View source for Critic

{{Short description|Person who offers reasoned judgment}}
{{Other uses}}
{{distinguish|Critique}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2016}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2016}}
[[File:Tihanyi The Critic.jpg|right|thumb|250px|''Critic'' by [[Lajos Tihanyi]]. Oil on canvas, {{circa|1916}}.]]

A '''critic''' is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as [[Art criticism|art]], [[Literary criticism|literature]], [[Music journalism|music]], [[Film criticism|cinema]], [[Theater criticism|theater]], [[Fashion journalism|fashion]], architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject [[social policy|social]] or [[government policy]]. Critical judgments, whether derived from [[critical thinking]] or not, weigh up a range of factors, including an assessment of the extent to which the item under review achieves its purpose and its creator's intention and a knowledge of its context. They may also include a positive or negative personal response.

Characteristics of a good critic are articulateness, preferably having the ability to use language with a high level of appeal and skill. [[Sympathy]], [[sensitivity (physiology)|sensitivity]] and [[insight]] are also important. [[Substantial_form|Form]], [[Style_(sociolinguistics)|style]] and [[Media_(communication)|medium]] are all considered by the critic. In [[Architecture criticism|architecture]] and [[Food critic|food criticism]], the item's function, value and cost may be added components.

Critics are publicly accepted and, to a significant degree, followed because of the quality of their assessments or their reputation. Influential critics of art, music, theater and architecture often present their arguments in complete books. One very famous example is [[John Ruskin]]'s ''[[Seven Lamps of Architecture]]'' and ''[[The Stones of Venice (book)|The Stones of Venice]]''. Critics may base their assessment on a range of [[Theoretical_definition|theoretical positions]]. For instance, they may take a [[feminist]] or [[Freudian]] perspective.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qdP2BgxsM3wC|title=The Feminist Spectator as Critic|last=Dolan|first=Jill|date=2012-10-24|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0472035199|language=en}}</ref>

Unlike other individuals who may editorialize on subjects via websites or letters written to publications, professional critics are paid to produce their assessment and opinions for [[printing|print]], radio, magazine, television, or [[Internet_service_provider|Internet companies]]. When their personal opinion outweighs considered judgment, people who give opinions, whether on current events, public affairs, sports, media or art are often referred to as "pundits" instead of critics.

Critics are themselves subject to competing critics, since the final critical judgment always entails [[subjectivity]]. An established critic can play a powerful role as a public [[arbitration|arbiter]] of taste or opinion. Also, critics or a coordinated group of critics, may award symbols of recognition.

== Derivation ==

The word "critic" comes {{ety|gre|''κριτικός'' (kritikós)|able to discern}},<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dkritiko%2Fs Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309020949/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dkritiko%2Fs |date=March 9, 2021 }}, ''Kritikos'', Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott.</ref> which is a Greek derivation of the word {{lang|grc|κριτής}} ''(krités)'', meaning a person who offers [[reasoned]] judgment or [[analysis]], [[value judgment]], [[Interpretation_(logic)|interpretation]] or [[observation]].<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dkrith%2Fs Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308021210/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dkrith%2Fs |date=March 8, 2021 }}, ''Krites'', Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott.</ref> Early English meaning of criticism was based mainly on the [[Literary_criticism|criticism of literature]] and it was in the 17th century that more general forms of criticism began.{{cn|date=July 2016}}

== Critics' views of criticism ==

[[Cultural critic]] [[Clement Greenberg]] wrote that a good critic excels through "insights into the evidence&nbsp;... and by&nbsp;... loyalty to the relevant"; poet and critic [[T. S. Eliot|T.S. Eliot]] wrote "a critic must have a very highly developed sense of [[fact]]".<ref>{{Cite book|title = Art and Culture – Critical Essays|last = Greenberg|first = Clement|publisher = Beacon Press|year = 1961|location = Boston|page = 239|chapter = T.S. Eliot: A Book Review}}</ref>

In 1971, [[Harold C. Schonberg]], chief music critic of ''[[The New York Times]]'' from 1960 to 1980, said that he wrote for himself, "not necessarily for readers, not for musicians.&nbsp;... It's not a critic's job to be right or wrong; it's his job to express an opinion in readable English."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/27/nyregion/harold-c-schonberg-87-dies-won-pulitzer-prize-as-music-critic-for-the-times.html|title=Harold C. Schonberg, 87, Dies; Won Pulitzer Prize as Music Critic for ''The Times''|last=Kozinn|first=Allan|date=2003-07-27|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-03-28|archive-date=April 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421083208/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/27/nyregion/harold-c-schonberg-87-dies-won-pulitzer-prize-as-music-critic-for-the-times.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Schonberg was the first music critic to receive the [[Pulitzer Prize]] for criticism.

[[Daniel Mendelsohn]] described the equation of criticism for critics as [[knowledge]] + [[Taste (sociology)|taste]] = meaningful [[judgement]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-critics-manifesto|title=A Critic's Manifesto|last=Mendelsohn|first=Daniel|date=2012-08-28|newspaper=The New Yorker|issn=0028-792X|access-date=2016-03-27|archive-date=March 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314160619/http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-critics-manifesto|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/everyones-a-critic-1455147994|title=Everyone's a Critic|last=Spiegelman|first=Willard|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|access-date=2016-03-27|archive-date=January 16, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116193334/http://www.wsj.com/articles/everyones-a-critic-1455147994|url-status=live}}</ref>

Restaurant critic Terry Durack explained that from a critic "you hope for a thorough, objective and legitimate discussion" that puts "opera, art or book into context, so that it adds to your own body of knowledge"; in the context of a restaurant criticism, this means it is "not about me liking it or not; it's about me helping you decide whether you are going to like it or not."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/the-role-of-a-restaurant-critic-in-the-digital-age-20161201-gt1ndf.html|title=The role of a restaurant critic in the digital age|last=Durack|first=Terry|date=3 December 2016|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=5 December 2016|archive-date=December 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207010656/http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/the-role-of-a-restaurant-critic-in-the-digital-age-20161201-gt1ndf.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{Quotebox|quote=Rothko's dilemma was that he wanted to employ the vocabulary of symbolism{{snds}}the palpitating indeterminate space, the excruciatingly refined colour, the obsession with nuance, the presence of Mallarmé's "negated object"{{snds}}to render the patriarchal despair and elevation of the Old Testament. Criticism doesn't get sharper, or more sensitive, or more deeply sympathetic to the object, than that.

[[Robert Hughes (critic)]] on (artist) [[Mark Rothko]]<ref name="Craven">{{cite news|last1=Craven|first1=Peter|title=The Spectacle of Skill review: The genius of Robert Hughes as critic and writer|url=http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-spectacle-of-skill-review-the-genius-of-robert-hughes-as-critic-and-writer-20151214-glmyct.html|access-date=29 March 2016|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=16 December 2015|archive-date=September 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923091625/http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-spectacle-of-skill-review-the-genius-of-robert-hughes-as-critic-and-writer-20151214-glmyct.html|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
{{clear}}

== Social and political critics ==

Social and political critics have used various forms of art to express their criticism, including literature and music. [[Pierre Beaumarchais]], for example, prior to the [[French Revolution]], used his play [[The Marriage of Figaro (play)|''The Marriage of Figaro'']] to denounce aristocratic privilege, and a critic's influence is enhanced by subsequent reworkings such as the operatic versions of Beaumarchais's play (''[[The Barber of Seville]]'') by [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]] and (''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]'') by [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]. [[August Ahlqvist]], a Finnish professor and poet, who highly admired [[J. L. Runeberg]], the national poet of Finland, gave very negative feedback to the entire literary production of the author [[Aleksis Kivi]], when Kivi presented content of the peoples social life in the form of rude [[Realism (arts)|realism]] instead of [[romanticism]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kansallisbiografia.fi/english/person/2826 |title=Kivi, Aleksis (1834–1872) |last1=Sihvo |first1=Hannes |date=2014 |website=The National Biography of Finland |access-date=1 May 2016 |archive-date=September 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927030126/https://kansallisbiografia.fi/english/person/2826 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://authorscalendar.info/akivi.htm |title=Kivi, Aleksis (1834–1872) |last1=Liukkonen |first1=Petri |date=2008 |website=Authors' Calendar |access-date=9 May 2016 |archive-date=February 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226010748/http://authorscalendar.info/akivi.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Among the most famous social/political criticism in literary form are [[Jonathan Swift|Jonathan Swift's]] satire ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' and [[George Orwell]]'s satire ''[[Animal Farm]]''. Some political critics, such as [[Ai Weiwei]] use visual art as their medium. Throughout history, political critics have faced higher risks, including the risk of imprisonment or death.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/hrw-calls-for-release-of-thai-government-critic/3238970.html|title=HRW Calls for Release of Thai Government Critic|website=VOA|access-date=2016-03-27|archive-date=March 17, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317020323/http://www.voanews.com/content/hrw-calls-for-release-of-thai-government-critic/3238970.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.africanews.com/2016/03/21/zambian-opposition-leader-arrested-for-defaming-president-lungu/|title=Zambian opposition leader arrested for 'defaming' President Lungu|website=africanews.channel|access-date=2016-03-27|archive-date=April 9, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409104545/http://www.africanews.com/2016/03/21/zambian-opposition-leader-arrested-for-defaming-president-lungu/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistanis-throng-for-funeral-of-man-hanged-for-killing-critic-of-blasphemy-laws-1456855688|title=Pakistanis Throng Funeral of Man Hanged for Killing Critic of Blasphemy Laws|last1=Shah|first1=Saeed|last2=Nauman|first2=Qasim|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|access-date=2016-03-27|archive-date=December 4, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204234839/https://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistanis-throng-for-funeral-of-man-hanged-for-killing-critic-of-blasphemy-laws-1456855688|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-nemtsov-idUSKCN0W00M4|title=Thousands march in Moscow to honor slain Kremlin critic Nemtsov|date=2016-02-28|newspaper=Reuters|access-date=2016-03-27|archive-date=January 16, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116210652/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-nemtsov-idUSKCN0W00M4|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/beijing-critic-family-detained-china-internet-crackdown/3256261.html|title=Beijing Critic Says Family Detained in China in Internet Crackdown|website=VOA|access-date=2016-03-27|archive-date=March 28, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328222613/http://www.voanews.com/content/beijing-critic-family-detained-china-internet-crackdown/3256261.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Online critics ==

Several websites have developed for the purpose of compiling or publishing original critical reviews. Examples include [[Blogcritics]], [[Rotten Tomatoes]], and [[Yelp]]. According to [[A. O. Scott]], chief film critic for ''[[The New York Times]]'', everyone on the Internet is a critic.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/sunday-review/everybodys-a-critic-and-thats-how-it-should-be.html|title=Everybody's a Critic. And That's How It Should Be.|last=Scott|first=A. O.|author-link=A. O. Scott|date=2016-01-30|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-03-27|archive-date=December 28, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228141814/http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/sunday-review/everybodys-a-critic-and-thats-how-it-should-be.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Some critics like [[Roger Ebert]] achieve iconic status in pop culture and become well regarded.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/76577/roger-ebert-statue-illinois/|title=Roger Ebert Statue Unveiled Outside Illinois Theater|last=Rothman|first=Lily|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=2016-03-27|archive-date=June 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613004917/http://time.com/76577/roger-ebert-statue-illinois/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weird-news/man-arrested-overdue-freddy-got-fingered-video-rental-2002-n545366|title=Man Arrested for Overdue Tom Green Rental From 2002|website=NBC News|access-date=2016-03-27|archive-date=November 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191102172634/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weird-news/man-arrested-overdue-freddy-got-fingered-video-rental-2002-n545366|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/25/roger-ebert-film-critic-statue-ebertfest|title=Statue commemorating thumbs-up film critic Roger Ebert unveiled|last=Child|first=Ben|date=2014-04-25|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|access-date=2016-03-27|archive-date=January 17, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170117075157/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/25/roger-ebert-film-critic-statue-ebertfest|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Cinematography and television ==
The American film critics Roger Ebert and [[Gene Siskel]] [[At the Movies (1986 TV program)#Siskel & Ebert & the Movies (1986–1999)|collaborated]] and appeared on television sometimes agreeing on their review of cinematographic works; sometimes they would differ.

Film critics may use [[Star (classification)#Films|star classification]] to qualify the reviewed works.

Characters depicting critics have been part of some movies, and have been represented in comedies, such as a [[food critic]] in the animated fantasy-comedy ''[[Ratatouille (film)| Ratatouille]]'', and as an [[art critic]] in one of the initial parts of the anthology comedy film ''[[The History of the World Part I]]''.

== Responses to critics ==

People whose work is the subject of criticism have a full range of responses to it. For example, they may be appreciative, offended, distressed, encouraged, amused or nonplussed.
{{Quotebox|quote=We do not object to criticism; and we do not expect that the critic will read the book before writing a notice of it. We do not even expect the reviewer of the book will say that he has not read it. No we have no anticipations of anything unusual in this age of criticism.|source=[[Satire|Satirical]] comment about potential criticism by [[Mark Twain]] and [[Charles Dudley Warner]] in their Preface to the American Edition of their co-authored novel ''[[The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today]]''.<ref name="SLC&CDW">{{cite book|last1=Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner|title=The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today|date=1903|publisher=Chatto & Windus|page=ix|chapter=Preface to the American edition}}</ref>
}}
{{clear}}

== See also ==

{{columns-list|colwidth=20em|* [[Analysis]]
* [[Art criticism]]
* [[Art historian]]
* [[Censorship]]
* [[Complaint]]
* [[Connoisseur]]
* [[Constructive criticism]]
* [[Critical philosophy]]
* [[Critical theory]]
* [[Critical thinking]]
* Critical vocabulary
* [[Critique of political economy]]
* [[Critique of work]]
* [[Critique]]
* [[Cultural critic]]
* [[Film criticism]]
* [[Food critic]]
* [[Frankfurt School of social theory]]
* [[List of chief music critics]]
* [[Literary criticism]]
* [[Music journalism]]
* [[Polemic]]
* [[Review]]
* [[Social criticism]]
* [[Textual criticism]]
* [[Theatre criticism]]
* [[Video game criticism]]
* [[Wine critic]]}}

{{Portal bar|Arts|History|Journalism|Philosophy}}

== References ==

{{Reflist|30em}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:Criticism]]
[[Category:Entertainment occupations]]
[[Category:Humanities occupations]]
[[Category:Philosophers]]