Unit 2 Literary Theory and Criticism
Text A
Supplementary information
The Reading Process and Literary Theory
Louise M. Rosenblatt and her theory of reading
• Viewing literary works as being originated from the social institutions and reflecting the social institutions • Concerning with the social and political meanings of the text (e.g. the ways in which the text reveals ideological oppression of a dominant economic class over subordinate classes)
Louise M. Rosenblatt (1904-2005) was Emeritus Professor of English Education at New York University and holds an outstanding position in the fields of Education and Literary Studies.
1.What is literary theory? 2.What is literary criticism? 3. Why do we need literary theory and literary criticism?
Unit 2 Literary Theory and Criticism
Unit 2 Literary Theory and Criticism
Text A
Supplementary information
The Reading Process and Literary Theory
Louise M. Rosenblatt and her theory of reading
Unit 2 Literary Theory and Criticism
• Text A
The Reading Process and Literary Theory
– Classroom activities – Supplementary information – Suggested answer key
Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory. Criticism is usually in the form of a critical essay. • Academic literary critics (teaching in universities, publishing in academic journals, etc.) • More popular critics (publishing in newspapers and magazines)
Unit 2 Literary Theory and Criticism
Text A
Classroom activities
The Reading Process and Literary Theory
Discuss the questions in Task 1 and Task 2 Critical Reading and Thinking P7
“Reading is „transaction‟, during which each is continuously affecting the other. I suppose ecology is the field in which people understand this best-that human beings are affected by the environment, but they are also affecting it all the time, so that there is a transaction going on. …The continuous reciprocal influence of reader and text is similar, for instance, to two people talking to one another. What is said at the beginning of the conversation may take on an entirely different meaning by the end of it. (to be continued)
Unit 2 Literary Theory and Criticism
Text A
Supplementary information
The Reading Process and Literary Theory
Louise M. Rosenblatt and her theory of reading
Unit 2 Literary Theory and Criticism
Text A
Supplementary information
The Reading Process and Literary Theory
Marxist literary criticism
• Based on socialist and dialectic theories
Unit 2 Literary Theory and Criticism
Text A
Supplementary information
The Reading Process and Literary Theory
Louise M. Rosenblatt and her theory of reading
• In a wider sense: various scholarly approaches to reading texts (These approaches and ideas act as different lenses literary critics use to analyze literature, and they allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a piece of literary works.) • A most fundamental question asked by literary theory: ―What is literature?‖
学术英语 人文
Academic English
for HumanTheory and Criticism
Unit Contents
• • • • • • • • Lead-in Text A Text B Text C Academic Language and Discourse Listening Speaking Writing
Come to the front of the class and give a brief introduction to one of the following major schools of literary criticism:
Marxist criticism reader-response criticism New Historicism postcolonialism African American studies gender studies
Lead-in
Supplementary information
What is literary theory?
• In a strict sense: the systematic study of the nature of literature and the methods for analyzing literature
She outlined a theory of reading as a transactional process. Once in an interview, when asked why she preferred the use of the term ―transactional/transaction‖, she answered:
Unit 2 Literary Theory and Criticism
Lead-in
Supplementary information
What is literary criticism?
Literary criticism is the evaluation, analysis or description of a particular literary work or a group of writings as a whole.
(continued)
What's said affects the person who hears it, who then says something response that affects the first speaker. Rather than two static entities, each person is being affected in the conversation and what comes next depends on what happened so far. The same thing is going on between the reader and these squiggles on the page. Squiggles on the page are just signs. … I call my theory the transactional theory because I wanted to emphasis this dynamic relationship. ” -- Louise M. Rosenblatt