The New Criticism

The New Criticism examines literary criticism and its role in understanding poetry and prose. The book presents Ransom's vision for a more rigorous and objective approach to analyzing literature. Ransom outlines specific techniques for close reading of texts while arguing against biographical, historical, and moral interpretations. He demonstrates his critical method through analysis of works by Wordsworth, Keats, and other poets. The volume provides frameworks for studying the technical aspects of poetry including meter, metaphor, imagery and structure. Through examples and argumentation, Ransom builds his case for treating poems as autonomous objects. The book establishes foundational principles for what would become one of the dominant schools of 20th century literary criticism, influencing how literature is taught and studied. Its emphasis on the text itself over external factors continues to shape critical discourse.

The New Criticism appears to have a limited number of online reviews, making it difficult to gauge broad reader sentiment. Readers value the book's clarity in explaining the New Critical approach and its philosophical foundations. Multiple reviewers note its usefulness for understanding the movement's core principles, though they suggest reading other New Critical works alongside it. Common criticisms include Ransom's dense academic writing style and some readers find his arguments repetitive. Several reviewers point out that the book functions better as a historical document of the movement rather than a practical guide to literary analysis. Ratings/Reviews: Goodreads: 3.8/5 (13 ratings, 0 written reviews) Amazon: No reviews available JSTOR: Multiple scholarly citations but no user reviews Library Thing: 3.5/5 (2 ratings) Note: Due to the book's academic nature and age (published 1941), there are few public reader reviews available online compared to more recent or mainstream literary works.

The Well Wrought Urn by Cleanth Brooks This work examines poetry through close textual analysis and demonstrates the unity between form and meaning in literary interpretation.

Theory of Literature by René Wellek, Austin Warren The text establishes fundamental concepts and methodologies for literary study while exploring the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic approaches to criticism.

Seven Types of Ambiguity by William Empson This critical work presents a systematic examination of linguistic and literary ambiguity in poetry through detailed textual analysis.

The Verbal Icon by W.K. Wimsatt The book develops key concepts of formalist criticism including the intentional fallacy and the affective fallacy while establishing methods for objective literary analysis.

On Poetry and Poets by T.S. Eliot The collection presents a critical framework for understanding modern poetry through technical analysis and theoretical principles.

🔖 Though published in 1941, The New Criticism coined a term that became the dominant mode of literary analysis in American universities throughout the 1940s and 1950s. 📚 John Crowe Ransom originally wrote most of the book's content as lectures for the Richards Prize at Cambridge University, where he presented them in 1937. ✍️ The book argues against biographical and historical approaches to literature, insisting instead that a text should be analyzed as a self-contained unit, independent of its author's life or times. 🎓 Ransom was not only a literary critic but also a distinguished poet and founding editor of The Kenyon Review, one of America's most influential literary magazines. 📖 The methodology outlined in the book significantly influenced later critics like Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, who wrote Understanding Poetry, a textbook that revolutionized how poetry was taught in American classrooms.