Theory+and+Stuff

Here is the wikipedia site I directed you to and some other bits and pieces so you sound flash! [|Wikipedia] This is extremely cool (and fun). It shows you, using the opening of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, how each theory is applied, by asking different questions of the text. [|The LitCritToolKit] This page does a similar thing - poems/plays/stories including "To His Coy Mistress" looked at from different approaches. []

Here's a fuller (but still readable) introduction: [|Introduction to Modern Literary Theory]

Here's yet another attempt to summarise them all: [|Introduction to Literary Theory]


 * //Reader-Response Theory//**

(Sonya) Here's an essay by Paula Green on the "Curating the city" experiment. Poems about Auckland were painted on the pavement in the CBD. It's an example of how different contexts engage us with literature.

This is, somewhat heavy going, but the best definition of reader-response theory I have found so far. The way we are taught to interpret texts has a bearing on how we do, as well as our cultural viewpoint and personal experiences. For example, New Criticism was apparently very heavily taught in American schools in the 1960s and 1970s. It would be interesting to see if students in that time still strongly hold that perception today, if they mostly disregard context over heavy objective analysis. There is also the idea of the "intended reader" - what reader would best understand the work as intended? Do we look for aspects of our own identity in the work we are reading? (I say yes) This alters our perception, as we "look for" certain things. []

THIS IS AN AWESOME ESSAY, and VERY easy to read, on the differing perception between a school teacher and her students reading Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz.” The school teacher viewed it as a working man doing a slightly rough, but loving dance after a long day. The students took it to be not just a waltz, but child abuse and alcohol fuelled violence. The essay is the teachers reflection on what she learnt. []

Here's the actual poem. It is interesting to read the comments - how a person that had been abused immediately picked up on that meaning. Perfect example of how us reading a text is the completion of the process. []

"Reading is something you... do." - Stanley Fish