What are the characteristics of a good critic?

Characteristics of a good critic

• Has a comprehensive understanding of the language.
• An expert in comparison and analysis.
• erudite.
• His opinions are impersonal.
• unemotional.
• His feeling is realistic and linked to the truth.
• Adoption of traditions and customs.
• sensitive person.
• Not judging the present by the standards of the past and vice versa.
• positive person.
• Focus on the content, not the context.
• Good at taking notes.
• humble person.

Has a comprehensive understanding of the language:  A good critic must have a comprehensive understanding of the language and its origins and be aware of the structure of the art he is criticizing, and if he is criticizing poetry for example; He must have an idea of ​​the music of poetry, because the poet communicates through music as much as through words.

An expert in comparison and analysis:  Comparison and analysis are one of the most important tools for any critic. Therefore, a good critic must be expert in using these tools correctly, and he must use them accurately and skillfully. He must know what and how to compare and analyze, and he must also compare the artists of the present with the artists of the past; This is to illustrate the qualities of the work well, not to pass judgment on the artwork.

Well-Educated:  A good critic should enjoy a wide erudition; This is to increase his understanding of the things he criticizes, as the more he knows, a system of impressions will be built that will enable him to analyze well.

His opinions are impersonal:  A good critic should have his opinions impersonal, and he should not make his decisions with his inner voice, but rather he should make his decisions with his judgment and reason and after convincing study and evidence.

Impassionate:  A good critic should not be emotional in his thinking, he should be completely objective, he should try to control his biases towards a particular writer or artist and his personal whims.

His sense is realistic and linked to the truth:  A good critic must have a realistic sense of truth, his thinking should not be fanciful and illogical in order to be able to analyze well and fairly.

Tradition and customs:  A good critic must also have a sense of tradition. He must learn about world cultures from Homer to his own day, not just the culture and literature of his own country.

Sensitive person:  A good critic must be sensitive; Where he must have a great ability to receive impressions and feelings from the artwork that he analyzes and criticizes in order to criticize it well.

Not judging the present by the standards of the past and vice versa:  A good critic must be aware of the different requirements of each passing era, and therefore the standards of art must change from one era to another; So he must be willing to correct his opinions and ideas from time to time.

Positive person:  One of the most important characteristics of a good critic is that he is a positive person who looks at ideas in a positive way so that he can analyze them and tell people their idea in the right way without any negative thoughts that might distort the main idea.

Focus on content, not context:  A good critic will deliberately focus on the content and messages in the artwork they are criticizing against the emotional component or context in which they are placed.

Good at taking notes:  A good critic should know that being in the place of the work of art and listening to it is only part of the steps to success; A big part of a successful work critique is taking notes and jotting down specific points of the artwork, as the notes will provide you with a comment for the next time you review them.

A humble person:  Successful critics are humble and avoid arrogance and make a mistake during criticism just because they criticize art arrogantly. Decisions must be made with humility and criticism should be considered with its wisdom.

Definition of critic

A critic  is a person who finds fault with something and expresses his opinion about it, and he is a person who expresses a logical judgment about something.

The word critic came to English from a Latin origin, and goes back to the Greek word “krinein”, which means “judge”; Criticism can be used broadly to describe any person who expresses a point of view on a matter, and a critical person is a person who judges, evaluates, or analyzes literary or artistic works, theatrical or musical performances, or the like, especially in a newspaper or magazine, and he is the person who tends to To issue judgments, and the function of the critic is not a judicial function, as he may not issue his personal judgment on art, good or bad, without reasons and evidence.

Critic's job

• comparison and analysis.
• Educate people's taste.
• Encourage the enjoyment of artwork.
• Shift attention from the poet to his poetry.
• Finding common principles for follow-up criticism.
• Put the simplest facts in front of your readers.

Comparison and analysis:  The critic works to clarify works of art by comparing and analyzing them. As his job is not interpretation because interpretation is a subjective and impressionistic thing emanating from the person, but rather his job is to systematically analyze and compare works with sensitivity, intelligence, curiosity and infinite knowledge in general and from people's point of view.

Educating people's taste:  As one of the conditions for a good critic is that he has the right taste; This is to educate people's taste, as it should enable them to judge positively what they read and what they watch, and what should be avoided as worthless and of no artistic interest.

Encouraging the enjoyment of works of art:  the critic works to encourage readers and viewers to enjoy and understand the works of art properly; It must therefore develop both aesthetic and intellectual sensibilities and bring them to light for readers.

Shifting attention from the poet to his poetry:  the critic must highlight the fact that the passion for art is not a personal emotion belonging to the artist or poet, and his work must be judged objectively without taking into account biographical, social or historical considerations; The job of the critic is to confirm the nature of the work and highlight its impersonal truth by placing the facts related to the work in front of the audience, thus promoting a correct understanding of the work.

Finding common principles for pursuing criticism:  the critic must control his prejudices towards artists, cooperate with other critics past and present in the common pursuit of correct judgment of the work, and must be ready to correct and adjust his views when new facts emerge from the work he is working on Criticize him.

Putting the simplest facts before the readers :  The task of the critic is to put all kinds of facts before the readers and help them form their own judgment.

Types of criticism

• Logical criticism.
• aesthetic criticism.
• Positive criticism.
• Negative criticism.

Logical Criticism:   Logical criticism is based on basic cognitive principles that guide human behavior  ,   and may also involve something that has self-contradictory connotations or something that involves language that superficially makes sense but that does not follow logic when examined in a rigorous manner.

Aesthetic criticism:   This type of criticism is considered part of aesthetics, which is concerned with judging the style of beauty, awareness, fashion, and other issues  ; The critique of architecture is the combination of three different fields of science and technology.

Positive Criticism:   This is the aspect that draws attention to a good aspect of something that is not taken into account. Positive criticism can be considered as a form of self-defense, also used as a constructive response.

Negative Criticism:   Negative criticism can have a bad effect on people who take it seriously.