T.S. Eliot delivered “The Frontiers of Criticism” as a lecture at the University of Minnesota in 1956. In it, he examines and critiques the direction of literary criticism up to that point.
While Eliot does not wholly align himself with New Criticism, he engages deeply with its principles—especially those that emphasize close textual analysis and the autonomy of the literary work—which firmly places this essay within the discourse of New Criticism.
Why is the Answer (2) New Criticism?
✅ 1. Emphasis on the Text Itself:
New Criticism advocates a "close reading" of the text, focusing on its internal structure—language, form, symbols, and irony—rather than on external contexts like authorial intent or historical background.
Eliot critiques both the biographical fallacy and the historical method, favoring attention to the literary work as an autonomous object—a central tenet of New Criticism.
✅ 2. The Objective Correlative:
Eliot’s earlier concepts (like the objective correlative, from his essay on Hamlet) were foundational to New Critical practice.
In The Frontiers of Criticism, he implicitly reinforces the notion that the poem has internal coherence and does not require external validation—again aligning with New Critical doctrine.
✅ 3. Critique of Other Critical Methods:
Eliot distances himself from overly impressionistic or historical criticism, which also reflects the New Critics’ concern with formalist and intrinsic study of texts.
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