Selective Readings of Modern & Contemporary Literary Theories Textuality, Sexuality and the Postmodern Ethics An Introduction

Discussion Starters What is(are) your interested field(s) and how do you do literary criticism? Which theoretic issues and literary theory do you like? Can you give some examples to discuss them? Examples of Theoretic Issues : 1. Representation, Structure, Writing, Discourse, Narrative, Figurative Language, Performance, Author, Interpretation, Intention, 2. Unconscious, Determinacy/Indeterminacy, Value/Evaluation, Influence, Rhetoric, 3. Culture, Canon, Popular Culture, Literary History, Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Ideology, Diversity, Imperialism/Nationalism, Desire, Ethics, Class

My Questions What is beyond poststructualism? How do we discuss the issues of ‘value,’ ethics (i.e. right or wrong), and meanings of human conduct when the absolute truths in human history have been challenged? How is political action and ethics possible when human subject is seen as divided, barred, fictive and fragmentary?

Outline 1. Why? How is it related to Literary Criticism? Why? 2. How? Suggested attitudes The focus of our course;focus 3. Contextualizing our focus: before and after New Criticismbefore and after New Criticism

Why Theory? Con: -- no longer “literary study,” ignoring the beauty or essence of literature (e.g. Frank Kermode clip 1; E. Said clip 5); -- “keep politics lukewarm”; a mere word play or mind game; abstract and obscure; separate from reality or politics -- “fetishization” of theories (T. Eagleton); clip 3 Pro -- the problem with using “we”  Interdisciplinary clip 2 -- A tool box of pluralism. It provides us new frameworks and perspectives; helps us ask new questions of the texts we study and about our lives. Clip 3 (Marina Warner) -- democratization of English Studies. clip 4 e.g. my own experience Video: Literary Theory: what has it done for us? Terry Eagleton, Frank Kermode, Edward Said and Marina Warner

How? 1. Read with an active mind. (Do not feel “oppressed” by the difficult languages.)active 2. Always read to get the main points (to find the questions the theory asks) and to ask questions.questions 3. Always try to relate and to map. (It’s impossible to separate all the theoretical discourses into mutually exclusive theoretical schools.)to relate and to map

Theory as an Activity vs. Theory as a body of knowledge “In the former, theory is taught as a means of understanding the world; in the latter, theorizing is encouraged as a pedagogical practice in which students become actual participants in the use of theory.” (Henry Giroux’s ideas explained by Storey) It’s better to know how to theorize than to memorize all the theoretical jargons.

General Questions to ask What are the theorist’s main concerns? What questions does s/he ask and how does s/he answer them? Do you have any questions? What are the theorist’s key terms? How are they defined? What is the theorist’s method? Is a methodology explicitly laid out or is it implied? (modified from “Doxography versus Inquiry” by Donald G. Marshall. Sadoff 84)Sadoff

Articulation vs. Application Application –one-to-one correspondence between a theory and a text; Articulation ( 接連 ) of theories and texts, of different theories : connecting, negotiating, translating. “wrestling with the angels”: “The only theory worth having is that which you have to fight off, not that which you speak with profound fluency.” (Stuart Hall textbook 1901)

The focus of our course: Textuality, Sexuality and the Postmodern Ethics 1. Textuality: structure of myth, narrative, signs; from work to text to intertextuality and discourse; 2. Deconstruction/Framing: of author, of (symbolic) language and of “deconstruction”; 3. Sexuality: construction and representation of gender and sexuality; performativity; 4.  Topics: Other and the postmodern ethics

Before and After New Criticism Before: ref. onal.htm onal.htm New Criticism: Practical Criticism, Formalism After: Structuralism –Basic ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure? 1. The synchronic vs. the diachronic; langue vs. parole// competence vs. performance 2. Language is a system of difference. Meaning occurs in binary opposition between two signs. (e.g. toy, boy)a system of difference 3. sign = signifier and signified; the connection between them is arbitrary.

Structuralism: e.g. V. Propp syntax as the basic model for their analysis: Subject + predicate = Actant (agent) + function Propp: for him there are 7 "spheres of action" (villain, hero, false hero, donor[provider], helper, dispatcher, princess [and her father].) and 31 functions. e. g. Cinderella’s modern versions: Cinder Edna: Edna -- no fairy godmother as helper; Cinderella -- marriage not the happy ending. Hollywood versions: Working Girl, A Cinderella Story –still needs “magic”—the man’s help or fairy godmother.

Magritte, Rene The Key of Dreams 1930 Arbitrariness of Signs L’Acacia = 相思樹 la neige = 雪 l’Orage = storm la Lune = moon Plafond = ceiling Desert = desert

Semiotic Reading: The False Mirror seeing = framing and reconstructing “reality” 1) means of perceiving reality: eye 2) hollowed out and replaced with artificial signs of blue sky + pupil. 3) “Photographic” sign & drawing sign frame each other

Magritte, Rene Philosophy in the Boudoir ( 女性臥房、起居 室 ) Fantasies of the Viewers 2. Dress and shoes shape human bodies or are one layer of human bodies

Influences of Structuralism: some examples Sign= signifier + signified  referent Language is not mimetic (a mirror, or a transparent container of reality); it constructs reality; it speaks us. Binary thinking.  open to deconstruction

Examples of binarism in traditional literary theories Politics/Truth vs. Plato – the realm of appearance vs. the realm of Form  poetry twice removed Poetics Aristotle –Three unity, etc. Sir Philip Sidney: to teach and delight The Mirror and the Lamp

Examples of binarism in traditional literary theories (2) Reason Plato – poetry tells lies and excites emotions. Pope -- golden rules; restraint, good taste, Dryden: "wit": propriety of thoughts and words Emotion/Energy Romantic poets: imagination  New Criticism: Setting up Literature as a discipline (autonomy, organicism, etc.)  An “objective” approach, just as Structuralism is scientific

After Structuralism: More Fluid Binaries in contemporary theories Politics vs. Poetics; Art vs. popular culture; Culture vs. Economic Relations; Father vs. Mother; Lack vs. imaginary plenitude fixity of meaning vs. fluidity of language, identity and culture, etc. The lines are no longer clear-cut. Autonomy and Absolute truth are out.

References Storey, John, ed.. What is Cultural Studies: A Reader. London: Arnold, Sadoff, Dianne F and William E. Cain, eds. Teaching Contemporary Theory to Undergraduates. NY: MLA 1994.