Which critical approach emphasizes close reading of the text itself, often ignoring authorial intent and historical context?

Which critical approach emphasizes close reading of the text itself, often ignoring authorial intent and historical context?

• A. New Criticism
• B. Trope
• C. New Historicism
• D. Gender

Answer: (A)

Focusing on how a text functions on its own terms, this approach treats a literary work as an autonomous artifact whose meaning emerges from its internal features—structure, imagery, symbolism, and formal patterns—rather than from the author’s life or the historical moment in which it was produced. It argues that the author’s intent is not a reliable guide to meaning, and external contexts should be set aside so the text’s own language and formal relationships reveal its significance. This mid-20th-century formalist method is associated with critics like Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren and centers on close, careful analysis of how elements like irony, tension, and unity work together within the text. Other options don’t fit because they emphasize outside factors: a trope is simply a figure of speech, New Historicism foregrounds historical context and how power structures influence meaning, and gender-focused approaches examine how gender shapes interpretation and representation.

Focusing on how a text functions on its own terms, this approach treats a literary work as an autonomous artifact whose meaning emerges from its internal features—structure, imagery, symbolism, and formal patterns—rather than from the author’s life or the historical moment in which it was produced. It argues that the author’s intent is not a reliable guide to meaning, and external contexts should be set aside so the text’s own language and formal relationships reveal its significance. This mid-20th-century formalist method is associated with critics like Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren and centers on close, careful analysis of how elements like irony, tension, and unity work together within the text. Other options don’t fit because they emphasize outside factors: a trope is simply a figure of speech, New Historicism foregrounds historical context and how power structures influence meaning, and gender-focused approaches examine how gender shapes interpretation and representation.