CFP: Rereading the New Criticism (4/8/06; MSA 8, 10/19/06-10/22/06)
Rereading the New Criticism
Commentators such as Gerald Graff and Mark Jancovich have noted that, since
the demise in the 1960s of the New Critical hegemony, contemporary critical
discourse has often promoted misunderstandings of New Critical projects.
The image of the New Criticism as ahistorical formalism, they suggest,
misrepresents the New Critics' commitment to practices and epistemologies
distinctive to literature; their engagement with social and historical
issues; and their cultural politics. These recent critiques encourage
rereading the work of the New Critics from a new perspective-one that
maintains critical distance on received ideas about their methods.