New Criticism
In 1941, John Crowe Ransom published a book titled The New Criticism. This volume gave the movement its name and signaled a break from older methods of literary study. Before this moment, scholars in New England focused on philology and literary history. They traced words to foreign languages or ancient sources. Biographical details about authors often filled their lectures instead of analyzing the text itself. These approaches drew heavily from nineteenth-century German scholarship. New Critics argued that such external factors distracted from the poem's actual meaning. They also rejected the literary appreciation school for being too subjective. That older method simply pointed out beauties without systematic analysis. The New Critics sought an objective method rooted in the work itself.
John Crowe Ransom taught at Kenyon College during the early twentieth century. His students included Allen Tate, Cleanth Brooks, and Robert Penn Warren. All three were Southerners who developed the aesthetics later known as New Criticism. I. A. Richards, a Cambridge scholar, provided early theoretical groundwork with books like Practical Criticism. T. S. Eliot contributed essays such as Tradition and the Individual Talent. Eliot insisted poetry must be impersonal and introduced the concept of the objective correlative. W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley published influential essays in 1946. Their work The Intentional Fallacy became central to the movement's identity. Cleanth Brooks wrote The Well Wought Urn, which examined poetic structure through close reading. These texts formed the core canon despite the lack of a formal manifesto. Brooks once noted that the New Critic was like the Snark, an elusive beast.
Close reading required careful scrutiny of every line within a poem or passage. Scholars examined rhyme, meter, setting, characterization, and plot to identify themes. They looked for paradox, ambiguity, irony, and tension to establish unified interpretations. This technique treated literary works as self-contained aesthetic objects independent of context. Historical background and cultural circumstances were excluded from analysis. The goal was to show how structure and meaning were intimately connected. Allen Tate articulated this approach in his essay Miss Emily and the Bibliographer. Ransom called for criticism to become more scientific and precise in Criticism Inc. Students learned to treat words on the page as the only valid source of meaning. External importation of ideas was considered irrelevant or distracting. This method changed American universities by shifting focus away from biography toward textual form.
In 1946, William K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley published The Intentional Fallacy. They argued that authorial intention held no relevance when analyzing a literary work. Words on the page mattered most; intended meanings outside the text were dismissed. Another essay titled The Affective Fallacy addressed reader response. It discounted personal emotional reactions as invalid grounds for interpretation. Stanley Fish later repudiated these views in his 1970 essay Literature in the Reader. He trained under New Critics but criticized their dismissal of the reader's role. Brooks responded in 1979 by stating that readers are essential for realizing any poem. Yet he warned against reducing literature study to individual psychology. The fallacies aimed to protect texts from subjective interference. They sought to isolate the work from both creator and consumer influences.
The heyday of New Criticism spanned the Cold War decades between 1950 and the mid-seventies. Textbooks like Understanding Poetry and Understanding Fiction became staples in high schools and colleges. Methods predominated in American universities until structuralism challenged them in the 1960s. Post-structuralism followed shortly after during the 1970s. Other critical theories emerged including feminist criticism, deconstructionist theory, and reception theory. Despite its decline, close reading remains fundamental to modern literary analysis. Some scholars credit it with anticipating insights of the linguistic turn. Logical positivism shares ideological parallels with certain New Critical approaches. René Wellek defended the movement in his 1978 essay The New Criticism: Pro and Contra. It no longer dominates academic discourse but retains influence through subsequent theoretical frameworks.
Critics alleged that New Critics treated texts as autonomous and divorced from historical context. Terence Hawkes claimed the method assumed stable forms rather than unconscious processes of signification. He identified this assumption as an ideology of liberal humanism. Feminist theory opposes New Criticism due to concerns about sexual identity and the human body. Post-colonial theory also rejects it for ignoring dual identities and political bias. Joseph Pivato noted these tensions in Echo: Essays on Other Literatures. Cleanth Brooks argued in 1979 that reader-response could complement New Critical principles. Yet he cautioned against placing meaning entirely at the mercy of individual readers. Ransom advocated for scientific precision while others like Wellek contrasted their aesthetics with objectivity. The debate continues over whether criticism should remain objective or embrace subjective engagement.
Common questions
When did John Crowe Ransom publish the book that named New Criticism?
John Crowe Ransom published The New Criticism in 1941. This volume gave the movement its name and signaled a break from older methods of literary study.
Who were the key figures associated with developing New Criticism at Kenyon College?
Allen Tate, Cleanth Brooks, and Robert Penn Warren studied under John Crowe Ransom at Kenyon College during the early twentieth century. These three Southerners developed the aesthetics later known as New Criticism.
What specific essays did W K Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley publish to define New Criticism in 1946?
W K Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley published The Intentional Fallacy and The Affective Fallacy in 1946. Their work became central to the movement's identity by arguing against authorial intention and reader response.
During which decades was New Criticism dominant in American universities before structuralism challenged it?
The heyday of New Criticism spanned the Cold War decades between 1950 and the mid-seventies. Methods predominated in American universities until structuralism challenged them in the 1960s.
Why do feminist theory and post-colonial theory reject New Criticism according to critics like Terence Hawkes?
Critics allege that New Critics treated texts as autonomous and divorced from historical context. Terence Hawkes claimed the method assumed stable forms rather than unconscious processes of signification, while other theories oppose it for ignoring sexual identity and political bias.