WHAT IS NEW CRITICISM?

Source: Wisegeek.com

New Criticism is a form of literary criticism that triumphed as the predominant critical form in the 1940s through the 1960s. John Crowe Ransom is responsible for naming New Criticism in his book of the same name, published in 1941. New Criticism quickly became "the" way to read literature and poetry, and was taught in both college and high schools.
The critic should be free from his or her own feelings or emotional response when reading the text. Only criticism that stuck to the text was of value.
Newer critical theories have reintroduced the consideration of the author's intent from a psychological or historical point of view. Other critical schools, such as structuralism, evaluate the specific language of the text to derive multiple meanings.