Henry James was one of the great American literary critics, but James was better known as a novelist and short-story writer (Magill 750). In the nineteenth century James was considered to be an important and influential writer. James's writing career has been separated into three phases. ...

In the past, critics have ad moralized and/or brutalized every writer they could get their pen on. This is seen from criticisms of Henry Adams to William Butler Yeats. These writers critique everything about the writer and his/her works. For instance many critics criticize Willa Cath...

In the section entitled "What is Literary Theory?" in Contemporary Literary Criticism, the authors present five essays dealing with literary theory. The first two essays discuss the grounds of theory while the others discuss the historical activity of theory. In their discussions of theor...