File:Abrams orientations.svg

English: In Meyer H. Abrams' view, all critical theories of art were preoccupied with one of four elements (artist, audience, work, universe) and he suggests the following labels for the four corresponding orientations: 1. expressive 2. pragmatic 3. objective 4. mimetic. A critic with a mimetic orientation would be inclined to explain art as an imitation of life (or “the universe”). The pragmatic orientation is marked by a concern for the effect of the work upon its audience, usually framed in terms of the pleasure derived from a work of art. Mimesis is often a means to pragmatic ends, and the two orientations are closely linked. The expressive orientation shifts the critical focus away from the audience and the represented world; the artist and the creative process are the keys to understanding art. Only the fourth perspective, the objective orientation, attempts to explain the work of art on its own terms, without reference to external factors.