Links with info about lit critters

ColoradoGuy · Feb 18, 2007

I think it's helpful to have a sticky with links people think are particularly helpful for understanding some of the assorted lit critters and movements we're discussing. I'll start with these. Please chime in with others.

Paul de Man. His reputation suffered when some anti-semitic things he wrote during WWII came to light after his death, but he's still one of the biggies.
Jacques Derrida. The godfather of deconstruction. Major post-structuralist
Jacques Lacan. The guy who made Freud legit again.
Stanley Fish. The big name in reader-response theory.
Michel Foucault. Particularly known for his examinations of prisons, madness, and sexuality. Major post-structuralist
Ferdinand de Saussure. Often said to be the father of modern linguistic studies and semiotics (the study of signs).
Claude Levi-Strauss. Actually an anthropologist, his structuralist analysis became popular with critters.
Roland Barthes . Major structuralist.
New Criticism. A point of view emphasizing the text in isolation.
New Historicism. The inevitable reaction to New Criticism.

Higgins · Feb 18, 2007

Some additions

ColoradoGuy said:
I think it's helpful to have a sticky with links people think are particularly helpful for understanding some of the assorted lit critters and movements we're discussing. I'll start with these. Please chime in with others.

Oh dear....New Criticism? New Historicism? Those are just going to be painful. (As are Stanley Fish and Paul de Man).

How about...

Mary Douglas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Douglas

G. Spivak: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Chakravorty_Spivak

Julia Kristeva: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Kristeva

Elinor S. Shaffer http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=635707567&searchurl=isbn=0521298075 ....she seems to be working more on science and literature these days. Anyway...very brilliant and not much of a POMO or structuralist....just brilliant.

ColoradoGuy · Feb 18, 2007

Sokal said:
Oh dear....New Criticism? New Historicism? Those are just going to be painful. (As are Stanley Fish and Paul de Man).

To you, perhaps. I'd beware of too many Wiki links, by the way.

Higgins · Feb 18, 2007

Why what happens with Wikkilinks?

ColoradoGuy said:
To you, perhaps. I'd beware of too many Wiki links, by the way.

What is the problem with Wiki links? I only use ones that I've looked at to make sure they are not insane.

I wish I could have found a Wiki-style link for Elinor S. Saffer....

ColoradoGuy · Feb 18, 2007

Sokal said:
What is the problem with Wiki links? I only use ones that I've looked at to make sure they are not insane.

Oh, well -- if you've approved them, then I'm quite satisfied they're just fine.

Deleted member 42 · Feb 18, 2007

I'm all for explication de texte, and am perfectly willing to duel over it . . . and yeah, New Criticism, taken to the extreme, is just as daft as any other technique taken to the extreme.

And if you've not read de Man in French, you haven't read him.

Higgins · Feb 18, 2007

And I was so sure

Medievalist said:
I'm all for explication de texte, and am perfectly willing to duel over it . . . and yeah, New Criticism, taken to the extreme, is just as daft as any other technique taken to the extreme.

And if you've not read de Man in French, you haven't read him.

Come on! Ya gotta go ape over the New Criticism! It has only been dead and gone for the last 60 years....but it is exactly what everybody gets taught in creative writing classes, but only through some indirect source, apparently, or so I would guess.

Hmmm...nice about Paul de Man. I didn't want to read him anyway and now I haven't.

ColoradoGuy · Feb 18, 2007

Sokal said:
Come on! Ya gotta go ape over the New Criticism! It has only been dead and gone for the last 60 years..

It is often useful, even interesting, to know what has gone before.

Cath · Feb 18, 2007

Thanks for posting these, folks. I've got some reading to do!

Certain_Entropy · Jul 8, 2008

You should add Slavoj Zizek. He's a neo Lacanian and writes about everything theses day, from psychoanalyzing The Usual Suspects to framing the US in ideological coordinates of capitialism.

Alexruns · Jul 24, 2008

Ooo this thread is really interesting - i did a course in philosophy of language or ordinary language philosphy as its sometimes called or 20th analytical philosophy! Take your pick!!We looked at Wittengenstein a lot, Bertrand Russell in particular his book The Problems of Philosophy and A J Ayre - although i didnt pay this much for my copy!!

AMCrenshaw · Feb 24, 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ricoeur

Time and Narrative

M.M. Bakhtin
Walter Benjamin
Jean Baudrillard
Noam Chomsky

(will work on finding links for these others)

AMC

GOTHOS · Dec 20, 2012

I'll recommend this blog on the work of my "main critic," Northrop Frye.

http://fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca/

ColoradoGuy · Dec 21, 2012

GOTHOS said:
I'll recommend this blog on the work of my "main critic," Northrop Frye.

http://fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca/

I still like Frye, although I understand he's quite unfashionable now.

GOTHOS · Dec 21, 2012

ColoradoGuy said:
I still like Frye, although I understand he's quite unfashionable now.

My impression is that Frye came at the crux of a "literature as myth" meme that got started in the early part of the century, but that after that Marxist and Freudian hermeneutics became entrenched as the only way to properly critique art/literature.

Frederic Jameson, who unlike many Marxists might have the intelligence to properly critique Frye, botched the job in his POLITICAL UNCONSCIOUS. It's easier to ignore Frye than to refute him these days.

jtthwe · Sep 27, 2024

Thank you for the orignal post. I believe some of the links on this are no longer available.

CMBright · Sep 27, 2024

jtthwe said:
Thank you for the orignal post. I believe some of the links on this are no longer available.

If you look at the last post before yours, it is from 2012, over a decade ago. I think it is safe to say you are necroing a thread. I see you posted in the FAQ section of the forum, where there is an FAQ thread, linked on the FAQ index to make it (relatively) easy to find on necroing and asking members to avoid doing so.

I'd suggest wandering over to New Members and starting an intro thread so we can get to know you.

RichardGarfinkle · Sep 28, 2024

Mod Note:
By its nature a thread like this will evolve over time. We’re not going to delete old entries or edit links. If there are updates to links please put them in new posts. Thank you.

jtthwe · Sep 28, 2024

I think it is safe to say you are necroing a thread.

Thank you for pointing this out. I did not read about necroing and will not do so in the future.

Maryn · Sep 28, 2024

Hi. We urge our new members to read the FAQs, partly to prevent missteps like this. Oops!

Maryn, pleased to meet you

Links with info about lit critters

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.

Higgins

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.

Higgins

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.

Deleted member 42

Higgins

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.

Cath

The mean one

Certain_Entropy

Alexruns

AMCrenshaw

...

GOTHOS

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.

GOTHOS

jtthwe

CMBright

She might look sweet, but she has attitude!

RichardGarfinkle

Second Edition and Second Laughter

jtthwe

Maryn

Not Any More