I. A. Richards as a critic

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Ivor Armstrong Richards (1893–1979) was one of the most influential literary critics and theorists of the 20th century. He is often called the father of modern literary criticism because he introduced a new, scientific, and psychological approach to the interpretation of literature. Richards changed the way people read poetry by focusing on how language works and how readers respond to it. His theories laid the foundation for New Criticism, a method that emphasizes close reading and the detailed analysis of the literary text.

Richards's major works include The Meaning of Meaning (1923), Principles of Literary Criticism (1924), Practical Criticism (1929), and The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936). His ideas continue to influence literary studies, language teaching, and communication theory.

Early Life and Education

I. A. Richards was born in Cheshire, England, and studied philosophy and moral sciences at Cambridge University. His background in psychology, philosophy, and linguistics shaped his ideas about literature. He began teaching English literature at Cambridge, where he developed an interest in how students responded to poems. His academic collaboration with C. K. Ogden led to major work in semantics and language theory.

Major Works and Ideas

1. The Meaning of Meaning (1923)

Co-written with C. K. Ogden, this book is a foundational text in the field of semantics—the study of meaning in language. Richards and Ogden introduced the "Semantic Triangle", also called the "Triangle of Reference", which explains how words connect to things through thoughts.

  • Symbol (word): the sign we use (like “tree”)
  • Referent (thing): the actual object (a tree in the real world)
  • Reference (thought): the mental image or concept of the object

This theory showed that words do not have fixed meanings on their own; meaning depends on the context and how people think about the words they use.

2. Principles of Literary Criticism (1924)

This book laid out Richards’s theory that literary criticism should be systematic, psychological, and scientific. He rejected vague ideas about beauty or artistic taste and focused instead on the emotional and psychological effects of literature on readers.

He believed that poetry should help balance our emotions and thoughts. A great poem brings together many conflicting feelings and creates emotional harmony. Richards argued that literature could serve an ethical and even spiritual role by helping people become more emotionally balanced and aware.

3. Practical Criticism (1929)

This book introduced Richards’s most famous method. He gave students unseen poems—without titles, authors, or background—and asked them to interpret them. The purpose was to train students to rely only on the text itself and not on any external information. This practice is now called close reading.

Richards discovered that most students made serious mistakes. He identified four common problems:

  1. Inhibition and projection – letting personal emotions block understanding
  2. Irrelevant associations – bringing in unrelated ideas or facts
  3. Stock responses – using clichéd or automatic reactions
  4. Sentimentality – being overly emotional without understanding the poem’s depth

Richards believed that good readers need to be trained to notice the language, tone, structure, and meaning of every word and phrase. This idea influenced the rise of New Criticism, which focuses on the text alone.

4. The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936)

In this book, Richards explored how language is used to communicate effectively, especially in persuasive writing. He saw rhetoric as the study of misunderstandings and how to fix them. Richards argued that successful communication depends on the speaker’s and listener’s shared understanding of words.

He introduced the concepts of Tenor and Vehicle in metaphor:

  • Tenor: the subject of the metaphor
  • Vehicle: the image that carries the meaning

In “Time is a thief,” “time” is the tenor, and “thief” is the vehicle. This idea helped scholars understand how metaphors work and how they shape meaning in both poetry and everyday language.

Important Concepts

A. Close Reading

Richards believed that the meaning of a poem is found in the text itself, not in the author’s life or the historical background. He taught readers to analyze every word and phrase carefully, noticing tone, imagery, and structure.

B. Interinanimation

This term refers to how words in a poem change each other’s meanings. In poetry, no word stands alone. Every word influences the others around it. A good reader must see how the meanings shift depending on their place in the poem.

C. Emotional Balance

Richards believed that great literature helps people organize their emotions. A poem should not create confusion but should help readers understand and reconcile different feelings. Poetry, for Richards, was a tool for psychological and emotional education.

D. Literature as Moral Guidance

Richards thought that in a world dominated by science and technology, literature was one of the few things that could help people stay morally and emotionally healthy. He believed that poetry could take the place of religion by offering a spiritual and ethical experience.

Richards and Education

Beyond criticism, Richards also made important contributions to education. He developed simplified English for international learners, known as Basic English, along with C. K. Ogden. This version of English used just 850 core words and was designed to make communication easy for non-native speakers.

At Harvard University, where Richards taught for many years, he helped develop the General Education curriculum, encouraging students to study literature as a way to understand values, emotions, and ethical choices.

Influence and Legacy

Richards’s ideas shaped the field of New Criticism in the United States, especially his focus on the poem as an independent unit of meaning. Though New Critics like Cleanth Brooks and John Crowe Ransom developed their own theories, they were deeply influenced by Richards’s Practical Criticism and ideas about textual analysis.

However, later critics such as poststructuralists questioned Richards’s belief that meaning could be fully controlled or understood. They argued that language is more fluid and unstable than Richards believed. Despite these challenges, Richards remains a central figure in the history of literary theory.

Conclusion

I. A. Richards revolutionized the study of literature by treating it as a serious intellectual discipline. He brought together language, psychology, and philosophy to explain how literature works and how readers respond to it. His method of close reading, emphasis on the emotional impact of literature, and focus on the structure of language shaped the way literature is taught and studied today.

For Richards, literature was not just art—it was a way to understand ourselves, our emotions, and our values. His ideas continue to influence literary criticism, education, and communication studies, making him one of the most important literary thinkers of the 20th century. 

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