The understanding of the functions of language, of the many ways in which words serve us and mislead us, must be an essential aim of all true education. Through language all our intellectual and much of our social heritage comes to us. Our whole outlook on life, our behavior, our character, are profoundly influenced by the use we are able to make of this, our chief means of contact with reality. A loose and insincere use of language leads not only to intellectual confusion but to the shrinking of vital issues or the acceptance of spurious formulae. Words were never a more common means than they are today of concealing ignorance and persuading even ourselves that we possess opinions when we are merely vibrating with verbal reverberations.

from The Meaning of Meaning by C. K. Ogden & I. A. Richards 

Kinda blows that no academic critics of english lit have readable prose, let alone clear and confident argumentation. I'm yet to read a work of pure (eg not also a work of philosophy or social criticism) Literary Criticism that's felt a anywhere near as energetic and engaging as the texts it's tackling.

'Foundational' and highly regarded works of literary criticism have consistently been among the worst I've read. For example I.A. Richards's Practical Criticism -the book that brought the world close reading - consists almost entirely of the author mean-spiritedly mocking his undergrad students for misreading poetry in their essays, then drawing impressionistic, unconfident non-conclusions from this exercise.

I wanted to be an academic when I was a teenager but reading pages of academese nonsense makes me feel actually nauseous, and fills me with a sense of dread about my life: as if going ahead with this dream equals dooming myself to life as the world's most boring and pedantic spinster.

I might add that I don't really get this feeling at all when I've read shit from other fields (eg psychology, history or even literary criticism outside of the anglosphere): even if the prose can be sorta unwieldy it has like a discernable sense and argument.

Principles Of Literary Criticism (1924)

I.A. Richards

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

what if i made a uquiz along the lines of "which literary figure would you have beef with?". would that be anything. or alternatively "which literary figure should you invent time travel to be besties with"

"Hasta los veintiocho años tuve una especie de “yo” que permanecía sepultado, que no sabía que podía hacer otras cosas, aparte de preparar salsa blanca y cuidar bebés. No tenía noción de que poseía algún tipo de profundidad creativa. Era víctima del “sueño americano”: burgués y de clase media. Todo lo que deseaba era un pedacito de vida: casarme, tener hijos. Pensaba que las pesadillas, las visiones y los demonios se apartarían si había suficiente amor como para abatirlos. Hacía mi mejor esfuerzo por llevar una vida convencional, porque así fue como me criaron, y eso era lo que mi esposo quería de mí. Pero una no puede levantar pequeñas cercas blancas para dejar fuera las pesadillas. Todo se quebró cuando estaba por cumplir veintiocho años. Tuve una crisis psicótica y traté de matarme.

(…) Al principio le dije a mi doctor: “No sirvo, no puedo hacer nada. Soy estúpida”. Me sugirió entonces que intentara educarme a través de la estación de TV educativa de Boston. Me dijo que tenía una mente perfectamente sana. De hecho, después de que me hizo un test de Rorschach, afirmó que poseía un talento creativo que no estaba utilizando. Yo no estaba muy de acuerdo, pero seguí su consejo. Una noche, vi a I.A. Richards en la televisión educativa, cuando leía un soneto y explicaba su construcción. Y pensé para mí misma: “Yo podría hacer eso, quizás. Podría intentarlo”. Así que me senté y escribí un soneto. Al día siguiente, escribí otro, y así sucesivamente. Mi médico me animó a continuar. “No te mates”, decía, “tus poemas pueden significar algo para alguien, algún día”. Eso me dio un sentimiento de propósito, de pequeña causa, algo para hacer con mi vida, sin importar lo podrida que estuviese".

Anne Sexton

Nunca sabes lo que tienes dentro, nunca te puedes imaginar lo que puede cambiar tu vida, aunque ahora solo te veas en un pozo profundo y oscuro, puede llover, llenar ese pozo y sacarte. Date oportunidades.

🌸 If you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last few blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not! Let's get to know the person behind the blog. 🌸

I used to work at the airport for a year and despite it being a job from hell there were days that were pretty cool when I had to check celebrities' passports at the gate

I collect (affordable) merch from my favourite movies and have the Chalice of Kali on a shelf and a replica of Jaws' teeth signed by Richard Kiel, i.a.

I disliked Ralph Fiennes and avoided his movies for a long time because I was forced to watch one in school believing that was him - but years later I realised it was his brother 🤦‍♀️ (sorry, Ralph!!)

New Criticism And famous Critics of New Criticism

A prominent literary philosophy that first appeared in the early 20th century is known as New Criticism. It emphasises in-depth textual examination as well as the literary work’s underlying traits. The emphasis of New Criticism is on dissecting the language, imagery, symbolism, and form of the text rather than taking into account extraneous elements like the author’s intentions or historical context. It rejects the practise of summarising or paraphrasing the work and emphasises the significance of exploring the internal coherence of the text to unearth deeper meanings. The goal of New Criticism is to provide a thorough comprehension of literature based on its formal and aesthetic components by emphasising the intrinsic characteristics of the text.

1. William Empson

Famous critic William Empson was a key figure in the New Criticism movement. His substantial contributions to literary analysis, such as “Seven Types of Ambiguity” and “The Structure of Complex Words,” made him a prominent figure in the field. Empson’s analytical prowess and painstaking study of poetic language, symbolism, and contradictions produced a new understanding of the literary intricacies. He popularised the idea of “ambiguity,” which was crucial to New Criticism since it highlighted the various interpretations and meanings that literary texts might have. Empson made significant contributions to the New Criticism, and those aiming for the UGC NET in English can learn from his work about the subtleties of poetic expression and the persuasiveness of language ambiguity.

2. I.A.Richards

Famous critic I.A. Richards was a key figure in the New Criticism movement. Richards made a name for himself in literary analysis thanks to his famous books, including “Principles of Literary Criticism” and “The Meaning of Meaning” (co-written with C.K. Ogden). His method put an emphasis on reading closely and objectively analysing language while interpreting literary texts. Richards popularised the idea of “practical criticism,” which encouraged a careful examination of the written words while concentrating on the reader’s reaction and the poetry as a whole. His contributions to New Criticism are still well-respected and give UGC NET English candidates helpful understandings of the difficulties in literary interpretation. Read More....

I’ve spent most of my adulthood not reading much outside of academic texts, and as such am probably forever stunted in my understanding of literature, wahhh, boo hoo, [other sfx that might accompany a shot of a baby crying and shitting itself]. Your blog was kinda the push I needed to get back into reading for reading’s sake, so thanks! I’m trying to slap together a Lit 101 syllabus for myself—do you have any recs for works On Reading that might help me to self-assess my approach to literature?

Oh, you mean some of my favorite pieces of literary criticism? Step right this way!

How To Read and Why by Harold Bloom

How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler

"How Should One Read a Book" by Virginia Woolf

The Pleasures of Reading: In an Ideological Age by Robert Alter

Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov

"The Art of Fiction" by Henry James

Anatomy of Criticism by Northrop Frye

"Tradition and Individual Talent" by T.S. Eliot

Days of Reading by Marcel Proust

The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin

How Fiction Works by James Wood

The Din in the Head by Cynthia Ozick

"Against Interpretation" by Susan Sontag

Seven Types of Ambiguity by William Empson

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgment by I.A. Richards

Poems, Poets, Poetry by Helen Vendler

The Mirror and the Lamp by M.H. Abrams

Illuminations by Walter Benjamin

Le film L’Amie Mortelle (1986) avec l’acteur Richard Marcus. Titre V.O. : Deadly Friend.

Captures 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 /12 du film.

L’un des personnages du film  s’appelle... Mlle Parker.

sources : imdb, @FilmNewsNos et 80smovies

Autres films sur le thème : - I.A. avec Haley Joel Osment - Cherry 2000 - La Maison du Futur - La Belle et l’Ordinateur  

Alias Dr Raines dans la série Le Caméléon.

English Through Pictures by I.A. Richards and Christine M. Gibson

AN ENGLISH BRASS-MOUNTED LEATHER AND OAK CARTRIDGE CASE

BY JAMES PURDEY & SONS, LTD, FIRST HALF 20TH CENTURY

With label and debossed 'JAMES PURDEY & SONS LTD', with initials 'G.A.'; together with a leather gun case, by Westley Richards, with initials 'I.A.'; two double leather gun-slips, five leather cartridge belts and four leather cartridge bags, two with initials 'G.A.'

The cartridge case: 11 ¾ in. (30 cm.) high; 15 ¾ in. (40 cm.) wide; 10 ¼ in. (26.5 cm.) deep

Christies

Readers achieved their share of glamour (if they have—the question is still open) only by understanding reading in a different way. In this sense the development we are looking at is recent only in its maturing, since it seems to be the fruition of a movement that began with I.A. Richards and William Empson and the New Criticism. When Richards said that ‘Empson’s minute examinations […] raised the standards of ambition and achievement in a difficult and very hazardous art,’ he was thinking of reading not mountaineering. R.P. Blackmur said the effect of Richards’ work […] was to have proved ‘the enormous difficulty of reading at all.’ The New Reader was in this sense the New Criticism’s unruly child. Reading became writing’s partner, a much fuller partner than it used to seem; junior maybe, but only just and not always. The chief, or at least the most attractive effect of the change was that criticism remembered how much it depended on the imagination, and writers became much better readers.

Michael Wood, Children of Silence: Studies in Contemporary Fiction (p. 203)

Literary and Cultural Alternatives to Modernism: Unsettling Presences (Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature), edited by Kostas Boyiopoulos, Anthony Patterson, and Mark Sandy, Routledge, 2019. Info: routledge.com.

The 17 essays of Unsettling Presences investigate writers and texts chiefly stretching from 1890 to 1939, from both within and outside of the Modernist canon. They explore tensions, convergences, and differences between the dominant Modernists and lesser-known figures. Not only do they examine the alternative vision of populist writers such as Wells and Bennett, but also discuss figures who flirt both with cultural elitism and realism, such as E.M. Forster. More importantly, they showcase the work of obscure authors on the cultural fringe and/or of popular culture for the first time (e.g. Lord Dunsany and Margery Allingham, etc). The chapters cover cases on revising and recasting the tradition (Romanticism, Victorian Realism, and Aestheticism), cultural dialogues and comparisons. The genres and forms discussed include Realist fiction, lyric poetry, Symbolist drama, critical essay, heroic fantasy, popular and detective fiction, epistolary writing, parody, detective fiction, and painting. The chapters come to life and indeed cohere into a formidable whole with high-brow literary Modernism serving as the golden standard or point of reference against which the voices/texts being discussed are measured.

Contents: Acnowledgements List of Contibutors Introduction: Reflections on Alternativeness – Kostas Boyiopoulos, Anthony Patterson, and Mark Sandy     PART I. Unsettled Voices: Imaginative and Cultural Encounters 1. The Experimental and the Traditional in Twenties British Literature – Chris Baldick 2. The Failure of Philosophy and the Beginnings of Modernism, from Pater to Woolf – Kate Hext 3. Maverick Modernists? Sapphic Trajectories from Vernon Lee to I.A. Richards – Sondeep Kandola     PART II. Dissenting Voices: Aestheticism, Gender, and the Art of Identity 4. Writing for a New Age: Arnold Bennett and the Avant Garde – Anthony Patterson 5. ‘The Knowledge, the detail, the spirit!’: The Edwardian Correspondence of Bennett and Wells’ – Jonathan Wild 6. ‘The Popular Modernity of H.G. Wells’ – Carey Snyder 7. ‘Don’t you see how symbolical it was?’: Parade’s End Within and Outside the Tradition of Literary Toryism – Koenraad Claes     PART III. Double Voices: Central and Peripheral Transactions 8. Modernist or Realist? The ‘Double Vision’ of E.M. Forster – Kate Symondson 9. The Alternative Visions of Mythopoeic Fantasy – Anna Vaninskaya 10. ‘Modernistic shone the lamplight’: Arthur Symons among the Moderns – Kostas Boyiopoulos 11. ‘Now I Climb Alone’: Poetic Subjectivity from Thomas Hardy to Stephen Spender – Michael O’Neill     PART IV. Popular Voices: Questions of Realism, Politics and Modernity   12. Speech and Song in Edward Thomas and Ivor Gurney – Andrew Hodgson 13. Strange Truths: Romantic Re-Imaginings in Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon – Mark Sandy 14. Conjuring the Two Devils in W.B. Yeats’s Turn to the Theatre – Katharine Cockin 15. ‘A large mouth shown to a dentist’: G.K. Chesterton, T.S. Eliot and Parody – Michael Shallcross 16. ‘The Amateur Modernist: C.L.R. James in Bloomsbury’ – Saikat Majumdar 17. Questions of Class and Genre in the Albert Campion Novels: Margery Allingham’s ‘Grand Programme’ – Luke Seaber Selected Bibliography Index

Imagine an energy system of prodigious complexity and extreme delicacy of organization which has an indefinitely large number of stable poises. Imagine it thrown from one poise to another with great facility, each poise being the resultant of all the energies of the system. Suppose now that the partial return of a situation which has formerly caused it to assume a stable poise, throws it into an unstable condition from which it most easily returns to equilibrium by reassuming the former poise. Such a system would exhibit the phenomena of memory; but it would keep no records though appearing to do so. The appearance would be due merely to the extreme accuracy and sensitiveness of the system and the delicacy of its balances. Its state on the later occasion would appear to be a revival of its state on the former, but this would not be the case any more than a cumulus cloud this evening is a revival of those which decorated the heavens last year This imaginary construction can be made more concrete by imagining a solid with a large number of facets upon any one of which it can rest. If we try to balance it upon one of its coigns or ridges it settles down upon the nearest facet. In the case of the neural system we are trying to suggest each stable poise has been determined by a definite set, or better, context of conditions Membership of this context is what corresponds to nearness to a facet. The partial return of the context causes the system to behave as though conditions were present which are not, and this is what is essential in memory.

—Principles of Literary Criticism by I.A. Richards, 1924

This can be interpreted as an early proposal of energy minima such as implemented in Hopfield networks

Something that interests me and that I would potentially want to explore for the rhetoric project is the idea of how rhetoric’s use or the understanding of it might change if someone is missing a sense (ie: blind or deaf). This idea came to mind when we were talking about I.A. Richards idea of rhetoric as association of words leading to meaning. However, I think it would be interesting to explore how rhetoric changes when association’s link to meaning changes for people who may have one less sense like hearing or sight. For example, thunderstorms can have different associations for people who can hear and see it (some people love the sound of thunder while others hate it so their associations lead to different meanings for a thunderstorm), but for a person who cannot hear the thunderstorm, they have to have a different kind of association and meaning because they cannot hear the thunder (and depending on the intensity may not be able to feel it either). Similarly, someone who does not have the sense of sight will have different associations when hearing words like “massive,” “scraggly,” or “over-the-top” because even though there can be varied associations among people who can see, there is still a level of visual understanding which has given us a kind of common understanding of the meaning. I suppose an extreme case that could be explored is Helen Keller’s rhetoric as she had to create associations in the absence of two senses. This is a working topic that could change but I think it would be interesting to explore more.

Research Project Interest(s)

A research project in a rhetoric course seems a little overwhelming, yet I get a great sense of nerdy bliss in thinking about what I may discover in my research efforts! At first, I thought about taking a closer look at I.A. Richard’s theory. His idea of condensing English to under 1,000 words is interesting, though it is also absurd and horrifying to ponder for more than a few seconds. I still can’t help but wonder what it would be like to examine a document that is altered when using Basic English as opposed to today’s American English. I believe I am going to cast that idea to the wayside for now. What piques my interest even more is women in rhetoric. I’m not entirely sure what specifically I want to know or find about when in rhetoric though.  Looking at common trends among the women in rhetoric has crossed my mind, but seems like it may be a little too broad. Instead, I think I want to look at the early female rhetoricians, such as Margaret Fell and Mary Astell, and possibly compare them to more contemporary female rhetoricians, like Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Allison. I have also toyed with the idea of looking at the differences in the rhetoric of women versus the rhetoric of men. This might be my favorite idea. I love pitting men against women as it’s usually entertaining at the least, but really I find women in rhetoric intriguing because for so long women were thought of lessor than men and made to be silent or seen and not heard. Sometimes it seems as if that is still the case. I believe women find themselves trying to compensate simply for not being a man and I would be very interested to see how that affects the rhetoric of women.