a formal structure that was, in that simplified version,

简单地说
that was at the very heart of the most powerful critical movement

是二十世纪早期最伟大的批评运动的核心
of the early twentieth century, and that is the New Criticism.

即新批评运动
The New Criticism is a way of reading that has its roots in high modernism,

新批评是一种由高度现代化而产生的一种阅读方式
and it emphasizes the writer's, usually the poet's ability to create

它强调作者通常是诗人
a beautiful, whole, consistent, internally structured literary object

创作一部优美完整连贯的文学作品的能力
that stands outside of history in a certain way, that is autonomous.

作品某种程度上不能依赖于历史而是独立自治的
And so, this view of the artwork-- probably you have

这种赏析艺术作品的角度
experienced it if you've taken other English classes,

如果你上过其他英语课也许你已经了解过这个了
and in fact I've been producing it for you in my readings--

实际上在我的阅读课上我已经慢慢向你们介绍这个
this mode of reading looks for those tropes that unify a work.

这种形式的阅读是在寻找联结整部作品的比喻
It looks for that circularity that I've described

寻找这一章中我提到过的