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Practical Criticism

Practical criticism is a method of literary analysis that focuses solely on the text itself rather than external contexts like the author or historical period. I.A. Richards originated this approach in the 1920s by having students analyze poems stripped of identifying information to encourage close reading. The goal was for students to understand the meanings and emotions conveyed through the words alone. Practical criticism aims to objectively analyze literature in a scientific manner, similar to how science analyzes phenomena, by only considering the contents of the text without outside biases or presumptions. While different from theoretical criticism, which incorporates contexts and develops explicit theories, both approaches provide useful perspectives for interpreting literary works.

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4K views2 pages

Practical Criticism

Practical criticism is a method of literary analysis that focuses solely on the text itself rather than external contexts like the author or historical period. I.A. Richards originated this approach in the 1920s by having students analyze poems stripped of identifying information to encourage close reading. The goal was for students to understand the meanings and emotions conveyed through the words alone. Practical criticism aims to objectively analyze literature in a scientific manner, similar to how science analyzes phenomena, by only considering the contents of the text without outside biases or presumptions. While different from theoretical criticism, which incorporates contexts and develops explicit theories, both approaches provide useful perspectives for interpreting literary works.

Uploaded by

rameen
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Practical criticism is an analytical approach to literary criticism.

It focuses on the form of the

text and concentrates upon the words on the page. A technique that “made a close study of

literature possible by isolating the text from history and context” (Peter Barry, 1995) It originated

in the 1920s, when I.A Richards started a series of experiments by giving his students some

poems to analyze, stripping them of any context. The objective of his work was to encourage

students to really focus “on the words on the page” rather than focusing on preconceived or

conventional beliefs about the text. If students were able to attain a true understanding about the

meaning and emotions of the prose and poetry they read, it would benefit them psychologically

providing them a better clarification of their own emotions. Richards concludes that the critical

reading of poetry is an arduous discipline.

Practical criticism refers to close reading. A close scrutiny of the text where one focuses on the

text rather than the context to have a better understanding of the form, structure and devices

used. I.A Richards in a way conducted a scientific experiment on his students by giving them

anonymized, unknown poems and asking for their comments.. Using poetry as an instrument, he

investigated the process of how human beings make meaning from the language.He observed the

nature of how the texts were interpreted on the basis of their understanding. Therefore practical

criticism also has an edge of being a psychological process. Practical criticism is an objective

way of reading literature and science itself is purely objective. Just like science, practical

criticism purely depends on the contents of the text where a reader is free of bias or

presupposition about the text. Therefore practical criticism is considered to be a

“scientific”approach to a text.

English is not only about reading literature but also examining and interpreting it. There can be

numerous ways of interpreting a text based on a reader’s understanding of it. In an applied


critique, practical criticism is concerned with the discussion of specific works and writers. The

theoretical concepts that govern the mood of the analysis, interpretation, and evaluation are

frequently left unaddressed or introduced only when the situation demands it. It is an intrinsic

approach where the plot is given utmost importance ,whereas theoretical criticism proposes an

explicit theory of literary criticism in the sense of basic concepts, as well as a set of terms,

distinctions, and categories that can be used in identifying and assessing literary works, as well

as criteria (standards or norms) by which these works and their authors are to be judged. Here,

the context is equally important. Both of these criticisms are relatively different from each other

due to a number of reasons.They can be opposed because they contradict each other. In practical

criticism we are at full liberty to fully express our ideas, it's purely experimental but in

theoretical criticism there are certain restrictions which terminate our liberty to truly express

ourselves, there is not much ground for experimentation. There's also a difference in language :

imperative language is employed in practical criticism and indicative language is employed in

theoretical criticism. Although both these criticisms differ from each other, having different

views and do oppose each other in some sense both these views are important and play a role in

our understanding and interpretation of literary works.

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