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literary critic

literary critic

4 6.0
A person who reads books or plays and writes about how good they are
  • noun
  • /ˈlɪtəˌrɛri ˈkrɪtɪk/
translation icon : crítico literario
  • But it should inspire a healthy caution in literary critics who borrow methods from the social sciences.
  • literary critics and historians
  • anthropologist and literary critic
  • literary critics and sociologists

Jin Lee is an acclaimed novelist, essayist and literary critic.

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Examples

  • The work of literary critics as well as media theorists shows that this topic is ripe for further investigation.

    Academic text (2017)
  • You should give that some thought if you're really considering becoming a literary critic.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • And science fiction got better and better for the literary critics and generally worse and worse for the science fiction fans.

  • I am not suggesting, as others have, that literary critics should stop doing cultural criticism.

    Academic text (1999)
  • One can still, though, make some generalizations about the way that literary critics use the term.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Literary critics in many countries regarded it as the most depraved book ever published in the history of literature.

  • Harold Bloom, the great literary critic where I work and teach here at Yale, called one of his books on Shakespeare, The Invention of the Human.

  • In addition to being a leftist, Judith Butler is a very distinguished literary critic and scholar.

    Blog text (29)
  • Among the most influential interpretations of festivity is that of the Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin.

    Academic text (1990)
  • A literary critic analyzes the symbolism in contemporary novels to enhance readers' understanding.

Synonyms

critic
vsliterary critic
314 3.2

A person who gives opinions about art, books, films, or music, often as a job

focuses specifically on literature with academic analysis
reviewer
vsliterary critic
118 3.1

A person who reads and checks the quality of a paper, proposal, or code

focuses on interpretation and judgement of literature in academic or professional settings
dissector
vsliterary critic
  • Formal
7.7

A person who looks at ideas or texts carefully to find their meaning

focuses on evaluating and interpreting literature professionally rather than only close analysis

How Expert

literary critic
4 6.0
reviewer
118 3.1
reader
679 1.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

literary + critic

The meaning 'a person who evaluates works of literature' is directly and compositionally derived from 'literary' (concerning literature) + 'critic' (someone who issues opinions). This noun-noun combination follows a straightforward modifier-head pattern common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The phrase literary critic comes from the two words literary (about books and writing) and critic (a person who judges). Picture someone with a red pen marking a book to show what is strong or weak; that's why a literary critic means 'a person who studies and judges books'.