Selected Readings of Modern & Contemporary Literary Theories

1. Selected Readings of Modern & Contemporary Literary Theories Why and How Before and After New Criticism Example 1: Q & A; Rene Magritte Example 2: Another Great Day

2. Reading Literary Theories Why and How Before and After New Criticism Kate Liu, Fall 2003

3. Outline • Why? • How? • Suggested attitudes • The focus of our course; • Contextualizing our focus: before and after New Criticism

4. Con: -- no longer “literary study,” ignoring the beauty or essence of literature (e.g. Frank Kermode; E. Said); -- a mere word play or mind game; abstract and obscure; separate from reality or politics -- “fetishization” of theories (T. Eagleton); Pro -- It provides us new frameworks and perspectives; helps us ask new questions of the texts we study and about our lives. -- democratization of English Studies. Why Theory?

5. How? • Read with an active mind. (Do not feel “oppressed” by the difficult languages.) • Always read to get the main points (to find the questions the theory asks) and to ask questions. • Always try to relate and to map. (It’s impossible to separate all the theoretical discourses into mutually exclusive theoretical schools.)

6. Theory as an Activity vs. Theory as a body of knowledge • “In the former, theory is taught as a means of understanding the world; in the latter, theorizing is encouraged as a pedagogical practice in which students become actual participants in the use of theory.” (Henry Giroux’s ideas explained by Storey) • It’s better to know how to theorize than to memorize all the theoretical jargons.

7. General Questions to ask • What are the theorist’s main concerns? What questions does s/he ask and how does s/he answer them? Do you have any questions? • What are the theorist’s key terms? How are they defined? • What is the theorist’s method? Is a methodology explicitly laid out or is it implied? • (modified from “Doxography versus Inquiry” by Donald G. Marshall. Sadoff 84)

8. Articulation vs. Application • Application –one-to-one correspondence between a theory and a text; • Articulation (接連) of theories and texts, of different theories : connecting, negotiating, translating. • “wrestling with the angels”: “The only theory worth having is that which you have to fight off, not that which you speak with profound fluency.” (Stuart Hall textbook 1901)

9. The focus of our course: Language, Gender, Textuality and Space • Language: basic structure, as signs • Gender: social positions, difference, gender and writing; postfeminism and transexualism; • From Structuralism to poststructuralism – a de-centered or textualized view of writing, knowledge and identity. • Theories of Space– as examples of how theories are negotiated, combined and/or re-interpreted.

10. before and after New Criticism • Structuralism –Basic ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure? 1. The synchronic vs. the diachronic; langue vs. parole// competence vs. performance 2. Language is a system of difference. Meaning occurs in binary opposition between two signs. (e.g. toy, boy) 3. sign = signifier and signified; the connection between them is arbitrary.

11. Influences of Structuralism: some examples • Sign= signifier + signified referent • Language is not mimetic (a mirror, or a transparent container of reality); it constructs reality; it speaks us. • Binary thinking.

12. Politics/Truth vs. Plato – the realm of appearance vs. the realm of Form  poetry twice removed Poetics Aristotle –Three unity, etc. Examples of binarism in traditional literary theories • Sir Philip Sidney: to teach and delight • The Mirror and the Lamp

13. Reason Plato – poetry tells lies and excites emotions. Pope -- golden rules; restraint, good taste, Dryden: "wit": propriety of thoughts and words Emotion/Energy Romantic poets: imagination New Criticism: Setting up Literature as a discipline (autonomy, organicism, etc.)  An “objective” approach, just as Structuralism is scientific Examples of binarism in traditional literary theories (2)

14. More Fluid Binaries in contemporary theories • Politics vs. Poetics; • Art vs. popular culture; • Culture vs. Economic Relations; • Father vs. Mother; Lack vs. imaginary plenitude • fixity of meaning vs. fluidity of language, identity and culture, etc. The lines are no longer clear-cut. Autonomy and Absolute truth are out.

15. References • Storey, John, ed. .What is Cultural Studies: A Reader. London: Arnold, 1996. • Sadoff, Dianne F and William E. Cain, eds. Teaching Contemporary Theory to Undergraduates. NY: MLA 1994.

16. Selected Readings of Modern and Contemporary Literary Theories Q & A & General Introduction

17. Q & A • What is your field and how do you do literary criticism? • Which literary theory do you like or hate?

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