I am really beginning to feel more comfortable reading and finding signs in other poems. That is something that has really surprised me about this class, because before taking this class I have felt very intimidated by poetry. Dr. Davidson mentions that one might argue that this is a new critical approach, as if that is something to be defended. I would say more like applauded. I almost envy those English teachers going in to teach their poetry units. I will likely try to put together a lesson plan after my poem project. I like the idea of having some options. I certainly do not mind writing a paper, but the idea of creating a lesson plan using this sign inventory approach is very attractive to me.
Of course I still have a lot of work to do with the magnifying glass before I am ready, but I feel like I am making progress. It is interesting to me how much finer the process is, because this week I looked at our poem for as many signs as I could imagine before seeking any outside influence.
Strangely this time as I looked for biographical information on the poet and possible interpretation on the net I found some of my own ideas, but the best ideas and the best questions I gathered from my own sign inventory were no where to be found.
That is the great thing about these inventories. We are more likely to ask really probing questions when we read the poem for signs. Back to critical approaches to the sign inventory, I would not consider this merely a new critical approach or a deconstructionist approach but more a means to open the reader up to any number of critical approaches.
As I read this weeks poem and went through each sign I could not help but wonder what a feminist critical approach to the poem might be, but I also thought about queer theory, post colonialism, Archetypal, Semiotics, Social Criticism, new historicist, even classic criticism is found in my inventory in fact the list of critical approaches to this piece of writing is likely endless, and I think that is what the sign inventory does for us, at least on this level. Of course to construct some potential meaning for signs one needs to do research, but if you a researching in order to offer up possible meanings of particular signs rather than researching to find the one meaning, that is wonderful.
I have introduced the idea that the writer does not own all of the meaning in my Drama class this year. This is not a new idea for me. I have always believed that his is true and New Criticism or deconstructionist approaches have always been something I advocated for plays, particularly Shakespeare. What I have learned this semester and can not wait to really implement in class is how to apply this same ideology to poetry.
Perhaps it is my lack of exposure that has caused the problem, but until this semester I never really knew how to look at a poem. I am not expert eve now. But. I find it surprising even amazing that with each class and with each new poem I read I am able to see signs just thumbing there nose at me, just really plainly calling attention to themselves.
This is something that never happened until I took this class, and it makes me eager to read and teach more poetry than I ever imagined I would care to.
You may be confusing the term "new critical" with "poststructural," here, Jeff. What I intend with "New Criticism" is the school of literary thought in mostly the mid century that strove to approach the work of literature as a completely self-contained reality. That move simultaneously cordons off history and culture. It demands a kind of purifying isolation of the text. In response to that rather conservative approach, many critics and writers began to challenge New Criticism with more unstable, open models. These are all loosely gathered under the heading of "postmodern discourses."
ReplyDeleteBut, yes, I agree that sign inventorying then provides the raw material for later theory applications. While I believe that it's backward to come into class and say, "Read Gluck's poem through a feminist lens," I certainly believe that--given the proper sign--feminist discourse could be an extremely useful and apt tool to use in unpacking ONE meaning in ONE sign. The important thing is not to frontload that application. Let your focus on text and signs open up potential applications.