As I have mentioned before I have already taken this class with a different professor and we had a different anthology, this being said I wanted to do an in-depth look at it and the articles chosen within it that helped me understand different modes of interpretation. First off I think that the way this anthology is set up is helpful, it's clearly organized and it allows the reader to dive right into any theory and any essay within that theory. What I also really liked was the introduction by the editor's before every section, they helped to ease me into the language and discussion taking place within the realm of each theory. It also helped me understand surface parts of the theory before I took an in-depth ride through the theory per each author which left me a lot less confused than I would be if I delved right into an article off the bat.
I shall start off by stating which articles helped me and why within each theory followed by my final discussion and opinion of this anthology. Starting with Formalism which was a lens that I looked at a lot this semester especially for my group presentation, the one article that helped me the most was Cleaneth Brook's "The Formalist Critic". In which he explains a great overview of what it means to be a formalist critic, how one must push aside the author, their self, and the world to solely look at the text. This article was very refreshing as it was slightly easier to read than others in the anthology. He also covered many other formalist points regarding analyzation. That a formalist critic must attempt to find a "central point of reference from which he can focus upon the structure of the poem or novel" (24). Brook's continues to cover a lot of characteristics of Formalist criticism in this essay and it is definitely worth looking into if you are interested in Formalist criticism and how it works. Even though there were many other great articles within that section I chose this one as it helped me the most.
There are so many articles that I pulled from for my presentation within this anthology in regards to Structuralism, and many of them were very engaging but there was one that really helped me grasp structuralist concepts and that was Sausssure's "Case in General Linguistics". There are many great aspects of Structuralism that one can analyze a text with but for me and my own modes of interpretation I have always loved focusing on language therefore this article was one I used heavily. He opens up this piece with the topic of language versus speech. Language and how it works, it's functions, and so on are all very important concepts within Structuralist theory so this was not surprising to me that he opened up this essay that way. He also goes on to cover other huge aspects this theory such as sign versus signifier. He also throws in a great relation between the function of language and chess which really had me thinking for a while after I read that. This article covers a lot but not all aspects of what Structuralist theory can is and can do. In "The Linguistic Foundation" by Culler he also touches upon language, how it operates, its rules and conventions, but all in regards to how it makes up human culture. As language plays a huge role in culture I found this essay to be important. During this discussion he brings up Saussure and the "Prague Linguistic Cricle" that focused on Phonology, an area within linguistics that some Structuralist's focused on. This essay to me was all about understanding language in different outlets. In regards to the sounds that make up language, and how language is a system made up of all of that. This essay helped me view language versus speech in a new way.
Of course I can not cover every article of critical theory in depth with heavy explanations as there are so many to cover and so many articles that I found super useful, but I can pick out what was most important to me, my modes of interpretation and the work I did for class. This being said, when focusing on Post-Structuralism or Post-Modernism, one must obviously read Derrida's "Differance" as his stance on language challenges your brain in a new way, and in relation to the work of Neitzsche, Heidegger, and Saussure. Another essay within this section of the anthology was very thought provoking in regards to how people "come to live in pure stimulations, replications of reality that resemble it in all respects" (Baudrillard, 365). In "Simulacra and Simulations" by Jean Baurillard he focuses on the way consumption, advertising, and marketing in relation to language and signs can cause "a regime of controlled consumption shaped by marketing and advertising, to consume signs of status or of self-identity" (365). I focused on this essay in regards to Greenwald's book and Super Sad True Love Story as it also has a lot in which it can relate to through it's content to our generation and what is happening with us now in regards to self-identity.
In regards to Psycho-Analysis I tended to not look at Freud as we discussed him a lot in class so I tended to look at Lacan within his two essays in that section as well as Kolk and McFarlane's essay "The Black hole of Trauma". This essay is great to use in regards to analyzing literature like "Beloved" as it shows how trauma can damage the psyche and leave "indelible marks on it". What I also like about this essay was the language they chose, it seemed to be clearer and easier to read than many other articles and that helps so much. It's like a little break for your brain.
When looking at Marxism, I really liked Althusser's article "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" and it let me to some great conclusions in regards to the structure of the society within Super Sad True Love Story. I also looked at some Marx as he is a big player in regards to using a more traditional social or economical Marxist lens, I mainly focused on his articles "Wage, Labor, and Capital" and "The German Ideology" when thinking about Marxism in relation to my final project as I mainly looked at the economic aspects of Super Sad True Love Story and what it did to the social aspect of their society.
I focused more on Gender Studies more in regards to my own modes of interpretation, I'm not sure why, possibly because the essays spoke to me more. I really liked the points Rubin made in the article "Sexual Transformation" as well as Foucault's essay "The History of Sexuality". I even took a look at the article "A Small Boy and Others: Sexual Disorientation in Henry James, Kenneth Anger, and David Lynche" as I took a Lynch & Hitchcock course last semester so analyzing Lynch's work through any sort of gender studies lens always seems to point out some great concepts. When we looked at Feminism within class I tended to become engaged in Rubin and Irigaray's articles.
I already wrote a blog post referring to Post-Colonial and Colonial studies in regards to a certain article or two I believe, but in my opinion this lens is great to use when referring to topics such as materialism, language, culture, and much more. When we discussed these type of studies in class I really connected to the articles "English in the Caribbean" by Brathwaite, "Signs Taken for Wonder" by Bhabha, and Okonkwo's "Casualties of Freedom". I really was engaged in regards to thinking, writing and reading within this theory and these articles.
Lastly, Cultural Studies. Something that I never looked at too much until my final project rolled around and I decided to look at in regards to my final project on Super Sad True Love Story. This is a great lens because it encompasses a lot and can be used in many ways in regards to many other topics. Within this section I focused on Horkheimer an Adorno's "The Culture Industry as Mass Deception" and I also looked at Certeau's "The Practice of Everyday Life" and both of Fiske's essays.
All in all, I really liked this anthology. A lot more than the last one I came into contact with and many of the articles within it were very well chosen. It worked well with the course and when it was tied together to each theory we covered. This anthology helped me deeply understand some of these theories alongside class discussions which later down the road allowed me to understand my choice modes of interpretation.
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