the careful reductive method
of the sciences. By all means write up the exercise engagingly afterwards, but first read with great attention,
asking the right questions. So was born the New Criticism, and few doubt that this was a large step forward.
But that does not invalidate the question. The New Critics were now doing what every good poet does
or should do — examining and reexamining the work from every conceivable angle: diction, imagery, meaning,
shape, etc. Previous critics had rushed to judgment without putting in the fundamental spade work. But what
the New Critics produced, the journal article or book, had none of the attraction of the original poem, and indeed
became increasingly technical, employing a jargon that only fellow specialists could enjoy. The general reader
was not catered for, any more than poets, most of whom were writing in different styles anyway, with different
problems to address. Criticism retreated to academia, and eventually bred a poetry that had academia for its
readership.
More than that, criticism became an end in itself. The intellectual gymnastics currently performed by the
great names of American criticism are not grounded in the poem being analyzed, but in the tenets of radical
theory. The poem may serve as the original impetus, as something about which to parade their skills, but the
criticism has detached itself and become somewhat like a Modernist poem. It draws inspiration from literary
theories, and these can be nebulous or plainly wrong. Speculative theory — self-referencing, and as enclosed as
medieval scholasticism — will not help poets working in other traditions, but does underline an earlier question:
what is the status, the ontological status, of the critical article?

EXPLORE
Literary Criticism, Its Purpose and Usage
The term literary criticism refers directly to the ‘reasoned consideration’ of literary works and their
relatable issues. It encompasses all arguments about literature – whether or not specific literary works are
analyzed. The earliest form of literary criticism can be seen in Plato’s warnings against the potentially
detrimental effects of poetic inspiration in his work, Republic.
More specifically, literary criticism includes what has been referred to as ‘practical criticism’, or the
interpretation of intended meanings and the overall judgment of quality. Criticism at this level can be seen not
only from an artistic vantage point, but also from other viewpoints that might be relevant to students and others
who study literature in more depth than the traditional reader.
For this reason, criticism is often considered to be in a different category than conventional scholarship.
That is where the separation ends, however. At the root of all criticism is informed outside knowledge.
Literary criticism depends on all phases of literary understanding, including keen emphasis on the
evaluation of the work itself and a strong understanding of the life and times of the author.
Function of Literary Criticism
The overall functions of literary criticism are not easily compartmentalized. If someone were to attempt
to critique a literary work, they might find that they are doing a broad spectrum of activities, ranging from book
reviews to more in-depth theoretical discussions of not only the book, but also the person who wrote the book
and the historical events that occurred during the time of original writing. Book reviews have the potential to
determine whether or not a book will be sold in mass quantities.
However, there are several famous books that have enjoyed great commercial success despite receiving
negative reviews – including one of the most famous works ever written. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick
(1851) did not receive glowing reviews from critics, yet it has enjoyed tremendous success in both print and
movie form for almost two hundred years.
One of the guiding functions of literary criticism is to explore and express shifts in sensibility that makes
it possible to reevaluate books. In fact, the only requirement for a new critique is that the original text survives
over the years.
The literary critic sometimes finds that they must wear multiple hats, acting as a pseudo-detective,
uncovering, verifying and editing unknown manuscripts. Occasionally, literary critics have the unique

NDSC: ELT 117 Literary Criticism Page 3

Name: ___________________________________________________ Program/ Year: BSED English Third Year
opportunity to introduce the public to literary works that have either been forgotten or may not have generated
a strong interest in previous years.
The depth of the functions involved in a proper literary critique will determine the range of publications
the critique appears in. For example, literary criticisms that are published in the daily press will seldom include
detailed analysis and often have little more information than a summary of the publishers claim for book interest.
Given the role that critics play in demonstrating which written work should garner the most respect from
the public and in deciding what the work is ‘really’ about, literary critics are often the target of resentment.
Critics who are misinformed or malicious have the capability to steamroll or discourage writers who have been
struggling to enter new realms of writing. Plodding critics can hinder new literature by diverting deserved
attention away from pivotal points in the work and reflecting on inessential maters.
Literary critics might even antagonize writers despite optimal performance of their work. Those writers
who possess minimal regard for literary critics aren’t less pleased when they are told that their finished work
might possess unintended meanings or when it is viewed as incomplete.
What authors who believe that there is no need for literary criticism fail to recognize is that their work,
after publication, is ‘theirs’ only in the legal sense. The genuine ‘owners’ of the work, in the broad sense, is the
public who will now be in a position to form their own opinions regardless of what critics say or believe.
The responsibility of the critic is not to stroke the ego of the writer, but rather to compel the public to
become involved in the conversation and to develop their own standard of judgement. A critic can be useful to
the public because they focus on what the public wants in literature or popular culture and what they stand to
receive from literature and popular culture.
Interestingly, despite the fact that literary critics are often the basis of the personal opinions of the critics
themselves, it is these reviews that help to create a thirst for art in the public. It is the role of the critic to identify
authentic talent in authors and to make sure that the public has the opportunity to explore those talents.
That said, there are critics who feel strongly that literature must be discussed separately from other
matters, however many feel that social and political debates will augment these conversations. Literature is
known to be partisan, meaning that it will always, in one way or another, bare connection to local circumstance
and can call upon values and affirmations – It is not surprising to hear that the best critics pay little attention to
the boundaries between criticism and other social conventions.
This is particularly true in modern European nations where literary criticism has held a formative place
in ongoing debates about political and cultural issues. What is Literature (1947) by Sartre is a prime example of
how literary ideals can relate to the development of society and various freedoms.
Existing Forms of Literary Criticism
There are many different types of literary criticism, most focus on specific issues or identities. Here are a
few examples:
• Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction (-360 BC to Present Time)
• Formalism, New Criticism, Neo-Aristotelian Criticism (1930 to Present Time)
• Psychoanalytic Criticism, Jungian Criticism (1930 to Present Time)
• Marxist Criticism (1930 to Present Time)
• Reader-Response Criticism (1960 to Present Time)
• Structuralism / Semiotics (1920 to Present Time)
• New Historicism / Cultural Studies (1980 to Present Time)
• Post-Colonial Criticism (1990 to Present Time)
• Feminist Criticism (1960 to Present Time)
• Gender or Queer Studies (1970 to Present Time)
Historical Development of Literary Criticism
Nearly all literary criticism was document from the 20th century onward. That said, the questions first
raised by Aristotle and Plato are still considered valid, and every single critic who has ever attempted to justify
the social value of literature has done so by first having to come to terms with Plato’s argument in Republic.
Plato morality found poetry as a statement untrustworthy and believed that poetry could never been
seen as more than transcendent ideas. It was with this statement that we were, in essence, saying that literature
could only serve to move truth seekers away from the truth. Plato credited the poet with inspiration, but insisted
that this was a cause for worry; ‘A man possess by such madness would subvert rational’ Because of this, poets
were to be banished from the hypothetical republic.
In Poetics, Aristotle countered Plato’s argument by stressing his views of what was normal and helpful
in literature. It was his argument that the poet was not inspired by the divine, but was instead motivated by

NDSC: ELT 117 Literary Criticism Page 4

Name: ___________________________________________________ Program/ Year: BSED English Third Year
basic human desire to imitate the universe around him. Imitation is perceived to have value for those who are
empathetic to it.
Both Aristotle and Plato are seen as antagonists, but their inability to agree with each other’s viewpoint
is noteworthy. Both agree that poetry is imitative; both agree that it evokes emotions in readers, and both feel
that poetry gains justification from its service to the public. Poets, in history, had power over others. Modern
critics feel that poetry is much more than a past-time, where Aristotle believes that it was not the social marvel
that it was made out to be.
Criticism
• When you hear “criticism,” you might automatically think about pointing out weaknesses or failures.
• However, criticism can be favorable as well as unfavorable.
Literary criticism
• Literary criticism helps interpret the meaning of a short story, poem, or play.
• Literary criticism is an attempt to understand and ultimately evaluate what an author has created.
• Literary criticism is the study, analysis, evaluation and interpretation of literature. In other words, it judges
the value of a work. In literary criticism, a particular work or a body of work is evaluated according to
its aesthetic value, historical/cultural/social significance of the work, use of language, and insights and
insights of the work. These qualities are often mutually dependent or inflective.
• Literary criticism has a long history and can be traced back to the times of Pluto. Literary criticisms are
often published in essay or book format.
Literary criticism of a work usually offers:
➢ interpretation of its meaning
➢ analysis of its structure and style
➢ judgment of its worth by comparison with other works
➢ estimation of its likely effect on readers
➢ Literary criticism can be applied to a…
➢ genre
➢ an author's writings as a whole
➢ a specific literary work
The Critical Process – Basic Steps
1) Understanding what the text says
2) Analyzing literary elements such as plot, character, point of view, symbolism, irony etc…
3) Interpreting the literature by making broad observations or generalizations of the theme
4) Evaluating the literature by applying specific criteria

What purpose does literary criticism serve?

• Literary criticism helps to explain a work and its underlying principles to readers who may not fully
understand the text
• Literary criticism helps interpret works to readers who might otherwise fail to understand or
appreciate them
• Literary criticism helps discover and apply principles that describe “good literature”
• Literary criticism examines how Culture, Politics, Gender, Popular ideologies, History, Psychology,
Author’s life affect interpretation of literature.
• Literary criticism helps establish clearly defined standards of evaluation
• Literary criticism helps to justify imaginative literature in a world that finds its value questionable

NDSC: ELT 117 Literary Criticism Page 5

Name: ___________________________________________________ Program/ Year: BSED English Third Year
APPLICATION/ REFLECTION: (long-sized bond paper)
I. From the lesson on The Introduction of Literary Criticism, I realized that …
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

II. Using the Venn Diagram below, compare and contrast Literary Discussion vs. Literary Analysis vs.
Literary Interpretation.

Literary Discussion Literary Analysis

Literary Interpretation

NDSC: ELT 117 Literary Criticism Page 6

Name: ___________________________________________________ Program/ Year: BSED English Third Year