Are you a writer? Do you want your work to be evaluated, analyzed, or revised? This is where literary criticism comes into play.

Criticisms in the literary world are focused more on philosophical discussions rather than theories. These are readers' subjective interpretations about more than just the form of the literary work. Critiques often take into consideration the reader experience and the emotions it stirred within him. Styles, perhaps as learned from popular literary figures, may be the subject of literary criticism as well. Needless to say, everyone whose literary works are exposed to the scrutiny of readers is subject to literary criticism.

Like others, you have to accept this positively. You can learn what your readers think about your literary work. This will provide you with feedback as to how your works are seen by your readers and will thus enable you to make the necessary adjustments, depending on what you want to achieve by writing.

Since literary criticism is subjective, it depends on the circumstances of the reader. After reading the critique, you have to dig deeper into who the reader is. His demographic background and social status will dictate his views. His education and exposure will also play a part in how he reads your work. Depending on how your work has affected your readers, the critiques you get can become controversial and be discussed by other readers. These days, there are online discussion and forum sites that tackle critiques and reviews of literary works.

Not all critiques are negative. Just like reviews for other consumer products, the critiques can contain positive aspects as well. Discussions can also include conversations about experiences. This should help the writer understand what is important about his work: structure, context, construction, and how it can affect readers.

There are different kinds of approaches to literary criticism:

One is the historical approach. This will depend on the author or writer and his own kind of thinking. Readers will have to put themselves in the shoes of the author and understand his objectives in his literary work. A good critique will come from a good understanding of the writer’s beliefs, attitudes, and other personal circumstances.

A contextual approach is used to distinguish one work from another. The work itself is placed in the center because all approaches must deal with, to some extent or another, the text itself.

The personal approach is used when the reader simply wants to share what the literary work meant to him. This centers more on the affective side of the literary work, often highlighting particularly strong feelings and emotions evoked in the reader.

Lastly, the mimetic approach shows how the work is connected or not with the real world. Does a child character act like a child in the real world would? Are people being portrayed accurately, especially women? Does the work show a financial image of the globe?

Literary criticism comes in various forms. Any writer should be able to handle these criticisms with an open mind. He might argue that he has creative license and would opt to continue writing the way he does. That’s his choice. Even the best writers in the literary world, after all, have been criticized one way or the other. The fact remains that there are still readers out there who actually enjoy reading their works.