NEW CRITICISM AND CULTURAL MATERIALISM

1. NEW CRITICISM AND
CULTURAL
MATERIALISM

2. New Criticism
New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory
that dominated American literary criticism in the middle
decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading,
particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature
functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic
object.

3. Key Terms
Intentional fallacy Affective fallacy
according to the followers of New Criticism,
the misconception that arises from judging a
poem by the emotional effect that it produces
in the reader. The concept of affective fallacy is
a direct attack on impressionistic criticism,
which argues that the reader’s response to a
poem is the ultimate indication of its value
term used in 20th-century literary
criticism to describe the problem
inherent in trying to judge a work of
art by assuming the intent or purpose
of the artist who created it.
Close reading
The only way we can know if a given
author’s intention or a given reader’s
interpretation which actually
represent the true meaning is by
carefully examine

4. Key Terms
Ambiguity
Irony
a figure of speech in which words are used in such a
way that their intended meaning is different from the
actual meaning of the words. e.g. : Once in the winter
the rector would come to dine , and her husband
would beg her to go over the list and see that no
divorcees were included, except those who had
showed signs of penitence by being remarried to very
wealthy ( Edirth Wharton’s House of Mirth (1950)
For new criticism, the complexity of a text is created by the multiple and often conflicting
meaning in it. • These meaning are a product primarily of four kinds of linguistic devices : -
paradox -ambiguity - irony- tension
It occurs when a word, image, or event generates
two or more different meaning. e.g. "Thanks for
dinner. I’ve never seen potatoes cooked like that
before." (Jonah Baldwin in the film Sleepless in
Seattle, 1993)
It typically arise from false assumptions, which then
lead to inconsistencies between observed and
expected behavior. e.g. : "Someday you will be old
enough to start reading fairy tales again." (C.S.
Lewis to his godchild, Lucy Barfield, to whom he
dedicated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)
Paradox
Tension
a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense or
when there is suspense in the story

5. New Criticism is a powerful tool for those
of us that have problems understanding
a work of literature.
New criticism formulated a method of
reading, a simple formula that will help
us unlock the meaning of a text
How can New Criticism help us
understand the text ?

6. How do we discover or unlock that meaning ?
By following these (simple formula) •
Who is speaking in the text ? ( not the author, not the poet, whoever/whatever
created the text but it is created by the text itself.)
• Who is being spoken to?
• Who is the addressee?
• Who is the implied reader of the text?
• Where is the setting ? When it is ?
• What is the central metaphors of the text ?

7. There is a girl inside
By Lucille Clifton
There is a girl inside.
She is randy as a wolf.
She will not walk away and leave these bones
to an old woman.
She is a green tree in a forest of kindling.
She is a green girl in a used poet.
She has waited patient as a nun
for the second coming,
when she can break through gray hairs
into blossom
and her lovers will harvest
honey and thyme
and the woods will be wild
with the damn wonder of it

8. • The poem’s title “There Is a Girl Inside” tells us that the speaker is
an old woman who still feels young and vital inside
• In the poem, the words “girl”, “randy” means sexually free or
assertive.
• The narrative dimension of the poem reveals an old woman
dreaming about the miraculous transformation, the “second
coming” of youth, despite her “bones” and “gray hairs”.