Literary Theory: The Basics

The Problem of Ideology: Class and Race Politics in Sticks and Bones

“…Hans Bertens suggests that "subjects cannot transcend their own time but live and work within the horizon of a culture constructed by ideology, by discourse." [6] From the very beginning, it is obvious that the Nelsons have a limited horizon encompassed by the ideology of the American Dream and its cultural discourse, and since they do not intend to cross the boundaries they live happy and contented within them. Marxism, we may recall, would explain the case as a misrepresentation of the world by ideology, whereby the subjects of a society live in a "collective delusion" since "ideology is not so much a set of beliefs or assumptions that we are aware of but it is that which makes us believe that that way of seeing ourselves and the world is natural.…”

“…If we succumb to ideology we live in an illusory world". [7] In a similar vein, Marxist philosopher Althusser has interpreted ideology as "the imaginary relationship of individuals to their conditions of existence." [8] And this illusory world would naturally present a "false consciousness".…”

“…Therefore, Hank proves himself as the embodiment of the dominant discourse in force in that society and, the influence of Hank in Ozzie's life becomes a negative impact depriving him of his capacity of thinking which is tantamount to depriving a person of his liberty, since "the liberal humanist" agenda has it that, "we are essentially free and can remain free as long as we can think". [13] As a result of Hank's influence and surveillance, Ozzie cannot develop a "subjective consciousness"; a concept interpreted as "ideas and actions of our own, which depend on us, not determined by forces over which we have no control. "[14] Victimized by Hank's -thus the dominant discourse's-control over his life, Ozzie cannot develop a mature identity.…”

Philology and Global English Studies

“…Among the earliest and abidingly popular, Catherine Belsey's Critical Practice (1980) didn't mention the term, and Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory (1983) did in passing (p. 26) but without explaining it. Philology was mentioned only fleetingly or wasn't in the increasingly teaching-friendly Theory textbooks, guidebooks, and reference books that followed (e.g., Selden, 1985, or its updated editions, with Widdowson, 1993, with Widdowson and Brooker, 1997Lentricchia and McLaughlin, 1990;Bennett and Royle, 1995;Barry, 1995;Baldick, 1996;Green and LeBihan, 1996;Bertens, 2001;Habib, 2005;Malpas and Wake, 2006). Where mentioned, it was understood loosely as a backward-looking linguistic analysis of texts, principally of German provenance, which has been superseded firmly in English Studies and is no longer relevant.…”

The Immigrant Experience in V.S. Naipaul's The Enigma of Arrival and Z. Smith's White Teeth: An Exploration of Homi Bhabha's Postcolonial Theory

“…They're deliberately leading him away from his culture and his family and his religion" [19]. Considering Bhabha's views about the conflicting relationship between the colonized and the colonizer, it is undeniable that the colonized people leaving their cultural values behind in the postcolonial Western societies and their adopting the culture of the West, the practice of mimicry, disturb the colonizer in a sense, because "[i]n mimicry the colonizer sees himself in a mirror that slightly but effectively distorts his image -that subtly and unsettingly 'others' his own identity" [35]. The cultural contradictions in the postcolonial period between the two parts resulted in the "in-between" position of the ex-colonized in the dominance of the Western norms.…”