Literary Theory

How was the literary field framed in Scrutiny and New Criticism?

The late 19^th and early 20^th centuries witness a transition period with respect to the faith of people. Due to inventions and scientific discoveries related to the evolution of the mankind, the faith in religion was being questioned. People were looking for new and better options which save their souls.

Industrialism was widening the spheres of ‘cultural degradation’ and making cities the hub of cultural change. With more people moving to these cities for new and more ‘attractive’ opportunities, cities of this era were decaying under a tremendous increase in population.

This was the time when Scrutiny entered into the arena of literature. Scrutiny believed in studying literature critically. Scrutiny insisted on deeper and more critical analysis of literature. This deeper analysis according to the journal was able to teach one about deeper meanings of life itself.

Since they held the top positions in the universities, they could not only choose the canon they wanted, but could also tamper with it depending upon their wishes. For the Scrutineers the ‘Organic’ agrarian past was of great importance. Due to this they gave more importance to the metaphysical poets and the Jacobean writers. Since these authors talked about a perfect agrarian world order, Scrutineers believed that closely looking at these texts would help one survive the mechanized world.

The ideology propagated by Scrutiny was that of surviving the mechanized world. No matter how inhuman and frightening the reality Scrutiny emphasized on withstanding the emaciated culture without ever attempting to modify it. The only change it suggested was education. The Scrutineers hoped to develop a rich organic sensibility in a selected few. They hoped that these few gifted individuals would then propagate it to others.

‘Close reading’ or ‘practical criticism’ are closely associated with F.R. Levis. Practical criticism according to Levis and the Scrutineers meant isolating the literary work from its cultural and historical contexts. They stressed on centrality of rigorous critical analysis, a disciplined attention to the ‘words on the page’. According to the Scrutiny, these words on the page had a close significance to the spiritual crises of the modern civilization. They framed the literary field as a savior of the civilization as it encapsulated the creative energies of language.

New Criticism was the literary movement in America corresponding to the Scrutiny in Britain. New Criticism or I. A. Richards also acknowledged the problem of the mechanized and industrialized society. However Richards chose a different path than the Scrutineers. He contemplated that poetry was an emotive language, which supplied pseudo- answers to the people. It organized the feelings of people to minimize their conflicts and save them from the ‘sinister potentialities of cinema’.