The Restless Ghost of the New Criticism

New Criticism appears to have survived a generation of attacks by Structuralists, Deconstructionists, New Historicists, and a multiplicity of socially-engaged criticisms, and its influence now appears to be on the rise amongst contemporary critics. A collection of critical essays edited by William J. Spurlin and Michael Fischer, The New Criticism and Contemporary Literary Theory: Connectons and Continuities, seeks, as its title indicates, to demonstrate some of the ways in which New Critical theory and praxis have found a place in the work of contemporary critics. The collection is divided into three parts. The first contains several exemplary New Critical works by a number of early New Critics. The essays in the second section explore some of the more problematic aspects New Criticism poses for later critics. The essays in the last section demonstrate how critics engaged in such fields as Lesbian criticism, New Black Aesthetic, and classroom practice have been able to draw upon New Critical tenets and practices even as these critics grapple with some of New Criticism's more troublesome aspects. Either explicitly or implicitly, a number of the essays point to the importance of pedagogical practice to theoretical development and particularly to the exemplary ability of New Criticism to fuse literary theory with a classroom practice that in the long run might be its most enduring legacy.