Transcript Document

Reading and Resisting Ideology,
Or, What's a Theory For?:
Contemporary Literary Theory and
Adolescents
University of Minnesota
Thursday, February 5, 2004
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, “is to
learn something. That is the only thing that never
fails. You may grow old and trembling in your
anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the
disorder of your veins….you may see the world
around you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your
honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is
only one thing for it then… to learn. Learn why the
world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing
which the mind can never exhaust, never
alienate,never be tortured by, never fear or distrust,
and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing
for you.”
T.H.White, The Once and Future King
The main reason for studying theory at the same time as
literature is that it forces you to deal consciously with the
problem of ideologies...There are many truths and the one
you will find depends partly on the ideology you start with.
[Studying theory] means you can take your own part in
the struggles for power between different ideologies. It
helps you to discover elements of your own ideology, and
understand why you hold certain values unconsciously. It
means no authority can impose a truth on you in a
dogmatic way--and if some authority does try, you can
challenge that truth in a powerful way, by asking what
ideology it is based on... Theory is subversive because it
puts authority in question.
- Bonnycastle, In Search of Authority, p. 34
Ideology
In essence an ideology is a system of thought or “world view”
which an individual acquires (usually unconsciously) from the
world around him. An ideology determines what you think is
important in life, what categories you put people into, how you
see male and female roles in life, and a host of other things.
You can visualize your ideology as a grid , or a set of glasses,
through which you can see the world.
(Bonnycastle)
The term ideology describes the beliefs, attitudes, and habits of
feeling which a society inculcates in order to generate an
automatic reproduction of its structuring premises. Ideology is
what preserves social power in the absence of direct coercion.
(Ryan)
Ideological common sense is common
sense in the service of sustaining
unequal relations of power.
-Fairclough
Ideology is most effective when its workings are least
visible. If one becomes aware that a particular aspect of
common sense is sustaining power inequalities at one’s
own expense, it ceases to be common sense, and may cease
to have the capacity to sustain power inequalities, i.e., to
function ideologically. And invisibility is achieved when
ideologies are brought to discourse not as explicit
elements of the text, but as the background assumptions
which, on the one hand, lead the text producer to
textualize the world in a particular way, and on the other
hand, lead the interpreter to interpret the text in a
particular way. Texts do not spout ideology. They so
position the interpreter through their cues that she brings
ideologies to the interpretation of texts—and reproduces
them in the process!
-Fairclough, 1989, p. 85
An Assertion of
Individualism?
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Ê
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. ÊÊ
ÊÊÊ
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and IÑ
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
No Such Thing as Innocence
Contemporary theory holds that there is no such thing
as an innocent, value-free reading. Instead, each of us
has a viewpoint invested with presuppositions about
‘reality’ and about ourselves, whether we are conscious
of it or not. People who deny having a critical stance,
who claim they are responding “naturally” or being
“completely objective” do not know themselves.
- Staton, Literary Theories in Praxis
“Until lions tell their stories, tales
of hunting will glorify the hunter.”
--African proverb
A man with one theory is lost. He
needs several of them, or lots! He
should stuff them in his pockets
like newspapers.
-Bertolt Brecht
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the
ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at
the same time and still retain the ability to
function. One should, for example, be able to
see that things are hopeless and yet be
determined to make them otherwise.
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
It is not that we shouldn’t care about individual
students and texts. We should, and I do. We also
recognize, however, that students and texts are
embedded in huge, living, sometimes
contradictory networks, and if we want students
to understand the workings of textuality, then we
have to think about those larger systems.
- Bruce Pirie, 1996
Literary theory can handle Bob
Dylan just as well as John Milton.
-Terry Eagleton
Critical Encounters: Reading the World
The relationship between the text and the world is not simply a
fascinating problem for textual theory. It is, above all others, the
problem that makes textual theory necessary.
(Scholes, 1985, p. 75)
The world is like a huge novel that needs to be interpreted. It has a
very broad and confusing plot with a variety of settings and many
different cultures and themes.
(Jesse, Grade 11)
Critical lenses are devices of interpretation. Just as they are used to
interpret literature they can be used to interpret the world. When a
critical lens is used in literature, in essence, it is being applied to
the world. A critical lens can be used to “read” the world because
there is little, if any, difference between what is real and the
literature it is customarily used for.
(Carmen, Grade 12)
Jenny’s Response
Anna’s Response
Matt’s Response:
Ethiopia Versus Tiffany & Co.
Description
After we talked about Marxism and Of Mice and Men, I was looking at
the NY Times A section and saw these two items facing each other. There’s
a long article about famine in Ethiopia-I didn’t copy it all. Then right
across the page is this ad for diamond earrings. I thought it was ironic
enough and then I saw the price of the earrings, $10,500!
Analysis
Capitalism can be found alive and well in every corner of this paper. The
news alternates with ads for luxury goods. The Marxist lens makes me
think about the haves and have-nots as represented by these two artifacts.
Where is the middle class?
Conclusion
I found the ad obscene next to the famine article. I wonder if the editorial
staff even notices this stuff. Are people who can afford to buy earrings
interested in the famine article? Do people who care about famine in
Ethiopia tolerate earring ads? The typical reader of the NY Times lives
between the earrings and the famine.
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Re-reading Romance
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Deconstructing the “Prince”
Can We Use Critical Encounters
to Read the World?
Yes, totally. To get a wide picture (and a 3-D view) of
the world, its inhabitants, and its goings on, its
imperative that we see it through different lenses. My
mom always lectures me what I complain about
someone or something, saying that I should put myself
in their shoes. Aren’t moms the wisest? Perspectives
help us be clearer thinkers, better friends, and very
helpful mediators. While I may not say, “OK, now for
the Marxist lens” or “new criticism”, but just because
I don’t label them doesn’t mean I’m not thinking
about them.
Sarah, Grade 11
No, even when we try to understand critical
lenses our understanding is filtered through
our own “perspectives” or “lenses.” No
intellectual theory has ever truly led scholars
to understand the world. We can each use
our individual understandings or critical
lenses to add even more variety to our many
thoughts about the world, but these learned
perspectives will never come near replacing
our natural ones.
Mark, Grade 11
Yes, I believe that we can use critical
lenses to “read” the world. The world is
like a huge novel that needs to be
interpreted. It has a very broad and
confusing plot with a variety of settings
and many different cultures and themes.
Maria, Grade 11
I definitely believe that we can read the world through
critical lenses. The reason I feel this way is because if we
didn’t use lenses to read the world everyone would walk
around with a one-track mind. Lenses help us view things,
all things, in a different light. They help us understand
each other and society in general. Each lens opens a door
to a new possibility and isn’t that what life is like in our
world, opening doors to new possibilities? Every day
learning something new and then sharing your wisdom
with the world? Lenses help to make us more diverse in
our knowledge and then gives us the wisdom to share that
knowledge, so you ask can we use critical lenses to “read”
the world? Yes, I would definitely say yes.
Jeff, Grade 12
For knowledge isn’t just something we acquire;
it’s something we are or hope to become.
Knowledge is what constitutes our relationship to
ourselves and to our world, for it is the lens
through which we view ourselves and our world.
Change the lens and you change both the view
and the viewer. This principle is what makes
knowledge at once so frightening and so
liberating, so painful and so utterly, utterly
joyful.
- Lois Tyson, 1999