ENGL 251B Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cleanth Brooks, Russian Formalism, New Criticism
Document Summary
* see cleanth brooks and rf vs. nc worksheet * Both insist on criticism as a science. But new criticism is slightly less scientific. New criticism is far less linguistic the science of language. More invested in metaphysical dimensions of poetry (see donne, hopkins, eliot, keats questions of the soul, religion, and other metaphysical topics). Committed to the unity of a work, and the assertion that this unity ultimately points to universals of human condition (e. g. race, class, and gender). Interest in paradox, irony, tension, and connotative layers of meaning which natural science (supposedly) cannot address. Addressing ambiguities keep the new critics from interpretive reduction (i. e. binaries). Accused of using literature as a substitutionary religion. For example, john crowe ransom suggests that the text has ontological status it is its own being, almost like god.