This course provides students with grounding knowledge of some of the basic theories, concepts and skills of criticism. It is a course in the history of ideas related to the criticism of literature and literary texts. First, it introduces students to some of the major elements of any critical textual analysis with samples analyses to improve their critical skills. Then, it includes a survey of literary criticism with an emphasis on the most prominent critics, texts, schools, and ideas from the Classical Age till the 19th century. This survey includes Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, Sidney, Dryden, Pope, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Arnold.