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Why do some critics believe a literary work must be both expressive and carefully constructed?

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Antique book open to the frontispiece of The Iliad of Homer, showing the title and an engraved portrait of a bearded man, with old books in the background. — literature *The Iliad*, an epic of the Trojan War attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer, is considered a foundational work of Western literature.

Western literary criticism has long been defined by an antithesis between two schools of thought: the expressive and the constructive.1

The expressive theory emphasizes the writer as a virtuoso who voices deep personal realities, generating an aesthetic response through the reader's identification with the author's personality. Conversely, the constructive theory views the writer as a technician who designs a work—much like an architect or engineer—to elicit a specific aesthetic response from the audience.1

Many critics argue that this antithesis is ultimately unreal. They believe that a work of art must be both expressive and carefully constructed to be truly effective. By integrating these perspectives, a literary work achieves a balance where the technical mastery of form serves to articulate profound human expression. This synthesis recognizes that the "meaning" of a work is inseparable from its specific language and structure, as any alteration to the construction necessarily changes the expressive content. Therefore, viewing a work as both a deliberate construction and a vehicle for expression allows for a more complete understanding of its artistic value.12