Examines the evolution of Ortega y Gasset's literary criticism from 1902 through 1959 against the parallel background of his philosophical and methodological development. The author concentrates on three distinct phases in Ortega's evolution: the social phase of his earlier writings; the phenomenological phase beginning around 1911; and the final, ontological phase which begins after his reading of Heidegger in 1927. ...the best study we have of Ortega's practical criticism and literary theory....a wonderfully concise study that should make Ortega much more accessible to students of literature than he has been in the past.>>>> ( Hispania ) ...the best study we have of Ortega's practical criticism and literary theory....a wonderfully concise study that should make Ortega much more accessible to students of literature than he has been in the past. ( Hispania ) Demetrios Basdekis is Professor of Spanish Literature at the State University of New York in Oneonta.