The role of criticism

Abstract

This article forms part of a larger research project which aims to analyse globally and profoundly the particular intermediary role of the critic. This role is at the meeting point of cultural production and consumption, and within the media where the critic's communication directly takes place. In summary, this article stresses: in the first part, the historical conditions which enabled the practice of criticism to occur, and its social institutionalization; in the second part, the social rules which, manifestly and objectively, the critic follows in the system of collective action which constitute the world of the arts, and the forms of which they are constituted; finally, a brief discussion of the problem of the autonomy of social space granted to criticism in Portugal, taking into account some of the features of the constant struggle by the critics for self-determination and preservation of this space.