What We Teach and Why: Contemporary Literary Theory and Adolescents Deborah Appleman Carleton College Naperville, Illinois March 2, 2007

The paradox of education is precisely this—that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions…. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is about perish. The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it—at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change. - James Baldwin

The main reason for studying theory at the same time as literature is that it forces you to deal consciously with the problem of ideologies... There are many truths and the one you will find depends partly on the ideology you start with. [Studying theory] means you can take your own part in the struggles for power between different ideologies. It helps you to discover elements of your own ideology, and understand why you hold certain values unconsciously. It means no authority can impose a truth on you in a dogmatic way—and if some authority does try, you can challenge that truth in a powerful way, by asking what ideology it is based on... Theory is subversive because it puts authority in question. - Bonnycastle, In Search of Authority

In essence an ideology is a system of thought or “world view” which an individual acquires (usually unconsciously) from the world around him. An ideology determines what you think is important in life, what categories you put people into, how you see male and female roles in life, and a host of other things. You can visualize your ideology as a grid, or a set of glasses, through which you can see the world. - Bonnycastle The term ideology describes the beliefs, attitudes, and habits of feeling which a society inculcates in order to generate an automatic reproduction of its structuring premises. Ideology is what preserves social power in the absence of direct coercion. - Ryan Ideology

Ideological common sense is common sense in the service of sustaining unequal relations of power. - Fairclough

Until lions tell their stories, tales of hunting will glorify the hunter. - African Proverb

Contemporary theory holds that there is no such thing as an innocent, value-free reading. Instead, each of us has a viewpoint invested with presuppositions about ‘reality’ and about ourselves, whether we are conscious of it or not. People who deny having a critical stance, who claim they are responding “naturally” or being “completely objective” do not know themselves. - Staton, Literary Theories in Praxis No Such Thing as Innocence

Our job is not to produce “readings” for our students but to give them the tools for producing their own… Our job is not to intimidate students with our own superior textual production; it is to show them the codes upon which all textual production depends, and to encourage their own textual practice. Scholes, Textual Power

Teachers “have regarded their goal as teaching particular readings instead of teaching ways of reading…the ability to replicate the stance of the reader…focus on the end result not the process of reading.” Rabinowitz and Smith, Authorizing Readers

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. - F. Scott Fitzgerald

A man with one theory is lost. He needs several of them, or lots! He should stuff them in his pockets like newspapers. -Bertolt Brecht

Upon Seeing an Orange Feminist theory asks... 'What possibilities are available to a woman who eats this orange?' Formalism asks... 'What shape and diameter is the orange?' Marxist theory asks... 'Who owns the orange?’ Who gets to eat it?’ Postcolonialism asks... 'Who doesn't own the orange?’ ‘Who took the orange away?’ Reader-Response asks... 'What does the orange taste like?’ ‘ What does the orange remind us of?' Structuralism asks... 'How are the orange peel and the flesh differentiate into composite parts of the orange?’ Deconstruction asks... 'If the orange peel and the flesh are both part of an "orange", are they not in fact one and the same thing?’

Deconstruction Formalist Reader Response Feminist Marxist Critical Theories

What We Teach

Something Old

On the Subway The boy and I face each other. His feet are huge, in black sneakers laced with white in a complex pattern like a a set of intentional scars. We are stuck on opposite sides of the car, a couple of molecules stuck in a rod of light rapidly moving through darkness. He has the casual cold look of a mugger, alert under hooded lids. He is wearing red, like the inside of the body exposed. I am wearing dark fur, the whole skin of an animal taken and used. I look at his raw face, he looks at my fur coat, and I didn't know if I am in his power— he could take my coat so easily, my briefcase, my life— or if he is in my power, the way I am living off his life, eating the steak he does not eat, as if I am taking the food from his mouth. And he is black and I am white, and without meaning or trying to I must profit from his darkness, the way he absorbs the murderous beams of the nation's heart, as black cotton absorbs the heat of the sun and holds it. There is no way to know how easy this white skin makes my life, this life he could take so easily and break across his knee like a stick the way his own back is being broken, the rob of his soul that at birth was dark and fluid and rich as the heart of a seedling ready to thrust up into any available light. - Sharon Olds Something New

“On the Subway” from Four Perspectives

“Yes, but it’s too much work; almost anything can be looked at through a critical lens.” “Yes, texts are used every day and everywhere to influence us and reinforce ideas of society.” “Yes, but not every- thing in the world should be critically viewed. We need to be able to use lenses but not to over analyze.” “Yes, it helps a lot to try to analyze things from different perspectives.” Can We Use Critical Lenses to Read the World? “No, we cannot use the critical lens to read the world. We must endure what we are in. By analyzing too much, the feeling we have is sucked out.” “Yes, they are necessary to determine the complex and varied messages being thrown at us every day.” “Yes, it gives us many perspectives on the same thing. It basically makes it possible to see more than just the obvious.”

“No. We can use critical lenses to interpret the things we read in the world, but we read at face value first. When we read, we subconsciously use lenses anyway.” “Yes, but it may be overwhelming if you do it all the time. I do think we do it a lot without knowing it.” ”Yes, but we can’t focus on one lens or over-analyze everything, or we will not get anything done.” “Yes, you have to, because nothing is ever direct, you always have to read between the lines to get the entire message.” “Yes, we often use multiple ones every day; however, looking at only one at a time can lead to seeing a muted view of what is happening.” “Yes, although it can be carried away. It is necessary so you don’t buy in to stereotypes and products that would be fulfilling false stereotypes.” “Yes, in a complex world where groups and individuals are vying for power, it is important to analyze the interests of the creators of media that form culture.”

Deborah Appleman Carleton College Handouts for this presentation can be accessed at educ/faculty/Appleman/index.html