One of the primary critiques of New Criticism is that this literary theory isolates a work from the world in which it was created. Although focusing on the structure of a work is an important aspect of literary analysis in an educational system, this technique is inherently problematic because this isolation prevents critics from understanding the work in relation to the society that created it. More recent trends in literary theory argue that New Criticism should be the starting point rather than the end of literary analysis. Many contemporary critics attempt to re-establish literature's place in the world by focusing on the relationship between works and the culture in which they are created.
These "cultural critics" prefer to use the term texts instead of works and view their criticism as "a practice rather than a doctrine." The value of literature, for cultural critics, exceeds the actual words on the page. New Critics tend to focus on and value only poetical language whereas cultural critics focus on and value both poetical and literal language. For cultural critics, what is traditionally referred to as literature is neither superior nor inferior to the non-literary works of a particular period. Instead of literature consisting of a body of works, it consists of a set of texts that act as models for that particular culture. Texts are created within a culture and therefore must be examined within the context of that culture.
Culture is the complex means by which a society produces and simultaneously reproduces itself; texts are the means of reproduction. Therefore, texts are not only an expression of a view of a culture: They also help create that culture's view. This endless chain of events is easily illustrated by examining the historical impact of The Jungle.
