The New Critic

T.S. Eliot said, “…criticism is as inevitable as breathing.” For me, this is very true.

Over the course of my four years at this university, I have become enthralled in literary theory. It sounds like an odd thing to be passionate about, but its history and future are fascinating. As Dr. Noland so lovingly commented, I am a “theory dork”.

In my reading and research, I come across so much information about the New Criticism. I understand its difficulties in interpretation and application, but I believe it to be a valuable part of how and why we read.

During the post war years, America underwent many cultural changes. Eliot, Pound and other modernist writers introduced new ways of writing to America’s literary community. As a result, new ways of interpreting literature followed.

The New Criticism demanded a new learning and teaching of literature in schools. John Crowe Ransom, an Agrarian from Tennessee, expressed his opposition to the industrialization and capitalism that was spreading across the country. His main objective was to preserve an agrarian way of life and remain loyal to tradition. Ransom’s theories of society were paralleled in his views of literature. In his proposing theories, Ransom has voiced his dissent regarding the education of literature. In a sense, he believed the social and cultural changes in America were reinforcing the idea of literature as a history, rather than an art.

Ransom’s critical essays brought on not only a new way of reading, but a new way of teaching literature. We may credit Ransom with today’s collegiate English curriculum. The American Modernists broadened the texts that became, and will become, included in the literary canon.

Pioneering ideas like these have allowed students (in all levels of education) to be exposed to texts from around the world and authors from many different backgrounds. The establishment of New Criticism, led to the many literary perspectives we study today—by default. The rejection of New Criticism and its entirely objective interpretation of a text allowed more inclusive and subjective perspectives to be formed.

Without New Criticism we would still be studying the stuffy prose of Romantics and Victorian literature. Without New Criticism we would be studying texts as historical markers instead of appreciating the art and style of writing. Without New Criticism I would have little to be passionate about.