ENGL 3680 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Reductionism, Postcolonialism, Metafiction
15 Sep 2016
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Canada was both colonized and is still colonizing. Eludes definition: authorship (writing outside of canada), geography, publication history. Nation/nationality is one critical frame (among many lenses) to read literature. Thematically organized (atwood - davie"s responded to this saying it was reductionist though) Through postmodernism: the ex-centric (hutcheson, able to offer critique through this mechanism) With politics in postmodernism: counterpoint (ajay heble - there"s space for multiple voices speaking at the same time) In a national literature, you can find symbols that are representative of the nation. Grows out of structuralism, the idea that there are underlying structures that can organize all of life (ex. Davies was opposed to thematic critics because he felt it was reductionist by turning out attention only to the theme of the text. Survival also shows up in other texts too. Through that thematic criticism only picks works that support its arguments while ignoring everything that doesn"t support it.
