LITERARY CRITICISM

New Criticism

Founding Fathers:
T.S. Eliot, I.A. Richards and William Empson
New Criticism

 1940-1960
 opposes biographical criticism and traditional
historical criticism
 a literary theory
 a way to read text
 its example to
validate
interpretation
only source to
It’s a
analyze and
complete
get its true
work of art.
meaning

TEXT
New Criticism avoids…

INTENTIONAL FALLACY (William K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley)

 assuming the intent or purpose of the author

AFFECTIVE FALLACY
 impressionistic
 based on how readers feel
New Criticism

CLOSE READING
careful examination of the text alone
New Criticism

FOUR KINDS of LINGUISTIC DEVICES:

 paradox
 ambiguity
 irony
 tension
 Paradox

“Someday you will be old enough to start reading

fairy tales.”

-C.S. Lewis to his godchild, Lucy Barfield

 Ambiguity

"Thanks for dinner. I’ve never seen potatoes cooked

like that before.“

-Jonah Baldwin in the film Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

 Irony

“He took a much-needed vacation, backpacking in

the mountains on his own, carrying all his stuff all the
way up the mountains and back home.”
 Tension

When Montresor lured Fortunato to his grave. The

entire scene in the basement.

-The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe (1847)

 Formula

 Who is speaking in the text?

 Who is being spoken to?
 Who is the addressee?
 Who is the implied reader of the text?
 Where is the setting ? When it is ?
 What is the central metaphor of the text ?
Importance of Metaphor

 A text is not only about what is seems to be

talking about.
 It makes literature/literary language different from
the ordinary language.
Formal Elements

 imagery
 symbolism
 metaphor
 rhyme
 meter
 point of view
 setting
 characterization
 plot
New Criticism

 psychological
 sociological
 philosophical
References:
• Joseph Essig, English B.A (2016)
• Lois Tyson- Critical Theory Today
• https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary
-terms/new-criticism
• https://www.quora.com/What-is-formalism-or-
new-criticism