Practical Criticism

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Domains

Literary Theory/ Critical approach

Dates

Date of occurrence 1930

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Named after the Cambridge critic I. A. Richards' 1929 work

Practical Criticism

, where he described how his students were asked to respond to 'the words on the page' by reading poetry anonymously, in order to free them of preconceived ideas. Practical Criticism now refers to a way of reading poetry that concentrates on form and meaning, rather than wider historical, cultural or authorial contexts.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

63 words

Save this article