Study On The Historical Context And The Theoretic Characteristics Of Ransom’s New Criticism

J. C. Ransom is the leader of the southern intellectuals participating in the Agrarianism and the theoretical founder of the New Criticism formed in the corresponding background of the Southern states in America. He establishes the ontological criticism that can be traced back as the theoretical origin of the New Criticism. As an agrarian faced with the diminishing sense of leisure, stability, belongs and intimacy with the land, he commences a movement of agrarianism trying to solve the problems created by the industrial economy. Ransom holds that a return to an agricultural economy can save the nation and give the Southerners the happiness and leisure they used to enjoy. Ransom invents a utopian South where all the happiness is restored by the means of art creation and appreciation.In the industrial capitalism, human beings worship reason and science. The sensibility withers and the reason and the rationality control all human thinking and actions. So the instrumental rationality comes into being and deprives humans’joy from working. Science and knowledge, when trying to master the world, miss the most important live aspects of the universe and the pure and fresh experiences through which the concrete being of the world can be reflected. The scientific abstraction, categorization and summarization reduce the world into barren fragments. Ransom develops a theory of "the Third Moment" to advocate that people should restore the innocence and harmony that had been accompanied men in the primitive society, during which men took the world as an integral organism, though they know comparatively little of the operation of the universe. With the development of men’s scientific knowledge, men entered the Second Moment, where they gain the fruits of science but sacrifice their sense of happiness, belongs and integration with the world. The Third Moment is not a stage same as the simple primitive one, but to restore the innocence and harmony in the spiritual sphere upon the modern material affluence to enter the third dimension. Its character is aesthetic enjoyment and reconciliation of the conflictions. In the third moment, men finally get rid of the dilemma of fighting against the nature as a lonely and helpless being, gain the transient peace, obtain the instantaneous freedom and appreciate the most precious and ideal life experience.However, Ransom did not successfully bring the United States back to agricultural economy and his proposal for reforms has been ignored by the majority of the public. Frustrated by the failure of Agrarianism and political involvement, Ransom and his peers shift their attention to literature. Ransom’s "structure-texture" is a well known theory of the New Criticism. According to Ransom, poetry is a special formation of "structure-texture" and tension. It can be redefined as a perfect combination of sensibility and rationality. He also argues for his ontological criticism and reckons poetry as an independent being, authentically representing the body of the world and having the same structure as the world.Through the study of the New Criticism’s historical context we can see clearly the theoretical characteristics of Ransom’s theory, which can clarify a misunderstanding that the New Criticism is one of the formalist criticisms. Actually, it is both an aesthetic criticism and a social criticism; both a textual criticism and a cultural criticism; both a formalistic criticism and a value criticism.Ransom’s New Criticism also warns human to meditate on the effects of the science and reason. Ransom witnesses the plight faced by the Western society and puts forward his own views. Ransom continually introspects on the impact of capitalism, science and modernity to the human spiritual world. He asserts that scientism beclouds human feelings, and instrumental rationality shatters the integrity of human beings. Practicality and utility surpass the existence of human beings. Human beings reduce from ends to means and become a tool, losing their flesh, blood, and their precious independent thoughts. The world’s body is exploited by the rationality, science, and abstraction. Through the research, we can discern Ransom’s intension to curb the unreasonable expansion of rationality, repair the social division, and resolve the contradictions of modern society by his special ontological criticism.