John Crowe Ransom: The Founder of New Criticism

John Crowe Ransom (1888-1974) was an influential American literary critic and the founder of New Criticism, a formalist movement that emphasized "closed reading" of the text. In New Criticism, the focus shifted from socio-cultural aspects around a text to the internal elements within the text itself, making a text's internal world the primary site of analysis. Origins and Principles of New Criticism John Crowe Ransom was associated with the Fugitives, a group that valued the preservation of classical and traditional values and styles. In his seminal work, The New Criticism (1941), Ransom proposed the following ideas: The text becomes the focal point of "closed-reading," wherein the analysis is scientific and precise. Personal, historical, moral, and biographical details surrounding the text are rejected in New Criticism. The focus is on elements within the text, distancing the reader from external factors. Closed Reading and the Purity of Text Similar to I.A. Richards…