[I had written this article sometime ago to plead for a more accessible and simpler approach to literary criticism. ]

The role of imaginative literature in the process of human existence, the relationship between literature and society, and the utility of literary and cultural criticism to the society and to literature itself have been topics of hot and provoking debates since Plato and Aristotle, to the present day. These topics have always been discussed evaluated and re-evaluated with utmost zeal and energy by critical thinkers and litterateurs of high caliber, repeatedly over the ages and yet they have remained questions of immortal significance- every age re-evaluating these topics to formulate its own notions of creation and criticism for its own good.

The study of literature as well as the practice of literary criticism today, has become too much academic and jargon-ridden and the need to formulate proper notions of the study and criticism of literature is greater today than it ever was. This obviously calls, for a serious rethinking of the function and purpose of literary criticism, proper and fit for our age – the age of visual media and digital culture. Continue reading →