NEW CRITICISM

A theory that approaches
a work of art
as an object in and of itself

Prior to New Criticism literature was considered to be like any other text

Response to scientific determinism that said world is knowable through facts

New Critics believed literature is a unique form of knowledge

OBJECTIVE CORRELATIVE

• The objective: experiential truth
• Correlate: emerge from literature
• i.e. Literature conveys truths in ways that exceed the make up of words

SELF-CONTAINED ART FORM

• Isolated object of study
• Not influenced by the writer, production, context
• 'Truth' of works exists independently of writer, reader & external world

CLOSE READING

• Ignore paratextual information
• Focus solely on words in text
• Allusion, image, symbol, rhythm, meaning

Ideas of New Criticism have lost favor but approach of close reading is still important today

Close reading is an excellent approach for unfamiliar texts like in Paper 1