Noun
the informed analysis and evaluation of literature
a written evaluation of a work of literature
Source: WordNetLiterary criticism has about it neither rigour nor proof. Where it is honest, it is passionate, private experience seeking to persuade. George Steiner
Much literary criticism comes from people for whom extreme specialization is a cover for either grave cerebral inadequacy or terminal laziness, the latter being a much cherished aspect of academic freedom. John Kenneth Galbraith
The point of literary criticism in anthropology is not to replace research, but to find out how it is that we are persuasive. Clifford Geertz
There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic. Anne Stevenson
I still found literary criticism to be a suspect activity. Alison Bechdel
As for literary criticism in general: I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or a play or a poem is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split. Kurt Vonnegut