F unacademy New Criticism The Four Kinds of Meaning — I.A. Richards 1A. Richards: - Contributed to the foundations of New Criticism - Foundational Works — The Principles of Literary Criticism (1924), Practical Criticism (1929) - Literature works as an interdisciplinary - Inductive and Deductive approaches to research - Made criticism text orientedF unacademy New Criticism The Four Kinds of Meaning: - Concept of meaning and four different kind of meanings - Starts essays with question like, What is meaning?, what are we doing when we endeavour to make it out?, What is it we are making out? - There are several kinds of meaning - The total meaning is almost always , a blend, a combination, of several contributory meanings of different typesF unacademy New Criticism The Four Kinds of Meaning: - Four kinds of meaning found in all uses of language 1. Sense — when a common men normally understands meaning — a statement Nu Feeling — association of feelings and emotions with the speaker’s diction, syntax and discourse 3. Tone — speaker’s attitude towards listener 4. Intention — speaker’s aim or purposeF unacademy New Criticism The Four Kinds of Meaning: - Poetry as a real concern for Richards - Poetry operates in realm of feelings - Poetic statements are there “for the sake of their effects upon feelings, not for their own sake” - Great possibility of misunderstanding by listeners/audience when they emphasize on the meaning which is not pre- dominantF unacademy New Criticism Conclusion: - Predominance of specific functions at specific times - Political speeches - Interconnections between these meanings - Ex. — “Ode to Grecian urn” by John Keats - Possibility of misunderstanding