Blog #6

The form of criticism my group is working on is new historicism which is the view that everybody interprets literature in there own way based on their worldview and personal life experiences and walk of life. The article we found and read was an excerpt from Mary McCarthy's book on her experience of the Vietnam War. This article contributes to new historicism because it explains how history can be altered can and sometimes will according to who is explaining it and talking about it based on that persons life experiences and previous events that happen in their life. This writer McCarthy can have a totally different explanation of her experience in Vietnam than another person who comes from another walk of life. We look at history to ground or reinforce what we actually believe and then support it with facts. The article titled "twelve o'clock  news gave facts and about circumstances in Vietnam. The article made a good point about representation and how people in the US at the time of the war only knew what was going on through news on TV of course along with the news whoever was giving the information to the news reporters to share added their personal biases about things going on in Vietnam. Representation of the war was not truly shown to the American people because the only way they got any look on the war was through the news. Our group plans to explain how old historicism says anyone can have an accurate interpretation of historical events. Versus new historicism which explains that each persons interpretation on an event will be different from the next due to personal experiences and worldview. So applying to the article we read McCarthy's interpretation on her experiences in the war would be different from another writer that came from another personal background, with different social standards and norms.

Blog #6

The topic given to my group is Postcolonialism. we found the most useful information from our book "Literary Criticism" by Charles E. Bressler. The piece that we looked at went over the historical development of postcolonialsism, the assumptions, and the methedology.
For the history it tells us how the Western europeans were the colonizers and a lot of African and asian countries were the colonized. In the nineteenth century Great Britain was shown to be the largest colonizer of them all controlling almost a quarter of the world's land mass. It was then thought that British people and even Western Europeans were much superior to everyone else and would take over the world as the people with all the power. 
For the assumptions it tells us that all postcolonialist critics believe:

• European colonialism did occur.
• The British Empire was at the center of this colonialism.
• The conquerers not only dominated the physical land but also the hegemony or ideology of the colonized peoples.
• The social, political and economic effects of such colonization are still being felt today

It goes on to say that it's believed that the people developing postcolonial theories and practicing the approaches to textual analysis are from a heterogenous group. However there are many critics from different kinds of backgrounds; some did come from European or American culture, some were born and raised in non western cultures but now live and work in the west, and others who still live and work in subaltern cultures.
In methodology we learn that there are two main approaches to use for textual analysis and they are postcolonial criticism and postcolonial theory. 
Also there are three significant questions you can ask when analyzing a postcolonial text and they are:

1. Who am I?
2. How do I develop into the person i am?
3. To what country/countries or to what cultures am i forever linked to?

Its said that colonialism is not just a thing in the past but that it very much exists today, just in more subtle ways.

Blog Post #6

My group is doing our presentation on New Historicism. A piece of pure theory that contributes to this theoretical framework is "Twelve O'Clock News" by Elizabeth Bishop. In the writing, Bishop comes back to the United States after living in Brazil for two decades. It is at the same time that Americans are getting involved in the Vietnam War and she understands how terrifying it must be for the citizens of Vietnam because she has seen how chaotic an underdeveloped country can become. The premise of New Historicism is that every individual has their own interpretation and opinion of an event. In Bishop's poem, she states that a Vietnamese man on a bike started firing at an American plane. The American plane decides to fire on the man with enough ammunition for a platoon. If an American read this, they would probably praise the pilot for destroying the man, however, a Vietnamese person would have a different belief on the circumstance and think that the American was wrong for killing him. My group plans on incorporating this into our presentation with other examples of conflicts throughout history.

Blog Post Six

For the discussion lead project my group has been assigned the topic of African American criticism. The piece of pure theory that my group has chosen to use was from, A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, which was on hold in the MiraCosta Library. This particular piece was a collaboration on African American literature and was written by Wilfred Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne Reesman, John R. Willingham and John Willingham. 

The piece gives an in depth look into the history African American literature and the ideology and methods that brought about its existence. Moreover, it gives specific examples of individual writers over an extended period of time. The piece begins by giving a history of the beginnings of African American literature, then moves on to give examples of folk and slave written literature. As a transition, the values of African American people living in colonial America are contrasted with the values of white people. Different writing samples and discussions of authors are presented as the piece moves on, through the Civil War ear to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. According to the text, African American literature did not begin to to receive mainstream attention until the 1950s. This piece of pure theory ends with a discussion on African American literature and its impact during the Black Power era and a discussion of the Black Arts. 

After discussing this piece with my group we decided that there are many different areas of our presentation where we could incorporate it. We can use the history aspect of the piece when discussing the origins of African American criticism. Also, the author of our story, “Battle Royal”, is specifically mentioned in the piece. We can use that information when we are discussing the authors life and influences in his work. There are also many other aspects of African American criticism mentioned in the piece that we will work in throughout our presentation.

Blog 6

The theory my group has been assigned to is the Post-colonial theory.  The photocopied "pure" theory was written by Julie Rivkin and Michal Ryan. The theoretical framework that this theory belongs to is cultural studies. "Post-colonial"; the term itself varies meaning across the globe. According to our Literary Criticism book Post Colonialism consists of different theories such as philosophy, and its main concern with literature written in English countries that are colonized from other countries (235). This type of theory recognizes the writings from the people that are being colonized, not from the perspective of the colonizer. Colonialism took different forms but there were typically always changes to the indigenous culture. Loss of lives were done along the process of colonizing. Many colonizers believed that their race was "superior" to the rest thus allowing them to rule over different countries. They didn't only take over the land but the culture of the people as well. Post colonialists critics believe that there are effects of colonization still around such as social, political and economical(239). My group will try to touch on the many areas that colonization effected such as language, culture, education, religion and we will show how the colonized people struggled to adapt to such changes.

Blog Post #6

In my group we are discussing the topic of postcolonialism.  We decided that our Literary Criticism book written by Charles E. Bressler had a lot of important information that was detailed in postcolonialism.  The piece we chose discusses the theory of postcolonialism in the terms that it looks into the historical background, assumptions, and methodology.  When focusing on the history it shows how Western Europeans were biologically superior to any other race, which made them think that they dominated the colonies.  Some important assumptions to focus on are 
1) European colonialism did occur 
2) The British Empire was at the center of colonialism 
3) The conquerors not only dominated the physical land but also the hegemony or ideology of the colonized peoples.  
And when looking into the methodology it is important to know the key questions.  
1) Who am I? 
2) How did I develop into the person I am? 
3) To what country or countries or to what cultures am I forever linked?
If a story can answer these three questions then you are most likely looking at a postcolonial story.  My group has chosen a couple different stories that answers these questions and looks at the other theories that postcolonialism offers.  

Discussion Post 6: Theory

The steps to this one are pretty simple:

1. Take the piece of “pure” theory you photocopied/looked up online.

2. Briefly introduce it – who wrote it, to which theoretical framework it contributes to, etc.

3. Summarize the piece thoroughly.

4. Explain how/where you and your group have thought about incorporating actual theory into your presentation.Take the piece of “pure” theory you photocopied/looked up online.