1. Genred Discourse as Social Practice: Collective and Individual Identities in Academic Literary Criticism Julia Ludewig Binghamton, State University of New York Department of Comparative Literature 1 GEsIPI Conference IDENTITY: REPRESENTATION & PRACTICES September 11-12, 2014 Lisbon, Portugal

2. SETTING THE STAGE identity formation + practices little insight into inner-disciplinary identities case study: writing practices in literary studies “New Critics” core concept: genred practice semiotic moves for group development 2 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

3. MATERIALS 3 critics: Ransom, Brooks, Blackmur published articles o with literary criticism o ideological pronouncements secondary opinions focus 2 middle phases: core + late earlier: hybrid identity poet-critics + cult. commentators 3 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

4. STRUCTURE 1.Introduction 2.New Critical Practice 2.1. Core phase 2.2. Late phase 3. Summary: Identity and Practices 4

5. CORE PHASE (30s/40s) HOMOGENEITY 5 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

6. Voice an Opposition “What is criticism not?” “comparative literature” “humanism” and “moral studies” “historical studies” “biographical studies” Ransom “Criticism Inc.” 6 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

7. Partial continuity yet also: continuity, use inst. framework “[I]t is from the professors […] of English for the most part, that I should hope eventually for the erection of intelligent standards of criticism. It is their business.” Ransom “Criticim Inc.” poetry as privileged topic > critics’ origin 7

8. Shared counter-practice 8 English VS. comp. literature neglect for author’s biography &historical background VS. historical studies, biographical studies close reading & “technique” VS. humanism, moral studies 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

9. Other Moves: Institutionalize Academization publications, journals, professorships identity: 1 st generation pure-bred academics model “Criticism Inc.” 9 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

10. Ctd. Other Moves Tap into larger social concerns social decay “…moral and intellectual confusion of our age…” Tate qtd. In Ransom The New Criticism general education “competency in the use of our language is a basic necessity for a free way of life” Knickerbocker Introduction to Twentieth Century English 10 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

11. HETEROGENEITY 11

12. Blackmur broader definition of “technique” “technique on the plane of the words and even of linguistics […], but also technique on the plane of intellectual and emotional patterns […], and technique, too, in that there is a technique of securing and representing a fundamental view of life.” Blackmur “A Critic’s Job of Work” 12 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

13. Brooks niche, individual hallmark concentration on paradox “the language of poetry is the language of paradox” Brooks “The Language of Paradox” 13 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

14. Which moves does a group undergo in a core phase of group formation? oppositional definition + concerted counter- practice new identity crystallizes in genred group practice institutionalize, build habitat frame internal practice as reaction to larger societal concerns 14 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

15. Late Phase (50s/60s) 15

16. Voice an Opposition HOMOGENEOUS continued but weakened opposition to other practice groups “The disciplines that we […] represent can have no quarrel; they are both necessary, and necessary to each other.” Brooks “Milton and the New Criticism” 16 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

17. Ctd. Voice an Opposition HETEROGENEOUS internal critique member-against-member criticism Ransom vs. Brooks: “We do not rest in paradox; we resolve it” Ransom “Poetry: The Formal Analysis” Blackmur vs. Ransom: “Mr. Ransom is a man blessed […] with excess” Blackmur “For a Second Look” 17 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

18. Counter-practice What is still shared? close reading “no point in making such close reading an end in itself” Brooks “The Criticism of Fiction” 18 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

19. Ctd. Counter-practice sense of internal renewal accommodate prose “or else the novel will kill us” Blackmur “For Second Look” “But I have become accustomed in the last fifteen years to have readers […] say that I am not in the least interested in fiction, or […] say that I refuse to admit the importance of plot.” Brooks “The Criticism of Fiction” 19 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

20. Other Moves Institutionalize continued building of discipl. apparatus Ivy Leagues self-historicizations 20 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

21. Ctd. Other Moves Tap into larger social concerns “…[the literary interest of the students today] is found in books which […] are beneath the standard which your humble servants, the teachers of literature, are trying to maintain… It is a free society, and I should expect that the rights of minorities will be as secure as the rights of individuals.” Ransom “Idea of a Literary Anthropologist” 21 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

22. More heterogeneity Ransom:conservative formalist poetry analysis Brooks: internal reformist thematic prose analysis Blackmur: renegade socio-psychol. prose analysis European authors 22 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

23. How does movement’s identity differentiate in a late phase of group formation? ideologized internal opposition shared practice elements shrink in number o central elements dilute → genre develops & re-diversifies reacting to larger societal concerns rather than using it as justification 23 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

24. 3. Summary: Identity and Practices 24

25. IDENTITY 25 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary multi-identities > mono-identity mono-identity, yet internal differentiation heterogeneity omnipresent activated by internal ideologization unity through similarity in practice institut. frame & earlier commonalities

26. Base Moves dissatisfaction, shared counter-practice, institutionalization, tie to larger societal concerns 26 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

27. Group-specific moves thematic ± genre, language method/concept: adding practice niches stretching/drifting core concepts ideology:± acceptance counter- elements (purism) 27 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

28. Conclusion micro-practices inside academic disciplines work like (new) discourse genres reoccurring semiotic moves organize group formation and differentiation 28 1. Introduction >> 2.1. New Critical Practice in the Core Phase >> 2.2. Late Phase >> 3. Summary

29. Sources Blackmur, Richard P. “A Critic’s Job of Work”. Critical Theory Since Plato. Ed. Hazard Adams. New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1971. 892-904. Print. ---. “For a Second Look.” The Kenyon Review 11.1 (1949): 7-10. Print. Brooks, Cleanth “The Criticism of Fiction: The Role of Close Analysis”. The Critical Matrix. Ed. Paul Sullivan. 1961. 67-90. Print. ---. “Milton and the New Criticism” The Sewanee Review 59.1 (1951): 1-22. Print. ---. “The Language of Paradox.” The Well Wrought Urn. New York, Harcourt, Brace. 1947. Print. Knickerbocker, William. “Introduction.” Twentieth Century English. Ed. William Knickerbocker. New York: The Philosophical Library, 1946. Print. Ransom, John C. “The Idea of a Literary Anthropologist: And What He Might Say of the "Paradise Lost" of Milton: A Speech with a Prologue.” The Kenyon Review 21.1 (1959): 121-140. Print. ---. “Poetry: The Formal Analysis.” The Kenyon Review 9.3 (1947): 436-456. Print. ---. The New Criticism. Norfolk: New Directions, 1941. Print. ---. “Criticism Inc.” Virginia Quarterly Review 13 (1937): 586-602. Print. 29

30. Thank you! 30