Charney, Sparks, Swanson
AP Engl Lit
Summer 2002
Clemson University

Background/ Context
• Rebelling agianst biographical. historical criticism
• Also rebelling aginst aesthetic, impressionistic, and judgemental criticism  (journeys of the mind among masterpieces)
• Modern poets as well are rebelling against Romantic, Victorian, and Georgian poetic conventions
• Aslo rebelling against PHILOLOGY -- study of ancient languages.
• Begins with MODERNISM (Eliot etc) and Russian Formalism
• Southern Agrarian (Vanderbilt) in 30's and 40's (John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren) start defining it
• Cleanth Brooks, Warren, Rene Wellek  W.K. Wimsatt codify it into textbooks -- academic spread

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Central Assumptions

• Meaning resides in the texts themselves
• Poem as silent object, unchanging, organized entity
• poem should be, not mean
•  poetry is different from prose (B/c language of poetry is more complex and connotative while lang of science/ prose is simple, exact, and denotative)
• poem is an experience and not a discussion of an experience
• Complexity-- assumption that poetry is complex and represents complex states of emotion (dialectical tension of opposites)
• Literary history and the history of the language is part of a work's meaning (even if social histroy is not)
• Poem is a living entity-- organic unity is a metaphor for this aliveness and integrity.

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Key Terms

• Complexity of poetry/ poetic language
• opposition
• tension
• ambiguity
• irony
• paradox
• Intentional fallacy -- idea that you cannot JUDGE a poem in terms of the fulfillment of the author's intention.  Often taken to mean that info on author is out of bounds or unnecessary.
• Affective fallacy -- you can't JUDGE a poem in temrs of the affect it has on the reader.  Often taken to mean that reader is not an issue.
• Organic unity --
• Resolution-- idea that poem resolves tensions
• Extrinsci vs intrinsic approaches (Wellek and Warren) -- favoring of intrinsic approaches that stay inside the domain of literature

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Analytical Method

• Read first for literal meaning and grammatical structure, paraphrasing where necessary to get plain sense
• Go through poem line by line, sentence by sentence, or stanza by stanza
• Identify complexities -- words with double meanings, words that resonate or vibrate with extra connotations, places where language use is non-conventional
• Look for patterns of opposition/ paradoxes/ ambiguities/ irony  in image, theme, tone, etc.
• Search out / invent themes associated with the oppositions
• Look for repetition and consolidation of themes
• Decide on central themes that unify whole poem
• Articulate details that fit in, support pattern of opposition and unification
• Avoid stock responses or idiosyncratic interpretations

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Historical Legacy/ Limitations and Rebuttals

• Critics get tired of isolation of New Crit and begin to want to look at social contexts, readers, writers, etc.\
• Legacy is that this is the foundation from which we start -- first apporach to most works
• Divorcing of text from many contexts creates a vacuum-- misses out on some of meaning and purpose
• Too difficult
• Danger of attributing your own ideas to works
• Appears to be objective, but can be personal disguised
• Excludes some forms, genres of writing (diaries, letters etc do not lend themselves to New Crit)




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