Literary Criticism: Articles

Literary criticism is the evaluation, analysis, description, or interpretation of literary works. It is usually in the form of a critical essay, but in-depth book reviews can sometimes be considered literary criticism.

Criticism may examine:

• a particular literary work
• an author's writings as a whole

Definition from IPL Lit Criticism Pathfinder

You might need to broaden your search to include:

• Author’s Work in General
• Themes or Motifs – such as utopia, scapegoat
• Types of Criticism – Marxist, feminist
• Genre – such as science fiction
• Literary Elements – such as metaphor, imagery
• Time & Culture – such as 20th century, women

Find literary criticism published in peer-reviewed journals in multiple databases.

Search Tips for OneSearch

• Put the title of the work in quotes and the author's last name, for example, "Doll's House" Ibsen
• If you can't find criticism about a specific work, put the author's name in quotes along with the word criticism, e.g. "Luisa Valenzuela" criticism