New Criticism

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New Criticism

• ... is preoccupied with questions of style,
  rhythm and imagery employed by the writer

concentrates on the text itself
rejects historical, social, Marxist and
psychoanalytic approaches
rejects examining a writers life
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HISTORY AND FOUNDERS
some important names

• Matthew Arnold (1822- 1888)
• T.S. Eliot ( 1888- 1965)
• I.A. Richards (1893- 1979)
• F.R. Leavis (1895- 1978)
• William Empson (1906- 1984)

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the term New Criticism was first used in 1910 by
J.I. Spingarn

• New Critics

Cleanth Brooks
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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AIMS OF NEW CRITICISM

• close attention to the internal characteristics
  of the text

• literary text as a solid entity

• meaning from each readers experience and from
  the linguistic structure

• figurative language supports the meaning gt
  relation between all elements manifests a texts
  meaning

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• technique of close, analytic reading

• to ensure the autonomy of the text itself

• pays attention to syntax, individual words,
  order of the whole work

• the literary text gets ist own distinctive
  character from the relationships of the words
  within the text

• tries to avoid external influences

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• Intentional Fallacies

• the error of attempting to understand the
  authors intentions when interpreting a literary
  text

• effect the text loses ist autonomy

• Affective Fallacies

• try to confuse a work of literature with its
  effects on the reader

• the readers response is relevant to the meaning
  of a text, not the words

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CHANGE DEVELOPMENT

• in the 1930s 1940s New Criticism became
  increasingly established in the USA

• in the 1950s 1960s the importance of thematic
  structure increased
• emphasis on thematic unity and
  comprehensiveness
• gt accumulation of interpretations of
  literary texts

• in the 1960s other critical perspectives appeared

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CRITIC ON NEW CRITICISM

• the theory of NC neglects other possible
  theories
• gt e.g. psychoanalysism, historicism

• NC is able to interpret texts like poems, but
  has difficulties with literary texts liks novels
• gt Has no methods or techniques to open up
  narrative texts

• NC pays no attention to the ambiguity of
  language and the awareness of significance
  described by poststructualists
• gt NC tries to discover the correct reading

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• not universal and permanent

• NC concentrates on the analysis of the inner
  structure of literary texts without any regard on
  their historical origin

• NEW CRITICISM vs. NEW HISTORICISM

context ist not considered
literary texts are brought back to their cultural
context and associated to other texts convictions
and cultural practices
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Example
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) I Wandered Lonely
as a Cloud (1804, 1807) I wandered lonely as a
cloud That floats on high oer vales and
hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of
golden daffodils Beside the lake, beneath the
trees, Fluttering and dancing in the
breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And
twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in
never-ending line Along the margins of a bay Ten
thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads
in sprightly dance.