R.S. Crane

R.S. Crane (born Jan. 5, 1886, Tecumseh, Mich., U.S.—died July 12, 1967, Chicago, Ill.) was an American literary critic who was a leading figure of the Neo-Aristotelian Chicago school. His landmark book, The Languages of Criticism and the Structure of Poetry (1953), formed the theoretical basis of the group. Although Crane was an outspoken opponent of the New Criticism, he argued persuasively for a pluralism that values separate, even contradictory, critical schools.

Crane was educated at the University of Michigan (B.A., 1908) and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D., 1911). He taught at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. (1911–1924), and at the University of Chicago (1924–1967). Central to his position as a Chicago critic is the theory that no subjects are barred from investigation by the methods and arts of the humanities; such fields as mathematics, the physical sciences, sociology, and psychology all have histories, languages, literature, and fundamental philosophical precepts that can be discussed and analyzed by means of the general arts of the humanities. These arts are four: analysis of ideas; analysis of symbolic expression, including use of language; explication and interpretation; and historical research.

In addition to publishing many journal articles, Crane edited the influential book Critics and Criticism: Ancient and Modern (1952). Much of his writing was collected in The Idea of the Humanities and Other Essays Critical and Historical (1967) and Critical and Historical Principles of Literary History (1971).