General Introduction of the Approach

What is American New Criticism?

 An approach to the critical study of literature that concentrates on textual explication

and rejects historical and biographical study as irrelevant to and understanding of the
total formal organization of a work.

 The typical of focus of this approach is on describing the features of the literary text
such as setting, conflict, theme, character, symbolism, literary techniques, and plot in
general.

 This theory believes that literature is an organic unity. It is independent of its author or
the time when it was written or the historical context. It is concerned solely with the
‘text in itself’, with its language and organization. It does not primarily seek a text’s
meaning, but how it speaks itself. It encourages attentive close reading of texts, a kind
of democratization of literary study in the classroom, in which nearly everyone is placed
on an equal footing in the face of a ‘blind text.’ It looks into how the parts relate to each
other, achieve its order and harmony, contain and resolve irony, paradox, tension,
ambivalence, and ambiguity.

To use this theory, one proceeds by looking into the following:

• the persona

• the addressee

• the situation (where and when)

• what the persona says

• the central metaphor (tenor and vehicle)

• the central irony

• the multiple meanings of words

The Strengths of New Criticism

Repetitive close readings make us better readers and make our experiences with texts richer.
Because it deals with traditional literary conventions, it is easily taught and not theory heavy. Its
insistence on close reading of "the words on the page" allows us to read without letting our
personal emotions or beliefs affect the interpretation.

Concerns with New Criticism

It does not explore authorial intent or historical, social and political conditions surrounding the
work. It does not allow much space for many different interpretations. New popular culture
works often don't work well with New Criticism because these new works rarely feature many
of the traditional literary structures.

Guide Questions as basis of Analysis on each approach

Literary Criticism:
Questions for a Variety of
Approaches
I. Formalistic Approach: This
approach focuses on form. The
analysis stresses items like
symbols,
images, and structure and how
one part of the work relates to
other parts and to the whole.
A. How is the work’s structure
unified?
B. How do various elements of
the work reinforce its meaning?
C. What recurring patterns
(repeated or related words,
images, etc.) can you find?
What is the effect of
these patterns or
motifs?
D. How does repetition
reinforce the theme(s)?
E. How does the writer’s diction
reveal or reflect the work’s
meaning?
F. What is the effect of the plot,
and what parts specifically
produce that effect?
G. What figures of speech are
used? (metaphors, similes, etc.)
H. Note the writer’s use of
paradox, irony, symbol, plot,
characterization, and style of
narration.
What effects are
produced? Do any of these
relate to one another or to the
theme?
I. Is there a relationship
between the beginning and the
end of the story?
J. What tone and mood are
created at various parts of the
work?
K. How does the author create
tone and mood? What
relationship is there between
tone and mood
and the effect of the
story?
L. How do the various elements
interact to create a unified
whole?
Literary Criticism:
Questions for a Variety of
Approaches
I. Formalistic Approach: This
approach focuses on form. The
analysis stresses items like
symbols,
images, and structure and how
one part of the work relates to
other parts and to the whole.
A. How is the work’s structure
unified?
B. How do various elements of
the work reinforce its meaning?
C. What recurring patterns
(repeated or related words,
images, etc.) can you find?
What is the effect of
these patterns or
motifs?
D. How does repetition
reinforce the theme(s)?
E. How does the writer’s diction
reveal or reflect the work’s
meaning?
F. What is the effect of the plot,
and what parts specifically
produce that effect?
G. What figures of speech are
used? (metaphors, similes, etc.)
H. Note the writer’s use of
paradox, irony, symbol, plot,
characterization, and style of
narration.
What effects are
produced? Do any of these
relate to one another or to the
theme?
I. Is there a relationship
between the beginning and the
end of the story?
J. What tone and mood are
created at various parts of the
work?
K. How does the author create
tone and mood? What
relationship is there between
tone and mood
and the effect of the
story?
L. How do the various elements
interact to create a unified
whole?
Authors/proponents of the Approach with their significant literary contributions
(famous literary pieces)
New Criticism is an approach to literature made popular in the 20th century that evolved out of
formalist criticism. New Criticism coined by John Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism in 1941,
came to be applied to theory and practice that was prominent in American literary criticism
until late in the 1960s.

 Practical Criticism: a Study of Literary Judgement by IA Richard  (1929).

 The Well Wrought Urn by Cleanth Brooks  (1947).
 British Poetry Since 1960 by Michael Schmidt and Grevel Lindop (1972).
 Eight Contemporary Poets by Calvin Bendient (1974).
 Nine Contemporary Poets: A Critical Introduction by P.R. King (1979).
 The Force of Poetry by Christopher Ricks (1987).

Background of the Author

Plot of the Story

Analysis of he Story based on the Approach