--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The function of criticism should be to…" description: "\"“The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.”\" — Susan Sontag" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/540/susan-sontag-332_criticism_the-function-of-criticism-should-be-to-s_462953.jpg" --- # The function of criticism should be to show how it is what… ![“The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/540/susan-sontag-332_criticism_the-function-of-criticism-should-be-to-s_462953.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/540/susan-sontag-332_criticism_the-function-of-criticism-should-be-to-s_462953.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/540/susan-sontag-332_criticism_the-function-of-criticism-should-be-to-s_462953.jpg) > ““The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.”” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Criticism must reveal a work's inherent nature rather than impose external interpretations. **In simple terms:** Show what something is, not what it should mean. Key Takeaway Focus on describing, not prescribing. Themes art criticism interpretation Mood analytical critical Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - art reviews - literary analysis - museum curation Key Concepts aesthetic analysis objectivity Questions to Reflect On - How can we ensure criticism remains descriptive? - What risks arise when critics impose meaning? A Different Perspective Criticism can be limited by the critic’s own biases. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Criticism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/criticism/) [Criticism Means](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/criticism-means-586707/) [Function](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/function/) [Function Criticism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/function-criticism-1401774/) [Means](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/means/) ## Related quotes > [The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art - and, by analogy, our own experience - more,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-aim-of-all-commentary-on-art-now-should-be-to-make-works-of-art/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The function of criticism should not be confused with the function of reform.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roger-zelazny/the-function-of-criticism-should-not-be-confused-with-the-function-of/) [Roger Zelazny](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roger-zelazny/) > [The Function of Criticism is the display the understand of art and re-formation of taste, there is promoting by understand and enjoyment of art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-function-of-criticism-is-the-display-the-understand-of-art-and-re/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [The function of criticism is the reeducation of perception of works of art? The conception that its business is to appraise, to judge in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/the-function-of-criticism-is-the-reeducation-of-perception-of-works/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [I always say the strength of democracy lies in criticism. If there is no criticism, that means there is no democracy. And if you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/narendra-modi/i-always-say-the-strength-of-democracy-lies-in-criticism-if-there-is/) [Narendra Modi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/narendra-modi/) > [Hurray for criticism, if it means that an artist's voice is heard. Let the wise artist invite criticism and survive it when it comes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-maisel/hurray-for-criticism-if-it-means-that-an-artist-s-voice-is-heard-let/) [Eric Maisel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eric-maisel/) > [“Is constructive criticism really constructive? Not really. You can't make a child better by pointing out what you think is wrong with him or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-norman-wright/is-constructive-criticism-really-constructive-not-really-you-can-t/) [H. Norman Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-norman-wright/) > [Honest criticism means nothing: what one wants is unrestrained passion, fire for fire.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-miller/honest-criticism-means-nothing-what-one-wants-is-unrestrained-passion/) [Henry Miller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-miller/) > [Either criticism is no good at all (a very defensible position) or else criticism means saying about an author the very things that would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-k-chesterton/either-criticism-is-no-good-at-all-a-very-defensible-position-or-else/) [Gilbert K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-k-chesterton/) > [Criticism can bother you, but you should be more bothered if there’s no criticism. That means you’re too safe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kanye-west/criticism-can-bother-you-but-you-should-be-more-bothered-if-there-s/) [Kanye West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kanye-west/) > [“Today is such a time, when the project of interpretation is largely reactionary, stifling. Like the fumes of the automobile and of heavy industry…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/today-is-such-a-time-when-the-project-of-interpretation-is-largely/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“This philistinism of interpretation is more rife in literature than in any other art. For decades now, literary critics have understood it to be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/this-philistinism-of-interpretation-is-more-rife-in-literature-than/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [A lot of what I've written in criticism of my lust for virtue - my discovery that I've committed idolatry, making of the good…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/a-lot-of-what-i-ve-written-in-criticism-of-my-lust-for-virtue-my/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aristotle/rhetoric-may-be-defined-as-the-faculty-of-observing-in-any-given-case/) [Aristotle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aristotle/) > [Cameras help to minimize collateral damage, and very often, without a camera a missile cannot fire. Certainly, without a camera a drone can't function,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/cameras-help-to-minimize-collateral-damage-and-very-often-without-a/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/why-not-eliminate-schooling-between-age-12-16-it-s-biologically/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Criticism quotes > [Regardless of the criticisms I receive from the left, the right and the middle, I think it's important to maintain a prolific writing jab,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ishmael-reed/regardless-of-the-criticisms-i-receive-from-the-left-the-right-and/) [Ishmael Reed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ishmael-reed/) > [I receive something we might euphemistically call an 'inappropriately hostile' response - that is to say, more than fair criticism or even fair anger…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mary-beard/i-receive-something-we-might-euphemistically-call-an-inappropriately/) [Mary Beard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mary-beard/) > [A common fallacy in much of the adverse criticism to which science is subjected today is that it claims certainty, infallibility and complete emotional…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cyril-norman-hinshelwood/a-common-fallacy-in-much-of-the-adverse-criticism-to-which-science-is/) [Cyril Norman Hinshelwood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cyril-norman-hinshelwood/) > [For some reason, we are truly convinced that if we criticize ourselves, the criticism will lead to change. If we are harsh, we believe…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geneen-roth/for-some-reason-we-are-truly-convinced-that-if-we-criticize-ourselves/) [Geneen Roth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geneen-roth/) > [I reject criticism because the last thing I wanted was to sit there and look at people talking. I think people are conditioned to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matt-tyrnauer/i-reject-criticism-because-the-last-thing-i-wanted-was-to-sit-there/) [Matt Tyrnauer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matt-tyrnauer/) > [I'm more comfortable modelling as a man because I don't get any criticism.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rain-dove/i-m-more-comfortable-modelling-as-a-man-because-i-don-t-get-any/) [Rain Dove](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rain-dove/) > [I don't mind positive criticism, but when it is negative and personal, it is quite hard.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/inzamam-ul-haq/i-don-t-mind-positive-criticism-but-when-it-is-negative-and-personal/) [Inzamam-ul-Haq](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/inzamam-ul-haq/) > [Judge a person not by his ability to make money but by his ability to retain it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vikrant-parsai/judge-a-person-not-by-his-ability-to-make-money-but-by-his-ability-to/) [Vikrant Parsai](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vikrant-parsai/) > [Everything is allowable in literature, but what is not allowable in criticism is objection on the grounds of probability.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/howard-jacobson/everything-is-allowable-in-literature-but-what-is-not-allowable-in/) [Howard Jacobson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/howard-jacobson/) > [Lots of relationships fail because we spend more time pointing out each other's mistakes and not enough time enjoying each other's company.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/lots-of-relationships-fail-because-we-spend-more-time-pointing-out/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [If our aim is to praise, we should forget to criticize; if our aim is to criticize, we should remember to praise](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-johnson/if-our-aim-is-to-praise-we-should-forget-to-criticize-if-our-aim-is/) [Samuel Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-johnson/) > [No man can be criticised but by a greater than he. Do not, then, read the reviews.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/no-man-can-be-criticised-but-by-a-greater-than-he-do-not-then-read/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [People believe that criticism should be objective, whatever that means, but I really don't understand what people mean by that. I guess if you're…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-christgau/people-believe-that-criticism-should-be-objective-whatever-that-means/) [Robert Christgau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-christgau/) > [I welcome criticism. I come from a - I wouldn't say mean, but you've got to have tough skin to be in my family.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/saweetie/i-welcome-criticism-i-come-from-a-i-wouldn-t-say-mean-but-you-ve-got/) [Saweetie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/saweetie/) > [The good author is he who contemplates without marked joy or excessive sorrow the adventures of his soul amongst criticisms.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-conrad/the-good-author-is-he-who-contemplates-without-marked-joy-or/) [Joseph Conrad](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-conrad/) [Browse all 3,954 Criticism quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/criticism/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-function-of-criticism-should-be-to-show-how-it-is-what-it-is-even/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Criticism" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-function-of-criticism-should-be-to-show-how-it-is-what-it-is-even/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/540/susan-sontag-332_criticism_the-function-of-criticism-should-be-to-s_462953.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/540/susan-sontag-332_criticism_the-function-of-criticism-should-be-to-s_462953.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/540/susan-sontag-332_criticism_the-function-of-criticism-should-be-to-s_462953.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to…” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Susan Sontag", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“The function of criticism should be...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-function-of-criticism-should-be-to-show-how-it-is-what-it-is-even/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-function-of-criticism-should-be-to-show-how-it-is-what-it-is-even/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```