FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, RHETORIC, GRAMMAR II
&
INTRO. TO LITERARY RESEARCH & WRITING
INSTRUCTOR: James Maxfield
|
FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, RHETORIC, GRAMMAR II&INTRO. TO LITERARY RESEARCH & WRITINGINSTRUCTOR: James Maxfield
|
|
English 1010 and 1020 James Maxfield, Instructor Exercise #25 Using Critical Theory When we attempt to analyze literary works, there are 25 or more critical approaches or methods of critical analysis of a text. Ten approaches are briefly discussed with an example of each provided in your text The Longman Masters of Short Fiction anthology (pp. 878-904). This exercise will give you enough ideas so that you can introduce at least one required element of critical comparison in your term paper. Exercise #25: Choose any three stories from the ones we have read this term (Hint! You might want to use the three stories you intend to use for your term paper). Then, identify or choose three different critical approaches and apply them to a passage (or to the story as a whole) in each of the three selected stories. So, you will have 9 short examples in all. Provide a 2 or 3 sentence explanation how each critical theory could be used to discuss each story or selected passage. Be sure to identify a selected passage or quotation by the page number in the story. Then indicate what critical approach could be used to discuss this passage (or the entire story). This exercise will also help you to Focus your topic and develop your thesis argument. Example: Historical Criticism and Social Criticism Dana Gioia says that "A historical reading of a literary work begins by exploring the possible ways in which the meaning of the text [story] has changed over time" (Gioia 884). This could easily be applied to the Henry James story "The Real Thing" where the plot of the story dealt with a magazine illustrator’s use of "dress-up" models to create real-life, authentic people for the stories in the magazine. Since hand-drawn illustrations are rarely (if ever) used today for magazines, this would be a point of history in that sense. That would certainly color our understanding of the story and the way we read and interpret it in our computerized world.(And of course, this story also lends itself to Social Criticism because of the differences in social classes which are evident and discussed throughout the story and its plot. This story could also be discussed relative to gender (from a woman’s perspective). Do not use this as one of your examples for this exercise. |
|
Send mail to james.maxfield@tri-c.edu
with questions or comments about this web site.
|
