Gardner, it is said, "belonged to no 'school'" of literary criticism. She was critical of the New Criticism and its insistence on multiple interpretations; Gardner disavowed "the rejection of determinate meanings in texts", insisting that despite texts being open to multiple interpretations, there is still "intentional communication" for readers to try to understand. In 1979, when she delivered the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures (published as "In Defence of the Imagination") Gardner said that she opposed the then-current trend of literary criticism to over-interpreting texts and using technical jargon. When it comes to the function of a critic, she stated that it is to "shine a torch" and not "wield a sceptre", meaning that the function of a critic is "to illuminate rather than attack".