Lacanian Psychoanalytic Criticism in Harry Potter
The inhabitants of a faraway country known for its ivory towers and for its export of literary monographs were forever quarreling over who might best represent them. One day two tiny factions decided to join forces: the adherents of the Princess Childlit and the followers of Prince Psychian, the great-great-grandson of Empress Psyche. Both groups had for a long time felt themselves unduly spurned… by the powerful Board of Canonizers who had ruled Arkedemia for over a century. Might not a wedding between the two claimants strengthen their status?... just as the engagement was about to be announced, the whole affair was abruptly called off. What had happened?…Their cohorts had begun to quarrel most bitterly with each other… The wedding did not take place…Soon the board of Canonizers issued an edict pronouncing both groups to be out of the system. Hereafter, their passports would be stamped with the word “marginal” in red gothic print. (Knoepflmacher, 131-132) [1]
U.C. Knoepflmacher’s wonderful parody of the current situation of children’s literary criticism and the psychoanalytic approach to literature perfectly sums up what will be the major obstacle of this critical paper. It would seem that modern literary criticism has an unfortunate tendency to overlook children’s literature extensively; to relegate it to a position of only secondary importance in the critic’s glossary of “good literature.” On top of that, psychoanalytic criticism, as it is applied to children’s literature, seems to have taken on a startlingly simplistic, static approach to the analysis of the text, that does very little justice to the diversity and complexity that the field possesses. (132-133) ...
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...nnual of the Modern Language Association Division on Children’s Literature and the Children’s Literature Association.18 (1990): 131-134.
Lesnik-Oberstein, Karin. Children’s Literature: Criticism and the Fictional Child.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
McGillis, Roderick. “Another Kick at La/can: ‘I Am a Picture.’” Children’s Literature
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Murfin, Ross, Ed. “What is Psychoanalytic Criticism?” The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 1999.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1998.
Trites, Roberta Seelinger. “Psychoanalytic Approaches to Children’s Literature:
Landmarks, Signposts, Maps.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. 25.2 (2000): 66-67.
Are adults overprotective of their children? To what point do we protect children? Where should the line be drawn? Along with those questions is how easily children can be influenced by these same adults. Two poets, Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins, express the ideas of how easily children can be manipulated and how sometimes adults think they are protecting their innocent children, when in reality they are not. Wilbur and Collins express these ideas in their poems through numerous literary devices. The literary devices used by Wilbur and Collins expose different meanings and two extremely different end results. Among the various literary devices used, Wilbur uses imagery, a simple rhyme scheme and meter, juxtaposition of the rational and irrational, and a humorous tone to represent the narrator’s attempt to “domesticate” irrational fears. Conversely Collins uses symbols, historical interpretations, imagery, diction and other literary devices to depict the history teacher’s effort to shield his students from reality. In the poems, “A Barred Owl,” by Richard Wilbur, and “The History Teacher,” by Billy Collins, both poets convey how adults protect and calm children from their biggest, darkest fears and curiosities.
Lowe, Peter J. Texas Studies in Literature & Language; Spring2007, Vol. 49 Issue 1, p21-44, 24p Academic Search Complete Ebesco. Web. 23 July 2011
“The Candidate” is the prime example of how an election is ran including the campaign strategies, the media, the debates, and the arguments. While Jarmens campaigning was not completely viewed throughout the movie it was clear he knew McKay was a threat. McKay’s idea of running a campaign included his personal touches of not listening to his campaign manager. Actually listening to what the people want and what they need seems to gain their attention and vote; this is the strategy that won McKay the election.
... (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Text and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University
I decided to analyze Act II, Scene II in MacBeth using Psychoanalysis. I have previously examined the passage using Marxism and Queer Theory, so I thought it might be beneficial to scrutinize the scene from yet another angle. However, I will also discuss another scenes, as well, in order to fully, yet briefly, demonstrate MacBeth’s two opposing psychological constructions.
To commit suicide is not a crime, but to condone, and assist in it is. Why is it, that if one wishes to end his or her own life, should not be helped to do so if they are unable to in a honorable manner? If suicide is honorable anyways. I do not believe that suicide is good, or right, but if one wishes to end their life, why should they not receive assistance? Why should we force upon them, an extended life in which they would only suffer? I am rather indifferent on this subject, as the morality of choosing the fate of another cannot fall of the side of right, or wrong. It is solely based upon the circumstances, and position one is put in.
...ds. It is a mistake to do things so easily” (11). This in turn will affect progression, because it is hard to move forward when nobody believes in one another’s ideas or their manners.
Peter hunt’s ‘Instruction and Delight’ provides a starting point for the study of children’s literature, challenging assumptions made about writing for children and they are trivial, fast and easy. Children’s literature is a conservative and reading it just to escape from the harsh realities of adulthood. It’s probably the most exciting for all literary studies, and a wide range of texts, from novels and stories to picture books , and from oral forms to multimedia and the internet , so it presents a major challenge and can be considered for many reasons. It is important because it is integrated into the cultural, educational and social thinking for the success of the publishing and media, and it is important to our personal development. Things that may seem simple at fist, how children understand the texts, how these differ from the
Richardson, Alan. “Wordsworth, Fairy Tales, and the Politics of Children’s Reading.” Romanticism and . Children’s Literature in Nineteenth-Century England. Ed. James Holt McGavran Jr. Athens: . . . University of Georgia Press, 1991.
Perrault, B. (2003). Little red riding hood. In Schilb, J. and Clifford, J. (Ed.) Making literature matter (pp. 667-669). NY: Bedford/St. Martin?s.
During the late Victorian Britain, H.G. Wells became a literary spokesperson for liberal optimism and social reform. His scientific knowledge and literary capabilities led him to be one of the fore fathers of modern science fiction. In his novel The Time Machine, Wells, knowledgeable on the teachings of Charles Darwin and those of the Fabian Society, attempts to warn society that the brutality of capitalism and the plight of the laborer are not dealt with through social reforms then humanity will drive itself to extinction.
...God in this future except when something new being fear and uncertainty comes up and the time traveler feels legitimately in danger. The topics Wells chooses to discuss are very relevant and except for the physical depiction of the creatures in the future, the issue of the lower class being oppressed and revolting against the upper class and especially the meaning of life are large issues that have and probably will come to life in to future. H.G. Wells’s bleak depiction of the future through The Time Machine is one with many warnings and an almost Marxist view against capitalism and its downsides. H.G. Wells chooses to include a symbol of hope through the fragile and tender white flowers, a symbol of hope to human kind to be encouraged about the fact that wherever life may lead human kind, that there is always hope and this is a very plausible outcome for mankind.
The present world with its sustainable resources, environment and way of life became developed. The population growth, consuming almost all the available resources, to meet people’s needs, should be a major concern. The consumption of material and energy around the world which is about to eliminate the available supply, has increased over the last two decades, especially in the built environment. In order to access other reserves of fuel, the more energy will be needed to use.
Literature has been part of society since pen met paper. It has recorded history, retold fables, and entertained adults for centuries. Literature intended for children, however, is a recent development. Though children’s literature is young, the texts can be separated into two categories by age. The exact splitting point is debatable, but as technology revolutionized in the mid-twentieth century is the dividing point between classic and contemporary. Today’s children’s literature is extraordinarily different from the classics that it evolved from, but yet as classic was transformed into modern, the literature kept many common features.
Literary criticism is used as a guideline to help analyze, deconstruct, interpret, or even evaluate literary works. Each type of criticism offers its own methods that help the reader to delve deeper into the text, revealing all of its innermost features. New Criticism portrays how a work is unified, Reader-Response Criticism establishes how the reader reacts to a work, Deconstructive Criticism demonstrates how a work falls apart, Historical Criticism illustrates how the history of the author and the author’s time period influence a text, and last of all, Psychological Criticism expresses how unconscious motivations drive the author in the creation of their work as well as how the reader’s motivations influence their own interpretation of the text (Lynn 139, 191). This creates a deep level of understanding of literature that simply cannot be gained through surface level reading. If not one criticism is beneficial to the reader, then taking all criticisms or a mixture of specific criticisms into consideration might be the best way to approach literary