New Criticism of Methamorphosis

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2012 International Conference on Education Technology and Management Engineering Lecture Notes in Information Technology, Vols.16-17 New Criticism and Wordsworth’s Poetry Qi Wu Dept. of foreign languages, Jiujiang University, Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province, China Keywords: Wordsworth; New Criticism; Poetry; Ambiguity; Irony; Tension Abstract. As a unique critic approach in literature, New Criticism has two important terms (Ambiguity and Irony) in the study of language and they are fundamental to the poetry’s nature and help create Tension in Wordsworth’s poetry. In this paper, Wordsworth’s poems are to be analyzed with regard to their ambiguity and irony in a new critic view by “close reading”. By a New Critic approach which focuses on the text itself rather than other factors: sociology, culture and history, we can deeply appreciate the power of poetic language from a different angle. Introduction As a new approach to literature, New Criticism was developed by American critics in the 1920s-30s and peaked in the 1940s-50s. New Critics tried to avoide impressionistic criticism and historical approaches. Thus, they attempted to systematize the study of literature to develop an approach that was centered on the vigorous study of the literary text itself. New critics put forward some assumptions, that is, the literary work has an objective existence as a self-sufficient artifact, a "verbal icon". All formal elements of a text work together to create an "organic unity". When we interpret a text, key disciplines to seek are metaphor, ambiguity and irony apart from the usual ones: imagery, rhyme, symbol and so on. New critics think highly of poems with qualities of ambiguity, complication and inconsistence. Wordsworth is regarded as a romantic master who won his reputation for simple and straight-forward poetry. Poetry of that sort couldn't have employed too many
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