New Criticism Basics
New Criticism Basics
The Who, What, Where, When, and Why of New Criticism
Beginnings
New Criticism wasn't the most organized of movements. Different groups of critics in the U.S. and in Britain were blazing trails on their own, and they hadn't exactly sat down to figure out a road...
Big Players
New Criticism's heavy hitters primarily batted for two teams: Team U.S.A. and Team U.K. On the U.S. side, we have John Crowe Ransom, who was a professor at Vanderbilt University, and who gave New C...
Key Debates
The New Critics weren't afraid of controversy. Really, the whole movement arose because they wanted to contradict the methods of previous critics, and forge a new path. This Crew o' Lyrical Superhe...
State of the Theory
From New To OutmodedNew Criticism fell out of favor in the 1960s and '70s, as other theories stepped up to the lit crit plate. Sure, many of these theories would use the same analytic tools as New...
Talking the Talk
What is literature? According to the New Critics, literature is something to be read closely. To be laboriously analyzed. To be pored over with a cappuccino in hand. See, a text is made up of form,...