Function of Criticism by T.S Eliot, Why Criticism in Literature?, Four Parts of the essay “Function of Criticism”, Tradition and the Individual Talent, I Part: Eliot’s views on critic and critical work of art, II Part: John Middleton Murry’s Essay and Eliot’s Contradiction, III Part: Eliot’s criticism of Murry and function of criticism, IV Part: Relation of Criticism with creative work of art

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Function of Criticism
by T.S Eliot
Presented by Hema D. Goswami

2. Why Criticism in Literature?
Criticism is the practice of judging the
merits and faults of something1
Criticism does not necessarily
imply “to find fault”2
Criticism is the study, evaluation,
and interpretation of literature3
The goal is to understand the
possible meaning of work of art.4
Through Criticism we understand
Literary work in broader sense.5

3. Four Parts of the essay “Function of Criticism”
1st
Eliot’s views
on critic and
critical work
of art.
2nd
Murry’s views on
Romanticism and
Tradition and
Eliot’s
contradiction with it.
3rd
Eliot’s
criticism
of Murry
4th
Relation of
criticism with
the creative
work of art

4. T.S Eliot
•One of the 20th century’s major poets, essayist,
publisher, playwright, and literary and social critic.
•His poems : The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock,
The Waste Land, The Hollow Man, Ash Wednesday.
•His Plays: Murder in the Cathedral, The Cocktail
Party.
•Literary criticism: Tradition and Individual talent

5. Tradition and the Individual Talent
•Art must be understood in the context of previous
pieces of art.
•An artist or poet must be judged by the standards of
the past.
•Value of work of art must be viewed in the context
of the artist’s previous works.
•Good poems constitute “not a turning loose of
emotion but an escape from emotion”

6. I Part: Eliot’s views on critic and critical work of art
 Criticism is not an autotelic activity.
 Creative work of art requires great efforts and hard work.
 Art do not require to be aware of ends, and indeed performs its function.
Art is Beyond the ends and open so that you can interpret it anytime.
 A creative work of art is judged through its words.
 Writer must write spontaneously without any particular aim in mind.
 A good criticism is the elucidation(clarification) of works of art and the
correction of taste(for the readers)
 Ultimate aim of every critic is to enlighten the mind of the reader
 A critic must compose differences with the other critics rather than being a
blind follower.
 A critic should justifies the importance of text for future generation, or can
explain that why should a literary text possess continued readership in
future.

7. II Part: John Middleton Murry’s Essay and Eliot’s
Contradiction
 According to Murry, Classicism and Romanticism cannot go side
by side, both differ very clearly and no one could follow both at
the same time.
He says that Classicism is the feature of French and
Romanticism is the feature of England. Romanticism is more
important for him.
Eliot criticizes Murry’s views because he is not giving
significance to Classicism
He has also related Catholicism to Classicism for believing in
tradition and Protestantism to Romanticism for believing in
liberalism. (Like siya as Romanticism and sunni as classicism)
He speaks about full faith in inner voice and no restriction to
follow outside authority. Eliot objected by stating that concept of
inner voice is like advocating doing what one likes.

8. Difference between Classicism and
Romanticism according to Eliot’s views
Classicism
Complete
Adult
Romanticism
Fragment
Immature
Orderly Chaotic
Eg. 3 idiot
s, scene of
definition
of machin
e.

9. III Part: Eliot’s criticism of Murry and function of criticism
Function of criticism is to quest for some common principles for
the perfection of art.
This function can only be served when the tradition of art is
followed.
Thus someone believing in the “inner voice” could not value
criticism.
He calls inner voice “Whiggery” means Liberal(Characteristics of
a Whig)(characterized by a belief in inevitable progress, and tendi
ng to evaluate the past by the standards of the present)

10. IV Part: Relation of Criticism with creative work of art
Criticize Arnold and Murry who consider Criticism better than
creative work.
Critical Activity is important for any work of creation
Critical labour by author in composing his work includes the
labour of sifting, combining, constructing, correcting, testing.
Highest kind of criticism is that which is done by writer himself for
his creative work of art.
He says that some writers are better creative and superior to
others, only because their critical faculty is superior to others.

11. Function of Criticism
 Good Criticism is the elucidation of works of art and the
correction of taste.
It is not an autotelic activity it requires great effort and hard work.
Creative work is judged through its words.
Enlighten the mind of the readers.
A critic must compose differences from others.
Should justify the importance of text for future generation.
Function of criticism is to quest for some common principles for
the perfection of art.
This function can only be served when the tradition of art is
followed.
Criticism and creative work is related with each other.
Highest kind of criticism is that which is done by writer himself for
his creative work of art.

12. Continuation…..
By Criticism Eliot means analysis of literary work.
True purpose of critic is to present the technical facts of the work
 A true critic is objective and open minded.
A critic must be knowledgeable about the ‘facts’ related to a work
of art.
 A critic should have highly developed sense of tradition.
A critic should understand the connection of past to the present.
 Therefore the function of criticism is to inform or educate and
not to judge.

13. Work Cited
Bosco, John. Literary Criticism free notes. <https://literarycriticismjohn.blogspot.com/2012/
02/00176-function-of-criticism-by-tseliot.html>.
Dahiya, Anuj. T.S Eliot The Function of Criticism. 4 April 2016. <http://ugcenglish.com/literar
y-criticism/ts-eliot-the-function-of-criticism/998/>.
english summary. Function of Criticism by T.S Eliot Summary. 2019. <https://englishsumma
ry.com/function-criticism-eliot-summary/>.
Expert Answera . Function of Criticism. 24 July 2016. <https://www.enotes.com/homework-
help/what-function-criticism-according-t-s-eliots-245739>.
Wikipedia contributors. Criticism. 1 April 2019. 19 April 2019 <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/ind
ex.php?title=Criticism&oldid=890495929>.
—. T.S. Eliot. 18 April 2019. 19 April 2019 <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=T._S.
_Eliot&oldid=893072627>.

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