Theory into Practice An Introduction to Literary Criticism

by Dobie, Ann B.

• ISBN13: 9781413033403
• ISBN10: 1413033407
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-26
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

Beginning with more accessible critical approaches and gradually introducing more challenging critical perspectives, THEORY INTO PRACTICE provides extensive step-by-step guidance for writing literary analyses. This brief, practical introduction to literary theory explores core theories in a unique chronological format and includes an anthology of relevant fiction, poetry, and nonfiction to help bring those theories to life. Remarkably readable and engaging, the text makes even complex concepts manageable for those beginning to think about literary theory, and example analyses for each type of criticism show how real students have applied the theories to works included in the anthology. Now updated with the latest scholarship, including a full discussion of queer theory and increased emphasis on American multicultural approaches, THEORY INTO PRACTICE provides an essential foundation for thoughtful and effective literary analysis.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xiii
To the Student: An Introduction to Theory into Practice	p. xv
The Relationship of Reading and Writing	p. 1
Reading and Writing in College	p. 1
Engaging the Text	p. 2
Adding Marginal Notations	p. 3
Keeping a Reading Log	p. 3
Using Heuristics	p. 5
Shaping a Response	p. 5
Determining a Purpose and Understanding Forms of Response	p. 6
Answering Essay Questions	p. 6
Writing Research Papers	p. 7
Knowing Your Audience	p. 8
Choosing a Voice	p. 8
Helping the Process	p. 9
Collaboration	p. 10
Reference Materials	p. 11
Summing up	p. 12
Suggested Reading	p. 12
Familiar Approaches	p. 14
Conventional Ways of Reading Literature	p. 14
A Social Perspective	p. 14
The Effects of Genre	p. 19
Conventional Ways of Writing about Literature	p. 23
Explication	p. 23
Analysis	p. 24
Comparison and Contrast	p. 24
Study of a Single Author's Works	p. 25
Summing up	p. 25
Glossary of Terms Useful in Conventional Criticism	p. 25
Suggested Reading and Resources	p. 26
Model Student Analyses	p. 26
"Between Gloom and Splendor: A Historical Analysis of Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown'"	p. 26
Formalism	p. 33
Historical Background	p. 33
Russian Formalism	p. 35
Reading as a Formalist	p. 36
Form	p. 36
Diction	p. 38
Unity	p. 40
What Doesn't Appear in Formalist Criticism	p. 42
Paraphrase	p. 42
Intention	p. 42
Biography	p. 42
Affect	p. 42
Writing a Formalist Analysis	p. 43
Prewriting	p. 43
Drafting and Revising	p. 43
The Introduction	p. 43
The Body	p. 44
The Conclusion	p. 44
Glossary of Terms Useful in Formalist Criticism	p. 45
Suggested Reading	p. 46
Model Student Analysis	p. 46
"Robinson's 'Richard Cory': A Formalistic Interpretation"	p. 46
Psychological Criticism	p. 49
Historical Background	p. 49
Practicing Psychological Criticism	p. 50
Freudian Principles	p. 51
The Unconscious	p. 52
The Tripartite Psyche	p. 53
The Significance of Sexuality	p. 54
The Importance of Dreams	p. 55
Symbols	p. 56
Creativity	p. 57
Summing up	p. 57
Carl Jung and Mythological Criticism	p. 58
Characters	p. 60
Images	p. 61
Situations	p. 62
Northrop Frye and Mythological Criticism	p. 63
Jacques Lacan: An Update on Freud	p. 63
Character Analysis	p. 65
Antirealism	p. 67
Jouissance	p. 67
Writing Psychological Criticism	p. 67
Prewriting	p. 67
Drafting and Revising	p. 69
The Introduction	p. 69
The Body	p. 69
The Conclusion	p. 71
Glossary of Terms Useful in Psychological Criticism	p. 71
Suggested Reading	p. 72
Model Student Analyses	p. 73
"Water, Sun, Moon, Stars, Heroic Spirit, in Tennyson's 'Ulysses': A Mythological Analysis"	p. 73
"Mama Mary and Mother Medusa: A Magic Carpet Ride Through James's Psychical Landscape in Ernest Gaines's 'The Sky Is Gray'"	p. 75
Marxist Criticism	p. 86
Historical Background	p. 86
Reading from a Marxist Perspective	p. 88
Economic Power	p. 89
Materialism versus Spirituality	p. 91
Class Conflict	p. 92
Art, Literature, and Ideologies	p. 93
Writing a Marxist Analysis	p. 96
Prewriting	p. 97
Drafting and Revising	p. 97
The Introduction	p. 97
The Body	p. 98
The Conclusion	p. 98
Glossary of Terms Useful in Marxist Criticism	p. 99
Suggested Reading	p. 100
Model Student Analysis	p. 100
"Silence, Violence, and Southern Agrarian Class Conflict in William Faulkner's 'Barn Burning'"	p. 100
Feminist Criticism	p. 104
Historical Background	p. 105
Feminism	p. 105
Queer Theory	p. 111
Reading as a Feminist	p. 114
Studies of Difference	p. 114
Studies of Power	p. 116
Studies of the Female Experience	p. 119
Writing Feminist Criticism	p. 120
Prewriting	p. 121
Drafting and Revising	p. 122
The Introduction	p. 122
The Body	p. 122
The Conclusion	p. 124
Glossary of Terms Useful in Feminist Criticism	p. 124
Suggested Reading	p. 125
Model Student Analysis	p. 126
"The Road from Mother: A Daughter's Struggle"	p. 126
Reader-Response Criticism	p. 131
Historical Background	p. 131
Making a Reader's Response	p. 134
Getting Started	p. 134
Interacting with the Text	p. 134
The Text Acts on the Reader	p. 135
The Reader Acts on the Text	p. 137
The Transactional Model	p. 138
Writing a Reader-Response Analysis	p. 140
Prewriting	p. 140
Drafting and Revising	p. 141
The Introduction	p. 141
The Body	p. 142
The Conclusion	p. 142
Glossary of Terms Useful in Reader-Response Criticism	p. 143
Suggested Reading	p. 143
Model Student Analysis	p. 144
"Discovering the Way the World Works: A Reader-Response Analysis of James Joyce's 'Araby'"	p. 144
Deconstruction	p. 150
Historical Background	p. 150
Practicing Deconstruction	p. 156
Making a Deconstructive Analysis	p. 160
Writing a Deconstructive Analysis	p. 165
Prewriting	p. 165
Drafting and Revising	p. 167
The Introduction	p. 167
The Body	p. 167
The Conclusion	p. 168
Glossary of Terms Useful in Understanding Deconstruction	p. 168
Suggested Reading	p. 169
Model Student Analysis	p. 170
"The Blame Game"	p. 170
Cultural Studies: New Historicism	p. 173
An Overview of Cultural Studies	p. 173
Assumptions, Principles, and Goals of New Historicism	p. 175
Traditional Historicism	p. 175
New Historicism	p. 176
New Literary Historicism	p. 178
Historical Background	p. 181
Reading as a New Historicist	p. 184
The World of the Author and the Text	p. 185
Discourses in the Text	p. 188
Intentions and Reception	p. 189
Writing a New Historicist Literary Analysis	p. 190
Prewriting	p. 191
Drafting and Revising	p. 191
The Introduction	p. 191
The Body	p. 192
The Conclusion	p. 194
Glossary of Terms Useful in New Historicist Criticism	p. 194
Suggested Reading	p. 195
Model Student Analysis	p. 196
"'You Have Been Warned': New History Telling in Nadine Gordimer's 'Once upon a Time'"	p. 196
More Cultural Studies: Postcolonialism and Multiculturalism	p. 205
Postcolonialism	p. 205
Historical Background	p. 206
Basic Assumptions	p. 209
Reading as a Postcolonialist	p. 210
Presentation of Colonialism	p. 210
Treatment of Characters	p. 211
Validity of the Narrative	p. 212
Expressions of Nativism (Nationalism)	p. 212
Recurring Subjects and Themes	p. 213
Context	p. 214
Minor Characters	p. 215
Political Statement and Innuendo	p. 215
Similarities	p. 216
Glossary of Terms Useful in Postcolonial Studies	p. 216
American Multiculturalism	p. 217
African American Literature	p. 218
Reading as a Multiculturalist	p. 220
Narrative Forms	p. 221
Diction	p. 223
Style	p. 224
Writing a Cultural Studies Analysis	p. 226
Glossary of Terms Useful in American Multiculturalism	p. 227
Suggested Reading	p. 227
Model Student Analyses	p. 228
"Victims Already: Violence and Threat in Nadine Gordimer's 'Once upon a Time'"	p. 228
"Langston Hughes and the Dream of America"	p. 233
Literary Selections	p. 239
Letters of Abigail and John Adams	p. 239
Jill Ker Conway excerpt from The Road from Coorain	p. 242
Featured in Chapter 6	p. 126
William Faulkner "Barn Burning"	p. 253
Featured in Chapter 5	p. 100
Robert Frost "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"	p. 265
Ernest J. Gaines "The Sky Is Gray"	p. 266
Featured in Chapter 4	p. 75
Nadine Gordimer "Once upon a Time"	p. 287
Featured in Chapter 9	p. 196
Featured in Chapter 10	p. 228
Nathaniel Hawthorne "Young Goodman Brown"	p. 291
Featured in Chapter 2	p. 26
Langston Hughes "I, Too"	p. 300
Featured in Chapter 10	p. 233
Langston Hughes "Theme for English B"	p. 301
Featured in Chapter 10	p. 233
Zora Neale Hurston excerpt from The Eatonville Anthology	p. 302
James Joyce "Araby"	p. 311
Featured in Chapter 7	p. 144
Guy de Maupassant "The Diamond Necklace"	p. 315
Featured in Chapter 8	p. 170
Edgar Allan Poe "The Masque of the Red Death"	p. 321
Edwin Arlington Robinson "Richard Cory"	p. 325
Featured in Chapter 3	p. 46
Alfred, Lord Tennyson "Ulysses"	p. 326
Information at a Glance	p. 329
Index	p. 333
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