key critical anthologies summary

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  • critical anthologies
    • marxist theory
      • a theory of capitalism
        • bourgeoise rule over proletariat
      • Karl Marx (+followers) see international politics as an extension of class war at an international level
        • capitalists exploiting the poor and are resorting to wars and imperialism for safeguarding their interests
      • industrialisation means that the elite were the only ones who has access to means of production
        • mass dependent on elite for survival
        • elite needed lots of labour + low costs from mass
          • mass needed to accept their position as powerless workers
            • mass dependent on elite for survival
      • cannot trust the media as it's run by those in power who maintain the status quo rather than seek for change
      • proletariat have to unite and revolt in order to overthrow the dominating class
        • eventual replacement would be communism
          • classless society so would be the final and permanent state of society
    • narrative theory
      • narrative- how you weave the story material (events, people, places) together and give it shape
        • defined by Bordwell and Thompson as 'a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time'
      • makes it possible for you to analyse individual texts and find patters in them
      • Tzvetan Todorov- Bulgarian literary theorist
        • most narratives start with a state of equilibrium, protagonists happy, state of 'normal'
        • normality disrupted by outside force (disequilibrium)  fought against to maintain equilibrium
        • new equilibrium established after protagonist resolves conflict
    • feminist theory
      • gender issues play an important part in everything, whether we are consciously aware of it or not
      • ultimate goal to prompt gender equality
      • biology determines our sex, culture determines our gender
      • examples
        • analyse gender of author and portrayal of female characters
        • do female characters reinforce/ break stereotypes
        • how is language used and is it 'gendered'
        • nature of relationships between male and female characters
        • social/ historical context for women at that time
      • in every domain where patriarchy reigns, women are oppressed and seen as 'other'
      • all of western civilisation is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideology (biblical portrayal of Eve as origin of sin in the world)
    • eco-critical theory
      • 'the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment' (Glotfelty xviii)
      • human culture is connected to the physical world, humans affect and are affected by the natural world
      • ecologically man is the ultimate villain
    • post-colonial theory
      • focuses on literature in previously or currently colonised countries
      • observations of former colonies of Western powers and how they relate to and interact with the rest of the world
      • critically investigates what happens when two cultures clash and one of them is ideologically fashioned as superior and assumes dominance over the other
      • postcolonial critics reveal of colonisation is 'covered up', or even justified
    • literary value and the canon
      • the cannon is the collection of authoritative and exclusive great texts that are considered worthy of being read
      • examples of English canon- Shakespeare,The Brontes, John Milton, Charles Dickens
      • considered 'the greatest literature of all time' and the most influential in shaping Western culture
      • literary texts in English have traditionally been valued in relation to the criteria set up in the canon

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