Welcome, everyone, to this WordPress site dedicated to our work together in L 371, Critical Practices.
You know by now that the topic I’ve selected for our introductory course in the critical and theoretical ‘grounds’ of English Literature is “Meaning and Pleasure.” Debates over the relation of the meaning of a text to the pleasures it gives readers are longstanding. We all have beloved books–and books we hated! In nearly all times and places, cultural authorities have worried out loud about the “bad” effect of too much–or the wrong kind of–reading. In the Middle Ages, some worried that romances (stories of Knights and Ladies, of King Arthur, and his gang) were too fun, too frivolous, and too full of lies; during the early days of the novel, some claimed that reading novels could be bad for sensitive readers, filling their heads with fantasies. Most recently, some school districts have removed the Harry Potter books from school libraries, arguing that they are too engrossing (and too filled with magic) and will influence young minds to dabble in the occult. In all these cases, reading enthusiasms end up being called excessive–and worrisome as a result. But trying to read without pleasure? We’ve all been there, and what a slog.
Meaning and Pleasure2014 