New Criticism

Engaging meaningfully with books and movies today requires a core competency in attentive and thoughtful reading. This involves grasping how metaphor, imagery, and structure interplay. 

New Criticism is a method of literary analysis that focuses on meticulous reading and thorough examination of texts. This approach has been utilized in celebrated pieces like T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, the sonnets of Shakespeare, and Orson Welles's film Citizen Kane. While New Criticism was no longer the leading literary theory in Anglo-American literature by the 1970s, its approaches have proven to be crucial for the analysis of literature and cinema.

"Made in America," the series finale of The sopranos

The meaning of plots of The Sopranos is often analyzed through repetition and difference. The show almost always returns to similar situations: family dinners, therapy sessions (initially with Tony Soprano, then with his children, and occasionally with his therapist), and sit-downs of members of the mob. Food preparations and communal meals serve as a symbolic system of tradition and consumption, while Tony’s dream sequences show the viewers textual complexities of the story and also provide a psychological insight often requiring Freudian interpretation. 

In The Office, the documentary format of the show works as a catalyst for textual tension and offers a dramatic irony by showing the gap between how characters act in reality versus what they say on the camera. Paper - representing both obsolescence (risking replacement by digital media and tools) and permanence (a tool of permanent documentation) - is an ironic symbol of the show. It creates a meaningful tension between relevance and purpose of the characters’ struggles.

"Sunk Costs" episode of the third season of Better Call Saul

In Better Call Saul, Jimmy McGill's genuine care for people close to him and his manipulative nature and actions work as the central tension - something that generates fundamental paradox driving the whole point of the TV show. A student of New Criticism would see these impulses existing simultaneously within Jimmy throughout the show. Courtrooms are symbolic space, and legal documents like contracts and wills are recurring subjects - both representing a conflict between justice and manipulation. The ever-present reflection and mirror imagery in the form of bathroom mirrors, car windows, office glass, and fish tanks portrays the core theme of dual identity of both Jimmy/Saul and Kim.

In today's digital age, where attention spans are often fragmented, New Criticism's focus on immersive textual engagement feels particularly relevant. When online discussions often make literature seem like it is only about politics or the writer's life, looking at literature closely can show the creativity and depth that make it worth studying.

The relevance of New Criticism today lies in the fact that it tells us that prior to contextualizing a literary work, rendering it political, or personalizing it, one must first interpret it within its own terms - sentence by sentence, word by word, meticulously examining its distinctive formal merits.

Shake It Off

The Dancing Class, 1870, Edgar Degas

The work of a parent of young children is never done - it is just set to a different theme song. Call it a bittersweet victory or just a pivotal moment in every parent's life, the realization that your kids have evolved beyond the annoying hypnotic charm of Cocomelon comes with some complicated emotions. Do you celebrate or mourn? Part of me celebrated - that she is growing up, moving on developmentally to pick up on new songs that are more age-appropriate. Another part of me felt a pinch of sadness, as this marked the beginning of a series of instances where she would outgrow something that had played an important role for half of her formative years.

“Cocomelon is for babies, and I am not a baby anymore, daddy. I am a big kid now,” she said. An existence free of Cocomelon was like a parental lottery win. Then came Benson Boone, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Post Malone, and so on.

She agreed with me that she wouldn’t watch Post Malone's "Rockstar" video song "because it has too much blood in it,” and she’d only listen to the audio version, as well as Malone’s “Sunflower” song that she found very catchy and loved. Dua Lipa's workout song "Physical" - with its choreographed dance sequences, bright colors, and visual references to the ‘80s fitness culture - became an instant hit for her, and she could imitate, albeit with childlike efficiency, every choreographed move Dua and other performers could do in the song. But it was Taylor Swift's highly acclaimed song "Shake It Off" that caught her attention, and she glued to the song for weeks.

And no wonder why Swift strikes such a chord with youths because of her personal songs that encompass young people's emotional struggles in relation to themes such as self-discovery, personal growth, first love, heartbreak, and friendship. A catchy pop anthem, "Shake It Off" is a reflection on individual identity and personal resilience and cherishing them.

A staunch follower of existentialism and stoicism would see the song as an expression of an existentialist philosophical position that defies societal norms and external criticism, as well as Stoicism’s tenet that dictates distinguishing and accepting things we can and cannot control.

The song embodies Jean-Paul Sartre's idea of radical freedom that talks both about the privilege and the burden of self-determination. “Man is condemned to be free,” Sartre said. We are responsible for our actions and choices, even though we did not choose to be born and/or to exist. There is no meaning to human existence.

By consciously choosing how to understand and respond to criticism, the protagonist of the song demonstrates an authentic way of being. She asserts her right to define herself rather than assimilate the unfavorable opinions of others. She also illustrates the Stoic idea of paying more attention to how you react on the inside than how you react on the outside. Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, said, “You have power over your mind - not external events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” By turning criticism into a metaphor for controlling one's emotions and maintaining psychological independence, "Shake It Off" celebrates criticism.

Hard Being Me, 2020, Marcelina Amelia

Foucault, the French postmodernist, challenged the idea that power is exerted by a central authority. Rather, he saw power as distributed, dispersed, and pervasive. "Power is everywhere...because it comes from everywhere.” Foucault emphasized that through the new "humane" practices of "surveillance" and "discipline" used in new institutions, [French] society had reconfigured punishment. And by practices of discipline, he meant normative pressures related to gender, sexuality, and mental health (and health in general). “Shake It Off” questions these Foucauldian ideas of normative pressure and societal surveillance. The song celebrates a girl creating her own identity and narrative rather than allowing herself to be disciplined by others.

All musical compositions resonate with the shared, timeless experiences of humanity. From the elemental rhythms of ancient drums to the digital sounds of modern pop, music has forever chronicled the story of hearts that pound, feet that glide, and spirits that soar.

The basic elements of music are almost always consistent: rhythms echoing our heartbeats, harmonies capturing the depth of our feelings, and melodies aligned with the natural flow of language. They are all different, yet they are all the same because they all spring from the same well of emotion, human experience, and the need for connection through sound.