MODERN CRITICISM

 MODERN CRITICISM

1. According to Stanley, and Edgar Hyman, modern criticism is "the organized use of non-literary techniques and bodies of knowledge to obtain insights into literature."

2. The non-literary techniques include:

 (i) Psycho-analysis

(ii) Semantic translations

(iii) "The ritual patterns of primitives to the nature of capitalist society," (Hyman) such as magic, myths, rituals, etc.

3. A large number of influences have moulded modern criticism into what it is, such as:

(i) Marxism

(ii) Darwinism

(iii) Freudianism

(iv) Frazer's views etc.

4. Some of the offshoots of modern criticism are:

(i) The Marxian or Sociological School Some of such critics are:

(a) Christopher Caudwell

(b) Edmund Wilson

(c) Harold Rosenberg

(d) Newton Arvin

(e) Philip Rahv, etc.

(ii) Ontogenetic School of Criticism (See Ontogenetic Criticism)

(iii) The Psychological School

 (iv) Evaluative (or Valuational) School

5. Modern Criticism also entails the kinds of Criticism under the following groups:

(i) The Academic Critics, e.g. 

(a) Saintsbury

(b) Abercrombie

(c) Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

(d) A.C. Bradley

(e) Oliver Elton, etc.

(f) Sir Walter Raleigh

(g) W.P. Ker

(h) Wilson Knight

(ii) The Romantic School e.g.

(a) Middleton Murry (1888-1957)

(b) Sir Herbert Read, etc.

(iii) Bloomsbury Group Critics e.g.

(a) E.M. Forster (b. 1879)

(b) Mrs Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

(c) Lytton Strachey, etc. (1880-1932)

(iv) Critics in the Victorian Tradition, e.g.

(a) Sir Max Becrbohm

(b) G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

(c) Hillaire Belloc, etc.

(v) Critics Revolting Against the Victorian Tradition, e.g.

(a) Ezra Pound

(b) T.S. Eliot

(c) T.E. Hulme

(d) Wyndham Lewis (1884-1957)

(vi) The Cambridge School of Critics

It is a compelling school, having in its list some prominent critics whose voice in the modern age is

generally considered more important than many others, e.g.

(a) I.A. Richards

(b) F.R. Leavis

(c) William Empson

(d) David Daiches

(e) L.C. Knights, etc.