Critical Practice

ISBN-13: 9780415280051 / Angielski / Twarda / 2002 / 176 str.

Catherine Belsey

Opis

What is poststructuralist theory, and what difference does it make to literary criticism? Where do we find the meaning of the text: in the author's head? in the reader's? Or do we, instead, make meaning in the practice of reading itself? If so, what part do our own values play in the process of interpretation? And what is the role of the text? Catherine Belsey considers these and other questions concerning the relations between human beings and language, readers and texts, writing and cultural politics. Critical Practice assumes no prior knowledge of poststructuralism, but guides the reader confidently through the maze of contemporary theory. The volume simply and lucidly explains the views of such key figures as Louis Althusser, Roland Barthes, Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida, and shows their theories at work in readings of familiar literary texts. Critical Practice argues that theory matters, because it makes a difference to what we do when we read, opening up new possibilities for literary and cultural analysis. Poststructuralism, in conjunction with psychoanalysis and deconstruction, makes radical change to the way we read both a priority and a possibility.

Spis treści

General Editor's Preface Acknowledgments Preface to the second edition 1. Traditional criticism and common sense 2. Challenges to expressive realism 3. Criticism and Meaning 4. Addressing the Subject 5. The Interrogative Text 6. The Work of the Reading 7. Deconstruction and the Differance it Makes 8. Towards a Productive Critical Practice Further Reading Notes References Index

O autorze

Catherine Belsey is Professor of English at Cardiff University, where she chairs the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory. Her books include Desire: Love Stories in Western Culture and Shakespeare and the Loss of Eden.