CARLOS MANUEL MARTINHO LAJARIN POESÍA DE LOS SIGLOS XIX Y XX

CARLOS MANUEL MARTINHO LAJARIN POESÍA DE LOS SIGLOS XIX Y XX

carmarla@alumni.uv.es GRUPO – A

In this paper I´m going to focus on a literary movement. In this case, I´ll explain the new criticism. I´m going to talk about the most important texts of this movement ( key texts) and the most representative authors of the new criticism, also paying attention to other influential authors. In this work about the new criticism I will talk about the methods that are used in the text, and how this methods are used in texts.

The new criticism is a “ literary movement that started in the late 1920s and 1930s and originated in reaction to traditional criticism”. “ The new criticism reached its height during the 1940s and 1950s and that received its name from John Crowe Ransom´s 1941 book The new criticism” (kristisiegel).

This movement is based on the fact that the text is totally independent. The new critics don´t pay attention to the surrounding of the text. The text is an “ autotelic artifact, something complete with in itself written for its own sake, unified in its form and not dependent on its relation to the author´s life or intent, history, or anything else.” Also it is important “ the formal and technical properties of work of art” ( Hedges) For example some of this technical properties are : “ special attention is paid to repetition, particularly of images or symbols”. “ Also the new critics appreciate the use of literary devices” ( kristisiegel). Also this movement “ emphasis on form and precise attention to words themselves” ( wikipedia). And “ argues that each text has a central unity” ( Arnason).

Now we know what is the new criticism, when it started, and the reason for its name, but..... why did this movement appear? As Warren Hedges tells us, “ the new criticism occurred partially in response to:

- Biographical criticism that understood art primarily as a reflection of the author´s life.

- Competition for dollars and students from sciences in academia.

- New forms of mass literature and literacy.”(Hedges)

In the next part, I´m going to introduce the methods of the new criticism that are applied in texts:

New Criticism -- Methods:

    “A. From parts to an organic whole
        1. finding the tensions and conflicts, ambiguity, paradox, irony
        2. connotation and denotations
        3. poetic elements: metaphor, simile, personification, prosody,
        4. narrative elements: tone, point of view, narrative structure”
    (eng.fju)

As we can see, this methods are focused on words and on the meaning of words.

After talking about the methods, I’ll explain the concepts that are used in the literary text. The main concepts in the text that we have in the new criticism are:

Intentional Fallacy - equating the meaning of a poem with the author's intentions.

Affective Fallacy - confusing the meaning of a text with how it makes the reader feel. A reader's emotional response to a text generally does not produce a reliable interpretation.

Heresy of Paraphrase - assuming that an interpretation of a literary work could consist of a detailed summary or paraphrase”. The paraphrase is similar to a sum up. It tells in a few words what happens.

Close reading (from Bressler - see General Resources below) - "a close and detailed analysis of the text itself to arrive at an interpretation without referring to historical, authorial, or cultural concerns" (263).( kristisiegel).

Here we have over again the “autotelic artifact”. Where the surrounding of the text is not important and we don´t have to pay attention to them.

And finally in the last part of this paper, we have the key texts of this literary movement and the most important authors that are significant: “The foundations of the New Criticism were laid in books and essays written during the 1920s and 1930s by I. A. Richards (Practical Criticism [1929]), William Empson (Seven Types of Ambiguity [1930]), and T. S. Eliot ("The Function of Criticism" [1933]). The approach was significantly developed later, however, by a group of American poets and critics, including R. P. Blackmur, Cleanth Brooks, John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, and William K. Wimsatt”. (kristisiegel).

CONCLUSION: After this analysis of the new criticism we know that it is a movement that focuses only on the text and not in the things that sorround it, a literary movement that uses methods like poetic elements or narrative elements. And that the main authors are I.A. Richards, William Empson and T.S. Eliot. With this paper I made a sum up of the new criticism and explained the main concepts that we have to know about this literary movement. Also this paper helped me to understand deeply this literary theory.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Literary criticism -Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia” info-en@wikimedia.org. This page was last modified 03:32, 6 April 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_criticism www.wikipedia.com.

David Arnason´s home page- Professor and Head of the English Department. arnasn@cc.umanitoba.ca “http://130.179.92.25/Arnason_DE/New_Criticism.html” http://130.179.92.25/Arnason_DE/Arnason_DE.html.

New criticism explained - Website © 2000-2004 Southern Oregon University.
1250 Siskiyou Boulevard, Ashland, OR 97520 (541) 552-7672 http://www.sou.edu/English/Hedges/Sodashop/RCenter/Theory/Explaind/ncritexp.htm “http://www.sou.edu/”

Introduction to modern literary theory – Dr. Kristi Siegel Associate Professor and Chair English Department and Languages, Literature, and Communications Division 414-258-4810, ext. 395 Office: NDH 239 siegelkr@core.com http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm www.kristisiegel.com

ANTERIOR MAIN PAGE