new criticism


noun
  1. (often initial capital letters) an approach to the critical study of literature that concentrates on textual explication and rejects historical and biographical study as irrelevant to an understanding of the total formal organization of a work.

Origin of new criticism

1
First recorded in 1940–45

Other words from new criticism

  • new critic, New Critic, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use new criticism in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for new criticism

new criticism

noun
  1. an approach to literary criticism through close analysis of the text

Derived forms of new criticism

  • new critic, noun
  • new critical, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012