Critical Theory Today - Weebly
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RT19943 FM.qxd6/22/0610:44 AMPage 2critical theory todayA Us e r - F r i e n d l y G u i d eS E C O N DL O I SE D I T I O NT Y S O NNew York LondonRoutledge is an imprint of theTaylor & Francis Group, an informa business
RoutledgeTaylor & Francis Group270 Madison AvenueNew York, NY 10016RoutledgeTaylor & Francis Group2 Park SquareMilton Park, AbingdonOxon OX14 4RN 2006 by Lois TysonRoutledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa businessPrinted in the United States of America on acid‑free paper10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑97410‑0 (Softcover) 0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover)International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97410‑3 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover)No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic,mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming,and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from thepublishers.Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and areused only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication DataTyson, Lois, 1950‑Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide / Lois Tyson.‑‑ 2nd ed.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 0‑415‑97409‑7 (hb) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97410‑0 (pb)1. Criticism. I. Title.PN81.T97 2006801’.95‑‑dc22Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site athttp://www.taylorandfrancis.comand the Routledge Web site athttp://www.routledge‑ny.com2006001722
I gratefully dedicate this bookto my students and to my teachers.I hope I will always have difficulty telling you apart.RT19943.indb 56/29/06 7:10:24 PM
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ContentsPreface to the second editionPreface for instructorsAcknowledgmentsxixiiixv1Everything you wanted to know about critical theory but wereafraid to ask2Psychoanalytic criticismThe origins of the unconsciousThe defenses, anxiety, and core issuesDreams and dream symbolsThe meaning of deathThe meaning of sexualityLacanian psychoanalysisClassical psychoanalysis and literatureSome questions psychoanalytic critics ask about literary texts“What’s Love Got to Do with It?”: a psychoanalytic readingof The Great GatsbyQuestions for further practice: psychoanalytic approachesto other literary worksFor further readingFor advanced readers111215182124263437Marxist criticismThe fundamental premises of MarxismThe class system in AmericaThe role of ideologyHuman behavior, the commodity, and the familyMarxism and literatureSome questions Marxist critics ask about literary textsYou are what you own: a Marxist reading of The Great GatsbyQuestions for further practice: Marxist approaches to otherliterary worksFor further readingFor advanced readers53535556616468693RT19943.indb 71394950507979806/29/06 7:10:24 PM
viii456RT19943.indb 8ContentsFeminist criticismTraditional gender rolesA summary of feminist premisesGetting beyond patriarchyFrench feminismMulticultural feminismGender studies and feminismFeminism and literatureSome questions feminist critics ask about literary texts“. . . next they’ll throw everything overboard . . .”: a feministreading of The Great GatsbyQuestions for further practice: feminist approaches to otherliterary worksFor further readingFor advanced readers8385919395105108117119120130131131New Criticism“The text itself”Literary language and organic unityA New Critical reading of “There Is a Girl Inside”New Criticism as intrinsic, objective criticismThe single best interpretationThe question New Critics asked about literary textsThe “deathless song” of longing: a New Critical readingof The Great GatsbyQuestions for further practice: New Critical approaches to otherliterary worksFor further readingFor advanced readers135136138143147148150Reader‑response criticismTransactional reader‑response theoryAffective stylisticsSubjective reader‑response theoryPsychological reader‑response theorySocial reader‑response theoryDefining readersSome questions reader‑response critics ask about literary textsProjecting the reader: a reader‑response analysis of The Great GatsbyQuestions for further practice: reader‑response approachesto other literary worksFor further readingFor advanced 032046/29/06 7:10:25 PM
Contents789RT19943.indb 9ixStructuralist criticismStructural linguisticsStructural anthropologySemioticsStructuralism and literatureThe structure of literary genresThe structure of narrative (narratology)The structure of literary interpretationSome questions structuralist critics ask about literary texts“Seek and ye shall find”. . . and then lose: a structuralist readingof The Great GatsbyQuestions for further practice: structuralist approaches to otherliterary worksFor further readingFor advanced readers209212215216219221224230233Deconstructive criticismDeconstructing languageDeconstructing our worldDeconstructing human identityDeconstructing literatureA deconstructive reading of Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”Some questions deconstructive critics ask about literary texts“. . . the thrilling, returning trains of my youth . . .”:a deconstructive reading of The Great GatsbyQuestions for further practice: deconstructive approachesto other literary worksFor further readingFor advanced readers249250255257258260265New historical and cultural criticismNew historicismNew historicism and literatureCultural criticismCultural criticism and literatureSome questions new historical and cultural critics ask aboutliterary textsThe discourse of the self‑made man: a new historical readingof The Great GatsbyQuestions for further practice: new historical and culturalcriticism of other literary worksFor further readingFor advanced 013113123136/29/06 7:10:25 PM
Contents10Lesbian, gay, and queer criticism317The marginalization of lesbians and gay men318Lesbian criticism322Gay criticism329Queer criticism334Some shared features of lesbian, gay, and queer criticism338Some questions lesbian, gay, and queer critics ask about literarytexts341Will the real Nick Carraway please come out?: a queer reading342of The Great GatsbyQuestions for further practice: lesbian, gay, and queer approachesto other literary works353For further reading355For advanced readers35511African American criticism359Racial issues and African American literary history360Recent developments: critical race theory367African American criticism and literature385Some questions African American critics ask about literary texts 394But where’s Harlem?: an African American reading of396The Great GatsbyQuestions for further practice: African American approachesto other literary works409For further reading411For advanced readers41112Postcolonial criticismPostcolonial identityPostcolonial debatesPostcolonial criticism and literatureSome questions postcolonial critics ask about literary textsThe colony within: a postcolonial reading of The Great GatsbyQuestions for further practice: postcolonial approaches to otherliterary worksFor further readingFor advanced readers445446447Gaining an overview451Index45713RT19943.indb 104174194244264314336/29/06 7:10:25 PM
Preface to thesecond editionSince the 1999 publication of Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, criti‑cal theory has continued to grow in at least two ways: some critical theorists thatstudents would have encountered only at the graduate level of literary studieshave begun to appear in the undergraduate classroom, and some critical theoriesthat students would have encountered primarily in other disciplines are becom‑ing frequently used frameworks in literary studies. For these reasons, you willfind in the second edition of Critical Theory Today a good deal of new material.A section on Lacanian psychoanalysis has been added to the chapter on psycho‑analytic criticism. The chapter on feminist criticism now contains sections ongender studies and French feminism, the latter including discussions of both thevery useful French materialist feminism and the more familiar psychoanalyticschool of French feminism. And perhaps the biggest change of all, the chapter onpostcolonial and African American criticism has been rewritten as two separatechapters. This last change allowed me to add to the chapter on African Ameri‑can criticism a section on critical race theory and an African American readingof F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925), which remains the novel used forthe sample literary application in every chapter. Finally, the bibliographies forfurther reading that close each chapter have been expanded and updated.One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the purpose of this book. It is stillan introduction to critical theory written by a teacher of critical theory and lit‑erature. And it is still intended for teachers and college-level students who wantto learn about critical theory and its usefulness in helping us to achieve a bet‑ter understanding of literature. Because I am a teacher writing for teachers andstudents, the second edition of Critical Theory Today also contains clarificationswherever my own students have had repeated difficulty, over the years, in under‑standing a particular concept addressed in the book. Thus you’ll find, to cite justa few representative examples, an expanded explanation of rugged individualismin the chapter on Marxist criticism; a clarification of the concept of mimicry inthe chapter on postcolonial criticism; and, in the chapter on African Americancriticism, an added example of the encoding of certain racial themes by AfricanAmerican writers. Indeed, my own copy of the first edition, which I’ve used inmy classes, contains innumerable little page markers where a clarification, wordRT19943.indb 116/29/06 7:10:25 PM
xiiCritical TheoryPrefaceto the secondToday:editionA User-Friendly Guide, Second Editionchange, or concrete example was deemed helpful, and all of those small changesalso have been made.A better understanding of the world in which we live, it seems to me, automati‑cally comes along for the ride when we study literature, and the study of criticaltheory makes that enterprise even more productive. I believed that propositionwhen I wrote the first edition of the book you now hold in your hands, and Icome to believe it more with every critical theory class I teach. I hope that yourexperience of the second edition of Critical Theory Today also leads you to findthat small truth to be self-evident.RT19943.indb 126/29/06 7:10:25 PM
Preface for instructorsThe writing of this textbook was the product of a sense of pedagogical frustra‑tion that I suspect many of you may share. In the last decade, critical theory hasbecome a dominant force in higher education. It is now considered an essen‑tial part of graduate education, and it plays an increasingly visible role in theundergraduate classroom as well. Yet many college students at all levels, as wellas some of their professors, remain confused by much of this jargon-ridden dis‑cipline, which seems to defy their understanding. As one colleague said to hisstudents, “Critical theory is a bus, and you’re not going to get on it.”Anthologies of essays often used in critical theory courses—which generallyinclude pieces by such frequently arcane theorists as Lacan, Derrida, Spivak,Benjamin, and the like—and books that offer high-tech summaries of these the‑orists’ views don’t help the majority of students who are unfamiliar with the basicprinciples one must understand in order to understand these texts. Conversely,the very few theory textbooks that are written in accessible language are muchtoo limited in scope to offer an adequate introduction to this complex field.Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide attempts to fill this gap by offeringan accessible, unusually thorough introduction to this difficult field that will (1)enable readers to grasp heretofore obscure theoretical concepts by relating themto our everyday experience; (2) show them how to apply theoretical perspectivesto literary works; and (3) reveal the relationships among theories—their differ‑ences, similarities, strengths, and weaknesses—by applying them all to a singleliterary work: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925).I’ve chosen The Great Gatsby for this purpose for several reasons. In addition tolending itself readily to the eleven theoretical readings I offer, the novel is fairlyshort, quite readable, and familiar, both in terms of its treatment of commonAmerican themes and in terms of readers’ prior exposure to the work. In fact,many of my colleagues who teach critical theory have indicated that they wouldprefer a textbook that uses The Great Gatsby for its literary applications becauseof their own familiarity with the novel.Aimed primarily at newcomers to the field, each chapter explains the basic prin‑ciples of the theory it addresses, including the basic principles of literary applica‑tion, in order to enable students to write their own theoretical interpretations ofliterature and read with insight what the theorists themselves have written. Thus,RT19943.indb 136/29/06 7:10:25 PM
xivCritical TheoryPrefacefor instructorsToday: A User-Friendly Guide, Second Editionthis book can be used as the only text in a course or as a precursor to (or in tan‑dem with) critical theory anthologies. Each chapter has grown out of classroompractice, has been thoroughly field tested, and has demonstrated its capacity tomotivate students by showing them what critical theory can offer, not only interms of their practical understanding of literary texts, but also in terms of theirpersonal understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. In a veryreal sense, this textbook is a “how-to” manual for readers who will probably cometo their study of theory with some anxiety, whether they are first-year theorystudents or college professors who wish to familiarize themselves with theoreticalperspectives with which they have not yet become thoroughly acquainted.Chapters are sequenced for a specific pedagogical purpose: to demonstrate howcritical theories both argue and overlap with one another, sometimes overturn‑ing, sometimes building on the insights of competing theories. Nevertheless,each chapter is self-explanatory and was written to stand on its own. Therefore,this textbook can be customized to fit your own instructional needs by assign‑ing the chapters in any order you choose; by eliminating some chapters entirely;or by assigning only certain sections of particular chapters, for which purposechapter subtitles should prove helpful. Similarly, the “Questions for FurtherPractice” (which follow each reading of The Great Gatsby and can serve as papertopics) encourage students to apply each theory to other well-known, frequentlyanthologized literary works, but you can have your students apply these ques‑tions to any works you select.However you choose to use Critical Theory Today, I hope you will agree thatcritical theory is a bus our students have every reason to climb aboard. And ifthis book does its job, they will even enjoy the ride.RT19943.indb 146/29/06 7:10:26 PM
AcknowledgmentsMy most sincere thanks go to the following friends and colleagues for their help‑ful suggestions and moral support: Hannah Berkowitz, Bertrand Bickersteth,Pat Bloem, Kathleen Blumreich, Linda Chown, Gretchen Cline, Diane Grif‑fin Crowder, Michelle DeRose, Milt Ford, David Greetham, Chance Guyette,Michael Hartnett, Alan Hausman, Roseanne Hoefel, Bill Hoffman, Jay Hul‑lett, Howard Kahane, Stephen Lacey, James Lindesay, Rosalind Srb Mayberry,Corinne McLeod, Scott Minar, Joanie Pearlman, James Phelan, Rob Rozema,Sue William Silverman, Veta Smith Tucker, Jill Van Antwerp, Megan Ward,Brian White, and Sharon Whitehill.Special thanks also go to Grand Valley State University for its generous finan‑cial support of this project—especially to Dean Fred Antczak; the late DeanForrest Armstrong; Jo Miller; and Nancy Raymond of the GVSU InterlibraryLoan Department. At Routledge Press, I am gratefully indebted to MatthewByrnie for his invaluable advice and support throughout this project, to FredVeith for his prompt and gracious assistance, and to Robert Sims for his patientguidance through the labyrinth of production. Fond gratitude is still offered toPhyllis Korper, formerly of Garland Press, for her unflagging enthusiasm for thefirst edition.Finally, the deepest gratitude is expressed to Mac Davis, the only braveheartwho read every word of every draft of every chapter of the first edition as well asall the new material added to the second edition. Your unflagging support willnever be forgotten.RT19943.indb 156/29/06 7:10:26 PM
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1Ever ything you wanted toknow about critical theor ybut were afraid to askWhy should we bother to learn about critical theories? Is it really worth thetrouble? Won’t all those abstract concepts (if I can even understand any of them)interfere with my natural, personal interpretations of literature? These ques‑tions, or ones like them, are probably the questions most frequently asked bynew students of critical theory, regardless of their age or educational status, andsuch questions reveal the two-fold nature of our reluctance to study theory: (1)fear of failure and (2) fear of losing the intimate, exciting, magical connectionwith literature that is our reason for reading it in the first place. I think boththese fears are well founded.With notable exceptions, most theoretical writing—by the big names in thefield and by those who attempt to explain their ideas to novices—is filled withtechnical terms and theoretical concepts that assume a level of familiarity new‑comers simply don’t have. And because such writing doesn’t seem to connectwith our love of literature, let alone with the everyday world we live in, it seemsthat theory’s purpose must be to take us into some abstract, intellectual realmin which we try to impress one another by using the latest theoretical jargon(which we hope our peers haven’t heard yet) and dropping the names of obscuretheorists (whom we hope our peers haven’t read yet). In other words, becauseknowledge of critical theory has become, over the last decade or so, a mark ofstatus, an educational “property” for which students and professors compete, ithas also become a costly commodity that is difficult to acquire and to maintainat the state of the art.Indeed, I think the anxiety that most of us bring to our study of critical theory isdue largely to our initial encounters with theoretical jargon or, more accurately,with people who use theoretical jargon to inflate their own status. To cite justone example, a student recently asked me what “the death of the author” means.RT19943.indb 16/29/06 7:10:26 PM
Everything you wanted to know about critical theory but were afraid to askHe’d heard the phrase bandied about, but no one explained it to him, so hefelt excluded from the conversation. Because the meaning of the phrase wasn’tevident in the context in which he’d heard it used, the student felt that it mustbe a complex concept. Because those who used the phrase acted as though theybelonged to an elite club, at the same time as they pretended that everyone knewwhat it meant, he felt stupid for not knowing the term and, therefore, afraid toask about it, afraid to reveal his stupidity. In fact, “the death of the author” is asimple concept, but unless someone explains it to you the phrase makes littlesense. “The death of the author” merely refers to the change in attitude towardthe role of the author in our interpretation of literary works. In the early decadesof the twentieth century, students of
students, “Critical theory is a bus, and you’re not going to get on it.” Anthologies of essays often used in critical theory courses—which generally include pieces by such frequently arcane theorists as Lacan, Derrida, Spivak, Benjamin, and the li
contemporary social theory, and then I shall criticize some of its limitations and provide some new perspectives for critical theory today. To begin, however, I wish to briefly describe the origins and development of critical theory. Historical Background Critical theory is often associate
Unifying themes of critical theory the cluster of philosophical approaches to [issues of identity is] known by the umbrella term critical theory. Critical theory is today a diverse phenomenon that draws deeply and variously on strands of Marxist thought, psychoanalysis, feminist theory, postcolonialism, poststructuralism, queer theory, and
critical race theory itself, it is also a call to action. We begin with definitions of race and racism and offer a brief overview of critical race theory. After reviewing relevant research, we offer personal stories that highlight problems and challenges with respect to race and HCI. We then adapt some of critical race theory's main tenets .
Evolution is a THEORY A theory is a well-supported, testable explanation of phenomena that have occurred in the natural world, like the theory of gravitational attraction, cell theory, or atomic theory. Keys to Darwin’s Theory Genetic variation is found naturally in all populations. Keys to Darwin’s Theory
Humanist Learning Theory 2 Introduction In this paper, I will present the Humanist Learning Theory. I’ll discuss the key principles of this theory, what attracted me to this theory, the roles of the learners and the instructor, and I’ll finish with three examples of how this learning theory could be applied in the learning environment.File Size: 611KBPage Count: 9Explore furtherApplication of Humanism Theory in the Teaching Approachcscanada.net/index.php/hess/article/view (PDF) The Humanistic Perspective in Psychologywww.researchgate.netWhat is the Humanistic Theory in Education? (2021)helpfulprofessor.comRecommended to you b
Weebly Objectives: Students will be able to: Learn about Weebly Create an eportfolio using weebly Upload their work and artifacts onto their eportfolio Add images, text, dividers, spacers, etc. 1. Go to Weebly.com and sign in with your google information. If it doesn’t work, sign up! 2. You can either Sign up
Critical Thinking Skills vs. Critical Thinking Disposition Critical Thinking Skills are the cognitive processes that are involved in critical thinking Critical Thinking Disposition is the attitudes, habits of mind or internal motivations that help us use critical thinking skills.
The Astrophysics Research Institute has over 50 individuals conducting observational and theoretical research in stellar, Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy. Research interests of the staff are broad and include such topics as: star formation; the structure of galaxies; clusters of galaxies; determination of the cosmological parameters; novae; supernovae ; gamma ray bursts; and gravitational .
