Scientific Methods in Literary Criticism

Ezra Pound's Scientific Approach to Literature

Nevertheless, the method I had proposed was simple; it is perhaps the only one that can give a man an orderly arrangement of his perception in the matter of letters. In opposition to it, there are the forces of superstition, of hang-over. People regard literature as something vastly more flabby, floating, complicated, and indefinite than, let us say, mathematics. Its subject matter, the human consciousness, is more complicated than are number and space. It is not, however, more complicated than biology, and no one ever supposed that it was. We apply a loose-leaf system to bookkeeping so as to have the live items separated from the dead ones.

In the study of physics, we begin with simple mechanisms: wedge, lever and fulcrum, pulley and inclined plane—all of them still as useful as when they were first invented. We proceed by a study of discoveries. We are not asked to memorize a list of the parts of a side-wheeler engine. And we could, presumably, apply to the study of literature a little of the common sense that we currently apply to physics or to biology.

In poetry, there are simple procedures, and there are known discoveries, clearly marked. As I have said in various places in my unorganized and fragmentary volumes: in each age, one or two men of genius find something and express it. It may be in only a line or in two lines, or in some quality of a cadence; and thereafter two dozen, or two hundred, or two or more thousand followers repeat, dilute, and modify.

Ezra Pound, “How to Read”

Analysis and Interpretation

• 1) Meaning of "Two Dozen, or Two Hundred..."

  Pound gives the same importance to literature as to scientific subjects. In literature, as in mathematics, we find discoveries that help us nowadays to understand these subjects. His approach to criticism is complete and universal. We should treat literature as we treat plastics: as a whole, we have to work with the older discoveries and the new ones.

• 2) What is Missing in the Study of Literature?

  Pound proposes a study of literature based on the scientific model. Literature is composed of discoveries throughout history, much like mathematics or physics. As we can see clearly in the text, Pound says, "we proceed by a study of discoveries." He misses a way of studying literature based on objectivity and older discoveries that allow contemporary authors to improve by looking back at the works of ancient authors.

• 3) Meaning of "We Proceed by a Study of Discoveries"

  Pound means that we must follow a study of literature based on scientific procedures. We are going to export scientific procedures to the field of literature.