noc18-hs31-Lecture 10-New Criticism | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

New Criticism, a literary theory that emerged after the First World War, focuses on the relationship between tradition and individual talent, and emphasizes close reading of the text rather than the author's intention or historical context.

Key Insights

• 🎓 The emergence of literary theories is often tied to socio-political changes and upheavals in the cultural world.
• 🚩 The outbreak of the First World War had a profound impact on the cultural landscape and birthed the New Criticism movement.
• 💥 The New Criticism movement emphasized the importance of close reading and the analysis of language in literature.
• 💡 In T.S. Eliot's essay "Tradition and Individual Talent," he argues that poetry is an escape from personality and should be studied without consideration for the author's intention or historical context.
• ⚖️ I.A. Richards conducted an experiment in which he provided anonymous poems to his students, revealing the irrelevance of the poet's personality and historical context in literary criticism.
• 🔍 Close reading, or the analysis of the internal structuring of language in poems, is a key component of New Criticism.
• 🌟 William Empson focused on the celebration of ambiguity in literature, highlighting the multiple interpretations of words and phrases.
• ⚠️ New Critics like W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe C. Beardsley criticized the fallacy of reading a text based on authorial intention or emotional effects on readers, emphasizing the importance of the literary text itself.

Transcript

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Questions & Answers

Q: What is New Criticism, and how does it differ from previous literary theories?

New Criticism is a literary theory that emerged after the First World War, focusing on the relationship between tradition and individual talent, and emphasizing close reading. Unlike previous theories, it denies the importance of the author's personality and historical context, instead focusing solely on the language and structure of the text.

Q: What is the significance of tradition in New Criticism?

Tradition plays a central role in New Criticism, as it provides a temporal continuum into which the present work of art can be fitted. However, this engagement with tradition requires a tremendous amount of labor and continual self-sacrifice from the individual artist.

Q: What is close reading and why is it important in New Criticism?

Close reading is a method of literary analysis that focuses on the internal structure and language of a poem or literary work. It allows for a deeper understanding of the text's meaning and the complex patterns of ambiguity and symbolism within it. Close reading is important in New Criticism because it emphasizes the text itself, rather than the author's intention or historical context, as the basis for interpretation.

Q: How did New Criticism challenge the Romantic theory of poetry?

New Criticism challenged the Romantic theory of poetry by denying the importance of the poet's personality and individual expression in the creation and interpretation of poetry. Instead, New Criticism emphasized the role of tradition, close reading, and the language and structure of the text itself.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• New Criticism emerged after the First World War and was influenced by the sense of alienation and loss experienced during the war.

• T.S. Eliot emphasized the importance of tradition and the continual labor and self-sacrifice required for an individual artist to engage with it.

• I.A. Richards pioneered close reading, focusing on the internal structure of a poem or literary work, while denying the relevance of the poet's personality and historical context.