新批評（New Criticism）新批評是二、三0年付形成於英美的文學批評流派，五0年付成為美國文學批評的主流。
反對把文學當成文獻、傳記、史料，注重文學本身的價值。
認為文學不同於科學，不是實用性的。
新批評強調文學內緣的研究（意象、格律、文體），主張細讀（close reading）。
新批評常用的術語：歧義（ambiguity，含混、模稜、多義）、反諷（irory）、矛盾語法（language of paradox）〃張力（tension），肌理（texture、紋理，質地）無我（impersonality），客觀相應物（objective correlative）。
敘事觀點、敘事語氣為小說討論的重點。
提出敘事者不等於作者。
詩及小說的批評重視文字、意象、結構、肌理、語氣。
強調作品必須包含各種複雜而互相矛盾的因素，只有這樣才能‚掌握人類經驗範圍的各面‛。
反對詩作為宣傳，反對大眾語言（mass language）。
新批評三0年付興起，至五、六0年付英美學術界影響仍然很大。
但也有視野較闊的批評家，如特里林（Leonard Trilling）和威爾森（Edmund Wilson）等人對他們提出批評。
在中國方面，四0年付的袁可嘉，五、六0年付香港的葉維廉、李英豪、王敬羲，美國的夏志清，台灣的歐陽子、顏元叔，八0年付的黃維樑，都受新批評的影響。
林以亮編選的《美國文學批評選》（1961）有艾略特、布魯克斯、泰德等論文。
這種批評方法，在反對載道或泛政治的批評方面有其意義，產生於特殊的歷史斷層的處境有其必然性，對文章細讀有幫助，個別評論家有進一步發展（袁可嘉、夏志清、葉維廉），亦各有盲點，如顏元叔談古詩，黃維樑談新詩，弊端特別顯著。
新批評(New Criticism) 的起源休姆（T.E. Hulme）：〈古典主義與浪漫主義〉；意象派詩Imagism龐德（Ezra Pound）詩“In a Station of the Metro”在地鐵車站(1914)：The apparition of these faces in the crowd:Petals on a wet, black bough.受俳句(Haiku)影響、受中國詩影響。
原詩36行，六月後删成一半，一年後删剩兩行。
龐德曾自述創作經驗。
荒木田守武(1473-1549)俳句：落花飛返枝頭：一隻蝴蝶。
英人張伯倫Basil Hall Chamberlain, Japanese Poetry (London, 1910)所譯：Fallen flower returning to the branch;Behold! It is a butterfly.Ezra Pound 的改寫：The fallen blossom flies back to its branch:A butterfly‛The footsteps of the cat upon the snow:(are like) plum –blossoms.1914年意象派選集(Des Imagistes: An Anthology)中龐德有六首詩，其中四首取材自中國古典詩的「改作」；如劉徹( Liu Ch’u)改寫自漢武帝<落葉哀蟬曲>：羅袂兮無聲玉墀兮塵生虛房冷而寂寞落葉依于重扃望彼美之女兮安得感余心之未寧。
Giles ‘translation:The sound of rustling silk is stilled,No footfalls echo on the floor,Fallen leaves in h eaps block up the door…For she, my pride, my lovely one is lostAnd I am left, in hopeless anguish tossed.Pound 改寫的版本如後：The rustling of the silk is discontinued,Dust drifts over the courtyard,There is no sound of footfall, and the leavesScurry into heaps and lie still,And she the rejoicer of the heart is beneath them:A wet leaf that clings to the threshold.(Pound’s version in free verse自由體; Giles 双行押韻)Ernst Fenollosa ‘s ‚The Chinese Written Character as A Medium for Poetry‛1919年刊於英國《小評論》(Little Review)中國文字作為象形結構：具體、接近自然、圖畫性、以具象表達抽象言談、男、東、春、日、明、見Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery, and clear, sharp language. The Imagists rejected the sentiment and discursiveness typical of much Romantic and Victorian poetry. This was in contrast to their contemporaries, the Georgian poets, who were by and large content to work within that tradition. Group publication of work under the Imagist name appearing between 1914 and 1917 featured writing by many of the most significant figures in modernist poetry in English, as well as a number of other Modernist figures prominent in fields other than poetry.Based in London, the Imagists were drawn from Great Britain, Ireland and the United States. Somewhat unusually for the time, the Imagists featured a number of women writers among their major figures. Imagism is also significant historically as the first organised Modernist English language literary movement or group. In the words of T. S. Eliot: "The point de repère usually and conveniently taken as the starting-point of modern poetry is the group denominated 'imagists' in London about 1910."[1] At the time Imagism emerged, Longfellow and Tennyson were considered the paragons of poetry, and the public valued the sometimes moralising tone of their writings. In contrast, Imagism called for a return to what were seen as more Classical values, such as directness of presentation and economy of language, as well as a willingness to experiment with non-traditional verse forms. The focus on the "thing" as "thing" (an attempt at isolating a single image to reveal its essence) also mirrors contemporary developments in avant-garde art, especially Cubism. Although Imagism isolates objects through the use of what Ezra Pound called "luminous details", Pound's Ideogrammic Method of juxtaposing concrete instances to express an abstraction is similar to Cubism's manner of synthesizing multiple perspectives into a single image.The March issue of Poetry also contained Pound's A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste and Flint's Imagisme. The latter contained this succinct statement of the group's position:1.Direct treatment of the "thing", whether subjective or objective.2.To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.3.As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not insequence of the metronome.[12]Pound's note opened with a definition of an image as that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time. (龐德的意象指在一剎那間呈現知性與感性的複合體)Pound goes on to state that It is better to present one Image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works.[13] His list of don'ts reinforced Flint's three statements, while warning that they should not be considered as dogma but as the result of long contemplation. Taken together, these two texts comprised the Imagist programme for a return to what they saw as the best poetic practice of the past.胡適：八不：須言之有物，不摹倣古人、須講求文法、不作無病之呻吟、務力去爛調套語、不用典、不講對仗、不避俗字俗語艾略特（T.S. Eliot）：《聖林》，艾略特有謂「詩不是感情的宣洩，而是感情的逃避，不是表現個性，而是個性的逃避」，故有無我（Impersonality）之說，提議用客觀相應物（objective correlative）來寫詩。