Considerations on the Present State of Literary Criticism

Let us begin by taking a look at the semantic background: the word criticism designated an action implying judgment and discrimination based on standardized poetics or on preferred taste. By virtue of implicit or explicit criteria, the principal task of criticism-of things either beautiful or otherwise-was to make a distinction, to disapprove or to praise. If one refers to French dictionaries (from the 17th century onwards), one can see that the first and stable meaning of the noun criticism is:"The art of judging a work of the mind" (Academy, 1694). To this first acceptation of the meaning of the word was added, in 1740, the idea of enlightenment and explanation. It has now come to designate "literary science," independently of any judgment of value. This new acceptation, although confirmed by use, did not appear sufficiently clear to the compilers of the 8th Dictionary of the Academy (1932). The definition proposed at this date hardly differs from that of 1694: Criticism (noun): The art of judging works of the mind, literary production, a work of art. etc.Critical (adjective): Pertaining to the distinction in a work of the mind, a literary production, a work of art, etc., that which does not correspond to the accepted ideas of beauty, or what one considers to be the truth

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