The English 215 Critical Methods "Crit-Off"
| Psychoanalytic Criticism | New Criticism | Structuralism | Deconstruction | Reader-Response Criticism | Feminist Criticism | Cultural Criticism | |
| Sara Miller Lucas Southworth |
Peter Cook Aaron Dorman |
Max Eber Alayana Giovannitti |
Edgar Kunz Sam Joustra |
Julia Boyer Rebecca Peller |
Michael Gutgsell Euchalla Taylor |
Jacqui Lamer Erin Renehan |
Dan Benyishay Arnie (designated cultural critic) |
I've picked the team members for the 2010 English 215 Doubles Critical Methods Tournament (AKA, "the Big Crit-Off") You have been chosen for the critical theory you will represent because you did very good or excellent work on it in the "Working With" assignment, and you have been paired with someone else who also did well. I will be available at the beginning and end of the 30 minute work period to help groups figure out how to apply the theory. Make sure you have read the Hemingway story, "My Old Man," and both versions of the 18-line Wyatt poem, "They Flee from Me [That Sometime Did Me Seek]" before class. Your choice of which text to analyze will make a huge difference in how well your theory works.
Happy Kentucky Derby Day presented by Yum! Brands!! (Saturday, May 1)! Why are we so easily persuaded that it is "normal" for public events and spaces to bear commercial messages, like this weirdly inappropriate pairing (horse steaks? chicken-fried thoroughbred? eeeuuuwww!)? How many overdetermining factors would have made it impossible for Wyatt's poem to circulate under the title "The Flee From Me Presented by Yum! Brands"?
If your group picked "My Old Man" to use with your theory, you probably should browse that web site, and perhaps even watch the race. Cultural Critics, especially (Dan!), need to sharpen up their eye for mythic drama and economically motivated codes of power and submission. Post time is about 6:30 PM.