Texts: Contemporary Cultural Texts and Critical Approaches

Peter Childs

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2006

Texts

Contemporary Cultural Texts and Critical Approaches

Peter Childs

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748629183

Overview
Contents

About this book

Being able to analyse different types of text is an essential skill for students of literature. Texts is a new kind of book which shows students how to use literary theory to approach a wide range of literary, cultural and media texts of the kind studied on today's courses. These texts range from short stories, autobiographies, political speeches, websites and lyrics to films such as The Matrix and Harry Potter and from television's Big Brother to shopping malls, celebrities, and rock videos.

Each chapter combines an introduction to the text and aspects of its critical reception with an analysis using one of sixteen key approaches, from established angles like feminism, postcolonial studies and deconstruction to newer areas such as ecocriticism, trauma theory, and ethical criticism. Each chapter also indicates alternative ways of reading the text by drawing on other critical approaches.

Texts:

is the first student guide to examine visual, virtual and performance texts alongside written texts reflecting the broadening range of the contemporary literature syllabus
demonstrates clearly how students can analyse a familiar text in different ways, a core skill which many find difficult
provides a student introduction to contemporary culture via well known popular texts and literary theories.

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Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
INTRODUCTION: STARTING POINTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER 1 FILM: THE MATRIX AND THE I-POD Approach: Cyberphilosophy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
CHAPTER 2 BUILDING: SHOPPING IN UTOPIA Approach: Spatial Criticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
CHAPTER 3 MOVIE POSTER: ALIEN NATURE Approach: Ecocriticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
CHAPTER 4 POP VIDEO: MICHAEL JACKSON’S ‘THRILLER’ AND ‘RACE’ Approach: ‘Race’ Studies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
CHAPTER 5 CELEBRITY: DIANA AND DEATH Approach: Trauma Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
CHAPTER 6 TV SHOW: BIG BROTHER AFTER THE BIG OTHER Approach: Performativity Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
CHAPTER 7 NEWSPAPER ARTICLE: THE GULF WAR IN REAL TIME AND VIRTUAL SPACE Approach: Hyperreality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	74
CHAPTER 8 PHOTOGRAPH(ER): CINDY SHERMAN AND THE MASQUERADE Approach: Feminism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
CHAPTER 9 POLITICAL SPEECH: MARGARET THATCHER’S HYMN AT THE SERMON ON THE MOUND Approach: Historicism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
CHAPTER 10 CRITICAL TEXT: ALAN SOKAL’S SHAM TRANSGRESSION Approach: Reading Postmodernism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
CHAPTER 11 POPULAR NOVEL: THE ETHICS OF HARRY POTTER Approach: Ethical Criticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
CHAPTER 12 SHORT STORY: BARTHELME’S BALLOON AND THE RHIZOME Approach: Deleuzian Criticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
CHAPTER 13 LYRIC: ‘WHERE’S MY SNARE?’: EMINEM AND SYLVIA PLATH Approach: Psychoanalytic Criticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
CHAPTER 14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY: MARTIN AMIS’S EXPERIENCE Approach: Self-Life-Writing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
CHAPTER 15 VIRTUAL TEXT: AMAZONIAN DEMOCRACY Approach: Globalization Studies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
CHAPTER 16 WORLD MEDIA EVENT: IT’S ABOUT TIME: CULTURAL HISTORY AT THE MILLENNIUM Approach: Cultural Studies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 192
Keywords: Literary Studies

eBook

Published: September 27, 2006
ISBN: 9780748629183