Literary critic
A literary critic is an observer of the literary scene who mostly works as a journalist for the feature pages, who primarily analyzes, evaluates and reports on new publications on the book market .
history
Strategically operating critics who were mainly committed to a school or tendency were Adolf Bartels for nationalist-folk literature, Friedrich Gundolf for the George Circle, Kurt Hiller for Expressionism or the literary scholar Georg Lukács , who regarded bourgeois realism as a model and attacked classical modernism as well as socialist realism. Hermann Bahr's unique role lies less in his function as a strategic critic than in having fulfilled this role in opposing currents - naturalism, symbolism and expressionism. The most important analytical literary critic in the first half of the 20th century was Walter Benjamin . Kurt Tucholsky succeeded in writing his own literary criticism , combining emotional sympathy, pointedly formulated social criticism , taste judgment and concentrated work statement in his reviews. In contrast to his colleagues, he was not bound to any school and, unlike Benjamin, was not interested in a theoretical foundation for his judgments.
Friedrich Sieburg , Hans Egon Holthusen and Günter Blöcker are considered the most important literary critics in the first two decades after 1945. For them, literary criticism was the evaluation of an autonomous work of art. The German literature after 1945 found little support. In terms of literary policy, Sieburg and Holthusen campaigned for Gerd Gaiser and contributed to the rehabilitation of Gottfried Benn . At the same time, with authors such as Thomas Mann or Rainer Maria Rilke , they resorted to selected authors from the classical modern era, who, due to a subject-centered concept of author and work, lack a socio-critical dimension in their works. The feature section remained the most important medium.
With Group 47, a new generation of literary critics was to gain in importance, who no longer wanted to ignore social issues and saw the promotion of young authors as an important task. The practice of impromptu criticism, some of which consisted of spontaneous reactions, contradicted the idea of reflective literary criticism. The participants Walter Jens and Marcel Reich-Ranicki shaped the literary criticism of the next decades. The critics, who were also close to Group 47, including the literary scholars Hans Mayer and Walter Höllerer , the music critic Joachim Kaiser and Fritz J. Raddatz , who first worked in the GDR, were to help shape literary criticism in the Federal Republic in the following decades. The tradition of analytical literary criticism, which was shaped by Walter Benjamin and partly uses a polemical or essayistic style, was continued by Reinhard Baumgart . Although her reviews continued to appear in the high-circulation newspapers, literary criticism continued to gain in importance on radio and television. Literary programs such as the Literary Quartet or the Swiss Literature Club popularized literary criticism and exacerbated the tendency already noticeable in Group 47 to judge literary works according to a ranking list.
In contrast to his immediate predecessors, Ranicki was able to assert himself thanks to his media presence alongside the subsequent generation of critics, who, like Ulrich Greiner , Thomas Steinfeld or Volker Hage, mostly belong to the first post-war generation. The pluralization of literary criticism partly led to a turning away from literary criticism in the tradition of the Enlightenment. Book reviews without critical impetus, such as Elke Heidenreich made, stood next to a criticism shaped by literary studies, such as that practiced by Sigrid Löffler , Martin Lüdke or Thea Dorn , as well as an assessment that saw itself mainly as a pioneer of a literary movement. After Ranicki's death one can no longer speak of a literary critical authority. The practice of the ranking is varied by Denis Scheck in the review of the Spiegel bestseller list. In a weakened form, Volker Weidermann supports authors . Polemics as a method of literary criticism is continued in particular by Maxim Biller .
Delimitations
As researchers, literary scholars are committed to a descriptive approach. The penetration of a text using various methods such as hermeneutics, structuralism or deconstruction aims to obtain independent research results. Regardless of their research, scholars such as the philosopher and literary historian Umberto Eco or the English literary theorist Terry Eagleton were also active as literary critics.
A further distinction must be drawn from the theater critic , who not only reviews the text of a play, but also its performance (s), ie describes, interprets, classifies and evaluates them as a whole. At times, however, literary critics are and were also active as theater critics. The mediation of books cannot be separated from a reading recommendation and thus also includes a purchase motivation. The reduction of the critic to the role of a buying motivator is extremely controversial.
Quote
- The acumen of the critic is particularly evident in new writings that have not yet been tried out by the public. Guessing, hurrying ahead, judging at first glance - that is the critic's gift. How few have them! - Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve (from: Chateaubriand )
See also
literature
- Thomas Anz and Rainer Baasner (eds.): Literary criticism. History, theory, practice . Beck, Munich 2004.
- Sigurd Paul Scheichl: Great literary critic . Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2010.
