Little Red Cap by Carrol Anna Duffy

Literature emerges as an assemblage of external influence, literary form, readership, and authorial intent (Tyson 136). New Criticism asserts that only the analysis of literary form, being concrete and specific examples that exist within the text (135), can accurately assess a literary work. New Criticism discounts authorial agency and cultural force that informs the construction of a given text. New Critics believe that these sources of external evidence produce intentional fallacy, the flawed acceptance of the author’s intention as the text’s true meaning, and affective fallacy, the confusion of the text with the emotions it produces (136-37). Author’s intent, emotions provoked, and external influences of culture are indicated by New Criticism to result in chaos if used to assess literature (137). However, in Carol Ann Duffy’s “Little Red Cap”, such factors excluded by New Criticism aim to reinforce and embody complexity and wholeness unachieved by New Criticism’s limited assessment of “formal elements” (137). Due to New Criticism’s focus on objective form and its exclusion of all outside influences like authorship, readership, and culture, New Criticism fails to accurately assess Duffy’s “Little Red Cap”, thus showing the critique’s limitations as a universally applicable lens.

New Criticism’s requirement of removing subjectivity of the author’s hand in their own work demonstrates purposeful ignorance towards the sole reason for the literary work’s creation: the author. Consideration of biographical nature of “Little Red Cap” provides the reader with the ability to analyze the poem on a level that surpasses basic symbolism by injecting authenticity into the text. Duffy asserts that the poem is biographical, stating, “Little Rep...

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...ion of external influence, “Little Red Cap” provides rich, symbolic and relatable significance that can thusly projected onto other literature or one’s one experience. Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “Little Red Cap” works effectively to illustrate the limitations of New Criticism and helps suggest that critical literary lenses may not be universally applicable.

Works Cited

Duffy, Carol Ann. "Little Red Cap." The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales. Eds. Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Claudia Carlson. Ashland, OR: Story Line Press, 2003. 121. Print.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2006. 135-167. Print.

Duffy, Carol Ann. Interview by Barry Wood. "Carol Ann Duffy: The World's Wife." Sheer Poetry. 2005. Web. 4 Feb 2014. http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/advanced/interviews/carol-ann-duffy-the-world-s-wife