New Criticism: An Overview – English – UGC NET – Notes

Introduction

• New Criticism falls under the broader category of the formal approach to literary criticism, alongside Formalism and Structuralism. It emerged as a significant critical movement in the early twentieth century.
• The pioneers of New Criticism include I. A. Richards and William Empson. Other major proponents are T. S. Eliot, W. K. Wimsatt, Cleanth Brooks, René Wellek, and Allen Tate.
• The central principle of New Criticism is close reading of the text. According to this approach, a literary work contains inherent meaning within itself. The text is viewed as an independent, self-contained entity, separate from the author’s intentions, the reader’s response, or the critic’s personal judgment.

New Criticism: An Overview

• New Criticism played a predominant role from the 1930s to the 1960s, marking a significant shift in literary studies. It moved away from traditional concerns with genre and historical background, focusing instead on the close textual analysis of individual works. The primary concern of New Critics was deriving meaning directly from the text through careful examination of language, imagery, and other literary devices.
• New Critics believed that universal truths within a text are revealed through contraries and tensions, such as language ≠ meaning, content ≠ form, and universal ≠ particular. For them, meaning emerges from the intricate interplay of oppositions within the work. Although form is significant, they emphasized how meaning is constructed through language, especially through poetic devices like imagery, symbolism, irony, and metaphor.
• A defining principle of New Criticism is its rejection of a subjective approach. It dismisses reliance on the author’s intention, the reader’s emotional response, or historical context. Instead, the text is treated as a self-contained aesthetic object. The central method is close reading, which involves detailed analysis of the text to uncover layers of meaning embedded in its structure and language.
• New Critics closely examine elements that create tension, such as paradox, ambiguity, and irony, and then analyze how these tensions are resolved into a coherent organic unity. The goal is to demonstrate how the various components of a literary work contribute to its overall unity and complexity.
• The term “New Criticism” was first popularized by J. C. Ransom in his book The New Criticism (1941), where he described the critical methods developed earlier by I. A. Richards in Principles of Literary Criticism (1924). These foundational works established the theoretical and methodological framework that shaped twentieth-century literary criticism.

I.A. Richards (1893-1979)

• I. A. Richards is widely regarded as the father of New Criticism, though some scholars also recognize T. S. Eliot as an important pioneer of the movement. Richards made foundational contributions to literary theory through his major works: Principles of Literary Criticism (1924), Science and Poetry (1926), Practical Criticism (1929), and Coleridge on Imagination (1934).

A central principle in Richards’ thought is the importance of objectivity over subjectivity in literary criticism. According to him, criticism rests upon two main pillars:

1. The value of the work of art, and

2. The communicative element of the work.

Richards explains that an artist is primarily concerned with the form and structure of the work—its rightness or internal coherence—rather than consciously focusing on the message it communicates. However, by striving for artistic correctness, the writer indirectly enables effective communication. For Richards, art expresses ordinary human experiences, and through language, these experiences are communicated to readers. Therefore, he emphasizes the importance of the words on the page, rather than ideas external to the text.

Richards defines close reading as “an opening up of the text for what it can really be for us.” He believed that meaning is central to literary analysis and that it emerges through the interaction of multiple layers of meaning within a text.

He identifies four types of meaning in literary works:

1. Sense – The literal and factual meaning of the words. It refers to what is directly stated and conveyed to the reader.

2. Feeling – The speaker’s attitude toward the subject. This may include emotion, bias, desire, or detachment. Language functions as a vehicle for expressing such emotional nuances.

3. Tone – The speaker’s attitude toward the audience. Tone reflects the nature of the relationship between writer and reader, shaped through deliberate choice and arrangement of words.

4. Intention – The purpose or desired effect the writer seeks to achieve, whether consciously or unconsciously. It represents the outcome the author hopes the text will produce in the reader.

In summary, sense is what is said, feeling is the attitude toward the subject, tone is the attitude toward the audience, and intention is the effect the writer aims to create.

William Empson

• For I. A. Richards, reading a literary text is fundamentally about experience—specifically, how the mind is affected by what it reads. Both Richards and William Empson believed that literary criticism should have a scientific basis. For Richards, science is autonomous and can be expressed through statements of fact that do not depend on external human context. By analogy, he argued that a literary text can be treated as an autonomous entity, independent of external circumstances, much like a factual statement.
• However, Empson diverges from Richards in significant ways. Unlike Richards, Empson places importance on authorial intention. He rejects the strict separation between author, text, and reader, instead proposing a dynamic interaction among all three. While he does not treat the author as physically present within the text, he acknowledges the complexity of intention and interpretation. Empson is particularly interested in local effects and their linguistic complexity, often focusing on specific passages rather than the unified whole of a text.
• In his influential work Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), Empson extends Richards’ principles of New Criticism by demonstrating how a single word can generate multiple semantic possibilities. He highlights the flexibility of English syntax, showing how language can accommodate several layers of meaning simultaneously.
• A student of I. A. Richards, Empson developed the concept of ambiguity as a source of richness and depth in literature. By identifying seven types of ambiguity, he aimed to clarify how meaning functions in poetry and prose. In this study, he examines English poetry from Chaucer (14th century) to his contemporary T. S. Eliot, illustrating how ambiguity enhances complexity, interpretive depth, and literary significance.

The Seven Types of Ambiguity

• The seven types of ambiguity, proposed by William Empson, are central to his contribution to New Criticism. Before examining them, it is important to understand the meaning of ambiguity.
• According to the Cambridge Dictionary, ambiguity is “the fact of something having more than one possible meaning and causing confusion.” Webster’s Dictionary defines it as “a word or expression that can be understood in two or more possible ways.” Empson himself described ambiguity as “any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language.” Thus, ambiguity refers to the openness of language to multiple interpretations.

Below are the seven types of ambiguity identified by Empson:

1. First Type of Ambiguity – Metaphorical Ambiguity
   This arises from the use of a metaphor, where a word or phrase is applied beyond its literal meaning. For example, “She is a beautiful rose.” Here, the word rose carries layered meanings. A metaphor creates a direct comparison between dissimilar things, producing the simplest form of ambiguity.

2. Second Type of Ambiguity – Merged Metaphors
   This occurs when two or more meanings or metaphors combine into one expression. The blending of images creates overlapping layers of meaning.

3. Third Type of Ambiguity – Juxtaposed Opposites
   This type appears when seemingly dissimilar or contradictory words are placed together. An example is Milton’s “darkness visible”, an oxymoron. Similarly, Donne’s conceits illustrate this type. Here, opposing ideas are united within a single phrase, generating complexity.

4. Fourth Type of Ambiguity – Complex Multiple Meanings
   In this case, several alternative meanings coexist, making interpretation difficult. Different words may remain in tension but collectively reflect the complex mental state of the author.

5. Fifth Type of Ambiguity – Authorial Discovery
   This arises when ambiguity results from the author discovering ideas during the act of writing. The meaning evolves as the text develops, creating interpretive uncertainty.

6. Sixth Type of Ambiguity – Reader-Driven Meaning
   Here, apparently irrelevant or unclear elements force the reader to construct meaning independently. The derived interpretation may diverge from or conflict with the author’s intention.

7. Seventh Type of Ambiguity – Total Contradiction
   The final type occurs when meanings are fully contradictory or exceed the author’s conscious intention. Opposing ideas coexist, revealing a division within the author’s mind and producing profound interpretive tension.

Through these seven categories, Empson demonstrates how ambiguity enriches literary language, allowing a single word or phrase to generate multiple layers of meaning and interpretive depth.