How do literary critics interpret a text’s meaning and judge its quality?

Literary criticism is the reasoned consideration of literary works, encompassing the interpretation of meaning and the judgment of quality. Because there is no single, universally accepted method, critics employ a variety of approaches to analyze texts.12

Interpreting Meaning

Critics interpret a text by examining its internal structure, language, and context. Methods include:
* Close Reading: A technique, central to New Criticism, that focuses on the text as an independent unit of meaning, analyzing figurative language, paradox, and irony.34
* Contextual Analysis: Other approaches, such as New Historicism, treat texts as historical artifacts, interpreting them through the lens of the social, intellectual, and economic circumstances in which they were produced.5
* Theoretical Frameworks: Critics may apply specific lenses—such as psychoanalysis, feminism, or deconstruction—to uncover hidden meanings, power dynamics, or the ways language produces meaning.352

Judging Quality

The evaluation of a work often relies on a critic's underlying literary philosophy, which can be subjective. Historically, Western criticism has been shaped by two opposing theories:6
* Constructive Theory: Views the writer as a technician who designs a work to elicit a specific aesthetic response, similar to how an architect constructs a building.7
* Expressive Theory: Focuses on the writer as a virtuoso who expresses profound personal realities, generating a response through the reader's identification with the author.7

Ultimately, criticism is a continuous process of revaluation; a work's quality is often tested by its capacity to engender ongoing critical debate.6