00118--What is the function of criticism according to F.R. Leavis?

            Great literature is the store-house and preserves of the highest moral, cultural, ideological and aesthetic values and traditions of mankind.  The really good and serious literature of the present is a continuation and development of the really good and serious literature of the past.  Therefore really great literature combines the highest moral and cultural values of the past with those of the present and thus paves the way to the future.  Then comes the function of the critic.  The primary function of the critic is first to disengage the really good and great literature from the weaker one, and then to analyse the highest and best moral and cultural values contained in the great literature.  His function is to explain and disseminate those great qualities of literature to the masses.

            The critic has to see what is still alive of the literature of the past, and further to explain the modifications made in it by the present ideologies.  The critic  has to judge a work 'as in itself it really is.'  He has not to worry about outside norms, rules or theories of art.   He should be concerned with the work in front of him as complete in itself.  He has to explore, bring out and present the best thoughts contained in it without considering whether the artist has applied the established literary rules and theories or not.  He has not to take into consideration any extraneous information.  He has not to take into consideration or give weightage to any established reputation.  No matter if the established reputation of an author is disturbed.  The critic has to remain detached in evaluating a work of literatures infront of him.  Leavis says, "the business of the critic is to perceive for himself, to make the finest and sharpest relevant discriminations, and to state his findings as responsibly clearly and forcibly as possible".