1. New Criticism: Q & A

2. 1. Why is a literary work an autonomy for New Critics? Do you agree?
Autonomy from its writer and readers.
A writer can transform his personal experience into something universal.
Poetic truth cannot be paraphrased; it is embodied in literary form.
Organic Unity resolves all the conflicts in the text.  By extension, it offers a solution (visionary solution) to social conflicts.  to reconstruct “organic society” and re-assert human values.

3. Why is a literary work an autonomy for New Critics? Do you agree?
historical backgrounds:
1. The two WW; Worldly chaos and denials of Western sources of belief (e.g. God, Love and Reason).
2. Setting up of the English department.
(English literature was first taught in a university department in India in 19th century, and then to women and laborers in England in some community colleges at the turn of the century. The scholars’ doubts: “since everybody reads it, what’s there to study?” )
3. American context: the conflicts between decadent South and industrialism (Cf. T. Eagleton Literary Theory).

4. New Criticism: More Questions
Theory:
2. Do you think that we definitely can find out textual unity?
Practice:
3. For New Critics, the unity in the best literary work is achieved through paradox, irony and ambiguity.  Do you agree? 
Life:
4. Do you think that we can determine our life?
5. Do you agree that life is filled with paradoxes, conflicts and ambiguities?

5. The theories after New Criticism: Five Main Points
Politics is pervasive (implying power relations), 任何事情都是政治的，
Language is constructive (but not reflective) of reality, 語言為建構，
Truth is provisional (no universal, non-changing truth), 真理是臨時建構，
Meaning is contingent (context is important determinant of meanings), 意義是因時／地制定的，
Human nature is a myth 人性的普遍性是虛構的.