View source for I. A. Richards

{{Short description|English literary critic (1893–1979)}}
{{redirect|Practical criticism|the variety of criticism|Varieties of criticism#Practical criticism}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = I. A. Richards
| honorific_suffix = [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour|CH]]
| image            = IAR alps c1930.png
| caption          = I. A. Richards in the Alps {{circa|1930}}
| birth_name       = Ivor Armstrong Richards
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=yes|1893|2|26}}
| birth_place      = [[Sandbach]], [[Cheshire]], England
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1979|9|7|1893|2|26}}
| death_place      = [[Cambridge]], England
| occupation       = Educator
| education        = 
| alma_mater       = [[Magdalene College, Cambridge]]
| period           = 20th century
| genre            = 
| subject          = 
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = 
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[Dorothy Pilley Richards]]|1926}}
| partner          = 
| children         = 
| relatives        = 
| awards           = 
| signature        = 
| signature_alt    = 
| website          = 
| portaldisp       = 
| ethnicity        = 
}}

'''Ivor Armstrong Richards''' [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour|CH]] (26 February 1893<ref name="EB">{{cite web |last1= |title=I.A. Richards |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/I-A-Richards |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=2 November 2019 |language=en}}</ref> – 7 September 1979<ref name="EB"/>), known as '''I. A. Richards''', was an English educator, [[literary critic]], poet, and [[rhetoric]]ian. His work contributed to the foundations of [[New Criticism]], a [[Formalism (literature)|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 [[Aesthetics|æsthetic object]].

Richards' [[Intellectualism|intellectual]] contributions to the establishment of the literary methodology of New Criticism are presented in the books ''[[The Meaning of Meaning|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==

Richards was born in [[Sandbach]]. He was educated at [[Clifton College]]<ref>"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p266: Bristol; J. W. Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948</ref> and [[Magdalene College, Cambridge]], where his intellectual talents were developed by the scholar Charles Hicksonn 'Cabby' Spence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bizzell |first1=Patricia |first2=Bruce |last2=Herzberg |title=The Rhetorical Tradition: Reading From Classical Times to the Present |edition=2nd |location=New York, New York |publisher=Bedford/St. Matin's |year=2001 |page=[https://archive.org/details/rhetoricaltradit0000unse/page/1270 1270] |isbn=0312148399 |url=https://archive.org/details/rhetoricaltradit0000unse/page/1270 }}</ref> 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, University of Cambridge|Faculty of English]] at Cambridge was formally established, he was awarded a permanent post as a university lecturer.<ref name=dnb>Storer, Richard, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31603 "Richards, Ivor Armstrong (1893–1979)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, October 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2024. {{subscription required}}</ref> In the 1929–30 biennium, as a visiting professor, he taught [[Basic English]] and Poetry at [[Tsinghua_University#Early_20th_century_(1911–1949)|Tsinghua University]], Beijing.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/I-A-Richards|title=I.A. Richards {{!}} British critic and poet|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2019-10-17}}</ref><ref>Tai Huai-Ching, ''On the Study of Words'' (1960).my World Publishing Co. p. 149.</ref> In the 1936–38 triennium, he was the director of the Orthological Institute of China.<ref name=":2" /> 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.<ref name=dnb/>

In 1926, Richards married [[Dorothy Pilley Richards|Dorothy Pilley]], whom he had met on a [[Alpinism|mountain climbing]] holiday in Wales. She died in 1986.<ref name=dnb/> Pilley's book<ref name="Pilley">{{cite book |last=Pilley |first=Dorothy |title=Climbing Days |publisher=[[George Bell & Sons]] |location=London |publication-date=1935 |edition=1st}}</ref> 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.

==Contributions==
===Collaborations with C. K. Ogden===
<!-- [[WP:NFCC]] violation: [[File:Charles Kay Ogden.jpg|thumb|right|350px| The inventor of [[Basic English]], C.K. Ogden (1889–1957), was the most fruitful collaborator of I. A. Richards.]] -->

The life and intellectual influence of I. A. Richards approximately corresponds to his [[intellectualism|intellectual]] interests; many endeavours were in collaboration with the [[linguist]], philosopher, and writer [[C. K. Ogden|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|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]].

===Aesthetics and literary criticism===
====Theory====
[[File:William Empson.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The poet and literary critic [[William Empson]] (1906–84) developed the methodology of New Criticism with the practice of [[close reading]] of literary works, prose and poetry; his best-known work is ''[[Seven Types of Ambiguity]]'' (1930).]]

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]].<ref name="Hardcastle">{{cite journal |last1=Hardcastle |first1=John |title=Of dogs and martyrs. Sherrington, Richards, Pavlov and Vygotsky |journal=Changing English |date=1 April 2005 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=31–42 |doi=10.1080/1358684052000340434 |s2cid=143872213 |issn=1358-684X}}</ref>

In ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73827 The Principles of Literary Criticism]'', Richards discusses the subjects of [[Substantial form|form]], [[Value (semiotics)|value]], [[rhythm]], coenesthesia (an awareness of inhabiting one's body, caused by stimuli from various organs), literary infectiousness, [[allusion|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."<ref name="GR">{{cite web |title=A quote from Principles of Literary Criticism (Routledge Classics) |url=https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/467630-a-book-is-a-machine-to-think-with-but-it |website=www.goodreads.com |publisher=Good Reads Inc. |access-date=12 April 2019 |date=3 August 2012}}</ref>

''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 [[author]]ial 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 [[Pedagogy|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 (ethics)|value]], and [[Tone (literature)|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 [[Impressionism (literature)|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 [[Working memory|psychological processes]] of writing and [[Reading (process)|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.<ref>Glicksberg, Charles I. "I. A. Richards and the Science of Criticism". ''The Sewanee Review'' 46.4 (1938). {{JSTOR|27535493}}.</ref>

====New rhetoric====
{{Rhetoric}}
As a rhetorician, Richards said that the old form of studying [[rhetoric]] (the art of [[discourse]]) was too concerned with the mechanics of formulating [[argument]]s 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.<ref>Hochmuth, Marie. "I. A Richards and the 'New Rhetoric' new royal", ''Quarterly Journal of Speech'' 44.1 (1958): 1. Communication & Mass Media Complete.</ref>

===== The semantic triangle =====
[[File:Ogden semiotic triangle.png|thumb|left|The semantic triangle]]
Richards and Ogden created the [[semantic triangle]] to deliver an improved understanding of how words come to mean.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Rhetoric of Western Thought|last1=Golden|last2= Berquist|last3=Coleman|last4=Sproule|publisher=Kendall-Hunt|year=2010|pages=265–268}}</ref> The semantic triangle has three parts, the symbol or word, the referent, and the thought or reference.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=":0" />

===Feedforward===
{{main|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".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |url=http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073385026/228359/meanmean.pdf |title=The Meaning of Meaning of I. A. RIchards |website=McGraw-Hill |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193836/http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073385026/228359/meanmean.pdf |archive-date=29 October 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> 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,<ref name="The Communication Blog">{{cite web|url=http://tcbdevito.blogspot.com/2010/11/i-want-to-broaden-communication-blog-to.html |title= The Communication Blog|date= 25 November 2010}}</ref> 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.<ref name="The Communication Blog"/>

===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====
* ''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".

===Rhetoric, semiotics and prose interpretation===

====Works====
*''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==
* [[M. H. Abrams]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Howarth, T. E. B., ''Cambridge Between Two Wars'' (London: Collins, 1978)
*{{cite book |last=Russo |first=John Paul |year=1989 |title=I.A. Richards: His Life and Work |location=Baltimore |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=0801834171 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/iarichardshislif00russ }}
*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==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{gutenberg author|57236}}
* [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.
*''[[iarchive:in.ernet.dli.2015.221615/page/n5|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]


{{aesthetics}}
{{cybernetics}}
{{litcrit}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Ivor}}
[[Category:1893 births]]
[[Category:People educated at Clifton College]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Semioticians]]
[[Category:People from Sandbach]]
[[Category:English literary critics]]
[[Category:New Criticism]]
[[Category:English rhetoricians]]
[[Category:Communication scholars]]
[[Category:Cyberneticists]]
[[Category:Corresponding fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Translation theorists]]
[[Category:British mountain climbers]]
[[Category:Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge]]