Dan Gordon

LIT 502
Response Paper
#1
New Criticism is a school of literary theory in which a text is
looked at in isolation in an attempt to decipher its meaning. These
theorists believed that the meaning and structure of the text were
inextricably linked and couldnt be examined in isolation from one
another. Things like the readers response, the authors intention, the
historical and cultural context in which a work was written, and the
origins of the words used, were all seen as distracting from the value of
the text. All of these things, according to the New Critics, could be
revealed by a close reading of any text. They stressed things like
rhyme, meter, and plot in examining literary works.
Unlike many other schools of literary theory, there is no single
manifesto or text that can be seen as signaling the founding of this
school of theory. Two influential essays, however, are The Intentional
Fallacy and The Affective Fallacy, written by William K. Wimsatt and
Monroe Beardsley in 1946 and 1949. The authors argued that any
writers intended meaning is irrelevant and actually distracts from the
act of interpreting the text.
If the poet succeeds in doing it, then the poem itself shows what
he was trying to do, write the authors (Wimsatt and Beardsley 01).
Literature, they seem to be saying, should be judged only on how
clearly it conveys a singular message.

In some instances, New Criticism and close reading can be

useful. For many English language learners, it is a chance to help
grasp the basic mechanics of language before attempting more
complicated analysis. The danger is, however, that this form of
criticism lends itself to those who are interested in de-politicizing and
neutralizing texts by ignoring the context in which theyre written. This
controversy has played out in recent years with the Common Core
English/Language Arts standards, which focus heavily on New Criticism
to the exclusion of other forms of literary analysis (Katz 2014). Critics
have argued that the push for New Criticism has gone hand in hand
with corporate-funded attempts to teacher-proof public school
curriculum by replacing teacher autonomy with scripted, pre-packaged
teaching materials. If we accept the idea that all relevant information
is contained within a text, this view lends itself to accepting
standardized testing as a measure of a students learning. English
teacher and scholar P.L. Thomas has written that New Criticism is in
direct opposition to other forms of criticism like Critical Literacy that
can help students relate a text to their own lives and draw connections
with events taking place in the world (Thomas 2014).
For example, a close reading of an article on the 1954 Brown vs.
Board of Education decision ending school segregation would have to
avoid looking at the fact that, in many public schools, the article would
likely by read in a classroom that is almost entirely segregated. It
would mean not bringing up relevant historical information, like the

fact that school segregation has actually worsened since the Brown
decision. Students would find it perfectly clear that their experience
(sitting in a segregated classroom) does not match what is written in
the actual text. A New Critic, by forcing the discussion to center
around only the structure of this text, would miss the bigger picture of
school segregation. It is easy to see how this school of theory can be
used by the ruling class and those interested in presenting an official
version of history while brushing aside alternative narratives,
uncomfortable questions, and excluded points of view.
Works Cited
Katz, Daniel. Dear Common Core English Standards: Can we talk?
Web blog post.
Daniel Katz, PhD. 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 09 Sept
2015.
Thomas, P.L. New Criticism, Close Reading, and Failing Critical
Literacy Again. Web blog post. The Becoming Radical. 02 Feb. 2014.
Web. 09 Sept. 2015.
Wimsatt, W.K. Jr and Beardsley, Monroe C. The Intentional Fallacy.
The Verbal Icon: Studies in the Meaning of Poetry. Lexington:
University of Kentucky Press, 1954.