Introduction
Literary criticism by the formalist movement shifted its approach to emphasize the close reading of literary works as independent art, free of any biographical, historical, personal well-being, or philosophical context. In particular, New Criticism emphasized the aesthetic traits of the text, such as characterization, literary techniques and devices, tone and language, metaphors and symbols, structure, form, and the actual setting. Furthermore, this approach focused on irony, paradox, tension, and ambiguity to assist in determining a unified evaluation of the text (What Is New Criticism? para. 8).
Essentially, the New Critics’ technique of examining literature was more objective and systematic as it sought to focus on the artwork itself as opposed to accrediting a didactic, moral, or socio-political theme which renders the text subjective, distracting, and psychic. Additionally, New Criticism’s view that the interpretation of literary works depends on the idea that the interpretation is affected by the author’s intention would eventually lead to intentional fallacy (New Criticism para. 6). The interpretation of literary works based on the reader’s psychological and emotional reaction would lead to affective fallacy.
The Rhetoric of Fiction by Wayne C. Booth
The Rhetoric of Fiction is an influential literary work, especially in literary criticism, as it comprehensively analyzes the intricate relationship among the author, the reader, and the narrative. Ideally, the author exploits different narrative techniques such as dialogue, narration, plot, and characterization to give the reader an independent interpretation of the literary work, compared to traditional narrative, whereby the reader’s emotion and interpretation are elicited from the writer.
Further, the modern shift, as expressed by Booth’s work from telling to showing, is considered by contemporary literary critics to be far superior, as it gives readers a rich experience through the evocative creation of characters and scenes rather than dictating their emotions (Booth p.p. 20). Also, Booth implies that the author should be separated from the criticism, which, in both cases, portrays how modern criticism does away with both intentional and affective fallacies. According to her, the author’s main job is to deliver the literary work’s moral problem and a different perspective to the reader, which she does perfectly by playing with the tone, style, and technique of her literary work.
Nevertheless, the compelling argument by Booth on the narrator’s voice cannot be dismissed since it is a reflection of their judgment, thereby shaping the narrative and consequently impacting the reader’s reaction regarding the literary work. At the same time, Booth incorporates rhetorical devices and irony in his writing to foster readers’ independence in their responses while appreciating the intricacies of his literary works. Ideally, her work tries to justify the literary art’s compatibility with rhetoric, concluding that fiction is rhetoric. Further, however, Booth sets out to demystify any existing difference between impure and pure fiction.
Why New Criticism and Its Application in the Modern World
New Criticism creates a unique perspective for literary enthusiasts, students, and scholars in contemporary times. Further, the fundamental concepts of New Criticism, such as formalist analysis and close reading, remain applicable despite changes in the literary landscape. For instance, New Criticism’s pedagogical value helps in nurturing a deeper textual understanding. Moreover, it heightens appreciation of the author’s nuance in their literary works while uncovering multiple meanings in their craft. Additionally, New Criticism’s nonconformity with the affective and intentional fallacies enriches the narrative’s objectivity.
According to Ritchane, New Criticism has contributed to the evolution of critical approaches, such as structuralism, by appreciating paradox and ambiguity (286). More particularly, its approach can be applied to the analysis of large text corpora, especially in this digital era, since its textual analysis aligns with digital humanities. New Criticism can be effectively incorporated into other interdisciplinary fields, such as gender studies, post-colonialism, and cultural studies, thereby developing a comprehensive textual analysis. Further, the principle of aesthetic appreciation of the language and form of a text remains the core of literary analysis. Despite the emergence of new critical approaches, their pillars heavily rely on New Criticism’s formal analysis and close reading.
Why New Criticism Makes Sense
New Criticism has revolutionized how literary works are analyzed by focusing on close reading, independent of external forces. Its formal elements, including literary devices, symbolism, imagery, language, and structure, are essential in understanding literary works when using literary criticism. These elements are guided by core principles such as close reading, textual integrity, ambiguity, and the absence of intentional and affective fallacy (What Is New Criticism? para. 8).
To begin with, close reading meticulously analyzes the literary work to decode the meaning that is hidden within the formal elements, thereby creating an immense experience for the reader as they delve deeply into the narrative. Regarding the principle of textual integrity, it affirms the text’s uniqueness and independence from historical context and the author’s bibliography, while safeguarding its linguistic and structural integrity. Compared to other criticisms that support intentional fallacy, New Criticism resonates with contemporary literary space since the interpretation of the author’s intent is not often unknown to the reader (New Criticism para. 6). This approach appreciates the intricacies of incorporating ambiguity and paradox in literary works for deeper textual exploration and analysis.
Similarly, New Criticism opposed the affective fallacy by separating the reader’s interpretation from the affective response, thus reinforcing the objectivity of the literary work. On the other hand, New Critical techniques, including structural analysis, position the reader to better decipher the relationship between context and form by exploring the narrative’s plot and events. In addition, New Criticism emphasizes imagery and symbolism to enhance the resonance and depth of a literary work’s emotional evocation and the creation of abstract ideas, which is relevant to modern literature.
New Criticism further allows a critic to use literary devices to craft special meanings, effects, and aesthetic properties in literary works. Additionally, it optimizes paradox and tension to deliver the subtle societal experience and appreciate complexity. Ideally, the principles and techniques of New Criticism work concurrently to deeply engage the reader with the narrative, to allow independent interpretation of the text, and to appreciate the intricacies of the textual form and structure.
Applications of New Criticism
New Criticism’s principles of close reading, textual integrity, ambiguity, and paradox, and its disregard for active and intentional fallacies, make it applicable to multiple contexts. For one, this approach can be applied in the analysis of literary work due to its systematic framework. Elements such as literary devices, symbolism, imagery, language, and structure can be used to analyze poetry, stories, and novels (Ritchane pp. 284-285). Similarly, its primary focus on close reading and textual interpretation enables readers to decipher multiple meanings while appreciating the intricacies of literary works.
Additionally, New Criticism allows readers to compare different literary works and to analyze the techniques used. Despite its numerous significant applications, New Criticism is limited in its analysis of literary works with historical or cultural context, as it primarily focuses on close reading and ignores external factors. Another challenge is that the New Criticism approach is ineffective at determining intentional and affective fallacies, as it disregards the author’s true intent and ignores the reader’s emotional reaction, thereby eliminating the text’s subjective meaning.
Values and Downfalls of New Criticism
New Criticism has been praised for its paramount technique of close reading, which has played a significant role in helping new critics comprehend literary works. Through close reading, new critics are better positioned to carefully analyze how the writer conveys meaning through the complex yet subtle use of language, while avoiding the temptations of historical, socio-economic, or political criticism. Consequently, the reader discovers the intricacies of structure and language while appreciating the different meanings concealed within the literary work (The Foundation, para. 7). Additionally, New Criticism uses the organization and sequencing of themes, ideas, symbols, and imagery to convey the author’s message while providing the reader with a rich narrative experience.
Moreover, New Criticism helps unravel the author’s intricate craftsmanship. Authors often exploit the use of literary devices. These include foreshadowing, irony, allusion, and metaphor, and New Criticism helps develop layered and vivid descriptions, symbolic meaning, tension, and contradiction. In this regard, the approach helps convey deeper meaning and intensify the effect, encouraging the reader to appreciate how different parts of the literary work complement and interact with one another.
By decoding the structural aspects, imagery, and language, readers can easily decipher the relation between content, form, and the symbolic meaning of the literary work. New Criticism has universal application across numerous literary works, such as film, drama, and poetry, which helps develop a holistic approach and create a rich fabric of literary interpretation and meaning. Most importantly, techniques of New Criticism, from close reading and symbolism to structure analysis, have contributed to the development of other literary criticism theories, such as formalism and structuralism.
Despite its values, the New Criticism’s ascetic procedure limits its application and may therefore not apply to all literary analyses. For instance, cultural and historical contexts accentuate the external conditions surrounding the text, in addition to its moral and philosophical importance, whereas the text itself is subjective. According to Ritchane, a reader might miss the author’s intent, which is highly relevant to the text’s meaning, since New Criticism disregards the intentional fallacy (285-286).
Although New Criticism recognizes the use of paradox and ambiguity in a literary context, its application might lead to esoteric interpretation, thereby losing its original meaning. Like other forms of literary criticism, the close reading aspect of New Criticism is biased, as readers ignore the text’s cultural and socio-political aspects, thereby failing to recognize alternative interpretations. Given its lack of consideration of socioeconomic factors that shape the global perspective, New Criticism may fail to qualify as an interdisciplinary method of criticism.
Application of New Criticism to The Rhetoric of Fiction
The principles of New Criticism can be applied to The Rhetoric of Fiction in several ways. For instance, the New Criticism school supports textual integrity, holding that texts operate independently of external factors such as context, the narrator’s intent, or the reader’s response. Booth titled one of the chapters “The Author is not Dead,” inspired by Roland Barthes’ essay (Barthes), which argued that it would be a foolish endeavor to focus on the author. However, Barthes points out that literary works may not contain a hidden meaning, and if any exists, then it is a product of the language systems. In concurrence, Booth posits that critical philosophies might be inimical to the literary pieces, though the author is not just a conduit exploited by critics to give textual meaning.
Booth paints the author as a part of an intricate, dramatic performance within the narrative, thereby being far from dead. Ideally, for Booth, there is no separation between the narrator and the reader, as the author needs the reader to decode the text. In contrast, the reader depends on the author’s literary works, which is among his philosophical principles that create a symbiotic relationship between the narrative, the reader, and the narrator.
Moreover, Booth’s approach involves separating the literary work, the reader, and the author into distinct functional sections and posing questions about the mechanics of each. Additionally, he critically analyses how each section collaborates to develop a rational literary work that closely resembles the neo-Aristotelian approach. However, Booth’s approach differs from Aristotle’s, as it supports the use of rhetoric, which he considers an integral part of communication.
The rejection of the affective fallacy by New Criticism plays out in Booth’s work, allowing readers to unlock their interpretations through language exploration. Booth first implies that the implied author forms an essential part of her literary work. The text drives both the reader and the author to create an implied author whose emotions and principles are not expressed (Wayne Booth’s Rhetorology para. 19).
For this reason, the reader develops an independent construct of the implied author’s attitude, responses, and other relevant information by incorporating techniques to decode the author’s artistry, tone, and style. The implied author is considered to have values, to be candid about ethical issues, and to be separate from the real author, whose social existence is affected by other factors. Booth stresses that although the implied author and the narrator can be used interchangeably in some cases, they should not be confused.
Conclusion
Overall, Booth argues for the importance of an author’s optimization of narration in a literary context, as the narrative can influence the reader’s interaction with the text. Consequently, the narrator can be praised or mocked by the reader, or stand in for the implied author. Among the core concepts of the rhetoric of narration is distance, as considered in Booth’s work. She describes Jane Austen as the lord of narrative discourse, guiding readers through her rhetorical map and shaping their thoughts on Emma’s character. New Criticism embraces complexity through the application of paradox and ambiguity, opening the possibility of multiple interpretations that enhance the reader’s experience and deepen appreciation of the intricacies of literary works.
Works Cited
Barthes, Roland. “The Death of the Author.” 1968.
Booth, Wane. The Rhetoric of Fiction. University of Chicago Press, 1983.
College of Western Idaho. “What Is New Criticism?” College of Western Idaho Pressbooks – Open Book Publishing, 2023.
LibreTexts Humanities. “The Foundations of New Criticism- An Overview.” 2021.
Ritchane Mohammed. “New Criticism: Novelties and Limitations” International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, vol. 6, no. 6, 2021, pp. 286.
Study Smarter. “New Criticism.” 2024.
University of Waterloo. “Wayne Booth’s Rhetorology.” 2023.