Literary Criticism of R.S. Crane: Theory and Practice

This book examines and evaluates the critical position of R.S. Crane, the leader of the Chicago school of formalistic criticism. Crane and his colleagues in the University of Chicagao set a new trend in literary criticism in the very heyday of the New Criticism. His theory of criticism, popularly known as Critical Pluralism, is an answer to the inevitable limitations of nomistic criticism including the New Criticism. Crane shows us the way toward a multiple response to a literary text, and thereby points out the significance or utility of the diverse critical theories. In the field of practical criticism also Crane has left a genuine mark by emphasizing the need of a formal-structural approach to the literary texts. The book will be of immense help to the scholars and literary critics.