Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature With Critical Theory [Paperback]

Steven Lynn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998 | ISBN-10: 0321019792 | ISBN-13: 978-0321019790 | Edition: 2nd

This updated edition offers expanded explanations of many of the critical theories, step-by-step reference guides to using each approach, and more examples of students applying critical theory to their own writing. The texts that are analyzed include Hemingway, Shakespeare and Milton.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory provides an accessible introduction to contemporary critical theories from new criticism to cultural studies as part of the practice of writing about literature. Providing a wealth of writing strategies, the text explains the assumptions underlying the various critical theories, and then takes the readers through the process of employing these methods to enrich their engagements with literature. This 3rd Edition includes a new Chapter 1, An Introduction, Theoretically as well as updated coverage of research and the Internet. For anyone interested in enhancing their reading and writing skills through critical theory. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Practices Questions 1. Read closely. You can assume that everything 1. What formal elements does this work is carefully calculated to contribute to the have? (Structure, imagery, diction, etc.) work¿s unity¿figures of speech, point of view, 2. How can these formal elements be diction, recurrent ideas or events, etc. arranged in opposing pairs or groups? 2. Find oppositions, tensions, ambiguities, and 3. What unifying idea holds these ironies in the work. opposing elements together? 3. Indicate how all these various elements are (Think in terms of an ¿Although X, Y¿ unified¿what idea holds them together? thesis sentence.) 1. Move through the text in slow motion, 1. What is your response to the text? describing the responses of an ideal reader¿ 2. If the text were changed in some specific what is anticipated, what is experienced. way (a word, a phrase, a sentence, etc.), 2. Or, move through the text describing your how would your response change? own personal response. 3. Is your response personal and 3. Focus on how particular details shape idiosyncratic, or is it shaped by the text readers¿ expectations and responses. and shared norms of interpretation? 1. Identify the oppositions in the text, and 1. What does the text most obviously determine which items are favored. seem to say? 2. Identify what appears to be central to the text, 2. How can the text be turned against and what appears to be marginal and excluded. itself, making it say also the opposite of 3. Reverse the text¿s hierarchy (the system of what it most obviously seems to say? favoring), opening up another (or an other) 3. How can something apparently reading; and/or argue that what appears to be marginal or trivial in the text be marginal is actually central. brought to the center of attention? 1. Research the author¿s life and relate that infor- 1. How can you connect the author¿s life to mation, cautiously, to the work. his or her writing? Are there common 2. Research the author¿s time (the political issues, events, concerns? history, economic history, intellectual history, 2. How can you connect the literary work etc.) and relate that information, to its historical context, including its cautiously, to the work. literary context? 3. Research how people reasoned during the 3. Is the author part of a dominant culture, author¿s lifetime, the patterns and limits in- or a colonial culture, or a postcolonial volved in making sense. Relate those logical culture, and how does that status affect strategies to the work. the work? 1. Apply a developmental concept to the work¿ 1. What appears to be motivating the for example, the Oedipal complex, anal reten- author, or character, or even reader? tiveness, castration anxiety, gender confusion. 2. What other motivations, repressed or 2. Relate the work to psychologically significant disguised, might be at work? events in the author¿s life. 3. What developmental concepts might 3. Consider how repressed material may be help to explain this behavior? expressed in the work¿s pattern of imagery or symbols. 1. Identify the qualities of gender, class, race, 1. How does this work advance or question sexual preference, religion, etc. of the author a particular political agenda? and/or characters: that is, say how individ 2. How would readers of different political uals are portrayed as members of some group. stances read this work differently? 2. Consider whether the text promotes or 3. How are the individuals in this work undermines stereotypes. portrayed as part of a group or class? 3. Imagine how the text might be read by a cer- tain type of reader; or how a text might have been neglected by a certain type of reader. Texts and Contexts Writing About Literature with Critical Theory Sixth Edition Steven Lynn University of South Carolina New York San Francisco Boston London Toronto Sydney Tokyo Singapore Madrid Mexico City Munich Paris Capetown Hong Kong Montreal For Annette and Anna Vice President and Editor-in-Chief: Joseph Terry Managing Editor: Erika Berg Development Editor: Barbara Santoro Executive Marketing Manager: Ann Stypuloski Production Manager: Douglas Bell Project Coordination, Text Design, and Electronic Page Makeup: WestWords, Inc. Cover Design Manager: John Callahan Cover Designer: Maria Ilardi Cover Art: Reality (1986) by Andre Rouillard (twentieth century/French). Acrylic on canvas. Copyright ¿ Andre Rouillard/SuperStock. Photo Research: WestWords, Inc. Manufacturing Buyer: Lucy Hebard Printer and Binder: R. R. Donnelley & Sons, Harrisonburg Cover Printer: Phoenix Color Corporation For permission to use copyrighted material, grateful acknowledgment is made to the copyright holders on pp. 283¿284 which are hereby made part of this copyright page. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lynn, Steven, 1952¿ Texts and contexts : writing about literature with critical theory / Steven Lynn.¿4th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 0-321-20942-7 (pbk.) 1. English language¿Rhetoric. 2. Literature¿History and criticism¿Theory, etc. 3. Criticism¿Authorship. 4. Academic writing. 5. College readers. I. Title. PE1479.C7L96 2005 808'.0668¿dc22 2004012984 Copyright ¿ 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States. Please visit our website at http://www.ablongman.com ISBN 0-321-20942-7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10¿DOH¿07 06 05 04 Contents Preface x 1 An Introduction, Theoretically 3 Textual Tours 3 Checking Some Baggage 4 Anything to Declare? 8 Recommended Further Reading 10 2 Critical Worlds: A Selective Tour 13 New Criticism 14 * Brendan Gill, from Here at ¿The New Yorker¿ 14 Reader-Response Criticism 17 Deconstructive Criticism 20 Historical Approaches 23 Psychological Criticism 28 Feminist Criticism 31 Other Approaches 33 Works Cited 34 Recommended Further Reading 34 3 Unifying the Work: New Criticism 37 The Purpose of New Criticism 37 Basic Principles Reflected 38 * Archibald MacLeish, ¿Ars Poetica¿ 38 Radicals in Tweed Jackets 42 How to Do New Criticism 46 The Writing Process: A Sample Essay 48 * Gwendolyn Brooks, ¿The Mother¿ 48 Preparing to Write 49 Shaping 51 Drafting 52 Practicing New Criticism 55 Lucille Clifton, ¿forgiving my father¿ 55 Stephen Shu-ning Liu, ¿My Father¿s Martial Art¿ 56 Ben Jonson, ¿On My First Son¿ 61 ¿The Prodigal Son¿ (Luke 15: 11¿32, King James Version) xx Useful Terms xx Checklist xx UWorks Cited and Recommended Reading 58 58 4 Creating the Text: Reader-Response Criticism 61 The Purpose of Reader-Response Criticism 61 New Criticism as the Old Criticism 61 The Reader Emerges 62 Hypertextual Readers 66 How to Do Reader-Response Criticism 67 Preparing to Respond 67 * Sandra Cisneros, ¿Love Poem #1¿ 67 Making Sense 68 Subjective Response 70 Receptive Response 71 The Writing Process: A Sample Essay 76 Preparing to Respond 76 * Ernest Hemingway, ¿A Very Short Story¿ 76 Preparing to Write 81 Shaping 84 Drafting 85 Practicing Reader-Response Criticism 88 Michael Drayton, ¿Since There¿s No Help¿ 88 Judith Minty, ¿Killing the Bear¿ 89 Caroline Fraser, ¿All Bears¿ xx Emily Dickinson, ¿Through the Dark Sod¿ xx Useful Terms xx Works Cited and 94 Recommended xx Further Reading 95 5 Opening Up the Text: Deconstructive Criticism 97 The Purpose of Deconstruction 97 How to Do Deconstruction 106 * William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium 107 The Writing Process: A Sample Essay 113 * Amy Clampitt, ¿Discovery¿ 113 Preparing to Write 114 Shaping 119 Drafting 122 Practicing Deconstructive Criticism 127 * Continuing Education, Cut Through the Anxiety... 127 * William Blake, ¿London¿ 128 Linda Pastan, ¿Ethics¿ 8xx John Donne, ¿Death Be Not Proud¿ xx Useful Terms xx Checklist xx Works Cited 130 and Recommended Further Reading 130 6 Connecting the Text: Historical Criticism 133 The Purposes of Biographical, Historical, Postcolonial, Ethnic, Marxist, and Cultural Studies 133 Biographical and Historical Criticism 134 * John Milton, When I Consider How My Light Is Spent 134 Cultural Studies 138 New Historicism 141 History as Text 143 Marxist Criticism 145 Postcolonial Studies 148 How to Do Historical, Postcolonial, and Cultural Studies 152 The Writing Process: Sample Essays 156 * John Cheever, Reunion 156 A Biographical Essay 159 Preparing to Write 159 Shaping 165 Drafting 167 A New Historical Essay 171 Preparing to Write 171 Shaping 172 Drafting 174 Practicing Historical, Postcolonial, and Cultural Studies 178 * Rowland Wilson, Cartoon 178 * Stan Hunt, Cartoon 179 WUseful Terms xx Checklist xx Works Cited and 180 Recommended Further Reading 180 7 Minding the Work: Psychological Criticism 183 The Purpose of Psychological Criticism 183 How to Do Psychological Criticism 189 * William Wordsworth, ¿A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal¿ 190 The Writing Process: A Sample Essay 193 * William Shakespeare, from Hamlet 194 Preparing to Write 195 Shaping 199 Drafting 201 Practicing Psychological Criticism 205 * Emily Dickinson, ¿A Narrow Fellow in the Grass¿ 207 * Marianne Moore, ¿O to Be a Dragon¿ 207 Matthew Arnold, ¿Dover Beach¿ xx Your Dream Here xx WUseful Terms xx Checklist xx Works Cited 208 and Recommended Further Reading 208 8 Gendering the Text: Feminist Criticism, Post-Feminism, and Queer Theory 211 The Purposes of Feminist Criticism, Post-Feminism, and Queer Theory 211 How to Do Feminist Criticism, Post-Feminism, and Queer Theory 218 * Mary Astell, from A Serious Proposal 221 The Writing Process: A Sample Essay 227 * Sam... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: Longman Pub Group; 2nd edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321019792
• ISBN-13: 978-0321019790
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,526,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gets the Job Done, August 23, 2008

By 

Kenneth R. Morefield (Fuquay-Varina, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory (5th Edition) (Paperback)

In reviewing this book, I'm reminded about the famous quote that democracy is the worst form of government except for every other one.

The task of taking a large, complex topic such as critical theory and presenting it in primer fashion makes it inevitable that there will be places where the more knowledgeable or experienced reader feels like the person undertaking that task is being reductive. And it would be easy enough to pick on the book's idiosyncrasies: the psychoanaltyic chapter is too narrowly Freudian, the deconstruction chapter has trouble explaining how the practice (explained fine) developed from the theory, the reader-response chapter neglects later responses to some initial criticisms of the theory.

But these are the sorts of complaints that will be levied by those who aren't the target audience, and to make them is to wish for a book that is both an introduction for undergraduates and a more thorough encyclopedia for scholars. The book isn't trying to be the latter.

As an introductory work, Texts and Contexts is actually pretty good. The prose is clear and avoids overloading students with too much jargon or too many technical terms too quickly. It is also one of the few primers I've run across that tries to address practice rather than just theory--that tries to show what a _______ critic does rather than just what _______ criticism is.

Another plus is that the bibliographies at the end of each chapter, while short, are very serviceable, and provide students with a list of key readings in each area of criticism that can help them get started at being more thorough in the area in which they are most interested in.

If there is one thing I seriously hate about the book it is that it is one of those "designed to be text"books that comes out in a new edition every other year. I've had every edition since the second, and the changes are pretty superficial. (As I right this, it's now in the fifth edition.) Unless absolutely required (say by a professor) to buy the latest edition, readers would be better served to get a used, older edition on Amazon--they are usually less than a quarter of the price of the new edition.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite Intro Lit Textbook, June 10, 2009

By 

cvairag (Allan Hancock College) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory (5th Edition) (Paperback)

A number of years back, Mortimer Adler, he of the Paedeia Program and the wonderful Great Books Series, probably the last publically successful canonical venture before we starting deconstructing the canon, wrote a bestseller which was at the time regarded as a classic: "How To Read a Book". Lynn has written the book that Adler was trying to write.

After years spent reading and teaching the humanities, I've learned that we don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about how we read. That conclusion, in simple, funky Americanese, is, in as many words, what, I think, Jacques Derrida was trying to say in a lot more. And if words are, in a sense, metaphors, it's that much more imperative that we get a handle on our method of reading, that we become mindful of our processes of comprehension. Teaching mindful comprehension, a method of reading that sticks, is the main task of college level pedagogy in the humanities.

Lynn's book is a masterpiece of organization and concision. He begins by briefly describing the seven + basic approaches to reading which, in contemporary academic parlance, go under the rubric of critical theory, and then proceeds to devote a chapter to each, examining, in simple, clear, and accessible terms and demonstrations, what value the particular approach under discussion has for understanding the text.

Lynn's writing is lucid, accessible, exemplary. His citations are edifying, central. His examples are, well . . . textbook. The book as a whole is remarkably comprehensive in a svelte, easy-to-hand, state-of-the-art format. I challenge Freshman English or Language Arts instructors to find better than what we have here.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great introductory text for AP English, May 18, 2001

By 

Leesdottir (santa rosa, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

I use this book to introduce literary theory to my AP high school seniors. The explanations of the theories are accessible, the sample essays provide great models, and the suggested strategies for critical writing effectively allow my students to engage with both work and theory. Impressive... AND the author maintains a sense of humor which adds to the readability. Wow!