Principles of Literary Criticism

Author: Wang Xianpei, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-08-01
Features: Literary criticism, as a discipline, is one of the main branches of literary studies, an indispensable component of it. Therefore, it should occupy a proper position in the teaching system of literature majors in higher education. However, for a long time, literary criticism has not been given sufficient attention in the teaching of literature in Chinese universities. Compared to literary theory and literary history courses, this part of literary studies, which is most closely linked to the current literary reality, highly practical, and plays a prominent role in cultivating the abilities of literature students, has become an overlooked aspect. The establishment of the literary criticism course and the compilation of the textbook Principles of Literary Criticism are efforts and attempts to change this situation. The literary criticism course includes two main parts: theory and practice. The practical part involves students conducting literary criticism exercises under the guidance of teachers, and directly participating in social literary criticism activities when conditions permit. This connects university literary teaching with the evolving literary reality, allowing students to develop an interest in the changing literary phenomena and the emerging trends in literature, and to make their own independent judgments. The theoretical part explains the nature, function, standards, and principles of literary criticism, as well as the methods and techniques of writing literary criticism. Our course design and textbook compilation aim to appropriately integrate these two aspects, with this textbook leaning more toward the latter.