Lecture 1: Ways of Reading Dr Cathia Jenainati Modes of Reading Lecture 1: Ways of Reading Dr Cathia Jenainati

Module website Lecture List Assessment Reading List

Ways of reading what cultural problem is being set up? why might readers at a particular time and place find this work compelling? are there differences between my values and the values implicit in the text?

Ways of reading what kind of cultural intervention is this text making? how does this text position me as a reader? what is the text setting up as “normative”? what is being set up against the normative as “different”?

Ways of Reading New Criticism (1920s +) “ontological critic” Wimsatt and Beardsley, “The intentional Fallacy” (1946) Roland Barthes La nouvelle critique (1964) Explores the work of interpretation

Ways of reading Once upon a time there was a village girl, the prettiest you can imagine. Her mother adored her. Her grandmother adored her even more and made a little red hood for her. The hood suited the child so much that everywhere she went she was known by the name…

Little Red Riding Hood Grandmother, what big arms you have! The better to hug you with, my child. Grandmother, what big legs you have! The better to run with, my child. Grandmother what big teeth, you have! The better to eat you with! Upon saying these words, the wicked wolf threw himself on LRRH and gobbled her up.

Moral From this story one learns that children, Especially young girls, Pretty, well-bred, and genteel, Are wrong to listen to just anyone, And it’s not at all strange, If a wolf ends up eating them. I say a wolf, but not all wolves Are exactly the same.

Moral Some are perfectly charming, Not loud, brutal or angry, But tame, pleasant, and gentle, Following young ladies Right into their homes, into their chambers, But watch out if you haven’t learned that tame wolves Are the most dangerous of all.

Rewriting—Rereading—revising Brothers Grimm, 1857, “Rotkappchen” De Saussure: language and speech James Thurber, 1940, “The little girl and the wolf” Freud: “manifest meanings and latent content” Lacan: “The unconscious is structured like a language”

Key terms New Criticism (Cuddon 544) Intentional Fallacy (Cuddon 421) De Saussure (Lodge 2) Freud, (Lodge 3) Lacan (Lodge 10)