Principles of Literary Criticism

Summary

Principles of Literary Criticism is I. A. Richards's attempt to give criticism a systematic foundation. Richards, a young Cambridge lecturer trained in philosophy rather than literature, first published it in London in 1924 in the International Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method; the stored text is a 1928 New York printing. He opens with the chaos of critical theories, observing that the great critics from Aristotle onward have left, in his words, an almost empty garner of a few conjectures, a supply of admonitions and many acute isolated observations, and that criticism lacks a clear account of what a poem is and why it matters. Richards argues that the critic must answer two questions: what gives an experience value, and how can experiences be communicated. For the first he offers a psychological theory of value. Human impulses may be divided into appetencies and aversions, and anything is valuable which satisfies an appetency without frustrating some equal or more important one. The most valuable states of mind, he writes, involve the widest and most comprehensive co-ordination of activities with the least conflict and waste. On this view art matters because it records and communicates such well-ordered experiences, so that the arts are a storehouse of recorded values. For the second question he develops a theory of communication. He sketches the psychology of reading a poem, from the visual sensation of printed words through images, references, emotions and attitudes, and he treats rhythm and metre, painting, sculpture and music in the same terms. He discusses the normality of the artist, the reasons for badness in poetry, divergent readings, stock responses, and Tolstoy's infection theory of art. Late chapters distinguish two uses of language. A statement may be used scientifically, for the sake of the true or false reference it causes, or emotively, for the sake of the effects in emotion and attitude produced by that reference. Richards argues that most statements in poetry are not meant to be verified, and that poetry should be judged by the attitudes it organizes rather than by the truth of the beliefs it seems to assert. These ideas, together with his companion book Practical Criticism, shaped the close reading of the New Critics, though his psychological theory of value has been widely disputed.

Top Lessons

• Why value matters in criticism

  Richards insists that critics cannot avoid questions of value; to judge a poem is to say something about what is good for human minds. Christian readers will agree that art is never value-free, while testing his psychological account of the good against Scripture's.

• Two uses of language

  Richards distinguishes the scientific use of language, which aims at true reference, from the emotive use, which aims at effects in feeling and attitude. Students can use the distinction while weighing whether poetry, and especially religious poetry, can also tell the truth.

• The qualifications of a good critic

  Richards says a good critic must experience a work without eccentricity, distinguish experiences finely, and be a sound judge of values. These are habits of attention and judgment any student can practise.

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