"The end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries were marked for the Kazakh society by entering a new stage of development. The universal values that determine the concepts of modern social changes have undoubtedly influenced national literary criticism, posing new tasks for the correct determination of development prospects through an objective revision of the past, marked by ideological pressure. The formation of new aesthetic knowledge in assessing the role of literature in society, the appeal to new forms, methods and means of reflecting reality, the development of scientific and theoretical approaches and the definition of new principles for studying the nature of the literary process are characteristic features of modern Kazakh literary criticism. At the current stage, the urgent task is to identify the patterns of development of literary science, comprehensive differentiation of scientific research, the definition of methodological concepts, theoretical foundations and areas of research, the assessment of achievements and the definition of prospects for new research. Being an important branch of the social and human sciences, modern Kazakh literary criticism seeks to rethink its way of becoming as a field of scientific knowledge in order to evaluate its achievements and identify shortcomings that occur at each stage of development. The article deals with the scientific and theoretical problems of modern Kazakh literary criticism, reflecting innovative searches. At the same tiem6 the evaluation and analysis of studies based on new research methods and scientific principles is of great importance. Special place is occupied by theoretical works written on the basis of hermeneutics, structuralism, semiotics and other innovative research methods. Analysis of the main achievements, literary and theoretical problems, directions of development of modern Kazakh literary criticism is presented as well. Keywords: Kazakh literary studies, theory and history of national literature, methodology. "