Critical Practice (New Accents), 2nd Edition

✍ Scribed by C. Belsey, Catherine Belsey

• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 158
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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. Assuming no prior knowledge of poststructuralism, Critical Practice guides the reader confidently through the maze of contemporary theory. It simply and lucidly explains the views of key figures such 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. With a new chapter, updated guidance on further reading and revisions throughout, this second edition of Critical Practice is the ideal guide to the present and future of literary studies.

✦ Table of Contents

BOOK COVER......Page 1
TITLE......Page 5
COPYRIGHT......Page 6
CONTENTS......Page 7
GENERAL EDITOR’S PREFACE......Page 8
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 10
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION......Page 11
COMMONSENSE CRITICISM......Page 14
THE NEW THEORIES......Page 15
OPACITY......Page 17
THE PROJECT......Page 18
EXPRESSIVE REALISM......Page 19
NEW CRITICISM......Page 26
NORTHROP FRYE......Page 31
READER-POWER......Page 38
POST-SAUSSUREAN LINGUISTICS......Page 45
THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING......Page 53
THE PLURALITY OF MEANING......Page 57
A NEW CRITICAL PRACTICE......Page 59
IDEOLOGY......Page 60
THE SUBJECT......Page 62
PSYCHOANALYSIS......Page 63
RESISTANCE......Page 65
DESIRE......Page 67
LITERATURE......Page 68
THE SUBJECT AND THE TEXT......Page 69
THE SPLIT SUBJECT......Page 83
UNFIXING THE SUBJECT......Page 87
BARTHES AND MACHEREY......Page 98
SHERLOCK HOLMES......Page 103
‘THE SCHOLAR-GIPSY’......Page 110
SAUSSURE REVISITED......Page 115
DIFFERANCE......Page 117
UNDECIDABILITY......Page 119
‘EASTER 1916’......Page 120
THE LAW OF THE DECISION......Page 124
READERS AS CONSUMERS......Page 127
THE ‘COPERNICAN’ REVOLUTION......Page 130
PRODUCING THE TEXT......Page 136
THE PROBLEMS......Page 142
ACCESSIBLE......Page 144
IDEOLOGY......Page 145
PSYCHOANALYSIS......Page 146
DECONSTRUCTION......Page 147
NOTES......Page 148
REFERENCES......Page 152
INDEX......Page 157