New Critics believe that a literary work should be interpreted based solely on its intrinsic literary qualities. They argued that literary texts possess a unity and coherence that can be analyzed objectively through a close reading of the text. The reader's emotional response to a text was considered secondary to the formal properties of the work.

The New Critics argued that the meaning of a literary work is not fixed but rather emerges through a close analysis of the text itself. They rejected the idea of the author's intention or the reader's subjective response as the basis for interpretation. Instead, they emphasized the importance of the text's formal properties, such as the use of figurative language, ambiguity, and irony, in creating meaning.

New Criticism was influential in the mid-twentieth century and had a significant impact on literary criticism, particularly in the United States. It helped to establish the study of literature as an academic discipline and influenced the development of other critical approaches, such as structuralism and deconstruction. However, the approach has been criticized for its narrow focus on the formal elements of a text and its neglect of historical and cultural contexts that can shape the meaning of a work.

One of the main goals of literary criticism is to interpret and understand literature, including its cultural and historical significance. This involves examining the ways in which literary works reflect and respond to the cultural, social, and political contexts in which they were produced.

There are many different approaches to literary criticism, including formalist, structuralist, psychoanalytic, feminist, Marxist, and postcolonial approaches, among others. Each approach emphasizes different aspects of the literary work and seeks to reveal different meanings and insights.

Literary criticism is an important field because it helps us to understand and appreciate literature on a deeper level. It also helps us to understand the ways in which literature reflects and shapes our understanding of the world around us.