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- Art for art՚s sake
- Only text
- Form is important
- Type of formalist criticism
- 1940s and 1950s
- Derives its name from the book The New Criticism by John Crowe Ransom
- Rejects historical and biographical study
- Text - object of formal study
- Methodology of Close Reading
Foundation
- The foundation of New Criticism was laid in the books and essays mainly in
- I. A. Richards – Practical Criticism
- William Empson – Seven types of ambiguity
- T. S Eliot – The Function of Criticism
- It differed from other forms of criticism as it dismissed authorial intent and ignored biographical and historical information about an author
- It interpreted the literature on the basis of cohesiveness of the work
Key Terms
- Intentional fallacy
- Affective fallacy
- Heresy of Paraphrase
Intentional Fallacy
- The term was introduced by Wimsatt and Beardsley in their essay The Intentional Fallacy
- It is the confusion between the poem and its origin
- Judging a work of art based on author՚s intention
Affective Fallacy
- It is the confusion between the poem and its results
- This term refers to the error in literary criticism of judging a work on the basis of its effect on the reader (emotional effect on the reader)
- What it is and What it does
Heresy of Paraphrase
- Term introduced by Cleanth Brooks in his book The Well-Wrought Urn.
- The Heresy of Paraphrase occurs when a critic or reader interprets a text to mean something other than exactly what it says.
- Cleanth Brooks also argued that any attempt to transform poetic meaning to a prose statement such as descriptive or thematic interpretation is an injustice to a poem
Key Texts
- William Empson- Seven types of Ambiguity
- Cleanth Brooks and Robert Warrens – Understanding poetry
- Cleanth Brooks- The Well-Wrought Urn
- Wimsatt and Beardsley- The Verbal Icon
MCQs
1. New Criticism focuses on …
A) Historical background
B) Author background
C) Close Reading of text
D) Defamiliarisation
Answer: C
2. Odd one out
A) Seven types of Ambiguity
B) The Well-Wrought Urn
C) The Second Sex
D) The Verbal Icon
Answer: C
✍ Manishika