Critics thus mold and determine taste, shaping and establishing writers' reputations. Critics also assess the works of the more remote past, constantly reinterpreting and reassessing the tradition of literature. Thus criticism either becomes the guardian of tradition or is used to revalue writers or trends from new perspectives. In this way critics define and redefine the classics. Most commonly, however, critics serve the present concern, preparing the way for new trends or writers.
Criticism thus plays a large part in literary history.
Another side of literary criticism, theory of literature, is less concerned with immediate facts. Theory leads to questions of aesthetics and finally to philosophy, to questions about the nature of language, and even to the nature of reality. The methods of criticism vary with its functions. Literary works may be described merely to communicate some idea of their content, but critics also interpret a work and develop the tools to do so. They analyze tone and any particular individuality that can be evoked or defined.