Heresy of Paraphrase

"The Heresy of Paraphrase"

The eleventh, famous chapter, entitled "The Heresy of Paraphrase," is a polemic against the use of paraphrase in describing and criticizing a poem.

If you look up Cleanth Brooks in the anthology you will see that he is known for "The Heresy of Paraphrase," in which he excoriates the art of summary.

"The Heresy of Paraphrase" is the title of a chapter in The Well-Wrought Urn, a seminal work of the New Criticism by Cleanth Brooks.

Though many of the aesthetic assumptions of the New Criticism are now challenged or dismissed, the "heresy of paraphrase" is still commonly used to refer to reductive or utilitarian approaches to poetry.