Author: Henk de Berg
Publisher: Camden House
ISBN: 9781571133014
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 178
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Book Description
Rarely has a single figure had as much influence on Western thought as Sigmund Freud. His ideas permeate our culture to such a degree that an understanding of them is indispensable. Yet many otherwise well-informed students in the humanities labor under misconceptions or lack of knowledge about Freudian theory. There are countless introductions to Freudian psychoanalysis but, surprisingly, none that combine a genuinely accessible account of Freud's ideas with an introduction to their use in literary and cultural studies, as this book does. It is written specifically for use by advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses dealing with literary and cultural criticism, yet will also be of interest to the general reader. The book consists of two parts. Part one explains Freud's key ideas, focusing on the role his theories of repression, conscious and unconscious mental processes, sexuality, dreams, free associations, "Freudian slips," resistance, and transference play in psychoanalysis, and on the relationship between ego, superego, and id. Here de Berg refutes many popular misconceptions, using examples throughout. The assumption underlying this account is that Freud offers not simply a model of the mind, but an analysis of the relation between the individual and society. Part two discusses the implications of Freudian psychoanalysis for the study of literature and culture. Among the topics analyzed are Hamlet, Heinrich Heine's Lore-Ley, Freud's Totem and Taboo and its influence on literature, the German student movement of the late 1960s, and the case of the Belgian pedophile Marc Dutroux and the public reactions to it. Existing books focus either on Freudian psychoanalysis in general or on psychoanalytic literary or cultural criticism; those in the latter category tend to be abstract and theoretical in nature. None of them are suitable for readers who are interested in psychoanalysis as a tool for literary and cultural criticism but have no firm knowledge of Freud's ideas. Freu
Author: Henk de Berg
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1571132546
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 173
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Book Description
Written specifically for use by advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses dealing with literary criticism, this book is an accessible introduction to Freud's theory and its application to literary and cultural studies.
Author: David Scott Kastan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199725314
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 2656
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Book Description
From folk ballads to film scripts, this new five-volume encyclopedia covers the entire history of British literature from the seventh century to the present, focusing on the writers and the major texts of what are now the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. In five hundred substantial essays written by major scholars, the Encyclopedia of British Literature includes biographies of nearly four hundred individual authors and a hundred topical essays with detailed analyses of particular themes, movements, genres, and institutions whose impact upon the writing or the reading of literature was significant. An ideal companion to The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature, this set will prove invaluable for students, scholars, and general readers. For more information, including a complete table of contents and list of contributors, please visit www.oup.com/us/ebl
Author: Robert Dale Parker
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199797776
Category : Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
A wide-ranging and refreshingly up-to-date anthology of primary readings, Critical Theory: A Reader for Literary and Cultural Studies presents a provocative mix of contemporary and classic essays in critical theory. From the foundational ideas of Marx and Freud to key writings by Fanon and Foucault, the essays in this collection represent the most influential ideas in modern critical thought and in the contemporary interpretation of literature and culture. This collection of seminal readings invites students to join in the ongoing debates and controversies of critical discussion, reading, writing, and interpretation.
Author: Olga V. Trokhimenko
Publisher: V&R unipress GmbH
ISBN: 3847101196
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 255
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Book Description
The study examines textual representations of women's laughter and smiling and their imagined connection to female virtue in a wide variety of discourses and contexts of the German Middle Ages, including medieval epic, ecclesiastical texts, conduct literature, lyric, and sculpture. By engaging with the competing, and at times contradictory, views of female laughter, it reaffirms a disputatious nature of medieval culture, in which multiple views of femininity, sexuality, and virtue stood in a conflicting, yet productive, dialogue with one another. The society that emerges when one looks at medieval German texts is always ambivalent: it thrives on and enjoys talking about sensuality and eroticism, while being constrained by the conventions of polite behavior and the fear of sin; it relies on the ritual use of laughter, while marking it as a sign of lust and perdition. Women's laughter thus offers an important way into understanding medieval views of gender because it combines physicality with shifting and conflicting cultural norms.
Author: Lois Tyson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136645683
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 369
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Book Description
Explaining both why theory is important and how to use it, Lois Tyson introduces beginning students of literature to this often daunting area in a friendly and approachable style. The new edition of this textbook is clearly structured with chapters based on major theories that students are expected to cover in their studies. Key features include: coverage of major theories including psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, lesbian/gay/queer theories, postcolonial theory, African American theory, and a new chapter on New Criticism (formalism) practical demonstrations of how to use these theories on short literary works selected from canonical authors including William Faulkner and Alice Walker a new chapter on reader-response theory that shows students how to use their personal responses to literature while avoiding typical pitfalls new sections on cultural criticism for each chapter new ‘further practice’ and ‘further reading’ sections for each chapter a useful "next step" appendix that suggests additional literary titles for extra practice. Comprehensive, easy to use, and fully updated throughout, Using Critical Theory is the ideal first step for students beginning degrees in literature, composition and cultural studies.
Author: Jill Scott
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801442612
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
"Electra's story is essentially a tale of murder, revenge, and violence. In the ancient myth of Atreus, Agamemnon returns home from battle and receives no hero's welcome. Instead, he is greeted with an ax, murdered in his bath by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover-accomplice, Aegisthus. Electra chooses anger over sorrow and stops at nothing to ensure that her mother pays. In revenge, Electra, with the help of her brother, orchestrates a brutal and bloody matricide, and her reward is the restitution of her father's good name. Amid all this chaos, Electra, Agamemnon's princess daughter, must bear the humiliation of being treated as a slave girl and labeled a madwoman."--from the IntroductionAlmost everyone knows about Oedipus and his mother, and many readers would put the Oedipus myth at the forefront of Western collective mythology. In Electra after Freud, Jill Scott leaves that couple behind and argues convincingly for the primacy of the countermyth of Agamemnon and his daughter. Through a lens of Freudian and feminist psychoanalysis, this book views renderings of the Electra myth in twentieth-century literature and culture.Scott reads several pivotal texts featuring Electra to demonstrate what she calls "a narrative revolt" against the dominance of Oedipus as archetype. Situating the Electra myth within a framework of psychoanalysis, medicine, opera, and dance, Scott investigates the heroine's role at the intersections of history and the feminine, eros and thanatos, hysteria and melancholia. Scott analyzes Electra adaptations by H.D., Hofmannsthal and Strauss, Musil, and Plath and highlights key moments in the telling and reception of the Electra myth in the modern imagination.
Author: R. Schuett
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 023010908X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360
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Book Description
This book provides an important reappraisal of the concept of human nature in contemporary realist international-political theory. Developing a Freudian philosophical anthropology for political realism, he argues for the careful resurrection of the concept of human nature in the wider study of international relations.
Author: Lois Tyson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 100085261X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 560
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Book Description
This thoroughly updated fourth edition of Critical Theory Today offers an accessible introduction to contemporary critical theory, providing in-depth coverage of the most common approaches to literary analysis today, including: feminism; psychoanalysis; Marxism; reader-response theory; New Criticism; structuralism and semiotics; deconstruction; new historicism and cultural criticism; lesbian, gay, and queer theory; African American criticism; and postcolonial criticism and ecocriticism. This new edition features: • A brand new chapter on ecocriticism, including sections on deep ecology, eco-Marxism, ecofeminism (including radical, Marxist, and vegetarian ecofeminisms), and postcolonial ecocriticism and environmental justice • Considerable updates to the chapters on feminist theory, African American theory, postcolonial theory, and LGBTQ theories, including terminology and theoretical concepts • An extended explanation of each theory, using examples from everyday life, popular culture, and a variety of literary texts • A list of specific questions critics ask about literary texts • An interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby through the lens of each theory • A list of questions for further practice to guide readers in applying each theory to different literary works • Updated and expanded bibliographies Both engaging and rigorous, this is a "how-to" book for undergraduate and graduate students new to critical theory and for college professors who want to broaden their repertoire of critical approaches to literature.
Author: Keith Tester
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317002970
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267
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Book Description
In the light of globalization's failure provide the universal panacea expected by some of its more enthusiastic proponents, and the current status of neo-liberalism in Europe, a search has begun for alternative visions of the future; alternatives to the free market and to rampant capitalism. Indeed, although these alternatives may not be conceived of in terms of being a 'perfect order', there does appear to be a trend towards 'utopian thinking', as people - including scholars and intellectuals - search for inspiration and visions of better futures. If, as this search continues, it transpires that politics has little to offer, then what might social theory have to contribute to the imagination of these futures? Does social theory matter at all? What resources can it offer this project of rethinking the future? Without being tied to any single political platform, Utopia: Social Theory and the Future explores some of these questions, offering a timely and sustained attempt to make social theory relevant through explorations of its resources and possibilities for utopian imaginations. It is often claimed that utopian thought has no legitimate place whatsoever in sociological thinking, yet utopianism has remained part and parcel of social theory for centuries. As such, in addition to considering the role of social theory in the imagination of alternative futures, this volume reflects on how social theory may assist us in understanding and appreciating utopia or utopianism as a special topic of interest, a special subject matter, a special analytical focus or a special normative dimension of sociological thinking. Bringing together the latest work from a leading team of social theorists, this volume will be of interest to sociologists, social and political theorists, anthropologists and philosophers.
