
Texts
Contemporary Cultural Texts and Critical Approaches
Peter Childs(Author)
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 27. September 2006
Book
Hardback
192 pages
978-0-7486-2043-2 (ISBN)
Description
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.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Adult education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7486-2043-2 (9780748620432)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2006
Edinburgh University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Person
Peter Childs is Dean of Research and Professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Gloucestershire where he teaches twentieth-century and post-colonial literature. He has published widely in the areas of modern writing, British culture and critical theory.
Content
Introduction: Starting Points; 1. Film: The Matrix and The I-pod; Approach: Cyberphilosophy; 2. Building: Shopping in Utopia; Approach: Spatial Criticism; 3. Movie Poster: Alien Nature; Approach: Ecocriticism; 4. Pop video: Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and 'race'; Approach: 'Race' Studies; 5. Celebrity: Diana and Death; Approach: Trauma Theory; 6. TV show: Big Brother after the big Other; Approach: Performativity Theory; 7. Newspaper article: The Gulf War in Real Time and Virtual Space; Approach: Hyperreality; 8. Photograph(er): Cindy Sherman and the Masquerade; Approach: Feminism; 9. Political speech: Margaret Thatcher's Hymn at the Sermon on the Mound; Approach: Historicism; 10. Critical text: Alan Sokal's Sham Transgression; Approach: Reading Postmodernism; 11. Popular novel: The Ethics of Harry Potter; Approach: Ethical Criticism; 12. Short story: Barthelme's Balloon and the Rhizome; Approach: Deleuzian Criticism; 13. Lyric: 'Where's my Snare?': Eminem and Sylvia Plath; Approach: Psychoanalytic Criticism; 14. Autobiography: Martin Amis's Experience; Approach: Self-Life-Writing; 15. Virtual text: Amazonian Democracy; Approach: Globalization Studies; 16. World media event: It's About Time: Cultural History at the Millennium; Approach: Cultural Studies.