A literary review is a text written by a critic about a work of literature.
A review is a short note that examines and summarizes the content of a book, film, record, scientific work, or event. The author is responsible for highlighting the most salient characteristics of the object reviewed so that the reader expands their knowledge even before having direct access to it.
This means that, when someone reads a review, they can learn what the work is about without having seen, read or heard it. The review, therefore, is a descriptive-informative text that usually includes an evaluation by the author.
Literature , for its part, is a concept linked to the art of grammar, rhetoric and poetics, which uses language as a means of expression. The literary adjective is that belonging to or relating to literature.
What is a literary review
The literary review , then, is the compendious narration that a critic makes about a work of literature. The text includes mentions of specific incidents, situations and characters from the book in question.
It is important to know that, like other series of documents, the literary review has a clearly delimited structure. Specifically, it is established that these are the parts that it must have to be considered as such and meet its objectives:
• Title of the review.
• References. Within this section you would find all the data related to the object being worked on, that is, the work. Hence, both its title and its author, the publishing house, the date of publication or the number of pages it has are included.
• Entrance. This section is the one that includes the setting that is made of the topic in question. That is, it proceeds to make clarifications, to determine the importance of the work in question...
• Description. In this case, the author of the literary review in question is responsible for establishing the pros and cons of the work he analyzes in order to determine not only its value but also its usefulness to the public.
• Conclusions. As in countless documents, this type of review ends with a list of conclusions where the author makes clear what he thought of the work, whether he recommends it or not, as well as what it contributes to the current literary sector.
A literary review aims to guide the reader about a book.
Your publication
As a general rule, literary reviews usually appear in magazines, specialized literature publications or cultural supplements of various newspapers. And they are made by journalist-critics who are experts in the field.
As in other types of reviews, the purpose of a literary review is to inform the reader whether a book is worth reading or not. Of course, this depends on the subjectivity of the review creator, who must argue the reason for his assessment.
Literary review vs. literary report
A literary review is not the same as a literary report. Just as the review includes the author's opinions and judgments, the report is intended to be objective.
The report, in this way, displays a compendium of data such as the title, the name of the writer, the genre or the edition, for example.