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literary work using this theory, literary critics also need to assess the responses given by the readers toward the work.
The third category is expressive theory. This theory highlights the relationship between a literary work and the author. For this theory, a literary work is the
product coming from the author’s feeling, thought, and imagination. Wordsworth, as one of the initiators of this theory, declares in Abrams 1971:21 that poetry is
the poet’s “spontaneous of overflow feeling.” Therefore, to evaluate a literary work using this theory, literary critics need to observe the authors’ personal life in
order to relate their feeling and perspective to their work. The last category of Abram’s critical theory is objective theory. This theory
exists to object the principle of mimetic, pragmatic, and expressive theory. For this theory, a literary work is an independent entity that is able to empower itself
without being interfered by the universe, audience, or author. This criticism appreciates a literary work as the center of analysis that controls itself, not being
controlled by other elements outside the work. Hence, literary critics must emphasize their analysis solely on the work and ignore its extrinsic elements since
biographical, cultural or historical origins have nothing to do with the text Abrams, 1999: 51.
2. Objective Theory
Objective theory is defined in Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism 1995: 212 as a theory that concentrates on the literary work’s
correlation with its intrinsic elements. For this criticism, a literary work is autonomous and isolated from the intention of the author. The only way to value
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the quality of a literary work is by evaluating the structure, symbols, imagery, figure of speech, and other intrinsic elements. In the same line, Ratna 2013: 73
also argues that the focus of objective theory lies only on the intrinsic elements. This theory disregards other elements coming from outside the works, such as
authorial, sociological, political, and historical elements. The aim of this theory is to analyze the correlations between the internal elements of the work in
empowering the work itself. Furthermore, Abrams 1971: 52 states that the objective theory considers a
literary work as “something that stands free from what is often called extrinsic relations to the poet, or to the audience, or to the environing world.”
This theory perceives a literary work as a “self-sufficient and autonomous object.” A literary
work, believes this theory, is “a world on its own” that is capable to empower itself through the construction of organized elements. The aesthetic and
meaningful value of a literary work emerges merely because of the interrelation of its intrinsic elements, not because of the influence of other elements.
Objective theory, then, can be assumed as the literary critical theory whose main target is the literary work itself. The leading idea of this theory is to examine
thoroughly the work and evaluate how the intrinsic elements work together to contribute a unifying theme and meaning. Therefore, the role of the author, reader,
or the society toward the literary work is ignored in this theory. The principle of this theory is supported by T.S. Eliot in Abrams, 1971: 27
who states that “when we are considering poetry, we must consider it primarily as poetry and not another thing.” In this statement, T.S. Eliot rejects the intervention
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of other elements such as author, reader, politic, society, and history in the analysis of the literary work. In analyzing a literary work, the critics ought to look
at the work as the work itself, not as what is determined by other elements. Similar to Eliot, John Crowe Ransom in Abrams 1971: 28 also recognizes
the literary work’s authority “for its own sake”. He believes that a literary work is independent and self-governing which has a power in itself. Therefore, it is
capable to determine its own meaning through its varied and complex structure. Every single structure in the literary work is meaningful and inseparable from one
another. The way the words are chosen and placed in particular construction and the way imagery, symbol, and figurative language are employed in the work
render certain function to make the work sound gorgeous and become a powerful complexion Tyson, 2006: 137. Therefore, the objective approach only needs to
focus on the elements that construct the text in order to understand what the work actually means.
Since the focus of objective theory is the work, the critics have to pay attention to each element used in the work. They must, according to Tyson 2006:
137, “carefully examine, or “closely read,” all the evidence provided by the language of the text itself: its images, symbols, metaphors, rhyme, meter, point of
view, setting, characteriza tion, plot, and so forth.” The close examination toward
those elements leads the analysis to the discovery of the effects and themes of the works Brussler, 1999: 43. It proves the relationship between the works’ form
and meaning. Hence, Eliot in Brussler 1999: 43 argues that the good critics
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assess the judgement of the literary work based on whether or not the correlation of the intrinsic elements contributes to the central unifying idea.
Among several kinds of literary works, poetry is the most suitable one to be analyzed using this objective theory for the elements that construct it are more
complex. Wolosky 2001: 3 defines poetry as “language in which every component element
—word and word order, sound and pause, image and echo—is significant, significant in that every element points toward or stands for further
relationships among and beyond themselves.” This kind of literary work is constructed in verse and uncommon use of word choice and word order that relate
to one another to deliver its central idea. Therefore, Abrams, Poe, and Eliot mostly use the term ‘poetry’ as the substitute of literary work in their description
about objective theory. Even, Eliot in Brussler 1999: 40 declares that the readers, in order to obtain a good criticism, need to train themselves to conduct
close reading of poetry, especially the Elizabethan and metaphysical poems.
3. Poetry
