New Criticism

Introduction
• An American school of thought-dominated from the early
1930s to 1960s-advocating “the text and text alone”
approach to literary criticism
• Foundation of the theory: A work of art or a text is a
concrete object that can, like any other concrete object,
be analyzed to discover its meaning independent of its
author’s intention or the emotional state or values of
either its author or reader
• “poem” refers to any text (a synonym to text)
• Importance of close reading (interpreting text
independent of authorial, historical and cultural concerns)
 Important Theorists
• John Crowe Ransom
• Rene Wellek
• W.K. Wimsatt
• R. P. Blackmur
• I.A.Richards
• Cleanth Brooks
• Robert Pennn Warren
 Origin
• The term became popular with the publication of a
Southern poet, a critic and one of the leading advocates of
the theory, John Crowe Ransom’s “The New Criticism”
(1941)
• “Fugitives”: Formation of a literary group of scholars and
critics Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee
(1920s)
• Ontological Critic needed for interpretation as poem is a
physical entity like Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Handel’s
Messiah, or any other chemical element iron or gold
 Interpretive Model of New Criticism
• Close reading of the text by analysing
i. Individual words with denotative meanings and connotative
meanings
ii. Allusions
iii. Any patters developed through individual words, phrases,
clauses, sentences, figures of speech and allusions
iv. Public and private symbols
v. Elements of analysis: point of view, tone or other poetic
devices
• Derive meaning after a study of these aspects; no extratextual
information required
Assumptions of New Criticism
1. To study poetry or any literary work is to engage oneself
in an aesthetic experience that can lead to truth.
(glossary Page 301) Poetic truth which involves
imagination and intuition is different from scientific
truth.
2. A work of art achieves its meaning through the
interrelationships of sound, texture, structure, rhetoric,
and a host of other literary devices. A poem (an artifact
or work of art) has an ontological status; an objective,
self-contained, autonomous entity with its own
structure.
3. New Critics believe in an objective theory of art;
Any literary work is a public text that can only be
understood by applying the standards of public
discourse, not merely the private experience,
concerns and vocabulary of its author.
4. T. S. Eliot, in “Tradition and Individual Talent”,
opines that the poet’s mind serves as a catalyst for
the reaction that yields the poem; role of
experiences of a poet, not his personality traits.
5. Biographical data of a poem may help in
understanding the poem’s sociological or
historical context; the poem’s real meaning
cannot reside in this extrinsic or outside the
text information.
6. The most significant tool of New Critics is the
dictionary (to understand the etymology of
words).
7. A reader’s emotional response to a text is neither
important, no equivalent to its interpretation;
result in affective fallacy; in this case, we are left
with impressionism or relativism.
8. The meaning resides in the structure of the
poem; operates according to a complex series of
laws. New critics believe that they have devised
this methodology for discovering correct
meaning; the role of critics
9. The poet is an organizer of the content of human
experience; the poet’s chief concern is how
meaning is achieved through the various and
sometimes conflicting elements operating in the
poem itself.
10.The chief characteristic of a poem’s structure is its
coherence and interrelatedness (Biographia
Literaria) harmonization of conflicting ideas,
feelings and attitudes. Paradox, irony and
ambiguity characteristic of superior poetry.
11.A poem’s form and content are inseparable
(according to the New Critics, form is defined as
the overall impact the poem creates); the poem
having organic unity is a good or successful poem.
12.Heresay of paraphrase (Cleanth Brooks);
interpretation is not equal to a mere paraphrased
version of the text. Paraphrases statements about
a poem must never be considered equivalent to
the poem’s structure or form.