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An Introduction to Criticism Literature - Film - Culture

ISBN: 9781405182829 | 1405182822

Edition: 1st
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Pub. Date: 2/21/2012

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Summary Table of Contents Author Biography

An accessible and thorough introduction to literary theory and contemporary critical practice, this book is an essential resource for beginning students of literary criticism . Covers traditional approaches such as formalism and structuralism, as well as more recent developments in criticism such as evolutionary theory, cognitive studies, ethical criticism, and ecocriticism Offers explanations of key works and major ideas in literary criticism and suggests key elements to look for in a literary text Also applies critical approaches to various e... MORExamples from film studies Enables students to build a critical framework and write analytically Each chapter contains a reading selection from a contemporary critic practicing that approach

Project DescriptionThe book will have two separate, yet related and connected pedagogical goals. The first is to provide training in literary and cultural theory and to impart to students basic literacy in the oftentimes difficult ideas that constitute the field. We intend to explain theoretical ideas in a manner that will be easy to grasp and that will be linked to the everyday experiences of students as cultural consumers and cultural practitioners.The part of the book devoted to teaching students how to use those ideas will focus on writing, specifically, the analytic essay. The goal will be to train students to analyze cultural artifacts as well as social issues and political events from their own everyday lives in a theoretically informed manner. In this part of the book, they will receive instruction in how to write analytically and with critical acumen about the world they inhabit.We will begin with ideas such as "hegemony," "ideology," "differential," "subaltern," and "identity." After reading introductory explanations of these theoretical concepts and constructs, students will be asked to engage with several short selections from theorists in each field. Those selections will be included in the book, and we will provide a wide enough range of selections so that instructors can develop a variety of curricular models of their own design from them. We will then ask students to think about objects, events, people, and issues from the world around them using the theoretical ideas. For example, after reading our basic introduction to gender theory and postcolonial theory along with a selection or two from theorists in the field, we will propose that they view films such as Brokeback Mountain or Life and Debt. We will then ask students to compose analytic essays regarding the films that are guided by the concepts contained in the introductory material. Teachers would be urged to ask students to make connections between the theories, the cultural artifacts, and current issues in the world.While the purpose of the book is to teach students to think theoretically about the world, we feel that this goal can best be reached by teaching students to write analytically. We take a developmental approach to learning how to write an analytical essay. The skills required to write analytically must be developed in a step by step process that builds foundations and grows in complexity. In the earliest stage of the pedagogy, students learn how to establish a critical framework and to use it to conduct classifications.Further along in the writing process, we provide training in logical reasoning and ask students to use such logical tools as consequence and derivation in their own writing. A possible assignment at this point in the course would be to analyze a political speech or a newspaper editorial for their use of both logic and the fallacies of reason.As training in the writing process proceeds and as students learn to conduct more complex forms of analysis, we ask students to become more skilled at using different critical frameworks to analyze both cultural artifacts and the world around them.Without always knowing it, students understand the world they live in using theoretical frameworks, and often, they are not aware of the cultural and ideological assumptions embedded in those frameworks. We will ask students to think about how the new critical ideas to which they are being introduced can help produce different understandings and different analyses of the world in which they live. The goal is to make them aware of the cultural assumptions, values, and ideas they rely on alwa

This book is an essential resource for beginning students of literary criticism; it enables students to build a critical framework and write analytically. Michael Ryan offers a thorough introduction to literary theory and contemporary critical practice covering traditional approaches as well as more recent developments in criticism.

Working Table of Contents.Each chapter will have two parts. In the first, we will explain a theoretical concept by linking it to the world in which students live. In the second, we will train students to use theoretical concepts in their writing. The focus will be on analysis, the examination of an object or of a text in a critical fashion..1. Semiotics .Summary:.This chapter will introduce students to the relativity of language-its dependence on point of view and context-and its semiotic character. We will explain the semiotic model. Most stud... MOREents realize that words are arbitrary but are much less comfortable with the implications of that idea-that language has no inherent relationship to reality. This decentering of the ideal of objective truth inaugurates a search for what determines meaning within a society-a search that will lead students to more complex theories of language, culture, and selfhood..Writing Goal:.Teach students to notice that the words they use are signs, that the signs are given meaning by codes embedded in the culture they inhabit, that words classify the world in various ways, and that these classifications modify the world we perceive..Possible Assignments:.a) After introducing students to metaphor and metonymy, ask students to find an example of each in a work of literature. This is a simple thesis of classification that must be defended through the body of the paper. What instructors will come to find is that, despite years of discussing metaphor and metonymy, students will have some difficulty accurately pointing to them, and even more difficulty in being able to defend their decision using the established criteria.b) After introducing students to connotation and denotation, ask them to analyze the use of the word "terrorist" to describe those resisting the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Provide them with a reading regarding the resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s that portrays the indigenous people resisting occupation as "freedom fighters." Ask them to analyze how words make different things the same and similar things different..Possible Readings: .Arthur Asa Berger "Semiotics and Cultural Criticism"; Roman Jakobson, "Two Types of Aphasia"; William Wimsatt, "Connotation and Denotation"..2. Rhetoric.Summary:.This chapter sensitizes students to the fact that words can be building tools as well as weapons: they can harm or heal, respect or demean, persuade or deceive. The readings will describe the power of language to act in the world by making people believe certain things. Different language acts that will be discussed are arguing a point, justifying an action, demeaning someone through stereotypes, and using fallacies of reason to persuade.Writing Goal:.Introduce students to classical rhetoric. Teach them the difference between logical reasoning (induction, deduction, causality, derivation, etc) and the fallacies of reasoning (slippery slope, generalization, biased example, etc). Alert them to how different ways of writing affect others using either reasoning or emotional appeals..Possible Assignments:.a) Analyze a newspaper editorial for its fallacies of reason. This exercise asks students to identify discursive strategies and to determine the persuasive goal of the text-the specific purpose the logical fallacies seek to attain.b) Using speech act theory, analyze a news report as a verbal and visual act that influences its audience by portrayi

Michael Ryan teaches American Literature and Film Studies at Temple University, USA. He is the author of numerous publications, including Literary Theory: An Anthology, second edition (co-edited with Julie Rivkin, Wiley-Blackwell, 2004), Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction, second edition (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Cultural Studies: An Anthology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008), and Cultural Studies: A Practical Introduction (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).

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