Various Trends in Twentieth-Century Criticism
"The rise of modern criticism is part of a general intensification of the study of language and symbolism." (Cleanth Brooks) Modern criticism through its exacting scrutiny of literary texts, has demonstrated with finality, that in art beauty and truth are indivisible and one. (Mark Schorer).
The twentieth century is the age of criticism. In this age, literary and critical theories have become a part of the academic discipline. Literary criticism offers a great variety of theory and practice. New discoveries in the fields of science, sociology, psychoanalysis, and linguistics have brought about a revolution in critical outlook, technique and method.
Each critic has his own theory. The critic today has become an interpreter and criticism has become interpretation. This interpretation varies from person to person. Consequently, we get various trends in twentieth century literary criticism.
The various trends in new criticism are described below
(i) Marxist Criticism
Marxist criticism is the descendant of the Realistic criticism of the 19th century. This criticism developed as a coherent theory only after the Russian Revolution. The most outstanding Marxist critic is Gyorgy Lucas. Marxist criticism is at its best when it serves as a device to expose the latent social.
(ii) Psycho-Analytic Criticism
The psychoanalytical criticism of literature began with the publication of Freud's 'Interpretation of Dreams' in 1900. Then several critics have tried their hands on this trend of the prescribed critics. Lionel Trilling and Juliet Mitchell have written criticism of this type.
(iii) New Criticism
The term 'New Criticism has been derived from J. C. Ransom's book 'The New Criticism' published in 1941. The pioneers of New Criticism are T. S. Eliot and I. A. Richards. The new critics concentrate exclusively on the language of poetry. Then account for its structure in terms of the layers of meaning the words are charged with. Notable critics in this mode are Cleanth Brooks, Rober Warren, Alten Tate, W. K. Wimsatt and R. P. Blackmur. They deal with denotation and connotation which are semantic divisions of language.
(iv) Myth Criticism
Myth criticism aims to discover behind all literature the original myths of mankind. G. Wilson Knight, Herbert Read and D. C. Lewis have employed this method of criticism. In the U.S.A., myth criticism became a great force in the 1950's. Under the influence of Frazer and Jung arose as a reaction to the New Criticism. In this Anatomy of Criticism, Northrop Frye has combined myth criticism with the theory of forms.
(v) Structural Criticism
The structural anthropology of Claude Levis Straus has established structuralist myths and other texts. What interests him is not the content but rather the form. The structuralist is a formalist. Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes and Roman Jakobson are some of the important structuralists of the prescribed critics, cleanth Brooks and Jonathan Culler have expressed structural views in the prescribed essays.
(vi) Deconstructionism
Deconstructionism emerged in the late sixties and early seventies. Derrids is a pioneer here. He does not distinguish between literature and other disciplines like psychology, philosophy and linguistics. The deconstructionists have divided criticism into two types: metaphysical and deconstructive. The former assumes that the text has a definite meaning whereas the latter believes in the indeterminacy of meaning. Deconstructionists believe that the writer at once 'affirms' and 'unaffirms', 'says' and 'unsays' his meaning. Deconstruction instead of deconstructing the text shows how the text has deconstructed itself.
(vii) The Reader Response Criticism
This criticism centres around the elusive relationship between the text and the reader. The identity of the text and the response of the reader are crucial issues in this trend of criticism. The nature of the text and the personality of the reader are vital issues that concern the critics, some critics believe that the text is there before the reader takes it and will be there after the reader leaves it. Hence, the text is important. Others believe that there is no text on the printed page and unless there is a reader, there is no text. David Bleich and N. Holland are not the only critics who followed this trend, of the prescribed critics, Stanley Fish and Jonathan Culler are the followers of this trend.
(viii) Feminist Criticism
In the Modern Age, women critics too have tried their hands at criticism. Some of them have created a new trend called 'feminism. It broadly means reading and writing as a woman. It also means responding to the way women are presented in literature. Feminist criticism may be concerned with 'woman' as the producer of textual meanings with the history, themes and structures by women critics like Elaine Showalter and Juliet Mitchell can be given as examples of feminist critics.
(ix) Politics, Ideology and Cultural History
Politics, ideology and cultural history are the topics of modern interest. So some critics have tried their hands at these themes. Of the prescribed critics, Edward Said, and Juliet Mitchell are the critics of the type.
(x) Hermeneutics
One more trend found in 20th-century criticism in Hermeneutics. E. D. Hirsch Jr. has written a fine essay on the issue of criticism. The essay is 'Three Dimensions of Hermeneutics and it deals with three aspects of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is a science like stylistics. It is the art of interpreting the symbolic language of the scriptures. This interpretation is largely based on intuition. However, in recent years it has also been used to denote the general theory of interpretation. Hermeneutics pays attention to history and intuition while interpreting the work of art.
The rise of modern criticism is part of a general intensification of the study of language and symbolism. '(Cleanth Brooks)' Modern criticism, through its exacting scrutiny of literary texts has demonstrated with finality that in art beauty and truth are indivisible and one. (Mark Scores) In 'The Armed Vision', Stanley Edgar Hyman has defined modern criticism as the organised use of non-literary techniques and bodies of knowledge to obtain insight into literature.
These non-literary techniques, according to him, 'are things like psychoanalytic associations of semantic translations, and the non-literary bodies of knowledge range from the ritual patterns of primitives to the nature of capitalist society. Hyman considers modern criticism as a self-conscious intellectual discipline which utilises both literary and extra-literary methods and theories to illuminate literature. His definition suggests new discoveries and research in the fields of science, linguistics, and anthropology. sociology and psychology have revolutionised the technique of analysis and evaluation.
Of literary The new critical techniques and lines of investigation in modern literary criticism have been greatly influenced by several revolutionary systems of thought about man and society. The major influences in this field have been those of Darwin, Marx, Frazer and Freud. Darwin regarded man as a 'creature of circumstances. Marx contributed to the belief that literature is essentially a social instrument.
It reflects directly or indirectly the spirit of the age. From Frazer, modern critics derived the view of primitive magic, myths, rituals and archetypal patterns underlying literary themes. Freud modified the whole conception of the motivation of human activities including speech and gave rise to the theory that "the artistic gift is a compensatory function of neurosis.
Irving Howe points out that 'too much of modern criticism is an aggrandisement at the expense of the writer: a demonstration of the critic's virtuosity rather than of the values of the poem or novel he is discussing. Only seldom does one find in modern criticism the capacity for pleasure, the human desire to share in good and beautiful things which ought to be a motive for writing about literature."
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