By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu
Allegorical-Expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and action of truths or generalizations about human existence.
Parody-A literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule.
Satire-A literary work holding up vices and follies to ridicule or scorn, trenchant wit, irony or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly.
Publishing Lingo
Buffet
Buoy
Ominous
Doomsayers
Niche
Multifaceted
Apparatus
Curtailed
Toll
Subversive
Expletive
Rhetoric
Surreptitiously
Epithets
Onslaught
Infrastructure
Halcyon
Laissez-faire
By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu
Literary Theory will need a scaffolding of supporting books
Upon which all of one’s analysis will have a basis
Or connection
Upon which to stand
Some books will be relevant to specifically this target of support
Wordsworth, William. “Preface to Lyrical Ballads.” Famous Prefaces., Bartelby.com
Plato Republic
Aristotle, “Poetics”
Victor Shklovsky
Roman Jakobson
Victor Erlich Russian Formalism History-Doctrine
Yuri Tynyanov
John Crowe Ransom The New Criticism
I.A. Richards
William Empson
T.S. Eliot
Allen Tate
Cleanth Brooks
R.S. Crane Critics and Criticism: Ancient and Modern
Elder Olson
Norman Maclean
W.R. Keast
Wayne C. Booth The Rhetoric of Fiction
Sigmund Freud
Carl Jung Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
Maud Bodkin Archetypal Patterns in Poetry
Bettina Knapp Music, Archetype and the Writer
Richard Sugg Jungian Literary Criticism
Peter Rabinowitz Before Reading
Stanley Fish Is there a text in this class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities
Elizabeth Freund The Return of the Reader, Reader-Response Criticism
Norman Holland The Dynamics of Literary Response, 1968
Louise Rosenblatt
Wolfgang Iser, The Implied Reader, The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett, 1974
Hans Robert Jauss
Derrida
Immanual Kant
Rene Descartes
John Locke
Friedrich Nietzsche
Ihab Hassan The Dismemberment of Orpheus
Dadaism
John Fowles The French Lieutenant’s Woman
Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs
Roland Barthes
Gargantua and Pantegruel
Deleuze and Guattari Rhizome
Jean-Francois Lyotard The Postmodern Condition
Michele Foucault The Foccault Reader
Stephen Toulmin Cosmopolis
Martin Heidegger Basic Writings
Paul Cilliers Complexity and Postmodernity
Post Modernity- The Local/Global Context
Angela Carter-Burning your boats, stories for 1962-1993
Kathy Acker- Blood and Guts in High School
Paul Auster- City of Glass
Lynne Tillman- Haunted Houses
David Wojnarowicz-The Waterfront Journals
Charles Sanders Peirce
Ferdinand de Saussure Course in General Linguistics
Claude Levi-Strauss The Elementary Structure of Kinship, “The Structural Study of Myth”
Northrop Frye- Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays
Noam Chomsky Syntactic Structures, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
Roland Bathes-Critical Essays, Mythologies
Umberto Eco-The Role of the Reader
Michel Foucault The Order of Things, The Archeology of Human Sciences
Clifford Geertz The Interpretation of Cultures, Deep Play, Notes on the Balinese Cock Fight
Hayden White, Metahistory, The Politics of Historical Interpretation, Discipline and De-Sublimation
Stephen Greenblatt- Renaissance Self Fashioning: From More to Shakepeare
Pierre Bourdieu- Outline of a Theory of Practice, Homo Academicus, The Field of Cultural Production
Luce Irigaray Speculum of the Other Woman
Helene Cixous-The Laugh of the Medusa
Laura Mulvey-Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
Michel Foucault-The History of Sexuality
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick-Epistemology of the Closet
Lee Edelman-Homographesis
Michael Warner
Judith Butler-Imitation and gender in subordination
Mary Wollstonecraft-A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Simone de Beauvoir-Le Deuxieme Sexe
Julia Kristeva-About Chinese Women
Elaine Showalter-A Literature of Their Own, Toward Feminist Poetics
Deborah E. McDowell, New Directions for Black Feminist Criticism
Alice Walker, In search of Our Mothers Gardens
Lillian S. Robinson, Treason Our Text, Feminist Challenges to the Literary Canon
Camille Paglia-Sexual Personae, The Androgyne in Literature and Art
Lois Tyson-Critical Theory Today- A User Friendly Guide
Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe
Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart
Ngugi wa Thiong’o-the River Between
Edward Said Orientalism, Culture and Imperialism
Kamau Brathwaite, The History of the Voice
Gayatri Spivak, In Other Worlds, Essays in Cultural Politics
Dominick LaCapra-The Bounds of Race: Perspectives on Hegemony and Resistance
Homi Bhabha-The Location of Culture
Sembene Ousmane-God’s Bits of Wood
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala-Heat and Dust
Buchi Emecheta-The Joys of Motherhood
Keri Hulme-The bone People
Robertson Davies-What’s Bred in the bone
Kazuo Ishiguro-The remains of the day
Bharati Mukherjee-Jasmine
Jill Ker Conway-The Road from Coorain
Helena Norberg-Hodge- Ancient Futures: Learning form Ladakh
Michael Ondaatje-The English Patient
Gita Mehta-A River Sutra
Arundhati Roy-The God of Small Things
Patrick Chamoiseau-Texaco
Lawrence Buell The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing and the Formation of American Culture
Charles Bressler-Literary an Introduction to Theory and Practice
Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm-The Ecocriticism Reader, Landmarks in Literary Ecology
Greg Garrard-Ecocriticism
Donna Haraway-A Cyborg Manifesto, Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century
ISLE-Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment (Journal)
Joseph Makus-The Comedy of Survival, Literary Ecology and a Play Ethic
Leo Marx-The Machine in the Garden, Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America
Raymond Williams-The Country and the City
Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire
Appalachian Wilderness
The Monkey Wrench Gang
Mary Hunter Austin
The Land of Little Rain
Rachel Carson
Silent Spring
Aldo Leopold
A Sand Country Almanac and sketches Here and there
Johon Muir
A thousand mile walk to the gulf
Studies in the Sierra
Henry David Thoreau
Walden, or Life in the woods
Williams Wordworth
Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems
Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems
Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic. Critical Race Theory: An introduction
Bell, Derrick, Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory
Crenshaw, Kimberle et al. Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement
Davis, Peggy Law as Micoaggression
Gates, Henry Louis The Signifying Monkey A Theory of African American Literary Criticism
Harris, Cheryl Whiteness as Property, Harvard Law Review 106.8 (1993)
Hooks, Bell Feminist Theory, From the Margins to the Center
Lipsitz, George The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, How white people profit from identity politics
Spillers, Hortense Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe An American Grammar Book
Williams, Patricia Seeing a Color blind Future: the Paradox of Race
Contours of Ableism by Fiona Kumari Campbell
Concerto for the Left Hand By Michael Davidson
Enforcing Normalcy Lennard J. Davis
The Birth of the Clinic and Madness and Civilization Michel Foucault
Extraordinary Bodies and Staring, How we look, Rosemarie Garland Thomson
Feminist, Queer, Crip Alison Kafer
Bodies of Modernism Maren Tova Linett
Narrative Prosthesis and Cultural Locations of Disability Sharon L. Snyder and David T. Mitchell
A Disability History of the United States Kim Nielsen
Aesthetic Nervousness Ato Quayson
Deafening Modernism Rebecca Sanchez
Disability Aestehics and disability Theory Tobin Siebers
The Question of Access Tanya Titchkosky
Berube, Michael Disability and Narrative
Davis, Lennard Constructing Normalcy, The Bell Curve and the Invention of the Disabled Body in the Nineteenth Century The Disabilities Studies Reader
Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory, Disabilities Studies Reader
Mitchell, David and Sharon Snyder, Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and Dependencies of Discourse, U of Michigan P, 2000
Shakespeare, Tom, The Social Model of Disability The Disability Studies Reader
Karl Marx- Communist Manifesto
Das Kapital
Consciousness Derived From Material Conditions from the German Ideology
On Greek Art in its time – from a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
Leon Trotsky-Literature and Revolution
Georg Lukacs-Ideology of Modernism
Walter Benjamin-The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Theodor Adorno
Louis Althusser-Reading Capital
Terry Eagleton-Marxism and Literary Criticism, Criticism and Ideology
Frederic Jameson-Marxism and Form, The Political Unconscious
Jurgen Habermas-The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity
Lacan
Sandra Gilbert
Susan Gubers
Ezra Pound Poet Critic
I.A. Richards Practical Critic
William Empson’s 7 Types of Ambiguity
Yvor Winters the Morality of Poetry
Cleanth Brooks Robert Penn Warrens Understanding Poetry
Allen Tates Miss Early and the Bibliographer
John Crowe Ransoms The New Criticism
Cleanth Brooks The Well Wrought Urn
T.S. Eliot The Sacred Wood
William K. Wimsatt
Monroe Beardsleys the Intentional Fallacy
T.S. Eliot Wasteland
Animal Farm
The flame and the Flower
Kathleen E. Wood
The Great Gatsby
Pride and Prejudice
Black Beauty
Treasure Island
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Tolkien
The book theif Markus Zusak
Man’s Art Speigelman
Macbeth
All the light we can see Anthony Doerr
Mikhail Baktin
Franz Kafka
They Flee From one Anne Boleyns
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning John Dome
Kepler Galileo
Werner Herzog
The New Criticism and Contemporary Literary Theory
Praising it New: The Best of the New Criticism
Majorie Levinson New Formalism and Analysis of Text First
Kenneth Burke et all Moral Readings
Reason and Emotion
R.P. Blackmer
William Wimsatt
Monroe Beardsley
I.A. Richards What do they mean who do they know analysis
William Epson 7 Types of Ambiguity
Andrew Marvell
Understanding Poetry
Horation Ode
Cranwells Return from Ireland
Kafka Franz The Metamorphosis
Frantz Fanon Black Skin, White Masks
Angelo Ancheta
Andrew Hacker, Two Nations, Black and White Separate, Hostile, Unequal
Ishmael Reed, O.J. Bias Black and White
Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil disorders
Gary Y. Okihiro, Margins and Mainstreams, Asians in American History and Culture
Frank H. Wu Neither Black nor white Asian Americans and Affirmative Action
By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu
When looking at literature and qualifying writings or looking generally for “literariness,” what is literature?
What often qualifies as literature is the use of formal elements such as literary devices. It may appear that it was made for teaching or exemplifying in its use of literary device, such as that of Shakespeare and the example of alliteration. Another trait that literature has is its attention to its own form, a kind of “self- consciousness.” Literature is said to be something then, that is meant to be read closely. It is also something meant to be “laboriously analyzed.” Text is said to me made of “forms, words and devices.” Literature is meant for a closeness that is necessary for understanding. Literature is supposed to be what makes great text. All of the elements are supposed to work together to make its text whole. Comparison in literature is supposed to measure up to literary canon. Where the canon is what has been accepted as great literature, and is as solemn, principled, or holy as “bread and wine.” Canon was meant to raise the bar and create a standard. It may come from the old medieval war cannons and the idea of “living under rule.”
Works cited:
Lit 200 Module Two Lecture Notes, Southern New Hampshire University, 2021
Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition
By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu
Ted Talks The Official Guide to Public Speaking
The Plant, Stephen King
Sociological Imagination, Wright Mills
The Search for Anna Fisher
John Updike
Ha Jinn
Ryszard Kapuscinski
Our Bodies, Ourselves
Why Johnny Can’t Read, Rudolph Fleschs
Dr. Seuss
Gentlemen’s Agreement
South Pacific (film)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Diary of Anne Frank
Childhood & Society, Eric Erickson
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Alfred Kinsey
The Conscience of a Conservative, Barry Goldwater
The Lonely Crowd
The Hidden Persuaders
The Organization Man
Silent Spring, Rachel Carsons
Ecommerce, Paul Samuelson
*** (True Classic) A History of the Book in America Volume 5: The Enduring Book: Print Culture in Postwar America, David Paul Nord
Judy Blume
By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu
Pithy
Miffed
Hubris
Syuzhet
Fabula
Misfired
Squander
Precious
Germaine
Commodity
Tyranny
Wallow
Epithets
Endearing
Extravagant
Saucy
Witty
Free rein
Amorous
Impulses
Sappy
Caveat
Smitten
Duty
Drudgery
Crinolines
Hooped Skirts
Social unguent
Digressive
Ample
Brief
Subtext
Convey
Vigorous
Authentic
Doggedly
Cherished
Avid
Asunder
Intoxicating
Turmoil
Articulate
Cataclysm
Inertia
Mellower
Misconstrue
Maidenly
Restive
Remnant
Affirmation
Bears me up
Marguerite
Kid glove
Beloved
Caress
Scantily
Verge
Ascendancy
Commiserated
Paraphernalia
Talismanic
Incantatory
A thousand torment
Exalted
Yearn
Fervor
Coo
Confers
Pungent
Drama
Convincingly
Lain
Lacewing
Studiously grammatical
Dwell
Reflective
Relentlessly
Cheerful
Inclination
Parceling
Reciprocal proportion
Staunch
Allies
Sumptuous
Ribbed
Snappy
Regimen
Impediment
Propriety
Formalities
Correspondents
Fire off
Resuscitate
Encapsulate
Affectionate
Dacha
Stiff
Insincere
Fluid
Mocking
Aroused
Paint
Macabre
Lampoon
Wicked
Feeble
Allopathic
Homeopathic
What a pickle she got in
Deign
Vulgar
Disarm
Delight
Dubious
Sprightly
Attractive
Quincy
Animal
Pinch-penny
Dollop
Sell-irony
Natural
Earth shaking
Indefatigable
Exertions
Anxious affection
Beloved
Epistolary
Eager
Standard
Vibrant
Vigor
Brisk
Venial
Preamble
Courage
Jolt
Amusing
Prosaic
Bulwark
Candor
Quick silver
Cordiality
Missives
Luxuriate
Disposable
Sentiment
Earnest
Moody
Quipped
Languishing
Strident
Lovely
Mantel
Awkward
Paradoxical
Bungle
Soothing
Decompress
Boon
Quill Pens
Ink pots
Perched
Fancy
Fanciful
Ladle
Salubrious
Commander
Fuss
Charmed
Correspondence
Accoutrements
Modicum
Exudes
Unassailable
Ephemeral
Distressing
Blip
Faith
Grace
Vulnerable
Condolence
Illegible
Courtesy
Impersonal
Indulging
Luxurious
Calligraphy
Watercolors
Heirloom
Redolent
Family Crest
Embossing
Engraving
Customary
Inlet
Inimitable
Irresistible
Delight
Paragon
Commonplace
Eccentric
Provoking
Enchant
Lavished
Immobility
Corporeal
Spectral
Grasp
Efficient
Caches
Penned
Bear
Charms
Flourished
Ordinary
Reforms
Circulated
Perceptive
Nonetheless
Agreeable
Contemporaries
Fertile
Flowering
Rank
Fanny
Veritable
Splendid
Thrive
Worth
Insuperable
Obstacles
Harried
Pace
Meditative
Clutter
Laboring
Refresh
Knack
Improvisation
Repositories
Informality
Gratuitous
Moral
Cask
Gratifying
Instinctive
Sympathy
Fraught
Extraordinary
Vivid
True
Uncork
Dispensed
Gibberish
Buncum
By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu
Work towards something as a writer and plant something at the back of your mind that is your direction. It can be as if a mantra or north star. It can be something that you “ask” for.
Ask for clarity. Ask to be clearly understood, which gives you power. Rid yourself of passive voice. Good for a beginning writer. Proverb, leanness. Economy of words. Proper, short, direct sentences. Concise. Straight shooter. Rid your writing of problems. Carefully observe your words. Ask for precision. Good subject and verb. Good diction. Memorable. Clear mind and speech.
2. Description and Finesse
General good taste. To sweeten. Romantic. Loving eyes. Humane. Precise description. Rich description. Journal or note taking of descriptions of ideas or experiences or places or people. Acute senses. As if in your absence this shall stand. This is the historical document or after party. The peel away or manifestation. The words of a gentlemen or lady, or man or woman. With reverence, with quality. Worthy. Authoritative. Dignified. Well researched. Sometimes round, sometimes blending into the background. Those who give respect, get respect.
3. Voice
Sometimes an English voice is good. A mature and wise voice. Channel voices. Avoid all slang in favor of more tasteful and decorative language. As classical as possible. Reduce first person writing to more intriguing less self centered options. First person (I) at some venues is not allowed and can sometimes sound immature or selfish. Try different perspectives or narratives. Try improving your speech. Opt for clarity. Use a narrator or employ some device. Reverence. Sacred. Respectful. Again, dignified. A gentlemen or lady, a man or woman. Maturity is so essential to writing. Wisdom is essential to good writing.
4. Value and service
Ask for richness. Ask for value. Ask that your writing may serve something specific. Informative. Eg. culturally informative. Giving, gifts. Quality of generosity. Wisdom giving. Offering. Sacred. A treasure. Something like a “Sunday Quin.” Something one will not want to discard. The ultimate give in a piece of writing. The subsequent value. The endowment.
5. Form
Ask for organization. Ask for form. Learn APA, MLA, Chicago. Learn Basic 5. Learn to write a good thesis. Learn some technical writing. Learn how to include or be guided by topic sentences. Use persuasion to master the use of evidence. Use boiler plates. Wrap it up at the end and recap. Make strong relevant points.
6. Unitary
Work on our vocabulary. Read dictionaries. Search for good writing words. Study pieces of writing. History to word. Pairings. Punctuation.
7. Power
Learn how to condense, learn proverb, learn how to stage, learn how to inspire change, how to manifest abstract ideas, psychology. Reversals, style, pockets. Literary device, Literary theory, structuralist. Extract meaning, creation of knowledge and subsequent value. Learn the study and use of literature. Extract points from literature to generate new thought. Authoritative. Organize, helm and package finished writings into books etc. Star maker, editorial. Branding, headings. Clear rich, and often rolled up thought, or unfolded thought. Technology. Teach work on a variety of things/issues. Be in tune with writings role in knowledge and power to teach. Write a PHD. Research. Inferential or data rich.
By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu
Note: Good vocabulary is not unknown words or long words or little bombastic words. Good vocabulary is good writing words. Good vocabulary is the study of language. Good vocabulary is the appreciation of all words, their pairings, their history, and their relative power.
Retrospective
Effectiveness
Questioned
Cannon
Common
Practice
Emphasis
Compliance
Leveraging
Illustrative
Comprehensive
Issues
Context
Ethics
Quality
Rooted
Social Justice
Amorphous
Practitioners
Emerged
Specialists
Mandatory
Voluntary
Estimated
Arena
Checkered
Plethora
Critics
Efforts
Chronicle
Efforts
Chronicle
Draw on
Expense
Explore
Evolution
Tendency
Demographic
Umbrella
Predate
Recognized
Dishonest
Genre
Focus
Enactment
Supplemental
Legislation
Prohibits
Bans
Landmark
Spawned
Barrage
Probable cause
Remedies
Mandate
Anti-discriminatory
Consent
Decree
In response
Alleged
Costly
Embarrassing
Voluntarily
Implemented
Imparting
Rank and file
Notable
Exceptions
Strictly
Compliance
Litigation
Avoidance
Moral
Imperative
Espouse
Philosophy
Causes
Support
Publication
Notwithstanding
Litany
Case studies
Participants
Recitations
Ponder
Length
Periodic
Refresher
Signatures
Recipients
Historically
Underrepresented
Minorities
Equitably
Exclusion
Preferential
Offended
Resonate
Transform
Organizational
Culture
Policy
Practices
Environments
Allow
Earnestly
Inclusive
Key drivers
Retreat
Intensity
Enforcement
Stalled
Deregulation
Intensive
Fine-grained
Regulation
Representation
Latitude
Scrutiny
Pressing concerns
Offshore
Competition
Scaled back
Cost cutting
Mandatory
Managerial
Content
Objective
Assimilate
Training
Assumption
Entrants
Efficacy
Theorized
Capabilities
Performance
Influences
Impacting
Lacked
Self Confidence
Talents
Unwelcoming
Contrast
Prevailing
Entrants
Underachieved
Internalized
Stimuli
Reinforcing
Efficacy
Subtle
Control
Stately
Revelation
Seldom
Demographic
Make-up
Comprised
Misinterpreted
Intimidating
Marginal
Ethnic
Relatively
Absolute
Versus
Nonetheless
Shift
Composition
Workforce
Lexicon
Rationale
Industry
Data shifted
Discussions
Comply
Mandates
Assimilate
Homogenous
Paradigm
Survival
Argued
Recruitment
Central
Overwhelming
Plateau
Essential
Mobility
Enabling
Paired
Fundamental
Shift
Incorporating
Valid
Primarily
Fixing
Compound
Consensus
Diluted
Unequal
Adamant
Adversities
Notion
Advantage
Disadvantage
Immutable
Rhetoric
Proclaimed
Confuse
Euphemism
Topics
Attention
Intensity
Confess
Repent
Defensive
Backlash
Reverse
Historic
Alleged
Upheld
Spectrum
Era’s
Watered down
Legitimacy
Correspond
Embraced
Emerge
Implicit
Attitudes
Mindful
Sustained
Exposure
Disappointment
Incremental
Reshaping
Transformational
Slated
Coveted
Juncture
Implicit
Shortcoming
Unavoidable
Tradeoff
Vernacular
Evaluated
Mixture
Cognitive
Experiential
Albeit
Controversial
Adverse
Dubbed
Conducted
Experiments
Subconscious
Bias
Memorable
Transformative
Adjectives
Stereotypes
Facilitators
Descriptors
Insufficient
Adequately
Historical
Sociological
Generalizations
Debriefing
Backfired
Identified
Role plays
Experiential
Exercises
Participants
Simulate
Transformation
Expertise
Constraints
Squeezed
Failure
Grasps
Complex
Unintended
Consequences
Animosity
Interpret
Surmised
Villains
Sensitive
Pressured
Identity group
Misunderstood
Co-workers
Biased
Prejudiced
Relegated
Core
Positioning
Millennium
Earliest
Motivation
Initiatives
Impetus
Foster
Enhance
Tangential
Profitability
Demographics
Endeavors
Shortages
Technically
Fierce
Action based
Value chain
Higher performance
Competent
Discern
Patterns
Effectively
Incorporate
World views
Problem solving
Conflict resolution
Proprietary
Skills
Building
Competencies
Enable
Consistent
Practitioners
Ongoing
Curricula
Robust
Intercultural
Modalities
Assumption
Cross-Culturally
Competent
Premises
Underlying
Integrated
Relevant
Applicable
Phenomenon
Activities
Benchmarks
Assess
Measure
Criteria
Strategies
Chronicles
Respective
Critical
Component
Outsourcing
Encouraged
Dimensions
Up to date
Expansive
Varied
Highlighted
Embedded
Systematically
Top down
Bottom up
Senior level
Accountability
Incentive
Compensation
Domestically
Philosophical beliefs
Imperative
Awareness
Clarifying
Angles
Promotion
Partnering
Buy-in
Inclusion
Sponsoring
Affinity Group
Spirit
Portfolio
Building blocks
Undergo
Self-awareness
Facilitate
Integral
Customized
Additionally
Pioneered
Mentoring
Retention
Approximate
Summarized
Ethnocentric
Ethno-relation
Majority
Minimization
Acceptance
Discern
Devised
Defense
Denial
Adaptation
Clarity
Suitability
Academicians
Composition
Factors
Formal
Correlation
Exemplary
Retention
Attitudes
Prevailing
Heightened
Encompassing
Productivity
Feasible
Statistics
Conduct
Referenced
Overall
Tailors
Geographic
Complexity
Deemed
Vastness
Risk
Multifaceted
Acumen
Counterparts
In depth
Sexual orientation
Cursory
Generational
Furthermore
Approaches
Phase
Nascent
By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu
Literary Theory A Practical Introduction
Mikhail Bakhtin
Wordsworth
Logical Fallacies
Keats
The Knowledge Creating Company Ikujiro Nonaku
Enabling Knowledge George Von Krogh
The Innovators Dilemma When New Technologies Clayton M. Christensen
Hanon
Chopin
The Seminar Jacques Lacan
Foucault
Jane Austen
Julie Rivkin
Portrait in Georgia
Cane
Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism Vincent Leitch
Tracy Whiting
Metamorphosis Franz Kafka
Think like a monk, train your mind for peace Jay Shetty
The Seagull Book of Poems
Literary Theory An Anthology Julie Rivkin
The Craft of Research Wayne C. Booth
Professing Literature Gerald Graff
Mary Klages, Literary Theory, A Guide for the Perplexed
Mary Klages, Key Terms in Literary Theory
Tacit Learning
Literary Review
Emily Dickinson
Biocentric Worldview Ludwig Klages
Cosmogenic Reflections Ludwig Klages
Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw
Pratchett’s Women Unauthorized Essays on Female Characters of the Discworld
Billy Budd, Bartleby and Other Stories Herman Melville
Leaves of Grass The Original 1855 Edition Walt Whitman
The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Literature Unit A guide for Where the Red Fern Grows Patty Carratello
Literary Theory Jerry Engleton
Beginning Theory Peter Barry
Literary Theory Jonathon Culler
The Gothic Order Racial and Social Constructionism in The Literary Imagination
Ruth Bienstock Anolik
The Complete Frankenstein
Othello
Desdemona
Derrida
Lois Lowry The Giver
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Literary Mantels
Wolf Hall Trilogy
Not Writing, Anne Boyer
Garments Against Women, Anne Boyer
Lucille Clifton
Naomi Shihab Nye
Rachel Mckibbens
Wizard of Oz
Glass Castle Jenette Wells
Al Young The Blues Don’t Change New and Selected Poems
Charlie Chaplin Modern Times
William Blake
Buster Keaton
Herman Melville
Jane Austen
Joseph Conrad
T.S. Eliot
Albert Camus
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
J.D. Salinger
Alice Walker
Cynthia Ozick
Ralph Ellison
Paddy Chayetsky
Brave New World Aldous Huxley
George Orwell 1984
Animal Farm
Extracting Meaning, Creation of Knowledge, Consequent Value
By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu
I am Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu. A short version or nickname would be FaFa Bonsu. A Ghanaian American who, resides in Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA. I am a Creative Writing English and Poetry major (CWE.POE). I have been reading about ideological writing and Marx and recently reading Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Dorothy Parker, Sophocles-however I would like to get into some new areas. I have been collecting spiritual literature. I recently assembled a list of what is included in my spiritual library. I will for this opportunity select Confucius from a Harvard Classic Reader. I am aiming to get into some new areas and perhaps look at sacred or religious or sage writings.
What do I know about literary theory? I am intrigued by the word theory alone. I wonder what the word theory can imply. Does it require proof like “justified true belief” or JTB or is it the un-established? Is it to perpetually establish? If one says art theory versus literary theory, I suppose I want to be more- clear about what is suggested by that terminology. I would love to write theory but feel still naïve. If I were to write art theory, what is its approach, or have I already? Is theory a scaffolding of ideas upon which or with its guidance one may arrive or question or analyze or create? If one may arrive, is it then theory? Theory may be some kind of wise guide. Theory may answer a kind of question, perhaps even how or why? A theory may result in a kind of questioning. Or does it mean that there are established theories and one’s work becomes the analysis in response to the theories or the work that is derivative of the theories? So, I guess there are two products, theories, and something else? Both can be written, the theory and the theories subsequent writing. I enjoy both of those. Or the art theory and the arts subsequent product and the products criticism. Then there are three products. Perhaps you have the piece of literature as product one, then the theory laid upon it, then the resulting criticism and even the analysis of the variety of criticism. So, theory may have a trajectory, art and or literary.
What is my understanding of literary theory at this time? It has to do with value, with the creation and manufacture of meaning itself. There is at once the literature, whose secondary function may be its interpretation or its context and ultimately its meaning. The extension of writing is the thought around it-its secondary, and that secondaries building blocks. But then theory leads you not to take a sip, but a full drink. Theory then becomes the octopus, the world view, the connecting points that make a defined way of thinking, a kind of enlightenment. Theory helps you to extract meaning, look at purpose and reasoning or variations. (Klages) Theory helps a writer to achieve a close reading. Theory may guide one to look first at emergence, then at context, then conclude with results or relationships (Klages 5). It can be like a scaffolding that becomes a boilerplate. What can be impressive is when you extract meaning that becomes world view as in the example of “language, gender, and consciousness” (Klages 5). Meanings extracted from literature can define movements or be existential. Literature has left a trail, as if it were archeology or anthropological. Literary theory then provides one a tool.
Literary Theory is perhaps the most significant factor in giving literature or the field of writing its value. Extraction of meaning transforms writing into knowledge. It transforms the entire field into knowledge.
I think you are correct in your estimation about the value behind “how does it mean, what does it produce and what effect does it have on us and the world? ” It is as if it is one’s duty or task to ascertain the quality, value, meaning, the giving of a piece of literature. The reasoning is interesting and the desire to learn from it, to grow from it and arrive at a knowledge juncture. Perhaps certain techniques get you there, then get you there every time. I suppose it is the scholar that wants to get there at all.
I am intrigued by when you wrote literary theory is whether it is or is not literature. Is that a prize, or bar or distinction, or quality? Are you protesting that this fine Dystopian novel may for you have equal value? I have writings that I wonder how they will be classified, who is the classifier and what are the terms? What makes up the literary theory that classifies it?
Works Cited:
Klages, Mary. “Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed” Edition 1. Bloomsbury Publishing 2007-01-23, pp. 1-9