The Origins of Criticism: Literary Culture and Poetic Theory in Classical GreeceBy literary criticism we usually mean a self conscious act involving the technical and aesthetic appraisal, by individuals, of autonomous works of art. Aristotle and Plato come to mind. The word social does not. Yet, as this book shows, it should if, that is, we wish to understand where literary criticism as we think of it today came from. Andrew Ford offers a new understanding of the development of criticism, demonstrating that its roots stretch back