Language: English
Author: Naresh Chandra
Description: There is little doubt about the need for a comprehensive book on New Criticism, and the present volume, New Criticism: An Appraisal, is specifically designed to meet that need. Divided into six chapters of varying lengths, it aims to cover all aspects of the subject. The first three chapters provide essential background for understanding New Criticism, while the last three, which form the bulk of the book, examine every dimension of New Criticism as both an academic and literary discipline. The opening chapter addresses the question, “Why New Criticism?” by surveying ten types of literary criticism and highlighting their limitations. Chapter II establishes the need for a new critical approach, and Chapter III explores the influences of preceding critics—Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, I.A. Richards, William Empson, and T.E. Hulme—before shifting focus to Vanderbilt University, the Fugitive group, and their journal, which laid the foundation for New Criticism. The final three chapters discuss the concepts and contentions of the New Critics, New Criticism in practice, and provide an appraisal of the movement, incorporating the author’s personal views formed over more than a decade of study. Five appendices offer critical analyses of significant essays that are not easily accessible in their original form.