Behaviorism and the beginnings of close reading

Area of Science:

• Literary Criticism
• Psychology
• Behaviorism

Background:

• Close reading, a foundational technique in literary analysis, has deep roots in psychological behaviorism.
• Early 20th-century literary theorists, particularly I. A. Richards, integrated behaviorist principles into their critical frameworks.
• New Criticism, a dominant movement, despite its critiques, continued to be influenced by behaviorist psychology.

Observation:

• I. A. Richards's work in the 1920s established a behavioristic approach to poetic interpretation.
• Key New Critical texts, such as Brooks's 'The Well Wrought Urn' and Wimsatt and Beardsley's 'The Intentional Fallacy,' implicitly maintained behaviorist tenets.
• The New Critics translated psychological behaviorism into a formalist method for analyzing poetry.

Findings:

• Behaviorism provided the underlying psychological assumptions for many enduring close reading techniques.
• New Critics' formalist approach to poetry analysis was significantly shaped by behaviorist psychology.
• The influence of behaviorism on literary criticism, though often unacknowledged, has been substantial and persistent.

Implications:

• Understanding the behaviorist origins of close reading offers new perspectives on contemporary literary analysis.
• This historical link between psychology and literary theory can inform current critical practices and debates.
• Re-evaluating New Criticism through a behaviorist lens challenges traditional interpretations of the movement.