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‘Only Connect’: Text and Theory ‘Only Connect’: Text and Theory.

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Presentation on theme: "‘Only Connect’: Text and Theory ‘Only Connect’: Text and Theory."— Presentation transcript:

1 ‘Only Connect’: Text and Theory ‘Only Connect’: Text and Theory

2 What We Read The Canon Milton Shakespeare WordsworthKeats Tennyson Jane Austen Dickens Children’s Literature Sci-Fi ThrillerDetective Fiction Popular Culture Chick Lit

3 What We Read The Reader Survivor Batman Atonement Harry Potter Pride and Prejudice Whale Rider Hamlet

4 How We Read AuthorText Reader Stable meaning Task of reader to work out author’s intention

5 How We Read Author TextReader Reader Response Meanings – fluid, flexible, multiple ‘The death of the author is the birth of the reader.’ Roland Barthes Ideology Background Culture Society

6 How We Read Literary Theory: Different ways of approaching, looking at text Different ways of approaching, looking at text Fashions come and go, new theories and approaches invented Fashions come and go, new theories and approaches inventedExamples: New Historicist New Historicist Post-colonial Post-colonial Marxist Marxist Psychoanalytic Psychoanalytic Feminist Feminist

7 Advantages Reader centre stage Reader centre stage Multiplicity Multiplicity Different voices heard Different voices heard Connections between texts: links, commonalities, divergences, intertextuality Connections between texts: links, commonalities, divergences, intertextualityBUT: Still need textual analysis, support Still need textual analysis, support

8 How We Read Texts New Historicist: Text in historical context Text in historical context Text shaped by cultural, political, ideological world in which produced Text shaped by cultural, political, ideological world in which produced For Example: Hard Times – 19 th trade union movement, education act Hard Times – 19 th trade union movement, education act The Tempest – exploration and discovery The Tempest – exploration and discovery The Captive Wife – convicts, cultural contact, 19 th attitudes towards women The Captive Wife – convicts, cultural contact, 19 th attitudes towards women

9 How We Read Texts Post-colonial: Examine representations of race, Empire, power imbalance Examine representations of race, Empire, power imbalance Indigenous voice/perspective Indigenous voice/perspective For Example: The Tempest – Ariel and Caliban indigenous, Prospero as coloniser The Tempest – Ariel and Caliban indigenous, Prospero as coloniser Mansfield Park – Edward Said – society/wealth founded on slave trade (Antigua) Mansfield Park – Edward Said – society/wealth founded on slave trade (Antigua) Salman Rushdie, Witi Ihimaera, Patricia Grace Salman Rushdie, Witi Ihimaera, Patricia Grace

10 How We Read Texts Marxist: Class struggle key feature of history, human interaction Class struggle key feature of history, human interaction How do texts represent society, class? How do texts represent society, class? For Example: Wuthering Heights – Heathcliff’s pursuit of wealth and power Wuthering Heights – Heathcliff’s pursuit of wealth and power Jane Eyre – Jane a ‘lady’, inheritance secures her class position Jane Eyre – Jane a ‘lady’, inheritance secures her class position

11 How We Read Texts Psychoanalytic: Freud – loss experienced upon separation from mother’s body, id versus ego Freud – loss experienced upon separation from mother’s body, id versus ego Jungian archetypes, collective unconscious Jungian archetypes, collective unconscious Jacques Lacan – structure of self and relation to the social, mirror stage Jacques Lacan – structure of self and relation to the social, mirror stage For Example: Bruce Wayne and Batman – ego and id, chaos and order Bruce Wayne and Batman – ego and id, chaos and order Bertha in Jane Eyre – the suppressed self Bertha in Jane Eyre – the suppressed self Goblin Market – sexuality and desire Goblin Market – sexuality and desire

12 How We Read Texts Feminist: Representation of women in literature Representation of women in literature Desire to recover ‘silenced’ writers Desire to recover ‘silenced’ writers Patriarchal structure of society and language Patriarchal structure of society and language For Example: Jane Austen – predicament of 18 th Century women Jane Austen – predicament of 18 th Century women Aphra Behn, Dorothy Wordsworth, Louisa Baker, Dorothy Parker Aphra Behn, Dorothy Wordsworth, Louisa Baker, Dorothy Parker John Donne – ‘she is all states, all Princes I’; ‘Ah my America, my new found land’ – male conqueror critiqued John Donne – ‘she is all states, all Princes I’; ‘Ah my America, my new found land’ – male conqueror critiqued

13 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson

14 Charles Darwin Origin of Species (1859) Charles Darwin Origin of Species (1859) Evolutionary Scale: Natural Selection Evolutionary Scale: Natural Selection ‘Civilised’ Man ‘Civilised’ Man ‘Savage’ ‘Savage’ Ape Ape

15 Atavistic Criminal Cesare Lombroso, Criminal Man (1876): Ears of unusual size, standing out from the head as do those of the chimpanzee Ears of unusual size, standing out from the head as do those of the chimpanzee Nose twisted, upturned, or flattened in thieves, or aquiline or beak-like in murderers, or with a tip rising like a peak from swollen nostrils. Nose twisted, upturned, or flattened in thieves, or aquiline or beak-like in murderers, or with a tip rising like a peak from swollen nostrils. Lips fleshy, swollen, and protruding Lips fleshy, swollen, and protruding Chin receding, or excessively long, or short and flat, as in apes. Chin receding, or excessively long, or short and flat, as in apes. Abnormally hairy Abnormally hairy Excessive length of arms, extra fingers and toes Excessive length of arms, extra fingers and toes

16 New Historicist Reading Jekyll: Genial Doctor Hyde: Ape-Like, Deformed, Atavistic Criminal -‘impression of deformity…hardly human…something troglodytic…’ -‘ape-like fury’ -‘like a monkey’ -‘animal terror’ -‘face…great muscular activity…debility of constitution’ -‘hand…corded and hairy’ -‘ape-like tricks’, ‘ape-like spite’ -‘a large, well-made, smooth- faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cat perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness…’

17 Post-Colonial and Marxist Readings Jekyll/Hyde ‘Primitive’ Lurks Within No Sense of Evolutionary Progress Superiority/Evolved Nature of ‘Civilised’ Man an Illusion Crimes of a Middle Class Man Hyde: Middle Class, Hyde Described As ‘Gentleman’

18 Sigmund Freud Studies on Hysteria, 1895 Sigmund Freud Studies on Hysteria, 1895 Id – instinctual self, location of desires, repressed because socially unacceptable, a threat to the ego (pleasure principle) Id – instinctual self, location of desires, repressed because socially unacceptable, a threat to the ego (pleasure principle) Ego – conscious self (reality Principle) Ego – conscious self (reality Principle) Superego – conscience (internalisation of punishments and warnings) and ego ideal (shaped by rewards and positive models) Superego – conscience (internalisation of punishments and warnings) and ego ideal (shaped by rewards and positive models) Return of the Repressed – can never banish id, will emerge at some point Return of the Repressed – can never banish id, will emerge at some point

19 Psychoanalytic Reading Id: Hyde Ego: Jekyll Superego Conscience: Wrong to Indulge Desires Ego Ideal: Respected, Charitable Doctor The Return of The Repressed… ‘his wonderful selfishness and circumscription to the moment…’ ‘his every act and thought centred on self; drinking pleasure with bestial avidity…’ Anti- Calvinist Allegory

20 Study in Addiction Attraction of altered state (Hyde) Attraction of altered state (Hyde) Dependency on/ enslavement by Hyde Dependency on/ enslavement by Hyde Illusion of self-control, belief can be free of Hyde when choose Illusion of self-control, belief can be free of Hyde when choose Concealment, manipulation of others Concealment, manipulation of others Compulsive behaviour Compulsive behaviour Despair, retreat into pathological reclusiveness, underworld Despair, retreat into pathological reclusiveness, underworld Inability to achieve desired effect Inability to achieve desired effect Triumph of Hyde Triumph of Hyde Jekyll compares self with ‘drunkard’

21 Feminist Reading? ‘Weeping like a woman or a lost soul…’ ‘Weeping like a woman or a lost soul…’ Hyde as the Repressed Feminine? Hyde as the Repressed Feminine? Hyde as Product of Male Environment Hyde as Product of Male Environment ‘…the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask’ ‘…the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask’ The Back Door The Back Door A Warning: Text and Context A Warning: Text and Context Queer Studies Reading?

22 Belonging or Alienation?

23 Settler Indigenity ‘It is only by going native that the European arrivant can become native.’ (Terry Goldie) ‘It is only by going native that the European arrivant can become native.’ (Terry Goldie) ‘To surrender the furnishings of a culture both European and bourgeois is to come into the sensuality of a “natural occupancy” of the new land. The pleasure afforded by these fictions is that they allow the heirs of a settler society to imagine our unhistoric origin as the possibility of the making of a settlement without a colony.’ (Linda Hardy) ‘To surrender the furnishings of a culture both European and bourgeois is to come into the sensuality of a “natural occupancy” of the new land. The pleasure afforded by these fictions is that they allow the heirs of a settler society to imagine our unhistoric origin as the possibility of the making of a settlement without a colony.’ (Linda Hardy)

24 ‘Colonial Being’ (Stephen Turner) Colonial New Zealander New place like home New place like home Eliminate indigenous population Eliminate indigenous population To be at home/of the new place To be at home/of the new place To be indigenous To be indigenous Colonial Being fantasized history fantasized history illusory continuity; historical discontinuity illusory continuity; historical discontinuity myth-making myth-making

25 Becoming Māori Becoming Māori Language and Affection Language and Affection Rechristening Rechristening Symbolic Wedding Night Symbolic Wedding Night Moko Moko Baptism Baptism

26 Displaced Woman Sacrifice of Self Sacrifice of Self Voice-Over – ‘Sadness’ and ‘Despair’ Voice-Over – ‘Sadness’ and ‘Despair’ Dissolving Words Dissolving Words Ocean – Symbolic Separator Ocean – Symbolic Separator Celtic Theme Tune Celtic Theme Tune

27 Mister Pip, Lloyd Jones Post-Modern Power to Reader: Liberation and Transformation Post-Modern Power to Reader: Liberation and Transformation Post-Colonial? Exploitation and the Culture of Violence Post-Colonial? Exploitation and the Culture of Violence Dickens Appropriated; Oral and Written, Feminine and Masculine Dickens Appropriated; Oral and Written, Feminine and Masculine Cultural Colonisation? Cultural Colonisation? Masculine Voice? Masculine Voice?

28 Katherine Mansfield, How Pearl Button was Kidnapped Katherine Mansfield, How Pearl Button was Kidnapped Anne Estelle Rice, Katherine Mansfield, 1918 Nigel Brown, Names Painting Katherine Mansfield, 1985-93, Private Collection, Photograph Nicola Topping.

29 How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped New Historicist Reading: Written 1910 Written 1910 New Zealand female suffrage 1885 New Zealand female suffrage 1885 Maori – fatal impact, assimilation Maori – fatal impact, assimilation Puritan society – tradition of literary critique of Puritan mindset – Mansfield attacks the ‘box’ mentality of early 20 th century New Zealand secular Puritanism Puritan society – tradition of literary critique of Puritan mindset – Mansfield attacks the ‘box’ mentality of early 20 th century New Zealand secular Puritanism

30 How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped Feminist Reading: House, ‘box’, domestic space of conformity and traditional female domestic drudgery ‘In the kitchen, ironing-because-its- Tuesday’ House, ‘box’, domestic space of conformity and traditional female domestic drudgery ‘In the kitchen, ironing-because-its- Tuesday’ Pearl – rebellious, desirous of new horizons and experiences Pearl – rebellious, desirous of new horizons and experiences Shedding of ‘shoes and stocking, her pinafore and dress’, freeing from female constraint, expectation Shedding of ‘shoes and stocking, her pinafore and dress’, freeing from female constraint, expectation

31 How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped Psychoanalytic Reading: Id: Instinctual Self Super-Ego Ego: Pearl Conscience: ‘nasty things’ policemen Ego Ideal: mother at home Boxes = order Escape Archetype: Socialisation of individual Fantasy of escape Freud: Journey away from Mother

32 How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped Post-Colonial Reading: Cultural encounter – Maori culture seen as warm, communal, loving, spontaneous; Pakeha culture as restricting, sterile and claustrophobic Cultural encounter – Maori culture seen as warm, communal, loving, spontaneous; Pakeha culture as restricting, sterile and claustrophobic Maori stereotypes – ‘fat’, ‘dusty’, ‘naked’, admiring of Pearl’s ‘yellow curls’ Maori stereotypes – ‘fat’, ‘dusty’, ‘naked’, admiring of Pearl’s ‘yellow curls’ Witi Ihimaera’s ‘The Affectionate Kidnappers’ – ‘a tamariki all alone – no good’, ‘gone into darkness, gone into the stomach of the Pakeha …eaten up by the white man’ Witi Ihimaera’s ‘The Affectionate Kidnappers’ – ‘a tamariki all alone – no good’, ‘gone into darkness, gone into the stomach of the Pakeha …eaten up by the white man’

33 How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped Marxist Reading: Bourgeois Pakeha society: individual ownership = conformity, alienation, ‘nasty things’ Bourgeois Pakeha society: individual ownership = conformity, alienation, ‘nasty things’ Maori society: communal, warmth, laughter Maori society: communal, warmth, laughter Pearl instinctively Marxist in outlook and preferences Pearl instinctively Marxist in outlook and preferences

34 Bibliography: Literary Theory Gregory Castle, The Blackwell Guide to Literary Theory (2007) Gregory Castle, The Blackwell Guide to Literary Theory (2007) Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP 1997) Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP 1997) Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (Minnesota UP 1996) Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (Minnesota UP 1996) Patricia Waugh, ed., Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide (2006) Patricia Waugh, ed., Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide (2006)

35 Bibliography: Mister Pip, River Queen John Lovell, Mister Pip Teacher’s Guide (Longman, 2008) John Lovell, Mister Pip Teacher’s Guide (Longman, 2008) Jennifer Lawn, ‘What the Dickens: Storytelling and Intertextuality in Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip,’ in Floating Worlds: Essays on Contemporary New Zealand Fiction, ed. Anna Jackson and Jane Stafford (Victoria University Press, 2009)pp 142-63 Jennifer Lawn, ‘What the Dickens: Storytelling and Intertextuality in Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip,’ in Floating Worlds: Essays on Contemporary New Zealand Fiction, ed. Anna Jackson and Jane Stafford (Victoria University Press, 2009)pp 142-63 Mark Llewellyn, ‘What is Neo-Victorian Studies?’ Neo- Victorian Studies 1:1 (2008) pp. 177-180 on Mister Pip Mark Llewellyn, ‘What is Neo-Victorian Studies?’ Neo- Victorian Studies 1:1 (2008) pp. 177-180 on Mister Pip Bruce Babington, ‘What Streams May Come: Navigating Vincent Ward’s River Queen’ Illusions Winter (2008) pp. 9-13 Bruce Babington, ‘What Streams May Come: Navigating Vincent Ward’s River Queen’ Illusions Winter (2008) pp. 9-13 Kirstine Moffat, ‘The River and the Ocean: Indigenity and Dispossession in River Queen’ Moving Worlds, Special Issue: New New Zealand, 8:2 (2009) pp. 94-106 Kirstine Moffat, ‘The River and the Ocean: Indigenity and Dispossession in River Queen’ Moving Worlds, Special Issue: New New Zealand, 8:2 (2009) pp. 94-106


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