Evaluation and criticism
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Aristotelian and platonic
Relativistic and absolutist
Theoretical and practical
What kind of play is it supposed to be?
Criticism
• It is the term we use to designate the
description, analysis, and judgment of
literary works of art.
• It covers all of the activities with which we
have been concerned, however, our
attention is now mores specifically directed
toward total evaluation
Aristotelian and Platonic
• These are two basic kinds of criticism.
• We associate Aristotle with formal, logical
analysis of works of art: the standards are
severe and exceptions to rules are not
treated lightly
• Platonic criticism, on contrast, suggests a
utilitarian attitude toward works of art
Aristotelian and Platonic
• In platonic criticism, a play’s value is the
practical good it brings to people; art, in
this perspective, is less formal, but morally
stimulating; the value of the play is seen
more in the effect it has on the audience
than in its artistic value.
• The basic dichotomy between Aristotelian
and Platonic criticism is that one is innerdirected and the other is outer-directed.
Relativistic and Absolutist
• The relativistic critic feels strongly that any
and all standards of evaluation may
logically be applied to a play as a work of
art; the goal of understanding is placed
significantly above the formality of the
means
Relativistic and Absolutist
• The absolutist critic, in contradiction, holds
to one system of analysis with dogmatic
rigidity.
• The absolutist feels equally strongly that
there is only one established critical
procedure to works of art and he adheres
to that procedure with admirable tenacity
Theoretical and Practical
• Another useful distinction is that between
theoretical criticism and practical criticism.
In effect, the former kind of criticism
moves from the particular to the general
by moving from the individual play to
theories about the plays.
Theoretical and Practical
• Practical criticism moves from the general
to the particular by moving from theories
about plays in general to the way in which
these theories are seen operative in
particular plays
The Critic’s purpose
• Make an evaluation of a play by asking
questions:
-What kind of play is it supposed to be?
It is obvious that our very first question
should direct our attention to the intentions
of the playwright: how futile and even
infantile it would be to interpret a comedy
by the systems of analysis we might use in
discussing tragedy.