New Criticism
noun
: an analytic literary criticism that is marked by concentration on the language, imagery, and emotional or intellectual tensions in literary works
New Critic
noun
New Critical
adjective
Examples of New Criticism in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The 1966 CliffsNotes testifies to New Criticism’s growing prominence in the high-school classroom.
—
Alexander Manshel, New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2025
While not for the faint of heart or weary of English poetry, this book introduced New Criticism to the U.S., and reveals the extent of the work any close-reading literary critic takes on.
—The Week Us, theweek, 19 Mar. 2024
Read more: The Extreme New Tactic in the Crusade to Ban Books
Rosenblatt was pushing back not only against rote learning and the oversimplification of literature in America’s schools, but also against the New Criticism, an approach that was beginning to dominate instruction at the college level.
—TIME, 6 Oct. 2023
The New Criticism arose at Vanderbilt, in Nashville, where Davidson taught, and nearly all the first generation of New Critics were Southern partisans and Yankee-haters, opponents of secularism, liberalism, and modernity.
—Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 31 July 2023
First, even when Ozick observes a specific cultural moment fifty years in the past—second-wave feminism; Harold Bloom and the not so New Criticism; the relationship between Black and Jewish writers like Ralph Ellison and Irving Howe—her work is blazingly alive.
—Cathleen Schine, The New York Review of Books, 16 Mar. 2021
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Alexander Manshel, New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2025
While not for the faint of heart or weary of English poetry, this book introduced New Criticism to the U.S., and reveals the extent of the work any close-reading literary critic takes on.
—The Week Us, theweek, 19 Mar. 2024
Read more: The Extreme New Tactic in the Crusade to Ban Books
Rosenblatt was pushing back not only against rote learning and the oversimplification of literature in America’s schools, but also against the New Criticism, an approach that was beginning to dominate instruction at the college level.
—TIME, 6 Oct. 2023
The New Criticism arose at Vanderbilt, in Nashville, where Davidson taught, and nearly all the first generation of New Critics were Southern partisans and Yankee-haters, opponents of secularism, liberalism, and modernity.
—Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 31 July 2023
First, even when Ozick observes a specific cultural moment fifty years in the past—second-wave feminism; Harold Bloom and the not so New Criticism; the relationship between Black and Jewish writers like Ralph Ellison and Irving Howe—her work is blazingly alive.
—Cathleen Schine, The New York Review of Books, 16 Mar. 2021
Cite this Entry
“New Criticism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/New%20Criticism. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share