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= I._A._Richards =
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Introduction
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Ivor Armstrong Richards CH (26 February 1893 - 7 September 1979),
known as I. A. Richards, was an English educator, literary critic,
poet, and rhetorician. His work contributed to the foundations of New
Criticism, a formalist movement in literary theory which emphasized
the close reading of a literary text, especially poetry, in an effort
to discover how a work of literature functions as a self-contained and
self-referential æsthetic object.
Richards' intellectual contributions to the establishment of the
literary methodology of New Criticism are presented in the books 'The
Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought
and of the Science of Symbolism' (1923), by C. K. Ogden and I. A.
Richards, '[
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73827 Principles of
Literary Criticism]' (1924), 'Practical Criticism' (1929), and 'The
Philosophy of Rhetoric' (1936).
Biography
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Richards was born in Sandbach. He was educated at Clifton College and
Magdalene College, Cambridge, where his intellectual talents were
developed by the scholar Charles Hicksonn 'Cabby' Spence. He began his
career without formal training in literature; he studied philosophy
(the "moral sciences") at Cambridge University, from which derived his
assertions that, in the 20th century, literary study cannot and should
not be undertaken as a specialisation, in and of itself, but studied
alongside a cognate field, such as philosophy, psychology or rhetoric.
His early teaching appointments were as adjunct faculty: at Cambridge,
Magdalene College would not pay a salary for Richards to teach the
new, and untested, academic field of English literature. Instead, like
an old-style instructor, he collected weekly tuition directly from the
students as they entered the classroom.
Richards was appointed a college lecturer in English and moral
sciences at Magdalene in 1922. Four years later, when the Faculty of
English at Cambridge was formally established, he was awarded a
permanent post as a university lecturer. In the 1929-30 biennium, as a
visiting professor, he taught Basic English and Poetry at Tsinghua
University, Beijing. In the 1936-38 triennium, he was the director of
the Orthological Institute of China. Eventually tiring of academic
life at Cambridge, in 1939 he accepted an offer to teach in the school
of education at Harvard University. Appointed a professor in 1944, he
remained there until his retirement in 1963. In 1974, he returned to
Cambridge, having retained his fellowship at Magdalene, and lived in
Wentworth House in the grounds of the college until his death five
years later.
In 1926, Richards married Dorothy Pilley, whom he had met on a
mountain climbing holiday in Wales. She died in 1986. Pilley's book
recounts many of the climbs they did together in the 1920s and 1930s,
including their celebrated 1928 first ascent of the north, north west
ridge of the Dent Blanche in the Swiss Alps.
Collaborations with C. K. Ogden
=================================
The life and intellectual influence of I. A. Richards approximately
corresponds to his intellectual interests; many endeavours were in
collaboration with the linguist, philosopher, and writer Charles Kay
Ogden (C. K. Ogden), notably in four books:
I. 'Foundations of Aesthetics' (1922) presents the principles of
'aesthetic reception', the bases of the literary theory of “harmony”;
aesthetic understanding derives from the balance of competing
psychological impulses. The structure of the 'Foundations of
Aesthetics'--a survey of the competing definitions of the term
'æsthetic'--prefigures the multiple-definitions work in the books
'Basic Rules of Reason' (1933), 'Mencius on the Mind: Experiments in
Multiple Definition' (1932), and 'Coleridge on Imagination' (1934)
II. 'The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon
Thought and of the Science of Symbolism' (1923) presents the triadic
theory of semiotics that depends upon psychological theory, and so
anticipates the importance of psychology in the exercise of literary
criticism. Semioticians, such as Umberto Eco, acknowledged that the
methodology of the triadic theory of semiotics improved upon the
methodology of the dyadic theory of semiotics presented by Ferdinand
de Saussure (1857-1913).
III. 'Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar'
(1930) describes a simplified English based upon a vocabulary of 850
words.
IV. 'The Times of India Guide to Basic English' (1938) sought to
develop Basic English as an international auxiliary language, an
interlanguage.
Richards' travels, especially in China, effectively situated him as
the advocate for an international program, such as Basic English.
Moreover, at Harvard University, in his international pedagogy, he
began to integrate the available new media for mass communications,
especially television.
Theory
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Richards elaborated on an approach to literary criticism in 'The
Principles of Literary Criticism' (1924) and 'Practical Criticism'
(1929) which embodied aspects of the scientific approach from his
study of psychology, particularly that of Charles Scott Sherrington.
In '[
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73827 The Principles of Literary
Criticism]', Richards discusses the subjects of form, value, rhythm,
coenesthesia (an awareness of inhabiting one's body, caused by stimuli
from various organs), literary infectiousness, allusiveness, divergent
readings, and belief. He starts from the premise that "A book is a
machine to think with, but it need not, therefore, usurp the functions
either of the bellows or the locomotive."
'Practical Criticism' (1929), is an empirical study of 'inferior
response' to a literary text. As an instructor in English literature
at Cambridge University, Richards tested the critical-thinking
abilities of his pupils; he removed authorial and contextual
information from thirteen poems and asked undergraduates to write
interpretations, in order to ascertain the likely impediments to an
'adequate response' to a literary text. That experiment in the
pedagogical approach--critical reading without contexts--demonstrated
the variety and depth of the possible textual misreadings that might
be committed, by university students and laymen alike.
The critical method derived from that pedagogical approach did not
propose a new hermeneutics, a new methodology of interpretation, but
questioned the purposes and efficacy of the critical process of
literary interpretation, by analysing the self-reported critical
interpretations of university students. To that end, effective
critical work required a closer aesthetic interpretation of the
literary text as an object.
To substantiate interpretive criticism, Richards provided theories of
metaphor, value, and tone, of stock response, incipient action, and
pseudo-statement; and of ambiguity. This last subject, the theory of
'ambiguity', was developed in 'Seven Types of Ambiguity' (1930), by
William Empson, a former student of Richards'; moreover, additional to
'The Principles of Literary Criticism' and 'Practical Criticism',
Empson's book on ambiguity became the third foundational document for
the methodology of the New Criticism.
To Richards, literary criticism was impressionistic, too abstract to
be readily grasped and understood, by most readers; and he proposed
that literary criticism could be precise in communicating meanings, by
way of denotation and connotation. To establish critical precision,
Richards examined the psychological processes of writing and reading
poetry. In reading poetry and making sense of it "in the degree in
which we can order ourselves, we need nothing more"; the reader need
not believe the poetry, because the literary importance of poetry is
in provoking emotions in the reader.
New rhetoric
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As a rhetorician, Richards said that the old form of studying rhetoric
(the art of discourse) was too concerned with the mechanics of
formulating arguments and with conflict; instead, he proposed the New
Rhetoric to study the meaning of the parts of discourse, as "a study
of misunderstanding and its remedies" to determine how language works.
That ambiguity is expected, and that meanings (denotation and
connotation) are not inherent to words, but are inherent to the
perception of the reader, the listener, and the viewer. By their
usages, compiled from experience, people decide and determine meaning
by "how words are used in a sentence", in spoken and written language.
The semantic triangle
=======================
Richards and Ogden created the semantic triangle to deliver an
improved understanding of how words come to mean. The semantic
triangle has three parts, the symbol or word, the referent, and the
thought or reference. In the bottom, right corner is the referent, the
thing, in reality. Placed in the left corner is the symbol or word.
At the top point, the convergence of the literal word and the object
in reality; it is our intangible idea about the object. Ultimately,
the English meaning of the words is determined by an individual's
unique experience.
Feedforward
=============
When the 'Saturday Review' asked Richards to write a piece for their
"What I Have Learned" series, Richards (then aged 75) took the
opportunity to expound upon his cybernetic concept of "feedforward".
The 'Oxford English Dictionary' records that Richards coined the term
feedforward in 1951 at the Eighth Macy Conferences on cybernetics. In
the event, the term extended the intellectual and critical influence
of Richards to cybernetics which applied the term in a variety of
contexts. Moreover, among Richards' students was Marshall McLuhan, who
also applied and developed the term and the concept of feedforward.
According to Richards, feedforward is the concept of anticipating the
effect of one's words by acting as our own critic. It is thought to
work in the opposite direction of feedback, though it works
essentially towards the same goal: to clarify unclear concepts.
Existing in all forms of communication, feedforward acts as a pretest
that any writer can use to anticipate the impact of their words on
their audience. According to Richards, feedforward allows the writer
to then engage with their text to make necessary changes to create a
better effect. He believes that communicators who do not use
feedforward will seem dogmatic. Richards wrote more in depth about the
idea and importance of feedforward in communication in his book
'Speculative Instruments' and said that feedforward was his most
important learned concept.
Influence
===========
Richards served as a mentor and teacher to other prominent critics,
most notably William Empson and F. R. Leavis, although Leavis was
contemporary with Richards, and Empson was much younger. Other critics
primarily influenced by his writings included Cleanth Brooks and Allen
Tate. Later critics who refined the formalist approach to New
Criticism by actively rejecting his psychological emphasis included,
besides Brooks and Tate, John Crowe Ransom, W. K. Wimsatt, R. P.
Blackmur, and Murray Krieger. R. S. Crane of the Chicago School was
both indebted to Richards's theory and critical of its psychological
assumptions. They all admitted the value of his seminal ideas but
sought to salvage what they considered his most useful assumptions
from the theoretical excesses they felt he brought to bear in his
criticism. Like Empson, Richards proved a difficult model for the New
Critics, but his model of close reading provided the basis for their
interpretive methodology.
Works
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* 'The Foundations of Aesthetics' (George Allen and Unwin: London,
1922); co-authored with C. K. Ogden, and James Wood. 2nd ed. with
revised preface, (Lear Publishers: New York 1925).
* 'The Principles of Literary Criticism' (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner:
London, 1924; New York, 1925); subsequent eds.: London 1926 (with two
new appendices), New York 1926; London 1926, with new preface, New
York, April 1926; and 1928, with a revised preface.
* 'Science and Poetry' (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner: London, 1926).;
reset edition, New York, W. W. Norton, 1926; 2nd ed., revised and
enlarged: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner: London, 1935. The 1935 edition
was reset, with a preface, a commentary, and the essay, “How Does a
Poem Know When it is Finished” (1963), as 'Poetries and Sciences' (W.
W. Norton: New York and London, 1970).
* 'Practical Criticism' (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner: London, 1929);
revised edition, 1930.
* 'Coleridge on Imagination' (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner: London,
1934; New York, 1935); revised editions with a new preface, New York
and London 1950; Bloomington, 1960; reprints 1950, with new foreword
by Richards, and an introduction by K. Raine.
* 'The Philosophy of Rhetoric' (Oxford UP: London, 1936).
* 'Speculative Instruments' (Routledge & Kegan Paul: London,
1955).
* 'So Much Nearer: Essays toward a World English' (Harcourt, Brace
& World: New York, 1960, 1968), includes the essay, "The Future of
Poetry".
*'The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon
Thought and of the Science of Symbolism'. Co-authored with C. K.
Ogden. With an introduction by J. P. Postgate, and supplementary
essays by Bronisław Malinowski, 'The Problem of Meaning in Primitive
Languages', and F. G. Crookshank, 'The Importance of a Theory of Signs
and a Critique of Language in the Study of Medicine'. London and New
York, 1923.
:1st: 1923 (Preface Date: Jan. 1923)
:2nd: 1927 (Preface Date: June 1926)
:3rd: 1930 (Preface Date: Jan. 1930)
:4th: 1936 (Preface Date: May 1936)
:5th: 1938 (Preface Date: June 1938)
:8th: 1946 (Preface Date: May 1946)
:NY: 1989 (with a preface by Umberto Eco)
*'Mencius on the Mind: Experiments in Multiple Definition' (Kegan
Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.: London; Harcourt, Brace: New York,
1932).
*'Basic Rules of Reason' (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.:
London, 1933).
*'The Philosophy of Rhetoric' (Oxford University Press: New York and
London, 1936).
*'Interpretation in Teaching' (Routledge & Kegan Paul: London;
Harcourt, Brace: New York, 1938). Subsequent editions: 1973 (with
'Retrospect').
*'Basic in Teaching: East and West' (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner:
London, 1935).
*'How To Read a Page: A Course in Effective Reading, With an
Introduction to a Hundred Great Words' (W. W. Norton: New York, 1942;
Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1943). Subsequent editions: 1959
(Beacon Press: Boston. With new 'Introduction').
*'The Wrath of Achilles: The Iliad of Homer, Shortened and in a New
Translation' (W. W. Norton: New York, 1950; Routledge & Kegan
Paul: London, 1951).
*'So Much Nearer: Essays toward a World English' (Harcourt, Brace
& World: New York, 1960, 1968). Includes the important essay, "The
Future of Poetry."
*'Complementarities: Uncollected Essays,' ed. by John Paul Russo
(Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976).
*'Times of India Guide to Basic English' (Bombay: The Times of India
Press), 1938; Odgen, C. K. & Richards, I. A.
See also
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* M. H. Abrams
Further reading
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*Howarth, T. E. B., 'Cambridge Between Two Wars' (London: Collins,
1978)
*
*Tong, Q. S. "The Bathos of a Universalism, I. A. Richards and His
Basic English." In 'Tokens of Exchange: The Problem of Translation in
Global Circulation.' Duke University Press, 1999. 331-354.
External links
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*
* [
https://archive.org/details/practicalcritici030142mbp 'Practical
Criticism'] The Open Archive's copy of the first edition, 2nd
impression, 1930; downloadable in DjVu, PDF and text formats.
*'The Meaning Of Meaning' at Internet Archive
*
[
http://litguide.press.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/view.cgi?eid=289&query=richards
I.A. Richards page from the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory]
(subscription required)
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20040218043821/http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/gallery/rhetoric/figures/richards.html
I.A. Richards capsule biography]
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20040223183007/http://mysite.freeserve.com/jbcpub/richards/iar.html
The I.A. Richards Web Resource]
*
[
http://www.literarydictionary.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5183
I.A. Richards page from LiteraryDictionary.com]
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20050906102543/http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/jbcpub/richards/iarchron.html
Biography compiled by John Constable]
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