Before and After New Criticism

III. After New Criticism

from literature as an aesthetic object to literature as a social (historical) practice

Lit. crit.-- no longer neutral, or "disinterested," it is conditioned, or programmed; depends on our past experience, our framework.

functions of lit. theory --

  1. It can make us become a self-conscious critic; know more about literature, look at it from different perspectives, understand and historicize our own perspective, as well as others' perspectives.
  2. Theory becomes an independent school of study.
To articulate this framework and piece together the various elements of our practical criticism into a coherent, unified body of knowledge is to formulate our literary theory.
  
Five points of the theories after New Criticism: 
  
Politics is pervasive,  任何事情都是政治的， 
Language is constructive,  語言為建構， 
Truth is provisional, 真理是臨時建構， 
Meaning is contingent, 意義是因時?地制定的， 
Human nature is a myth 人性的普遍性是虛構的.