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How do you spot literary theories?
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toryvirals
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Obviously it's easy to spot the popular theories (e.g. Orientalism, Queer theory, etc.), but what about theories not a lot of people know about? Some people are able to read a book or journal and identify a theory that isn’t well known. Do you have to look in peer review journals? Is any peer review journal automatically considered a theory? But then what would you call this ‘new’ theory if the author doesn’t supply a name for it?
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The Empire Odyssey
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(Original post by toryvirals)
Obviously it's easy to spot the popular theories (e.g. Orientalism, Queer theory, etc.), but what about theories not a lot of people know about? Some people are able to read a book or journal and identify a theory that isn’t well known. Do you have to look in peer review journals? Is any peer review journal automatically considered a theory? But then what would you call this ‘new’ theory if the author doesn’t supply a name for it?
Obviously it's easy to spot the popular theories (e.g. Orientalism, Queer theory, etc.), but what about theories not a lot of people know about? Some people are able to read a book or journal and identify a theory that isn’t well known. Do you have to look in peer review journals? Is any peer review journal automatically considered a theory? But then what would you call this ‘new’ theory if the author doesn’t supply a name for it?
There's no such thing as identifying a "new" theory. Just because not many people (I don't know what type of persons you are referring to) know the theory, doesn't make it new.
You read a theory and then apply it to a text - i.e a feminist reading, a marxist reading, a post-structuralist reading.
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abbymonty
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I'm also a little bit confused by your question but will attempt what will hopefully be a helpful answer!
It is just a case of doing research and reading! Theory tends to fall into what I guess is almost like a genre/category - so feminist theory has lots and lots of writing which will be classed as feminist theory because so many people have different takes or opinions on things. A really good book for theory is the Norton Anthology of Critical Theory - it's huge and covers soo much but not cheap!
A book that might help you answer your own question - if no one else is able to! - is Jonathan Culler's a short introduction to literary theory. This one is small and cheap! Theory can be complicated and what I have found to be the best approach is doing a wide range of reading and then after reading a text deciding what applies to it. My teachers sometimes post relevant writings but not always.
Also there is a lot of theory that is i suppose quite general in terms of literature as it discusses the production of texts in themselves etc such as Foucault's what is an author? and Barthes Death of the author
It is just a case of doing research and reading! Theory tends to fall into what I guess is almost like a genre/category - so feminist theory has lots and lots of writing which will be classed as feminist theory because so many people have different takes or opinions on things. A really good book for theory is the Norton Anthology of Critical Theory - it's huge and covers soo much but not cheap!
A book that might help you answer your own question - if no one else is able to! - is Jonathan Culler's a short introduction to literary theory. This one is small and cheap! Theory can be complicated and what I have found to be the best approach is doing a wide range of reading and then after reading a text deciding what applies to it. My teachers sometimes post relevant writings but not always.
Also there is a lot of theory that is i suppose quite general in terms of literature as it discusses the production of texts in themselves etc such as Foucault's what is an author? and Barthes Death of the author
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