Cleanth Brooks Assumptions

Question 1

Because he wants to criticize the work itself, formalists make two assumptions

Answer 1

1) the relevant part of the author’s intention is what is actually manifested in the work
2) an ideal reader

Question 2

The critic rejects two popular tests for literary value

Answer 2

1) the sincerity or intensity of the author’s feelings while composing
2) he doesn’t ever give because this is a nonsense defense of formalism

Question 3

Brook’s is concerned about the misreading of which author?

Answer 3

Faulkner

He also cares a lot about Hemingway. Mentions Dos Passos, and Wolfe.