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This edition published in the UK & the USA in 2015 by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39-41 North Road, London N7 9DP email: info@iconbooks.com www .introducingbooks .com Sold in the UK, Europe & Asia by Faber & Faber Ltd, Bloomsbury House, 74-77 Great Russell Street, London WClB 3DA or their agents Distributed in the UK, Europe & Asia by TBS Ltd, TBS Distribution Centre Colchester Road, Frating Green, Colchester CO7 7DW Distributed in South Africa by Jonathan Ball, Office B4, The District, 41 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock 7925 Distributed in Australia & New Zealand by Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, PO Box 8500, 83 Alexander Street, Crows Nest, NSW 2065 Distributed to the trade in the USA by Publishers Group West 1700 Fourth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 Distributed in Canada by Publishers Group Canada, 76 Stafford Street, Unit 300, Toronto, Ontario M6J 2Sl Distributed in India by Penguin Books India, 7th Floor, Infinity Tower- C, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon 122002, Haryana ISBN: 978-184831-904-2 Text and illustrations copyright © 2015 Icon Books Ltd The author and artist have asserted their moral rights. Originating editor: Kiera Jamison No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Printed and bound in the UK by Clays Ltd, St Ives pie
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What Is Literary Criticism? This is a (short) introduction to literary criticism. It is a book about literary criticism and so, by necessity, it is not a book of literary criticism. It’s a truism to say that the literary critic’s object of study is literature. A book about literary criticism, then, is only indirectly a book about literature. For this reason, thorny questions as to what constitutes “literature” will have to be left aside at the outset, but it covers: novels, poems and plays, certainly, and much else besides. A literary critic, or a philosopher, might well ask: what is literature? What is writing? Why does one write? For whom? The French philosopher, literary critic and communist, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) asked these very questions in 1947. 3

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This edition published in the UK & the USA in 2015 by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39-41 North Road, London N7 9DP

email: info@iconbooks.com www .introducingbooks .com

Sold in the UK, Europe & Asia by Faber & Faber Ltd,

Bloomsbury House, 74-77 Great Russell Street, London WClB 3DA or their agents

Distributed in the UK, Europe & Asia by TBS Ltd, TBS Distribution Centre

Colchester Road, Frating Green,

Colchester CO7 7DW

Distributed in South Africa by Jonathan Ball, Office B4, The District, 41 Sir Lowry Road,

Woodstock 7925

Distributed in Australia & New Zealand by Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, PO Box 8500, 83 Alexander Street, Crows Nest, NSW 2065

Distributed to the trade in the USA by Publishers Group West 1700 Fourth Street Berkeley, CA 94710

Distributed in Canada by Publishers Group Canada, 76 Stafford Street, Unit 300, Toronto, Ontario M6J 2Sl

Distributed in India by Penguin Books India, 7th Floor, Infinity Tower- C, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon 122002, Haryana

ISBN: 978-184831-904-2

Text and illustrations copyright © 2015 Icon Books Ltd

The author and artist have asserted their moral rights.

Originating editor: Kiera Jamison

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the UK by Clays Ltd, St Ives pie

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