At school the study of literature can still involve a close reading or 'practical criticism' of a novel, play or poem without much or any recourse to external material. Practical criticism is the method of analysing a poem, in isolation from the circumstances of its production, developed by I.A. Richards (1893-1979) in the 1920s.
Hе felt that concentration upon 'the words on the page', the technical aspects of the ways verse creates effects, would result in meaningful judgements upon whether a peom was intrinsically 'good' or simply reputedly so. The methodology of practical criticims seeks coherence in images, themes and patterns of language. Richards and his colleagues felt that this practice was 'scientific' and led to objective value judgements.
He was part of a group of lectures at Cambridge University who played a crucial role in the development of the discipline of English Literature and whose influnced the critical practices of the New Critics, John Crowe Ranson (1888- 1974) and Cleanth Brooks (1906-94) and their colleagues in the US. Their 'scientific' examination of literature asserted a hierarchy of texts, those that held universal meaning and significance through aesthetic form and those deemed too formulaic to warrant academic scrutiny. The first reversed group of texts is often referred to as the literary canon.
In the context of the above passage, what does 'literary canon' imply?
Correct Answer: (c) A selection of literary texts established as part of a great tradition.
Solution:In the context of the given passage, 'literary canon' has been used as a set of texts that serve as a recognized standard against which other writers and texts are judged.
Hence, option (c) will be correct answer.