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Critical Theory and Practice: a Coursebook Critical Theory and Practice: A Coursebook Critical Theory and Practice: A Coursebook is an accessible, up-to-date and clear introduction to literary theory. Each chapter contains guiding commentary, examples from literary and critical works, and a variety of exercises to provoke and engage. The chapters each have their own glossary and annotated selection of suggested further reading, and the book also contains a full bibliography. All the key issues and debates which the student of literary theory is likely to confront are covered here. The reader has the opportunity to approach selected literary texts newly equipped with a knowledge of the methodology and assisted by suggested questions. Critical Theory and Practice: A Coursebook is a challenging yet approachable textbook which not only clearly explains the terminology, but also stimulates the reader to engage with the theory and apply it in practice. Keith Green is Senior Lecturer in English Studies at Sheffield Hallam University. He has published articles on a variety of linguistic and literary topics. Jill LeBihan is Lecturer in English Studies and Women’s Studies at Sheffield Hallam University. She has published articles on contemporary women’s writing and feminist theory. LONDON AND NEW YORK RRROUTLEDGEOUTLEDGEOUTLEDGE Critical Theory and Practice: A Coursebook Keith Green and Jill LeBihan n First published 1996 British Library Cataloguing in Publication by Routledge Data 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada Library of Congress Cataloguing in by Routledge Publication Data 29 West 35th Street, New York Green, Keith NY 10001 Critical Theory and Practice/Keith Green and Jill LeBihan. Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & p. cm. Francis Group Includes bibliographical references and index. This edition published in the Taylor & 1. Criticism. 2. Critical Theory. Francis e-Library, 2001. 3. Language and languages. I. LeBihan, Jill. II. Title © 1996 Keith Green and Jill LeBihan PN98.S6G735 1995 801´.95–dc20 95–3558 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or ISBN 0-415-11438-1 (hbk) utilized in any form or by any electronic, ISBN 0-415-11439-X (pbk) mechanical, or other means, now known ISBN 0-203-13010-3 Master e-book ISBN or hereafter invented, including ISBN 0-203-17856-4 (Glassbook Format) photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Contents Contents Contents Contents Contents Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction xv 1 Language, linguistics and literature 1 1 Basic relations 2 2 Texts, grammars, discourses 7 3 Language, literature, education 16 4 What is stylistics? 18 5 The trouble with stylistics 21 6 Pragmatics 25 7 Speech acts 29 8 Gender 32 CONTENTS 9 Cognition, linguistic relativity, literature 36 Glossary 42 Select bibliography 44 2 Structures of literature 49 1 Of signification 50 2 Systems 54 3 The macro-level: grammars 57 4 The micro-level: syntax of texts 61 5 Structural analysis of narratives 62 6 Structures and intention 76 7 Semiotics 77 8 The failures of semiotics 82 Glossary 86 Select bibliography 87 3 Literature and history 91 1 What is history? 92 2 Literary history 102 3 Literary classifications 108 4 New Historicism 111 5 Foucault and history 116 6 Historicism, anthropology, thick description 119 7 The ideologies of texts 124 Glossary 134 Select bibliography 136 vi CONTENTS 4 Subjectivity, psychoanalysis and criticism 139 1 Defining subjectivity 140 2 Literature and psychoanalysis 143 3 Freudian psychoanalysis 146 4 Sexual identity and psychoanalysis 153 5 Lacanian psychoanalysis 161 6 Lacan and language 169 7 A Lacanian reading 174 Glossary 177 Select Bibliography 179 5 Reading, writing and reception 183 1 The role of the reader 184 2 Reading and identity 192 3 From micro- to macro-reading 197 4 Open and closed texts 202 5 Deaths of authors, births of readers 206 6 Anti-formalisms, structures and Gestalt 212 7 Deconstructing the text 215 Glossary 221 Select bibliography 223 6 Feminism, literature and criticism 227 1 Defining feminism 228 2 The second wave 230 vii CONTENTS 3 Écriture féminine 243 4 Writing lesbian 250 5 ‘Post-feminism’ 253 6 ‘Men’s studies’ 259 Glossary 265 Select bibliography 267 7 Cultural identity, literature, criticism 271 1 Challenging the canon 272 2 Writing back 276 3 Writing and cultural identity 285 4 Post-colonial literary theory 289 5 Freedom, censorship, writing and race 295 6 Double colonisation: women and cultural identity 301 Glossary 305 Select bibliography 306 Bibliography 311 Index 329 viii Acknowledgements We are grateful to the Humanities Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University for buying us some time to write this book. Jules LeBihan and Margaret Smith transferred whole chapters from our old word-processing programme on to the new one for no financial gain – thank you both. Thanks also to Judy Bottrill, who typed the prototype version of this book some years ago, and has been tolerant of us making use of her office, computers and printers ever since. Text permissions The authors gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint material from the following sources: Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G. and Tiffin, H. The Empire Writes Back, Routledge; Atwood, M. Surfacing, André Deutsch Ltd; Atwood, M. from Language in Her Eye, Coach House Press, 1990, © Margaret Atwood, reprinted by permission of Coach House Press; Barrell, J. Poetry, Language and Politics, Manchester University Press; Barthes, R. Image/Music/Text, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; Belsey, C. and Moore, J. The Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary Criticism, Macmillan Press Ltd and Basil Blackwell Inc. (USA); Best, G. Mid-Victorian Britain 1851–1875, Weidenfeld and Nicholson; Blonsky, M. On Signs, Blackwell Publishers; ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Butler, J. and Scott, J. Feminists Theorize the Political, Routledge; Carr, E.H. What is History?, Macmillan Ltd; Chomsky, N. Syntactic Structures, Mouton de Gruyter; Christian, B. Black Feminist Criticism, Teachers College Press; Cixous, H. ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’, Signs 1:4 (1975), © The University of Chicago Press; Cixous, H. The Newly-Born Woman, Manchester University Press; Crystal and Davy Investigating English Style, Longman Group Ltd; Culler, J. In Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature and Deconstruction, Routledge 1981 (UK); Cornell University Press (USA); Culler, J. On Deconstruction, Routledge 1983 (UK); Cornell University Press (USA); Derrida, J. Margins of Philosopy, © The University of Chicago (1982); Derrida, J. Writing and Difference, Routledge 1978 (UK and Commonwealth), © 1978 by The University of Chicago (World); di Michele, M. from Language in Her Eye, Coach House Press, 1990, © Mary di Michele, reprinted by permission of Coach House Press; Dollimore, J. and Sinfield, A. Political Shakespeare, Manchester University Press; Eagleton, T. Criticism and Ideology Verso/New Left Books (1976); Eliot, T.S. The Selected Prose of T.S. Eliot, ed. Frank Kermode, Faber and Faber Ltd; Felman, S. Literature and Psychoanalysis: The Question of Reading Otherwise, The Johns Hopkins University Press; Foucault, M. The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc. Extract from ‘Nietzsche, Genealogy, History from Language, Counter- Memory, Practice, © Basil Blackwell Publishers; Fowler, R. Linguistic Criticism (1986), by permission of Oxford University Press; Fowles, J. The Magus, Jonathan Cape Ltd; Frye, N. Anatomy of Criticism, Princeton University Press; Fuss, D. Essentially Speaking, Routledge; Gates Jnr, H.L. ‘Writing “Race” and the Difference It Makes’, ‘Race’, Writing and Difference, ed. Henry Louis Gates, © 1985, 1986 The University of Chicago Press; Gearhart, S., excerpt from The Wanderground by Sally Miller Gearhart, © 1979 Sally Miller Gearhart, published in Great Britain by The Women’s Press Ltd (London). U.S. edition by Alyson Publications, Inc. (Boston), reprinted by permission of Alyson Publications, Inc; Genette, G. Figures of Literary Discourse, translated by A. Sheridan. © 1982 Columbia x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS University Press, reprinted by permission of the publisher; Greene, G. and Kahn, C. Changing Subjects: The Making of Feminist Literary Criticism, Routledge; Jefferson, A. and Robey, D. Modern Literary Theory: A Comparative Introduction, B.T. Batsford Ltd; Kaplan, C. Sea Changes: Culture and Feminisim, Verso/New Left Books (1986); Kermode, F., excerpt from The Selected Prose of T.S. Eliot, ed. Frank Kermode, © 1975 Valerie Eliot, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company; Krupat, A. Ethnocriticism: Ethnography, History, Literature, © 1992 The Regents of the University of California; Lacan, J. Écrits: A Selection, trans. Alan Sheridan, Tavistock Publications; Larkin, P. ‘The Winter Palace’ from Collected Poems, ed. Anthony Thwaite, Faber and Faber Ltd (UK); Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. (USA); Laurence, M., excerpt from The Diviners by Margaret Laurence, used by permission of the Canadian publishers, McClelland & Stewart, Toronto; Virago (UK and Commonwealth), © 1974 by Margaret Laurence, reprinted by permission of New End Inc; Leech and Short Style in Fiction, Longman Group Ltd; Lemon, Lee T. and Reis, J. Marion Russian Formalist Criticism, University of Nebraska Press; Lodge, D. Nice Work, Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd; Curtis Brown Literary Agents; Macherey, P. A Theory of Literary Production,
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