This book presents the full range of positions and movements in contemporary literary theory. We have tried to avoid simply giving potted summaries of isms. By literary theory we refer not to the meaning of a work of literature but to the theories that reveal what literature can mean. A readers guide to contemporary literary theory 5th edition. The doppelganger is not evil in this case, but helpful. Fry is the william lampson professor of english and has taught at yale since 1971. Doppelganger, german word meaning lookalike or double walker, originally meant a ghost or shadow of a person but nowadays it simply refers to a person that is a lookalike of another person. There are countless evil twins in soap operas and other tv melodramas. Literary theory is the body of ideas and methods we use in the practical reading of literature.
Theories and practices of the doppelganger oxford scholarship. They have raised new questions about the construction of the gendered and sexualized subject and put forward radical new ideas about performance. Before meeting amber and the park family, the doppelganger was raised in a cabin deep in the woods by his mother who was a sheganger. In wilkie collins woman in white, laura fairlies identity is taken by her double anne catherick, resulting in her incarceration in the asylum when her. Tale of tamari download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi. The point of criticism is to argue your point of view on a work of literature.
Pdf literary theory an introduction by terry eagleton. This concept in literature did not originate in the gothic. A hugely important study of ambiguity and its effects in english verse. Doppelganger literature deals with human identity and the fragile concept of the self by featuring protagonists whose self is radically challenged by the formation. Literary theory is a description of the underlying principles, one might say the tools, by which we attempt to.
The nature of literary theory before moving on to describe some of the strategies for using this book, i would like to discuss the nature of theory in general and the problems associated with literary theory in particular. Newton which has 54 selections cut to present particular arguments, debates, confrontations, and an index reveals many pages mentioning roland barthes, jacques derrida, michel foucault, sigmund freud, and friedrich nietzsche. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. This paper is an attempt to investigate the various manifestations of the doppelganger and the double as they appear in british and american literature. But theory especially when it takes the form of isms can often be intimidating or else, frankly, boring. Literary theory definition and meaning collins english. However, albert guerard calls the concept embarrassingly vague in terms of literary criticism. Translated from german as doublegoer, the term doppelganger is used to describe the double of a character. Introduction to theory of literature open yale courses. An introduction to literary criticism and theory before we begin our examination and study of literary theory, it is important that we define exactly what literary theory is and is not, identify some of the main characteristics of such, as well as identify some of the key differences between traditional literary. An introduction structuralism and semiotics 2 3 structuralism and semiotics we left american literary theory at the end of the introduction in the grip of new criticism, honing its increasingly sophisticated techniques and fighting a rearguard action against modern science and industrialism. Introduction to hayden white, university of california at. Bildungsroman is a special kind of novel that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of its main character, from his or her youth to adulthood. Not resources for the above, but a mixed bag of sites providing background andor light relief.
The doppelganger motif of victor frankenstein and the monster in mary shelleys frankenstein. The problem isnt just a false interpretation of dostoevskys novels. A study on selftracking and the quantified self move ment. Definition, usage and a list of doppelganger examples in common speech and literature. This barcode number lets you verify that youre getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. The doppelganger l i t e r a t u r e s p h i l o s o p h y dimitris vardoulakis. In the epic of gilgamesh, for example, the eponymous hero battles and then befriends his double, enkidu. A doppelganger is a literary archetype of a character who meets his or her apparent double, with plot developments following the plot and character device of twinning is widespread in all literature but appears often in fairy tales, myths, and gothic literature. Generally, such a novel starts with a loss or a tragedy.
The book follows the challenges of the doppelganger in chriss body. In some cultures, seeing ones doppelganger is bad luck, and is often a sign of serious illness or approaching death. The doppelganger motif of victor frankenstein and the monster. It is important to keep in mind here that freud interprets beauty in general as an inhibited aim. Walking through the streets of nowadays prague, i became acquainted with an example of the very vivid traditions and legends of the jewish population during the medieval times. John kenny, centre for the study of human settlement and historical change, national university of ireland, galway a readers guide to contemporary literary theory fifth edition selden, widdowson, brooker cover image. There is plenty of modern day evidence that would suggest we all in fact have at least 1 likeness out there somewhere in the big wide cosmos. Feb 12, 2014 victor frankensteins declamation evidences the view that the creature is his double which represents the evil side to his character. Introduction to literary theory powerpoint sample pdf author.
He works in other planes of mental life and has little to do with those subdued emotional activities which, inhibited in their aims and dependent upon a multitude of concurrent factors, usually furnish the material for the study of aesthetics. The myths and possible realities of doppelgangers news. Doppelganger definition, a ghostly double or counterpart of a living person. You do have to analyze a text and support your assertions with specific evidence from experts and the text. Best known for his dictionary of literary terms, he also produced the large dictionary of sport and games, as well as several novels, plays and travel books. He also edited two anthologoies of supernatural fiction. The doppelgnger or double presents literature as the doubleof philosophy. Fry is the william lampson professor of english at yale and specializes in british romanticism, literary theory, and literature and the visual arts. Apr 17, 2016 the literary leanings of maupassants doppelganger date.
The doppelganger motif of victor frankenstein and the. The doppelganger or double presents literature as the double of philosophy. Since the late 1980s, theories of gender and sexuality have redefined how we think about culture and society. The doppelganger effect is in perpetual and constant generation as individual identities are written and rewritten from personal data collected in databases. The genesis of the doppelgnger is literatures response to the philosophical focus on subjectivity. Pdf a historical background to genesis of brand doppelganger. The two met at the university of iowa in the late 1930s, and by 1940 had begun writing the book. Doppelganger in british literature between 1837 and 1905. Gothic fiction tells us the truth about our divided nature.
Queer theory overlaps in many respects with feminist theory in its aims and goals, being at once. The word double is embarrassingly vague, as used in literary criticism. Its a twin or double of some character, usually in the form of an evil twin. What if we exist in a parallel universe in which everything in this world in replicated in another dimension, and in some way, at certain times for whatever reason, we are able to witness this other. The uncanny arises due to the return of repressed infantile material. Such characters become their own doppelganger in a sense, as they appear to be the same person but act in very different ways. Pdf the motif of the doppelganger endre xantus academia. They both address ways of looking at literature beyond the typical plotthemecharactersetting studies. A very short introduction jonathan culler has always been about the best person around at explaining literary theory without oversimplifying it or treating it with polemical bias. This chapter gives an overview of the manifestations of the doppelgaanger in literary practice and sets up a survey of theoretical positions on the double, which will both stand as objects of analysis and provide a methodological framework for the arguments presented. Literary theory and criticism literary theory and literary criticism are interpretive tools that help us think more deeply and insightfully about the literature that we read. Literary theory internet encyclopedia of philosophy. They sometimes impersonate a main character or cause confusion among the love interests. A bildungsroman is a story of the growing up of a sensitive person, who looks for answers to his questions through different experiences.
Literary theories session 6 psychology of literature. I have met someone through the internet from california that looks like me, thinks like me, gets sick at the same time i get sick, does the same thing i do during the day, and even get our menstrual cycles at the same time. The blackwell guide to literary theory is designed to facilitate this process by offering students and instructors basic information on the major theories, practitioners, and their texts. Freud will wed psychoanalytic and aesthetic modes of thought to develop his theory of the uncanny. Twentiethcentury literary theory, a reader, second edition 1997 edited by k. The novel, according to bakhtins theory is a secondary genre, a single utterance with a single author and his final meaning. A very short introduction is an exemplary work in this genre. Is character double a term of the literary criticism. The penguin dictionary of literary terms and literary theory. Then he was abandoned by his mother and left to fend for himself in the human society. This is because shelley deliberately subverts the gothic. A readers guide to contemporary literary theory raman selden peter widdowson peter brooker fifth edition a readers guide to contemporary literary theoryis a classic introduction to the everevolving field of modern literary theory, now expanded and updated in its fifth edition.
Critical approaches to literature university of new mexico. In irish folklore, it was believed that ones doppelganger or fetch in irish was an evil omen. Toward a definition of doppelganger 123 perhaps, to try to clarify at the beginning some of the theoretical and critical assumptions upon which it is based. Theory of literature is a book on literary scholarship by rene wellek, of the structuralist prague school, and austin warren, a selfdescribed old new critic. This may originate from the folklore belief that doppelgangers do not have a reflection or a shadow. The literary leanings of maupassants doppelganger date. The doppelganger as a narrative device that permits the confrontation or division of the self, the violent encounter of the conscious and subconscious, or a haunting, uncanny physical doubling is an imperative element of many gothic narratives, and certainly one the key threads of mary shelleys frankenstein. If you saw your fetch walking on the horizon, it meant something bad was about to happen to you. Since ancient times, readers have debated and critiqued literature from a variety of perspectives. Literary theory is an unavoidable part of studying literature and criticism. The literary leanings of maupassants doppelganger esoterx.
Heideggers masterpiece covers psychoanalysis, literary theory, existentialism, ethics, hermeneutics, and theology. From the isolation which interlinks the antagonists to the doppelganger theory, it is clear that the creature is largely a manifestation of victor. A doppelganger is a literary archetype of a character who meets his or her apparent double, with plot developments following the plot and character device of twinning is widespread in all literature but appears often in fairy tales, myths, and gothic literature famous texts exemplifying the doppelganger. Literary theory raman selden peter widdowson peter brooker fifth edition a readers guide to contemporary literary theoryis a classic introduction to the everevolving field of modern literary theory, now expanded and updated in its fifth edition. The notion of a double or doppelganger has, in the course of the last five centuries, appeared in western folklore, literature, film and cultural imagination portrayed as a. A sampling of critical lenses literary theories were developed as a means to understand the various ways people read texts. The doppelganger theory, the theory that there is an exact copy of you somewhere in the world. Whilst this exemplifies the view that the creature is victors double as they are both abhorrent at times, it reduces the weight of the argument that the former represents his creators evil side. Some have looked at a story or play from a moral stance, considering how values are represented in a text.
Drawing from literary criticism and institutional theory, this article analyzes the public discourse surrounding the exxon valdez spill of 1989 and bp gulf spill of 2010. Another critic might evaluate a poem in terms of its form. The rise of literary theory 15 timeline 57 the scope of literary theory 63 critical theory 65 cultural studies 72 deconstruction 79 ethnic studies 86 feminist theory 94 gender and sexuality 102 marxist theory 108 narrative theory 115 new criticism 122 new historicism 129 postcolonial studies 5 postmodernism 144 poststructuralism 154. The doppelganger in select nineteenthcentury british fiction. This volume examines the rapid rise and growth of modern literature in the three postcolonial nations of.
The double can be approached from two standpoints form and content though, as. In english, the word should be written with a lowercase letter doppelganger unless it is the first word of a sentence or part of a title. Centuries ago, many paranormal phenomena were also tied with folklore superstition, so it is difficult to pinpoint accurate facts regarding any paranormal phenomena dating back to ancient times. With the artist, in any medium, every impression is. A fresh take on the doppleganger and its place in japanese film and literaturepast and presentsince its earliest known use in german romanticism in the late.
In traditional folklore, doppelganger is a malicious and evil character, having no shadow or reflection. It also includes a history of literary theory from the late nineteenth century to. It troubles and harms its counterpart by putting bad thoughts and ideas in his or her head. Examples and definition of bildungsroman literary devices. Robert louis stevenson shelved 6 times as doppelganger avg rating 3. Freud and the literary imagination uw courses web server. The terms literary theory and critical theory refer to essentially the same fields of study.
The term describes a duality of the self in which a shadow, or an alterego, manifests itself to the original subject, and the subject has a simultaneous consciousness of being both his. Queer theory, or gender studies, is a relatively recent and evolving school of criticism, which questions and problematizes the issues of gender identity and sexual orientation in literary texts. The theoretical survey includes the philosophical split version of kleists kant crisis. Literary analysis has owed much to freuds theories of oedipus complex, primary.
Columbias guides to postwar african literature paint a unique portrait of the continents rich and diverse literary traditions. This chapter gives an overview of the manifestations of the doppelgaanger in literary practice and sets up a survey of theoretical positions on the double, which. Over time, different schools of literary criticism have developed, each with its own approaches to the act of reading. The proponents of each theory believe their theory is the theory, but most of us interpret texts according to the rules of several different theories at a time. The doppelganger is an uncanny motif comprising two distinct types. First, i want to make clear that literary theory is distinct from literary criticism, the latter being the. This guide is as stimulating and instructive an introduction to literary theory as any reader might wish for. Rather, theory constitutes a pervasive discursive space within which literary and cultural studies now occur 3. The victorian doppelganger columbia university libraries. Doppelganger doppelganger comes from a german word meaning doublewalker. The theory of polyphony therefore analyses the inner scars within an utterance between the utterances or their parts that entered it.
We are told from a young age that we are all individuals. Popular doppelganger books showing 150 of 110 the strange case of dr. There is another theory, and possibly one that in our modern times of open mindedness, is even more disturbing than a supernatural explanation. Doppelganger and doppelgaenger are essentially equivalent spellings, and doppelganger is different and would correspond to a different pronunciation. While many antitheorists have claimed that theory eclipses literature and literary values as such, culler suggests, on the other hand, that it generally alerts us to versions of literariness at work in discourse and. His primary areas of specialization are british romanticism, the history of literary criticism, contemporary literary theory, and literature in relation to the visual arts. Instead we present brief essays on a range of key critical. Doppelganger, the german word, which is the usual literary term for this common phenomenon and which literally means doublegoer, was brought into the language, and simultaneously, into the literary tradition as a term only by the novelist jean paul richter, who in 1796 defined the. In the sciences, theories are systems for understanding how an aspect of the world works. What is uncanny here is thus the return of something in our psychosexual history that has been overcome and forgotten. A psychoanalytic reading of the doppelganger motif. He was educated at the university of california, berkeley and harvard and has been teaching at yale since 1971.