Introduction
Literary criticism, like literature itself, evolves alongside the cultural and intellectual currents of its time. From the classical musings of Plato and Aristotle to the moral and aesthetic guidance of early modern critics, the field has always grappled with questions of value, meaning, and truth. Traditional criticism, broadly speaking, presumes the existence of an ultimate truth—whether moral, spiritual, or aesthetic—that literature can reveal or embody. Works are evaluated according to their ability to reflect eternal principles, and criticism often extends beyond the text to the author’s life, historical context, or ethical alignment.
By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, the intellectual and spiritual landscape had begun to shift. The questioning of religious authority, rapid social transformation, and the rise of scientific rationality fostered a climate of doubt and uncertainty. It was within this environment that modern literary theory began to emerge, emphasizing skepticism toward overarching truths and privileging analysis, interpretation, and relativism over moral or religious certainties.
In this spectrum, New Criticism occupies a unique position. Neither fully aligned with the traditional search for ultimate truths nor wholly embracing the relativism of later modern approaches, New Criticism functions as a transitional movement. It absorbs the cultural and ethical aspirations of tradition while adopting the methodological rigor and analytic clarity associated with modernism. By emphasizing close reading, the autonomy of the text, and the careful balance between scientific analysis and human significance, New Criticism marks a critical turning point in the history of literary thought—a bridge between the certainties of tradition and the questioning of modernity.
From Tradition to Modernity: Setting the Context
To understand New Criticism’s position, it is essential first to examine the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century context in which it emerged. Figures such as Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot, and F.R. Leavis exemplify the transitional thinking that precedes New Criticism, representing a modernist response to the crisis of meaning following the decline of religious authority.
Arnold, writing in the mid- to late nineteenth century, approached literature as a civilizing force capable of sustaining ethical and cultural values in a time of moral uncertainty. He regarded poetry as a medium through which humanity could access higher truths, proposing that literature could compensate, at least partially, for the waning influence of religion. Arnold’s insistence on the moral and spiritual significance of literature laid the groundwork for New Criticism’s concern with the ethical dimensions of poetry, even as it would later emphasize textual autonomy.
T.S. Eliot, a modernist poet and critic, continued Arnold’s preoccupation with the stabilizing power of literature. In essays such as The Function of Criticism, Eliot emphasized poetry’s potential to convey transcendent values amidst the fragmentation and dislocation of modern life. Modernity, with its doubts and dislocations, demanded new forms of artistic engagement, and Eliot’s work sought to preserve a sense of order and meaning through the structural and aesthetic rigor of poetry. Similarly, F.R. Leavis, operating in the early twentieth century, highlighted literature’s moral seriousness and its capacity to cultivate human sensibility. For Leavis, the critical task was not merely to assess technical prowess but to discern works that could sustain and elevate the ethical life of a culture.
Modernism, therefore, can be understood as a movement negotiating the tension between faith in literature’s transcendent power and skepticism toward traditional sources of authority. Poetry, in this view, is both a substitute for and a complement to the moral and spiritual guidance once offered by religion. New Criticism emerges in this intellectual environment, absorbing the ethical and cultural ambitions of Arnold, Eliot, and Leavis while introducing a methodological rigor inspired by scientific and analytic thought.
Scientific Approach and Objective Reading
One of the central innovations of New Criticism is its insistence on a disciplined, quasi-scientific approach to textual analysis. I.A. Richards, a foundational figure in the movement, distinguished between scientific and emotive language. Scientific language, according to Richards, aims for precision, clarity, and objective description. Emotive language, by contrast, is expressive, subjective, and tied to human experience. Poetry, inherently emotive, presents a challenge: how can critics apprehend its meaning rigorously without losing its human significance?
New Critics responded to this challenge by emphasizing close reading—a meticulous, line-by-line examination of the text that prioritizes internal structure, diction, and formal coherence. By focusing attention on the text itself, rather than the author’s biography or historical context, New Criticism seeks to uncover the work’s intrinsic meaning. Objectivity does not eliminate the human experience but channels it through the careful analysis of the literary artifact. The text, in effect, becomes a laboratory for understanding human expression, blending analytical rigor with aesthetic appreciation.
Close reading allows the critic to respect poetry’s emotive power while maintaining the standards of disciplined, almost scientific observation. The critic attends to imagery, metaphor, and structural relationships, tracing how each element contributes to the overall effect. In doing so, New Criticism preserves the ethical and aesthetic seriousness championed by Arnold, Eliot, and Leavis, while situating literary analysis within a modern, methodologically rigorous framework.
The Paradoxical Nature of Language
Poetry, by its very nature, resists the precision and clarity of scientific language. It thrives on ambiguity, paradox, and tension—qualities that make it humanly significant and emotionally resonant. New Criticism recognizes this paradox, asserting that while literature is analyzable, it cannot be reduced to formulaic or purely objective terms.
The paradoxical nature of language is evident in the interplay of opposing forces within a text: irony and sincerity, conflict and resolution, tension and harmony. New Critics maintain that these elements contribute to a work’s organic unity, providing the means through which literature achieves its humanly significant effects. The text is not a mere vessel for the author’s intentions nor a mirror of the reader’s emotions; it is a self-contained object whose meaning emerges from the interplay of its formal and semantic components.
By attending to these paradoxes, New Criticism preserves poetry’s emotional resonance and ethical significance, even as it insists on rigorous analytical methods. The movement demonstrates that objectivity and human meaning are not mutually exclusive; rather, they can coexist within a disciplined approach to reading and interpretation.
Core Principles of New Criticism
Several foundational concepts distinguish New Criticism and underscore its transitional role in literary theory.
- Organic Unity: The text is treated as an interrelated whole, with every element contributing to the overall meaning. Organic unity ensures that literary analysis focuses on the work itself rather than external factors.
- Intentional Fallacy: Proposed by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley, this principle asserts that the author’s intended meaning is not the primary guide to interpretation. The text exists independently, and its meaning arises from its own formal and semantic structures.
- Affective Fallacy: Similarly, the reader’s emotional response cannot serve as the standard for evaluating literature. While affective experience is valuable, New Criticism separates emotional reaction from objective analysis, maintaining the autonomy and integrity of the text.
These principles collectively reinforce the movement’s commitment to objective, disciplined reading while allowing literature to retain its human and cultural significance. By distinguishing textual meaning from authorial intention and subjective response, New Criticism establishes a framework for rigorous yet meaningful interpretation.
New Criticism as a Transitional Movement
New Criticism occupies a unique position within the history of literary thought, bridging the gap between traditional and modern approaches. On the one hand, it preserves reverence for poetry’s ethical, cultural, and aesthetic significance—continuing the ambitions of Arnold, Eliot, and Leavis. On the other hand, it embraces skepticism toward external authority, methodological rigor, and analytic precision, anticipating the formalist and structuralist tendencies of later modernist criticism.
As a transitional movement, New Criticism demonstrates how literary theory can negotiate the tension between faith in enduring values and the recognition of interpretive uncertainty. It establishes a model in which close attention to language, structure, and form enables critics to apprehend meaning systematically, without relying on moral or religious authority. In doing so, New Criticism lays the groundwork for subsequent developments, including structuralism, poststructuralism, and contemporary theories that explore multiplicity, instability, and interpretive play.
Conclusion
New Criticism represents a crucial moment in the evolution of literary theory. Situated between the certainties of traditional criticism and the relativism of modern approaches, it demonstrates how literature can be analyzed with rigor while retaining its ethical and human significance. By emphasizing close reading, the autonomy of the text, and the paradoxical nature of language, New Criticism reconciles the humanly significant with the analytically objective.
In bridging tradition and modernity, New Criticism not only reshaped the practice of literary criticism in the twentieth century but also provided a model for future approaches that continue to navigate the tension between meaning, interpretation, and textual autonomy. It is a movement defined by balance—between reverence and skepticism, analysis and appreciation, science and art. In this delicate balance, New Criticism affirms that while ultimate truths may be questioned, literature remains a uniquely vital instrument for exploring the human condition.