Editing Literary criticism (section)

=== Enlightenment criticism ===
[[File:Samuel Johnson by Joshua Reynolds 2.jpg|thumb|[[Samuel Johnson]], one of the most influential writers and critics of the 18th century. See: [[Samuel Johnson's literary criticism]].]]

In the [[Enlightenment Period|Enlightenment period]] (1700s–1800s), literary criticism became more popular. During this time [[literacy]] rates started to rise in the public;<ref>{{Cite book|last=Van Horn Melton|first=James|title=The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-521-46573-1|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=82}}</ref> no longer was reading exclusive for the wealthy or scholarly. With the rise of the literate public, the swiftness of printing and commercialization of literature, criticism arose too.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Voskuhl|first=Adelheid|title=Androids in the Enlightenment: Mechanics, Artisans, and Cultures of the Self|date=2013|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-03402-7|location=Chicago|pages=71–72}}</ref> Reading was no longer viewed solely as educational or as a sacred source of religion; it was a form of entertainment.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Library: An Illustrated History|last=Murray|first=Stuart|date=2009|publisher=Skyhorse|isbn=978-1-61608-453-0|location=New York|oclc=277203534|pages=132–133}}</ref> Literary criticism was influenced by the values and stylistic writing, including clear, bold, precise writing and the more controversial criteria of the author's religious beliefs.<ref name="Regan">{{cite book |last1=Regan |first1=Shaun|last2=Dawson|first2=Books|date=2013 |title=Reading 1759: Literary Culture in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain and France|publisher=Lewisburg [Pa.]: Bucknell University Press |pages=125–130|isbn=978-1-61148-478-6}}</ref> These critical reviews were published in many magazines, newspapers, and journals. The commercialization of literature and its mass production had its downside. The emergent literary market, which was expected to educate the public and keep them away from [[superstition]] and prejudice, increasingly diverged from the idealistic control of the Enlightenment theoreticians so that the business of Enlightenment became a business with the Enlightenment.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|author1-link=Peter Uwe Hohendahl|last1=Hohendahl|first1=Peter Uwe|title=A History of German Literary Criticism: 173–1980|last2=Berghahn|first2=Klaus L.|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=1988|isbn=978-0-8032-7232-3|location=Lincoln|pages=25}}</ref> This development – particularly of emergence of entertainment literature – was addressed through an intensification of criticism.<ref name=":0" /> Many works of [[Jonathan Swift]], for instance, were criticized including his book ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'', which one critic described as "the detestable story of the Yahoos".<ref name="Regan" />