The Principles of Social Criticism in Literature

Literature is one of the most important factors of cultural transferring for every nation and has elements and components as complex as life and culture. If we consider criticism as a tool of leading literature to creativity, then we will perceive its crucial situation among the societies because the alive conscience of literature releases it from self deception. Critics select different procedures in the frame of their proficiency and interest in this way. Moral criticism, social criticism, psychological criticism, historical criticism, aesthetic criticism and comparative criticism are of the most important branches of literary criticism that besides merging with other sciences, they prove the dependency of literature on science from one hand and on the culture of society on the other. This research, using an analytical approach to social criticism, aims to reach a kind of convergence beyond the different and sometimes contradictory ideas in this field, while explicating the foundations of social criticism in literature. Therefore, to assume the society as the subject of a writer's thoughts instead of his/her source of thought, defining the individuality of an artist or a writer (which helps to distinguish his/her point of view and accepting the artistic aspect of literary works as the distinction between science and art) removes a lot of challenges in this field.