new criticism: Meaning and Definition of

new' crit'icism

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. (often caps.) an approach to the critical study of literature that concentrates on textual explication and rejects historical and biographical study as irrelevant to an understanding of the total formal organization of a work. Cf.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.