The New Critics

The New Critics were a group of literary theorists active primarily in the mid-20th century who emphasized close reading and textual analysis. They believed that a work of literature should be studied independently of its author’s biography or historical context. Instead, they focused on the text itself, examining elements like imagery, symbolism, and structure to uncover its meaning. This approach aimed to appreciate a poem or story as a self-contained work of art, promoting a more rigorous and objective way of interpreting literature, which has had a lasting influence on literary studies.