10-second review: “With the Development and popularity of movies and later of television, modern prose has been affected by screen drama. One brief trip to the library will reveal the increase in the percent of dialogue in the written story, an increase that has followed the growth of films.”
Quote: “The reader is inclined to shun long narrative or descriptive passages and even to skip those parts lacking dialogue.” p. 22.
Source: “Dialogue That Is Music.” Robert O’Neil Bristow. The Writer (November 1973), pp. 21-22; 44. The Writer is a magazine by writers for writers.
10-second review: The degree to which people are able to tolerate ambiguity is a rather positive indication of the degree of their creativeness. p. 487.
Source: “In Teaching—The Right To Wonder.” Miriam E. Wilt. pp. 481-489. [Sorry, I lost the journal source of this article.]
Comment: An interesting idea. Do we need to teach ambiguity?RayS.
10-second review: The value of writing poetry is in learning to use images, metaphors and symbols. The approach to reading poetry should be, first, to understand a poem as a communication of experience, and then to appreciate the imagery and economy of poetic language.
Source: “Teaching Students to Write Poetry.” Joseph J. Feeney, S.J. pp. 395-398. [Sorry, I lost the journal source.]
Comment: Interesting purpose for writing poetry and a sequence of activities for reading it. RayS.
10-second review: When it comes to discussing grammar, it is important that the term “grammar” be defined. The author of this article defines grammar—and composition—as punctuation, capitalization. usage and spelling. He does not mention syntax.
Source: “Total English Equals Writing Competence.” Thomas H Whalen. Research in the Teaching of English (Spring 1969), 52-61. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary: The author defined composition and grammar in the same way and did some research that proved that composition and grammar were related.
Comment: I think that this article was a put-on, a humorous response to the belief that the study of grammar in no way improves writing. However the author had one valid point—the need to define the terms “composition” and “grammar.” I think I will be surprised, maybe astonished, by the different definitions of these terms by different people. RayS.
10-second review: “As literacy educators, we believe in the power of literature to help our students understand life and create visions for the future.”
Source: DL Taylor. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (December 2004), 298. A publication of the International Reading Association.
Comment: Literature, by and large, paints life realistically. Some call that depressing. Candid readers will admit that much literature is tragic. “Understanding life” means understanding the problems and passions that life entails. It means looking directly at the problems of living, of personality, of relationships. Reading literature is not usually a “joyous” experience. It raises questions about living, explores the problems of living and strengthens our understanding of the complexities of living. Stop painting literature as looking at life through rose-colored glasses. RayS.
10-second review: How help students understand the differences between poetry and prose? Teacher re-tells a poem in prose. Students compare the prose and poetic versions. Shows differences in genre and in voice.
Source: D Woodard. Notes Plus (October 2004), 4-5. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
10-second review: What are some reasons that children misinterpret poetry? IA Richards: “The inability to respond to poetic imagery is one of the major causes for misreading and misinterpreting poetry.”
10-second review: What are young students’ opinions about poetry? Third Grader: Some of them [poems] are sad and some are funny. The funny ones are for kids and the sad ones are for adults, I think.”
Source: MW Harp. “Poetry in the Primary Grades.” 1171.
10-second review: When reading poems with children, consider how the poem or parts of the poem can be used as a model for the children’s writing their own poems.
Source: JLCerto. Reading Teacher (November 2004), 266-271. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
10-second review: The dialogue of many novels is much too witty. People don’t talk that way.
Quote: “[Novels coming out of the English-speaking world] are too witty. People don’t talk to each other; they exchange punchlines. It’s all very amusing and after a couple of pages I am amazed at the quality of the dialogue—the witticisms and sharpness. However, I quickly realize that people do not talk like that. The words are all a kind of literary baroque.” Amos Oz, Israeli Writer.
Source: The Writer (September 1973), p. 5. The Writer is a magazine by writers for writers.
Comment: I guess you can thank Oscar Wilde and Henry James, in part, for that kind of witty dialogue. RayS.
10-second review: This request came from a person with a name that is very difficult to pronounce. Answer: Submit your article under your own name. If it is accepted for publication, ask the editor to publish it under your pen name—and why. The editor who responded to the question notes that a number of famous writers with difficult names—Maia Wojciechowska—publish under their own names.
Source: The Writer (September 1973), p. 4. The Writer is a magazine by writers for writers.
10-second review: Why read multicultural literature? Students read multicultural literature in order to understand the perspective of the characters toward the world, perspectives different from the readers’.
Source: B Louie. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (April 2005), 568-578. The secondary school publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Comment: From the perspective of a beginnerin using multicultural literature: An interesting purpose for reading multicultural literature. Might begin by reading reviews of multicultural literature. And then read selected novels for their literary merit—as well as the views of the characters toward the world. And I am going to have to take a course or courses in multicultural literature. Whew!RayS.
10-second review: How prepare students to read multicultural literature? In order for students to get the most from multi-cultural literature, they need increased background information about various cultures.
Source: JH Dressel. Reading Teacher (May 2005), 750-764. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Comment: For this kind of information, check the Internet under, for example, Latin American cultures of which there are 67,400,000 Web sites. RayS.
10-second review: How help students learn and apply critical theories? Have students learn critical theory by breaking them into groups, each group responsible for becoming experts in a particular theory, demonstrating its use on a text and teaching that theory to the other groups.
Source: K Hinton. English Journal (November 2004), 60-64. The secondary school journal of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
What are the theories of literary criticism? Yesterday, I described the "Historical" approach to criticism. Today, I am listing the other nine approaches.
New Criticism examines the relationships between a text's ideas and its form, "the connection between what a text says and the way it's said." New Critics/Formalists "may find tension, irony, or paradox in this relation, but they usually resolve it into unity and coherence of meaning." New Critics look for patterns of sound, imagery, narrative structure, point of view, and other techniques discernible on close reading of "the work itself." They insist that the meaning of a text should not be confused with the author's intentions nor the text's affective dimension--its effects on the reader. The objective determination as to "how a piece works" can be found through close focus and analysis, rather than through extraneous and erudite special knowledge.
Archetypal criticism "traces cultural and psychological 'myths' that shape the meaning of texts." It argues that "certain literary archetypes determine the structure and function of individual literary works," and therefore that literature imitates not the world but rather the "total dream of humankind." Archetypes (recurring images or symbols, patterns, universal experiences) may include motifs such as the quest or the heavenly ascent, symbols such as the apple or snake, or images such as crucifixion--all laden with meaning already when employed in a particular work.
Psychoanalytic criticism adopts the methods of "reading" employed by Freud and later theorists to interpret what a text really indicates. It argues that "unresolved and sometimes unconscious ambivalences in the author's own life may lead to a disunified literary work," and that the literary work is a manifestation of the author's own neuroses. Psychoanalytic critics focus on apparent dilemmas and conflicts in a work and "attempt to read an author's own family life and traumas into the actions of their characters," realizing that the psychological material will be expressed indirectly, encoded (similar to dreams) through principles such as "condensation," "displacement," and "symbolism."
Feminist criticism critiques patriarchal language and literature by exposing how a work reflects masculine ideology. It examines gender politics in works and traces the subtle construction of masculinity and femininity, and their relative status, positionings, and marginalizations within works.
Marxist criticism argues that literature reflects social institutions and that it is one itself, with a particular ideological function: that literature participates in the series of struggles between oppressed and oppressing classes which makes up human history. Similar to Marx's historical theory, Marxist criticism will focus on the distribution of resources, materialism, class conflict, or the author's analysis of class relations. It examines how some works attempt to shore up an oppressive social order or how they idealize social conflict out of existence, how others offer an alternative collective life or propose a utopian vision as a solution.
Cultural criticism questions traditional value hierarchies and takes a cross-disciplinary approach to works traditionally marginalized by the aesthetic ideology of white European males. Instead of more attention to the canon, cultural studies examines works by minority ethnic groups and postcolonial writers, and the products of folk, urban, and mass culture. Popular literature, soap opera, rock and rap music, cartoons, professional wrestling, food, etc. -- all fall within the domain of cultural criticism. We are focusing on it particularly as it concerns questioning the ways Western cultural tradition expressed in literature defines itself partly by stifling the voices of oppressed groups or even by demonizing those groups. We will focus on how literary tradition has constructed models of identity for oppressed groups, how these groups have constructed oppositional literary identities, and how different communities of readers might interpret the same text differently due to varied value systems.
New Historicism "finds meaning by looking at a text within the framework of the prevailing ideas and assumptions of its historical era, or by considering its contents within a context of 'what really happened' during the period that produced the text." New Historicists concern themselves with the political function of literature and with the concept of power, "the complex means by which societies produce and reproduce themselves." These critics focus on revealing the historically specific model of truth and authority reflected in a given work.
Reader-Response criticism "insists that all literature is a structure of experience, not just a form or meaning," and therefore focuses on finding meaning in the act of reading itself and examines the ways individual readers or communities of readers experience texts. These critics examine how the reader joins with the author "to help the text mean." They determine what kind of reader or what community of readers the work implies and helps to create. They examine "the significance of the series of interpretations the reader goes through in the process of reading."
Deconstruction is a recent school of criticism which ventures beyond the structuralists' assertion that all aspects of human culture are fundamentally languages--complex systems of signs: signifieds (concepts) and signifiers (verbal or non-verbal--and that therefore a quasi-scientific formalism is available for approaching literature (and advertising, fashion, food, etc.). Deconstructionists oppose the "metaphysics of presence," that is, the claim of literature or philosophy that we can find some full, rich meaning outside of or prior to language itself. Like formalists, these critics also look "at the relation of a text's ideas to the way the ideas are expressed. Unlike formalists, though, deconstructionists find meaning in the ways the text breaks down: for instance, in the ways the rhetoric contradicts the ostensible message." Deconstructive criticism "typically argues that a particular literary, historical, or philosophical work both claims to possess full and immediate presence and admits the impossibility of attaining such presence,"--that texts, rather than revealing the New Critic's "unities," actually dismantle themselves due to their intertwined, inevitably opposite "discourses" (strands of narrative, threads of meaning).
Taken from a Website of the WashingtonStateUniversity: http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/crit.summaries.html
Comment: Good to have one place a list and brief description of the major theories of literary criticism. Figuring out what they mean will be a chore. RayS.
10-second review: How help students learn and apply critical theories? Have students learn critical theory by breaking them into groups, each group responsible for becoming experts in a particular theory, demonstrating its use on a text and teaching that theory to the other groups.
Source: K Hinton. English Journal (November 2004), 60-64. The secondary school journal of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
What are the theories of literary criticism?
Historicism considers the literary work in light of "what really happened" during the period reflected in that work. It insists that to understand a piece, we need to understand the author's biography and social background, ideas circulating at the time, and the cultural milieu. Historicism also "finds significance in the ways a particular work resembles or differs from other works of its period and/or genre," and therefore may involve source studies. It may also include examination of philology and linguistics. It is typically a discipline involving impressively extensive research.
Note: For the next several days, I will present a single critical theory each day.
Taken from a Website of the WashingtonStateUniversity: http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/crit.summaries.html
10-second review: How help students improve comprehension? “Background knowledge is an important factor for creating meaning, and teachers should help students activate prior knowledge before reading so that information connected with concepts or topics in the text is more easily accessible during reading.”
Source: LS Pardo. Reading Teacher (November 2004), 274. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Comment: The more you know about a topic, the more you will comprehend what you read about it. RayS.
Ten-second review: How use both nonfiction and fiction in working with a topic? Use information texts to build up students’ background knowledge on a topic and then use fiction to add a personal dimension to their knowledge of the topic.
Source: J Soalt. Reading Teacher (April 2005), 680-683. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Comment: This idea might work better with picture books in the primary grades or Young Adult books in the upper elementary grades. On an adult level, I might read a biography of Napoleon and then read Tolstoy’s War and Peace. But that’s a stretch. But another, more realistic example might be to read a history of the Civil War and then to read The Red Badge of Courage. RayS.
