One of the most daunting parts of writing about literature is reading academic literary criticism. Academic critics are infamously fond of obscure words and gnarly sentences. Amidst all of that jargon, it can be easy to forget that the writer is trying to make a point about the literary work in question. The best advice for reading academic literary criticism is to focus on the main points of the article, and not to get lost in the terms or phrases you might not understand. This section will introduce some of the key concepts in literary criticism, and provide context for the fundamental questions explored by literary critics.