METHOD, CONCEPT AND CRITIC IN EXTERNAL APPROACHED CRITICISM

Abstract

Literary criticism, starting from Plato and Aristotle, has been expressed using different methods, concepts, and critics up to the present day. Approaches to literary works from the outside and inside are effective in the difference between methods, concepts, and critics. Taking the element examined with an external or internal approach plays a decisive role in this difference. While the external approach criticism is directed towards society, the reader, and the artist, the internal approach criticism is directed towards the work itself. These differences in approach draw the critics who examine, interpret, and evaluate the literary work into a different sphere. External approach criticism theories emerge through these different spheres. The content of the literary work is criticized through the external approach in criticism. In this type of criticism, the aesthetic and artistic value of the work are examined in the second plan. However, Plato and Aristotle, along with the external approach criticism, are the dominant names in the understanding, grasping, interpretation, and evaluation of literature and thus the literary work. Up until the 20th Century, literary works were mostly handled with external approach theories. In criticisms trying to evaluate the work from the outside, the artistic and aesthetic value of the literary work is not given much consideration, and it is seen that the content is largely criticized. When general classifications are taken as a basis, society, the reader, and the artist are at the focus in external approach criticism, while the work is at the focus in internal approach criticism. External approach criticism is mostly expressed under three main headings: criticism directed towards society, criticism directed towards the reader, and criticism directed towards the artist; internal approach criticism is expressed under a single main heading as criticism directed towards the work.