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New Criticism Slides

New Criticism was the dominant literary theory of the 1940s. It focused solely on analyzing the text itself without consideration of authorial intent or reader response. Pioneers of New Criticism like I.A. Richards and T.S. Eliot believed the meaning resides in the text and not in the author or reader. John Crowe Ransom further developed New Criticism and introduced the concept of "close reading" a text to understand how formal elements create meaning. However, New Criticism was later criticized for isolating texts from their historical and cultural contexts.

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Saima Chaudhary
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1K views

New Criticism Slides

New Criticism was the dominant literary theory of the 1940s. It focused solely on analyzing the text itself without consideration of authorial intent or reader response. Pioneers of New Criticism like I.A. Richards and T.S. Eliot believed the meaning resides in the text and not in the author or reader. John Crowe Ransom further developed New Criticism and introduced the concept of "close reading" a text to understand how formal elements create meaning. However, New Criticism was later criticized for isolating texts from their historical and cultural contexts.

Uploaded by

Saima Chaudhary
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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WARDA MUBEEN

ROLL NO. 04
NEW CRITICISM
(LITERAY THEORY)
INTRODUCTION:
• The dominated literary theory in 1940s was New
Criticism.

• “art for art sake”

• Evolved out of Formalist Movement.


• New Criticism is sometimes called objective
criticism.
• It is also called an intrinsic criticism, because
it is just concerned about the text itself
Historical Background of Criticism in
Nineteenth Century:
• Biographical and Traditional Historical criticism
was the dominated literary theory, which was
practiced in academics and by critics.
• In a poetry class, students had expected the lecturer
to talk about the poet and give “a description of
poet’s personal and intellectual life without analyzing
or even reading the poem!
I. A. RICHARDS:

• In 1929, a literary critic by the name of Ivor


Armstrong Richards published Practical Criticism.
• His book reported on an experiment that involved
people reading and responding to poems without
knowing who the authors were.
• The objective of his work was to encourage students
to concentrate on ‘the words on the page’, rather
than relying on preconceived or received beliefs
about a text.
• Father of New Criticism

• There are several kinds of meanings and that the


“total meaning” is a blend of contributory meanings
which, are of different types.
• sense refers to what is said, or the ‘items’ referred to by a
writer;

• feeling refers to the emotion, attitude, interest, will,


desire, etc towards what is being said;

• tone is the attitude towards the audience/ reader; and

• intention is the writer’s conscious or unconscious aim or


the effect that s/ he is trying to produce.
T. S. ELIOT:
• One of the pioneers of New Criticism

• He believed that “the poet does not influence the


poem with his or her personality and emotions,
but uses language in such a way as to incorporate
within the poem the impersonal feelings and
emotions common to all humankind.
• The reader must know that after giving birth of
the work of art, the connection b/w art and
artist is ended.

“The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice,


a continual extinction of personality.”
John Crowe Ransom:
• Considered as the ‘Philosopher General of the New
Criticism.’

• In 1941, called this new formalist view of analyzing a


text “New Criticism” and introduced it to American
critics by his book New Criticism.
New Critics try to avoid:
1. Authorial Intention: the meaning the author intended the
text to have.

• Sure knowledge of the author’s intended meaning is


usually unavailable.

• Sometimes a literary text doesn’t live up to the author’s


intention. Sometimes it is even more meaningful, rich, and
complex than the author realized. And sometimes the text’s
meaning is simply different from the meaning the author
wanted it to have.
• Intentional Fallacy:

The mistaken belief that the author’s intention is


the same as the text’s meaning.
2. Reader’s Personal Response:

• reader’s response in the evaluation we will add


biasness or objectivity in the text.

• Affective Fallacy claims that we shouldn't waste


time thinking about the effect a text may have on the
reader.
CLOSE READING:
• The New Critics emphasized “close reading” as a
way to engage with a text, and paid close attention to
the interactions between form and meaning.

• “New Criticism seeks to reveal how the text


works as a unified whole, by showing how its
main theme is established by the text’s formal, or
stylistic elements”, like point of view, imagery,
setting or symbolism.
DOWNFALL:
• New Criticism separates the text from its
author and the readers, to analyze it closely in an
objective academic isolation.

• This scientific objectivity was the same as


dehumanization of a voice of the text which was
once narrated from a human being to share knowledge.
The knowledge which should be discussed in regards
to other social, historical and cultural issues.
• DEAD THEORY

• Some of its features are still in use and important to


observe, such as the notion of close reading.
THANK YOU!

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