Literary Theory?

[swimmermom3]

Do you teach any or all of the following literary critical theories?

 

Feminist

• Marxist

• Psychoanalytic or Freudian

• Archetypal or Mythological

• New Historicism

• Formalism

 

If so, at what point in your student's high school career and how do you approach it? I was thinking of using this Introduction to Literary Theory but decided against due to the format and the cost. Still, it's an intriguing idea.

 

Ugh! I posted this on the way out to the swim meet. I was really thinking of it more for me.

Edited January 29, 2011 by swimmermom3

[unity]

Oh, my.

 

OK, my kids are too young for hard-core lit analysis, but imo, so are all hs kids. These litcrit studies you mention all have their proponents, of course, but I think it would be doing a high schooler a disservice to teach how to read in exclusively one approach. Some of these are quite outdated and are not exactly cutting edge of lit theory. Feminist approaches are still rather popular, but you know part of the problem with writing from a particular approach is that it's so easy, as a scholarly reader, to dismiss where the author of a paper is coming from if it's too obvious which methodology they are writing from, particularly if it's Marxist or Freudian, but the others, too.

 

I mean, back in the day when I did this for a living, if I picked up a particular scholarly article and could tell within a paragraph which approach they were using, I could predict pretty reliably how the rest of the paper was going to go. They get pretty predictable.

 

I think the formal study of lit analysis in the way you are talking about is more of a discipline for college. But if you really want an overview of it, how about Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory: An Introduction? That book, iirc, is from a rather Marxist standpoint but he does a good job outlining the history of lit crit. It's cheap, too.

 

But to answer your question, the lit crit methodology I am most likely to use and teach my children is best described as "close reading" and I hope to train my dc in how to write a good "explication de texte" or analysis of a brief literary passage. I will naturally bring in other methodologies as we discuss literature, but I don't plan to make a big deal about verifying that they know the names of reading approaches, etc.

 

Actually, as I write this, I realize that my answer is in part influenced by my oldest dc's interest in math/science. I suppose if they were lit fanatics like myself, I probably would go deeper into lit crit as you suggest. So it all depends. :-)

[Mama Lynx]

I don't plan to.

 

I have a lit degree, but did not encounter any literary criticism until college. In high school I plan to teach them no more than very basic analysis, and how to write response papers ALA SWB.

[Mommyfaithe]

Do you teach any or all of the following literary critical theories?

 

Feminist

• Marxist

• Psychoanalytic or Freudian

• Archetypal or Mythological

• New Historicism

• Formalism

 

If so, at what point in your student's high school career and how do you approach it? I was thinking of using this Introduction to Literary Theory but decided against due to the format and the cost. Still, it's an intriguing idea.

 

:lol::lol::rofl::rofl::001_huh:

 

serious??

 

Oh.....

 

nevermind.

 

Faithe

[swimmermom3]

:lol::lol::rofl::rofl::001_huh:

 

serious??

 

Oh.....

 

nevermind.

 

Faithe

 

:blushing:My ignorance knows no bounds? Curiosity killed the thread? The fact that my in box is full in regards to this post tells me I probably should not have followed up on that email from Prestwick Publications featuring their new product. I just get so darn excited when I see anything with "literary" in it. I took tons of lit classes in college and don't remember seeing any of this except the feminist viewpoint. I guess there was a good reason for that, eh? Don't worry. I will not be subjecting my poor dd to these topics. I thought I had missed something...besides the boat.

 

You all just go back to reading posts on spelling programs and bean dip recipes and we'll just pretend this little post never happened. Okay?

 

Come on, Faithe. Pick yourself up off the floor. You know I wrote this just to entertain you.:D:tongue_smilie:

[kokotg]

 

OK, my kids are too young for hard-core lit analysis, but imo, so are all hs kids.

 

:iagree:

 

But to answer your question, the lit crit methodology I am most likely to use and teach my children is best described as "close reading" and I hope to train my dc in how to write a good "explication de texte" or analysis of a brief literary passage. I will naturally bring in other methodologies as we discuss literature, but I don't plan to make a big deal about verifying that they know the names of reading approaches, etc.

 

 

 

and that, too.

 

I actually try to do a sort of intro to close reading with my oldest (he's 9) now, mostly by picking passages for dictation that lend themselves to analysis. We talk about stuff like "is this a metaphor or a simile?" "what does this sentence tell us about the narrator?" "why did the author choose this word instead of some other one?" etc.

 

I've taught freshman comp classes. Trust me--if your kid goes to college knowing what a thesis is, how to construct a decent paragraph, and has any kind of basic competency with literary analysis, s/he'll be better prepared than 99% of college freshmen.

[Mommyfaithe]

:blushing:My ignorance knows no bounds? Curiosity killed the thread? The fact that my in box is full in regards to this post tells me I probably should not have followed up on that email from Prestwick Publications featuring their new product. I just get so darn excited when I see anything with "literary" in it. I took tons of lit classes in college and don't remember seeing any of this except the feminist viewpoint. I guess there was a good reason for that, eh? Don't worry. I will not be subjecting my poor dd to these topics. I thought I had missed something...besides the boat.

 

You all just go back to reading posts on spelling programs and bean dip recipes and we'll just pretend this little post never happened. Okay?

 

Come on, Faithe. Pick yourself up off the floor. You know I wrote this just to entertain you.:D:tongue_smilie:

 

Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

 

You know us plain people can't handle all this academia...I just want my little guys to stop wearing their underwear on their heads...and Dr. Kazam to remember that a school day consists of more than 1/2 a math lesson, a few Hunger Games chapters and playing with the puppy.

 

Now, if it were up to me, my kids would be studying the deep stuff in kindergarten :D BUT, these guys just can't get past the Lego stage.

 

Right now, I am happy with a few short narrations and a good conversation over dinner once in a while....Oh, and no one wearing underwear on their heads.

 

Faithe

[Mommyfaithe]

Do you teach any or all of the following literary critical theories?

 

Feminist

• Marxist

• Psychoanalytic or Freudian

• Archetypal or Mythological

• New Historicism

• Formalism

 

If so, at what point in your student's high school career and how do you approach it? I was thinking of using this Introduction to Literary Theory but decided against due to the format and the cost. Still, it's an intriguing idea.

 

Ugh! I posted this on the way out to the swim meet. I was really thinking of it more for me.

 

OK...I had to go look at your link...now that I have picked myself off the floor....and I have to say, these books look really interesting. I am not sure I would use them in high school, but the idea of approaching literature from different perspectives is very intriguing.

 

I am not sure those are the perspectives I would necessarily want to point out myself....but it sure would give us something to chew on. I wonder if there are materials to study lit from the perspective of culture or religion, rather than politics or sexual orientation. HMMMMM...would that be a Literary Theory as well....studying from different worldviews....hmmmmm.

 

I wish, wish, wish my kids would put up with me more....but alas, they would rather me hand them the book, a study guide, and let them come to their own conclusions.....sigh....

 

 

Faithe

[Hunter]

It looks very interesting, but time consuming. To pursue this will mean cutting back on what?

 

I consider literature to be an art, so I approach it as equal to the visual arts and music, not as a priority in my English studies.

 

For Lit right now I'm using the KJV Bible as the core of my SOW studies, but wanted a bit more, and knew I needed to keep it light and fun, if I were to stay true to my educational philosophy. I'm loving Susan Hall's 4 volume set Using Picture Storybooks to Teach Literary Devices. I'm focusing on tone right now. The later volumes also teach the Art styles and medias used.

 

As I write my SOW papers I'm very influenced by, and often reference, the SOW Spiritual Vs Carnal Chart and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which provide at least some balance to each other. Are there world views you find more interesting than the ones included in the curriculum?

Edited January 29, 2011 by Hunter

[Julie in MN]

To pursue this will mean cutting back on what?

 

I can't see dedicating that much time to one outlook, but I do like to include a conversation about an author's view with each high school book. e.g. Call of the Wild = socialist outlook, Lord of the Flies = Marxist outlook.

 

Just beginning to start pricking up the ears of the student

 

Not sure if that's where you were going with it?

Julie

[Nicole M]

I clicked on the link, too. I looked at the sample pages, but I'm not sure how that program works. You fire up the computer and it gives you those pages?

 

I think the idea of introducing the concept of literary theories is a good one. Many kids hit college not knowing that there even are these different ways of approaching a text, if they've done any close reading at all, which is doubtful, really. I have a feeling that in your house, it would be overkill, Lisa. I suspect you're already covering your bases here. But this program, if it is what I think it is, would be fascinating for your S, I think. (Any you and me, too. :D)

[Nan in Mass]

So, I guess the way I've dealt with this issue is to retire in relief to TWEM approach. I had my more humanities oriented child read How to Read Literature Like an English Prof (or something like that) and then gratefully left it at that without trying to do anything with it. My engineering oriented child already notices archtypes and myth similarities, and occasionally makes some sort of stab at recognizing that an author might have ideas about the nature of humanity that differ from our own. Both of them recognize that sometimes stories are echoes of other stories. If I could find a short wiki article (or something along those lines) about the different approaches that some people take, I would perhaps have them read that. We talk about how some people read a ton of stuff into literature, and how some authors write with many layers in mind but others don't. We have had some very rudimentary conversations about whether or not it is important for the reader to figure out what the author meant, and about how different people focus on different aspects of the same book. (This becomes super obvious when three generations all read the same work aloud together and then answer TWEM questions GRIN.) In general, though, I am not trying to teach my children that sort of thing about literature. I am much more interested in having them find their own meaning in books than in having them discuss any sort of literature with anyone else. I guess I think of literature as a private world of escape and enlightenment, and I am unambitious enough to want only that for my children, not anything more. I want them to be able to read a variety of adult things easily enough that they continue to read for escape and education their whole lives, but I don't care whether they share their findings with anyone else as adults. I think they are unlikely to take literature classes in which they are going to have to do that sort of literary analysis, so I think I might be able to get away with this probably stupid stance. I just want them to like Beowulf and The Odyssey and Hamlet and The Importance of Being Ernest and some scifi. I don't care why they like them.

-Nan