Criticism: The Major Statements: A Book that Anyone Interested in Writing Should Own

The symbiotic relationship between serious academic criticism and creative writing is typically looked at as oppositional depending on which side you are on. Nevertheless, the simple fact is that without constructive critical analysis most great works of literature would be nothing more than quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore. Same thing with many great films. Were it for nor serious critical attention, nobody today would have ever even heard of Citizen Kane; it was a box office flop thanks to the fascist tactics of Willam Hearst. A terrific critical notice can turn a nobody into a major figure overnight; on the other hand, critical devastation typically has little effect on the popularity of a work of art unless it genuinely seems to have little or no value whatever.

A book that any student of criticism should definitely own, and that any creative writer can benefit from as well, is Criticism: The Major Statements. Really, the title speaks the truth; what is included in this anthology are some of the seminal works about literary criticism. This could serve as a textbook for a college class on literary theory or critical theory and I imagine it has been used for just that purpose. But don’t let that scare you off. Criticism: The Major Statements goes back in time to probably the earliest western documents on the importance of criticism, back to the dynamic duo of the ancient Greeks, Plato and his student Aristotle. In fact, it is the range of what is included in the book that is truly amazing. I’ve looked over a lot of anthologies on critical theory and literary criticism and it’s very difficult to find one that compares with this book as far the breadth of its historical range.

The whole history of critical theory from those Greeks all the way up to the 1980s work of such stable feminist theorists as Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar can be found here. (I might quibble that the brilliant Donna Haraway isn’t included, but you can’t have everything.) The last entry in the book comes from Henry Louis Gates with a selection from his dazzling The Signifying Monkey.