SOURCE: Graff, Gerald. “What Was New Criticism? Literary Interpretations and Scientific Objectivity.” Salmagundi 27, no. 27 (summer-fall 1974): 72-93.

In the following essay, Graff traces various academic interpretations of New Criticism, proposing that in order to fully understand the theories espoused by New Critics, it is absolutely necessary to understand the complex cultural, educational, and historical considerations that led to the creation of this mode of literary interpretation.

Not so very many years ago, the New Critics were academic radicals challenging the hegemony of the philological scholars, the literary and intellectual historians, and the literary biographers in the domain of literary studies. Then, after a period of theoretical polemics and departmental infighting, the New Criticism won its battle for academic respectability. But scarcely had it done so than the New Criticism began to be attacked from other quarters. Some members of a new generation of teachers and scholars saw in New...