I. A. Richards

"Almost no contemporary critic has written without being touched by Richards at some point" has been said about I.A. Richards in regards to influence on others. Richards believed that a comprehensible approach to literary criticism would need to be placed upon reason in a a more "scientific approach to it". His ideas helped harbor the "new criticism" into the vast philosophy of viewing the text differently than as before. To "construct a less subjective standard of literary value" is one of his major themes in striving to put old opinions away in thinking about a text. It reminds me in thinking about the low mimetic/ thematic box of Frye's criticism works to illustrated this notion. The separation from the dominant order is clearly a method that Richards has created for criticism. The individuality of separating from the older or traditional approaches to a text create a new approach. Richards also wrote poetry revealing "new insights into himself well into his old age". His was very active in mountaineering and traveling but I can't really think of any Brit than isn't at some point in their life. One thing that is most disagreeable with Richards is his idea that world problems could be reduced through the promotion of English. Although his work with linguists and suggesting a "basic English" vocabulary is commendable, history since the publishing of his book So Much Nearer has taken a different view. History has also been taken his "new critical literary" approach as one of the founding ideas as new method.