New Criticism was the dominant trend in English and American literary criticism of the early twentieth century, from the 1920s to the early 1960s. Its adherents were emphatic in their advocacy of close reading and attention to texts themselves, and their rejection of criticism based on extra-textual sources, especially biography. At their best, New Critical readings were brilliant, articulately argued, and broad in scope, but sometimes they were idiosyncratic and moralistic. Wikimedia Commons has media related to: England Travel guide to England from Wikitravel English language English law English (people) List of monarchs of England – Kings of England family tree List of English people Angeln (region in northern Germany, presumably the origin of the Angles for whom England is named) UK... Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ... Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America and in Australia as the Roaring Twenties . In Europe it is sometimes refered to as the Golden Twenties. ... The 1960s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... In literary criticism, close reading describes the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. ... This is an article on biographies. ...

Key concepts

The notion of ambiguity is an important concept within New Criticism; several prominent New Critics have been enamored above all else with the way that a "text" can display multiple simultaneous meanings. In the 1930s, I.A. Richards borrowed Sigmund Freud's term "overdetermination" (which Louis Althusser would later revive in Marxist political theory) to refer to the multiple meanings which he believed were always simultaneously present in language. To Richards, claiming that a work has "One And Only One True Meaning" is an act of superstition (The Philosophy of Rhetoric, 39). A word, phrase, sentence, or other communication is called ambiguous if it can be interpreted in more than one way. ... // Events and trends The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the global depression. ... Ivor Armstrong Richards (February 26, 1893-1979) was an influential literary critic and rhetorician. ... Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939; ) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, based on his theory that unconscious motives determine behavior, that particular kinds of unconscious thoughts and memories, especially sexual and aggressive ones, are the source of neurosis... Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (October 16, 1918 - October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Niccolò Machiavelli, ca 1500, became the key figure in realistic political theory, crucial to political science Political Science is the systematic study of the allocation and transfer of power in decision making. ... A superstition is an irrational or invalid belief about the relation between certain actions (often behaviors) and other actions that is not true. ...

In 1954, William K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley published an essay entitled "The intentional fallacy", in which they argued strongly against any discussion of an author's intention, or "intended meaning." For Wimsatt and Beardsley, the words on the page were all that mattered; importation of meanings from outside the text was quite irrelevant, and potentially distracting. This became a central tenet of New Criticism. 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... William Kurtz Wimsatt, Jr. ... Monroe Curtis Beardsley (1915-1985) was an American philosopher of aesthetics. ... Intentional fallacy is a literary term that asserts that the meaning intended by the author of a literary work is not the only, and perhaps not the most important, meaning of the piece. ... In literary theory and aesthetics, authorial intentionality is a concept referring to an utterances authors intent as it is encoded in the medium of communication (speech, writing, performance). ...

Because New Critics admit no information other than that contained in the "text" which they study, no proper New Critical investigation should include biographical information on the author. Furthermore, studying a passage of prose or poetry in New Critical style requires careful, exacting scrutiny of the passage itself, since after all no other information source is permissable - a rigid attitude for which the New Critics were often scolded in later times: their immanent readings may also be taken as a conservative attempt to isolate the text as a solid, immutable entity, shielded from any external influences. Nevertheless, immanent reading or close reading is now a fundamental tool of literary criticism. Such a reading places great emphasis on the particular over the general, paying close attention to individual words, syntax, and the order in which sentences and ideas unfold as they are read. They look at, for example, theme, imagery, metaphor, rhythm, meter, etc. In literary criticism, close reading describes the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. ...

Besides the names mentioned above, other prominent New Critical figures include the following:

• T.S. Eliot
• F.R. Leavis
• William Empson
• Robert Penn Warren
• John Crowe Ransom
• Cleanth Brooks

Not all the thoughts and works stemming from these individuals fall within the New Critical camp. For example, Eliot’s relationship with New Criticism was rather complicated. In 1956, he claimed that he failed “to see any school of criticism which can be said to derive from myself,” referring to the New Criticism as “the lemon-squeezer school of criticism." He never understood the ways that the New Critics had come to interpret The Waste Land, noting in “Thoughts after Lambeth” (1931) that “when I wrote a poem called The Waste Land some of the more approving critics said that I had expressed the ‘disillusionment of a generation,’ which is nonsense. I may have expressed for them their own illusion of being disillusioned, but that did not form part of my intention." A New Critic might respond that paying Eliot any mind would fall into the "intentional fallacy". Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 - January 4, 1965), was a major Modernist Anglo-American poet, dramatist, and literary critic. ... Frank Raymond Leavis (1895-1978) was an influential British literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. ... William Empson Sir William Empson (1906-1984) was an English poet and literary critic, and former head of the English department at the University of Sheffield, sometimes reckoned the greatest English literary critic after Samuel Johnson and William Hazlitt and fitting heir to their mode of witty, fiercely heterodox and... Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 - September 15, 1989) was an American poet and novelist. ... John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 - July 3, 1974) was an American poet, essayist, and social commentator. ... Cleanth Brooks (1906-1994) was an influential American literary critic. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... T. S. Eliot (by E. O. Hoppe, 1919) The Waste Land is a highly influential 433-line poem by T. S. Eliot. ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Empson, too, attempted to distance himself from the New Criticism, and was particularly critical of Wimsatt. His last book, Using Biography, was largely an attempt to refute the doctrine of the "intentional fallacy."

Satire

The New Criticism is one of the concepts satirized in Isaac Asimov's short story "The Immortal Bard" (1954), in which a physics professor learns the secret of time travel and tries bringing prominent individuals from the past into the present. After failing with notable scientists like Archimedes and Galileo, who are not adaptable enough to cope with 20th-century society, he tries retrieving William Shakespeare, who he hopes can understand human beings of any time. Shakespeare becomes ravenous to learn what posterity made of his work, so the professor enrolls him in a colleague's evening-extension class on Shakespeare, with less than stellar results. "God ha' mercy!" cries Asimov's Shakespeare. "What cannot be racked from words in five centuries? One could wring, methinks, a flood from a damp clout!" Isaac Asimov (courtesy of Jay Kay Klein) Isaac Asimov (c. ... The Immortal Bard is a science fiction short story written in 1954 by Isaac Asimov in which William Shakespeare is brought to the present and anoymously enrolled in a literature class. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Since antiquity, people have tried to understand the behavior of matter: why unsupported objects drop to the ground, why different materials have different properties, and so forth. ... Time travel is a concept that has long fascinated humanity—whether it is Merlin experiencing time backwards, or religious traditions like Mohammeds trip to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, returning before a glass knocked over had spilt its contents. ... Archimedes of Syracuse. ... Galileo can refer to: Galileo Galilei, astronomer, philosopher, and physicist (1564 - 1642) the Galileo spacecraft, a NASA space probe that visited Jupiter and its moons the Galileo positioning system Life of Galileo, a play by Bertolt Brecht Galileo (1975) - screen adaptation of the play Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Works

• Empson's Seven Types of Ambiguity and Some Versions of Pastoral are among the preeminent New Critical works. Their broad taxonomic ambition, in both cases, ranges over a good portion of the literary canon in an attempt to define a literary device or trope.
• Richards's Practical Criticism is one of the most "theoretical" works of the New Criticism; that is, it is a reflection on critical method.
• Wimsatt and Beardsley concisely defined the two anathemas of the New Criticism in their well-known essays "The Intentional Fallacy" and "The Affective Fallacy."
• Brooks's The Well-Wrought Urn is among the best-known examples of New Critical poetry explication. Also often referenced for its essay "The Heresy of Paraphrase" and its discussion of paradox in literature.
• Ransom's essay "The New Criticism," from which the movement received its name.

The Western canon is a canon of books and art (and specifically one with very loose boundaries) that has allegedly been highly influential in shaping Western culture. ... Novels and short stories do not simply come from nowhere. ... // Linguistic usage A trope is a rhetorical figure of speech that consists of a play on words, i. ... Intentional fallacy is a literary term that asserts that the meaning intended by the author of a literary work is not the only, and perhaps not the most important, meaning of the piece. ... Affective fallacy is a literary term used to assert that the meaning of a literary work is not dependent on its effects on the reader, especially referring to emotional effects. ...

External links

• New Criticism from the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory
• Criticism of New Criticism