New Criticism

Cultural Theory

Provides frameworks for interpreting how culture is produced, maintained, and contested.

What does cultural theory examine?

The ways culture shapes social practices, beliefs, and identities.

What are cultural artifacts?

Objects, media, bodies, and spaces that cultural theorists study to understand culture.

Examples of high-brow media

Newspapers, magazines, books, films, and photography.

Examples of low-brow media

Ads, "bad TV," social media, video games, and memes.

How can human bodies be cultural artifacts?

Through fashion, style, sports, and performances.

What are examples of public and private spaces studied by cultural theorists?

Architecture, furniture, food, and food culture.

Literary Theory

Applies a particular theoretical framework to a work of literature specifically.

How are cultural theory and literary theory related?

Some literary theories use cultural theory as a basis, while others are specific to literature only.

How does Lois Tyson describe theory?

As a new pair of eyeglasses through which certain elements of the world come into focus while others fade into the background.

When did literary theory emerge?

In the 1960s.

When was the heyday of literary theory?

The 1980s and 1990s.

Does literary theory still influence English classes today?

Yes. Its values and assumptions still guide how English is taught in colleges and universities.

What does Peter Barry mean by "No ways of studying literature are 'theory-free'"?

Every approach to studying literature relies on assumptions or a theoretical framework, even if those assumptions are not obvious.

Who were the two influential British figures associated with the birth of New Criticism?

I.A. Richards (1893-1979) and F.R. Leavis (1895-1978).

What did I.A. Richards and F.R. Leavis help establish?

The method or theory by which literature is read in high schools today.

What is New Criticism also called in the UK?

Liberal Humanism.

New Criticism Tenet 1

"Good literature" has timeless significance. If it was great in 1850, it should still be great in 2026.

New Criticism Tenet 2

The literary text contains its own meaning. Readers should not have to look elsewhere to understand its meaning.

New Criticism Tenet 3

Analysis of a literary text should be divorced from ideological context. Biographical, historical, political, and cultural contexts do not matter.

New Criticism Tenet 4

Human nature is constant. Analysis should focus more on what is unchanging in great literature than on what is new or innovative.

New Criticism Tenet 5

The "transcendent subject" is a character who rises above circumstances and undergoes a change.

New Criticism Tenet 6

Literature is distinct from propaganda. Propaganda aims to produce a predetermined effect and prioritizes its message over aesthetics.

New Criticism Tenet 7

A great work of literature is sincere and avoids hyperbole and cliché.

New Criticism Tenet 8

A great work has organic unity, meaning its form and content work together.

What is organic unity?

A marriage of form and content: what a text says and how it says it fit together.

Why can paraphrasing a poem cause something essential to be lost?

Because the poem's language and form contribute to its meaning, not just its basic message.

New Criticism Tenet 9

The showing is more valuable than the telling, emphasizing sensuous immediacy.

What is sensuous immediacy?

The way language makes readers experience or feel what it depicts, rather than simply being told about it.

What does it mean for language to "enact" what it depicts?

The language seems to perform or recreate what it describes, making the words feel closely connected to the experience.

New Criticism Tenet 10

The literary critic's job is to interpret a text's theme through close reading of its formal elements.

What is close reading?

The careful examination of the complex relationship between a text's formal elements and its theme.

What is theme according to the PowerPoint?

The complete meaning of a text, usually an interpretation of universal human experience.

What role do paradox, ambiguity, and irony play in New Criticism?

They are marks of literary achievement. Contradictory meanings can create productive tension rather than being flaws that must be eliminated.

What is tension in a literary text?

The presence of conflicting or contradictory meanings that contribute to the text's complexity.

How can contradictions contribute to organic unity?

They can resolve at a higher level into a deeper, more complex unity.

What is the difference between literature and propaganda in New Criticism?

Literature values aesthetics and artistic form, while propaganda prioritizes producing a predetermined effect or message.

What does a New Critical reading focus on?

The text itself, especially its language, imagery, figurative elements, form, and theme.

What does a New Critical reading generally exclude?

The author's biography and the text's historical, political, cultural, gender, race, and class contexts.

What is the New Critical interpretation of The Great Gatsby described in the PowerPoint?

The novel expresses the idea that every human being experiences an "unfulfilled longing," regardless of who they are.

What does the example of The Great Gatsby focus on?

Imagery and language, especially figurative elements, rather than Fitzgerald's life or the novel's social context.

What is the main purpose of literary criticism in New Criticism?

To interpret a text's theme by closely examining its formal elements.

What is the difference between cultural theory and New Criticism?

Cultural theory examines how culture shapes beliefs, identities, and practices; New Criticism focuses on interpreting the literary text through its own language, form, and structure.