TRENDS IN MODERN LITERARY CRITICISM/FUNCTION OF CRITICISM

Every literature has two aspects. These two aspects of literature may be called creation and criticism. Creative writing may be defined as a kind of writing which is new, fresh and original. Shakespeare's plays, Milton's poems, Hardy's novels and Eliot's poetic plays are the instances of creative writing. This kind of writing has its own process, its own movement and its own appeal. Every creative writer looks at the different sections and cross-sections of his society; he draws material for his writings from these places; he thinks and imagines a good deal and it is only then that he creates something. Every kind of creative writing, therefore, is both personal and impersonal at one and the same time. Criticism is different from creation. It is not new or fresh or original in the sense creation is. It is derivative in character because it is a kind of work which is based on creation. Critical writing is not possible without creative writing. If nothing is created, there would be nothing to criticize and comment on. Some people are of the view that creation is health while criticism is disease. This is not a correct and sound attitude. Some critics may be bad and some kind of criticism may be unhealthy, but there is an inner-relationship between creation and criticism. That is why; Eliot says that criticism is as unavoidable and as necessary as breathing. There have been critics for a very long time now. Aristotle was the first major critic of the ancient times. Since then criticism has kept on being written without any break. Dryden, Dr. Johnson, Coleridge and Matthew Arnold have been the major critics in the history of English literature.