I. A. Richards Practical Criticism - Reading Poems and Verbal Analysis

This blog is the reading or analysing of poems with the help of 'New Criticism' the concept which is believed to be pioneered in "Figurative Analysis" by I. A. Richards. The objective of this blog is to find out the meanings and misunderstandings that are present or a reader gets/imply it by reading the text.

I.A. Richards, in full Ivor Armstrong Richards, (born Feb. 26, 1893, Sandbach, Cheshire, Eng.—died Sept. 7, 1979, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire), English critic, poet, and teacher who was highly influential in developing a new way of reading poetry that led to the New Criticism and that also influenced some forms of reader-response criticism. (Britannica)

"I.A. Richards also takes into account its effects on the readers. For him the real value of a poem lies in the reactions and attitudes it creates, and whether or not it is conducive to greater emotional balance, equilibrium, peace and rest in the mind of the readers. For him, the value of a work of art lies in its power to harmonize and organize complex and warring human impulses into patterns that are lasting and pleasurable." 

I A Richards gave four kinds of meaning, Two use of language and four kinds of misunderstanding in his essay.

Four Kinds of Meanings:

• Sense- what is said or ‘items’ referred to by a writer.
• Feeling- emotions or “an attitude towards it, some special direction, bias or accentuation of interest towards it, some personal flavour or colouring of feeling”.
• Tone- writer’s attitude to his readers or audience
• Intention- writer’s aim, which may be conscious or unconscious.

Two uses of Language:

1. The scientific use
2. Emotive use

Four Kinds of Misunderstanding:

• Sense of poetry
• Over-literal reading
• Defective Scholarship
• Difference between the words in poetry and prose

What is new criticism:

New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object. The movement derived its name from John Crowe Ransom's 1941 book The New Criticism.

The work of Cambridge scholar I. A. Richards, especially his Practical Criticism and The Meaning of Meaning, which offered what was claimed to be an empirical scientific approach, was important to the development of the New Critical methodology.

New Reading/ Verbal analysis:

At the first glance when we listen to/read this poem we might get an idea that the poetess of this poem is very obsessed with her outfit, 'Sari' to be precise. That would be the first reading of the poem and the reader won't have any ideas about the personal intentions or the emotions of the poet as well as the background like situations in which the poetry has been created. f we look at it that way then this poem will be "Art For Life Sake' but the reader has no idea about that and s/he will take this poem as Art For Art's Sake', this way poet and reader can create misunderstandings. 

The reason for these misunderstandings is the lack of a wide range of reading. The reader should be familiar with the metaphor and meaning of the words used in the poem. In the above poem, she portrayed women from all over Indian and every religion to show their strength in the form of Saree and she also connected the poem with the historical and mythical characters like  Savitribai Phule, Draupadi's disrobing event, acid attack victim Laxmi Agarwal and Iron lady Irom who protested against government act(AFSPA). Bela Bhatia who works in the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh for human rights and Shabah Haji(social reformer from J&K)The poet also says about fascism that is indicated to the Gulabi Gang(the group of women activists from U.P who wear pink Saree and stand for violence against women ). To understand this poem one must have a wide reading and a good sense of history or else it will be very hard for a reader to grasp the meaning of this poem.

 

Misunderstandings:

In the first line, she says, "You thought the saree draped on my body is just a shiny cloth..."

Technically a Saree is just cloth, and it can be shiny too but it is cloth.

and she continues, "You thought my saree is a stiff cloth which I wear to do the sexy dance"

saree which is made up of fabric cannot be stiff and if it is stiff then one can't wear it.

"It is that nine-yard cloth in which I have draped my existence/ It is that road which God knows how many times you have trampled over and left"

nine-yard cloth (saree) and the existence is a confusing metaphor.

she later talks about saree being reaped and holes that are being patched by another incident will be hard to grasp if it is in only written form. (The holes and turning it into many pieces is the metaphor for harassment and rapes)

Indian Poetics: