1,720,962 research outputs found
Jane Eyre and Heathcliff – a comparative study of the antihero and the antiheroine
Get PDFThis thesis has two major purposes: to examine the concept antihero and to discuss if the literary figures of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane in Jane Eyre (1847) and Emily Brontë’s Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (1847), conform to the accepted conventions of the antihero. It studies the wide and complex concept, and tries to make it more understandable by confining it into ‘a grey area’. Further, it compares and contrasts Jane and Heathcliff, and uses the concept of the antihero to gain a better understanding of these characters. Finally, it looks at the relationship between female antiheroines and male antiheroes, to see if there are notable differences between these two types of antiheroes.
The literature review offers a theoretical background for this thesis, as it presents earlier research on the concept itself, as well as research on Jane and Heathcliff in relation to the concept. The primary critics that will be discussed in this chapter with connection to Jane is Helen Moglen, who states that Jane was the first antiheroine, and Carol Pearson and Katherine Pope, who disagrees and states that she is a heroine. The primary critics that will be discussed in this chapter with connection to Heathcliff, is Peter L. Thorslev, who argues that Heathcliff is an antiheroic Byronic hero, and Walter Reed, who claims that Heathcliff is a Romantic hero. Moreover, it discusses Bernard Paris’s statement where he asserts that Heathcliff escapes the villain label because his evil actions derive from the mistreatment he has been a victim of. The literature review is followed by an in-depth discussion about the concept antihero, where its meaning, origin and purpose are in focus. The aim with this chapter is to set the base for the two following chapters, which are the analyses of Jane and Heathcliff as antiheroes.
This study shows that Jane and Heathcliff can be perceived as antiheroes, because their primary aim with their rebellious behaviour is justice. However, it has also shown that whether Jane is called an antiheroine or a heroine seems to be two sides of the same coin, because for the same reasons some interprets her as an antiheroine, she is perceived as a heroine by others. The perceptions of Heathcliff depend on whether or not the readers are able to sympathise with him, and thus excuse his malevolent actions, or if they are only able to view him as a villainous character. The different interpretations of these two characters indicate that the concept, the grey area they operate within, always is in flux. As society and its principles change, and the tolerance and acceptance increase, the confinements of the concept adjusts with it
Kritisk danning i lærerutdanningen
Get PDFThis anthology examines what it takes to educate teachers in the 2020s, in an effort to contribute to a revitalization, reformulation and operationalization of educational thinking in teacher education.;How should teachers and teacher educators work to ensure that pupils' and students' encounters with subject matter and their fellow students are meaningful to them as human beings? That their activity is engaging in the here and now, yet also provides an impetus in the direction of something not yet there? It is about developing critical thinking as well as building trust and community in teacher education and schools. It involves educating professionals with critical and ethical awareness that can lead to action, a combination that can be summarized in the concept of ‘critical education’. The chapters in this book relate to a broad understanding of education that encompasses cognitive, aesthetic and existential dimensions.;The book is aimed at teachers, teacher educators and students in teacher education. Its content will also be relevant for anyone interested in a discussion of the values to be maintained in school, in education and in society.;Denne tekstsamlingen undersøker hva det innebærer å danne lærere på 2020-tallet. Den er tenkt som et bidrag til en revitalisering, reformulering og operasjonalisering av danningstenkningen i lærerutdanningen.;Hvordan kan lærere og lærerutdannere arbeide for at elevenes og studentenes møte med faginnhold og medstudenter gir et utbytte som betyr noe for dem som mennesker? At virksomheten kommer dem i møte der de er, men tidvis gir et løft i retning av noe som enda ikke er? Det handler både om å utvikle kritisk tenkning og å bygge tillit og fellesskap i lærerutdanning og skole. Det innebærer å utdanne profesjonsutøvere med kritisk og etisk bevissthet som kan lede til handling, en kombinasjon som kan sammenfattes i begrepet kritisk danning. Kapitlene i boken forholder seg til en bred forståelse av danning som rommer både kunnskapsmessige, estetiske og eksistensielle dimensjoner.;Boken henvender seg til lærere, lærerutdannere og studenter i lærerutdanningene. Innholdet er også aktuelt for alle som interesserer seg for hvilke verdier som skal prege skole, utdanning og samfunn
Fostering ‘Bildung’ and Critical Thinking in English Education: Teachers’ Perspectives and Practices
Get PDFImplementing the new curriculum, “Kunnskapsløftet 2020” (LK20), has brought heightened attention to Critical Thinking in Norwegian education. However, despite its familiarity, Critical Thinking remains under-communicated and challenging to define, hindering its translation from theory to practice. Additionally, the concept of 'Bildung', integral to the overarching goals of education and closely intertwined with Critical Thinking, poses additional challenges due to its abstract nature.
Drawing on the insights of scholars like Wolfgang Klafki, who underscore the close relationship between 'Bildung' and Critical Thinking, this study aims to delve into these concepts’ interplay within the context of English education in Norwegian schools. Specifically, through interviews with four English teachers spanning grades eight to ten, we explore their perceptions and practices concerning 'Bildung' and Critical Thinking.
Our findings highlight the complexity of these concepts and the diverse interpretations among educators. While implementing the LK20 curriculum emphasizes Critical Thinking, our study reveals a need for more practical guidance. Teachers play a pivotal role in defining, implementing, and measuring Critical Thinking, hence also 'Bildung'. Yet they face challenges in navigating its complexities without adequate support.
Furthermore, our study underscores the intrinsic connection between 'Bildung' and Critical Thinking, emphasizing the need for a unified educational framework to integrate these concepts effectively. We advocate for greater support and awareness among educators to bridge the gap between theory and practice, thereby fostering holistic education within the English curriculum
Chick or Lit: An Investigation of the Chick Lit Genre in Light of Traditional Standards of Literary Value
Get PDFThe present master’s thesis explores the chick lit genre in light of traditional standards of literary value. The thesis investigates how literary value and quality has been defined through the last couple of centuries, as well as how popular fiction, and chick lit in particular, is evaluated in terms of literary value and quality. The thesis seeks to understand how the popular embrace of genre fiction, like chick lit, relates to the typical critical rejection of such writing. Ultimately, the motivation behind the present thesis is to reach an understanding of why it is necessary to discriminate between good and bad writing, and whether it is possible to discuss literary value and quality without such a binary mode of thinking.
The thesis’s first body chapter explores how literary value and quality has been defined in the past. Central works are Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy (1882[1869]) and ‘The Study of Poetry’ (1880), Q.D. Leavis’s Fiction and the Reading Public (1932), F.R. Leavis’s The Great Tradition (1960[1948]) and Culture and Environment (1977[1933]) and Terry Eagleton’s Literary Theory (2008[1983]). The chapter aims to show on how these critics have defined literary value and quality, and how they have considered the position of popular fiction.
In the second body chapter, Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon (1995) and Janice Radway’s A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste and Middle-Class Desire (1997) are essential. The chapter explores how Bloom and Radway are both engaged with the issue of reading advice addressed to the general reading public. The discussion in this chapter, and Radway’s study on the Book-of-the-Month Club in particular, demonstrates the relevance of pleasure reading for discussing literary value.
In the third and final body chapter of the thesis, the chick lit genre is explored as an example of contemporary popular fiction. Important works are Stephanie Harzewski’s Chick Lit and Postfeminism (2008), Diane Negra’s What a Girl Wants? (2009) and Rocio Montoro’s Chick Lit: The Stylistics of Cappuccino Fiction (2012), as well as Chick Lit: The New Woman’s Fiction (2006) edited by Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young, and the two short story collections This is Not Chick Lit (2006) and This is Chick-Lit (2006) edited by Elizabeth Merrick and Lauren Baratz-Logsted respectively. The chapter explores the following research question: is chick lit valuable reading material, and how do we decide?
This thesis shows that the difference between being entertained and being challenged is fundamental to what separates popular fiction from serious literature. With reference to both historical and contemporary accounts of literary value, the ability to challenge readers is identified as the nature of literature. In light of traditional standards of literary value, chick lit does not qualify as literature, but is rather juxtaposed to literature. The thesis shows that the issue of defining literary value and quality is a complex matter, and that an objective, universal perspective on literary value is problematized by those who stress the mutability and diversity of literary evaluations. However, the thesis’s investigation of chick lit demonstrates how popular fiction fails to challenge readers, and rather works to perpetuate habitual thinking. Thus, the thesis calls attention to the continued importance of discriminating between good and bad writing. The thesis shows that a binary mode of thinking, although arguably both elitist and condescending, is necessary in order to demonstrate why the difference between genre fiction and literature, or between chick and lit in particular, matters
Renegotiating Aesthetic Disinterest for the Literature Classroom
Get PDFThis paper discusses a dialectic between a so-called disinterested appreciation of literature and what I refer to as the ‘neoliberal ethos’. I am interested, primarily, in the influence of this dialectic on literary pedagogy. I will argue that the way in which the neoliberal ethos has permeated educational settings creates a need for a reconceptualised notion of aesthetic disinterest, without which we will struggle to coherently argue for alternative conceptions of the value of education, especially arts and humanities education. I hope to show that reviving the concept of disinterest will facilitate a renegotiation of the literature classroom as a space for genuine aesthetic experience and non-instrumental discussion.This paper discusses an ideological conflict between a so-called disinterested appreciation of literature and what I refer to as the ‘neoliberal ethos’. I am interested, primarily, in the influence of this tension on literary pedagogy. I will argue that the way in which the neoliberal ethos has permeated educational settings creates a need for a reconceptualised notion of aesthetic disinterest, without which we will struggle to coherently argue for alternative conceptions of the value of education, especially arts and humanities education. I hope to show that reviving the concept of disinterest will facilitate a renegotiation of the literature classroom as a space for genuine aesthetic experience and non-instrumental discussion.
Renegotiating Aesthetic Disinterest for the Literature Classroom
No full textThis paper discusses a dialectic between a so-called disinterested appreciation of literature and what I refer to as the ‘neoliberal ethos’. I am interested, primarily, in the influence of this dialectic on literary pedagogy. I will argue that the way in which the neoliberal ethos has permeated educational settings creates a need for a reconceptualised notion of aesthetic disinterest, without which we will struggle to coherently argue for alternative conceptions of the value of education, especially arts and humanities education. I hope to show that reviving the concept of disinterest will facilitate a renegotiation of the literature classroom as a space for genuine aesthetic experience and non-instrumental discussion.This paper discusses an ideological conflict between a so-called disinterested appreciation of literature and what I refer to as the ‘neoliberal ethos’. I am interested, primarily, in the influence of this tension on literary pedagogy. I will argue that the way in which the neoliberal ethos has permeated educational settings creates a need for a reconceptualised notion of aesthetic disinterest, without which we will struggle to coherently argue for alternative conceptions of the value of education, especially arts and humanities education. I hope to show that reviving the concept of disinterest will facilitate a renegotiation of the literature classroom as a space for genuine aesthetic experience and non-instrumental discussion.
Interested Disinterest: The Development of the Literature Study Guide
Get PDFThe present doctoral thesis takes as its object the literature study guide for A-level, a genre which has not previously received scholarly attention. The thesis brings out the unexpected ways in which this at first sight insignificant genre expresses a fundamental ‘disciplinary anxiety’. The literature study guide is typically unheeded by literary scholars and educators because its instrumentalism – which seems to follow from external political influence – is at odds with literary values. However, this thesis shows that the study guide not only mirrors the clash between neoliberal and humanist values, but also reflects an analogous conflict within the discipline of English literature concerning the institutionalisation of disinterested ideals.
In this thesis, the discussion of the tense dialectic within the study guide – its interested disinterest – is conducted in three thematic, but inevitably overlapping, parts. The first considers the study guide’s instrumentalism, viewing it as an expression of what is referred to as the neoliberal ethos, as well as investigating the overly facile conception of literary realism which informs the genre’s plot-driven structure. The second part takes disinterest as its theme, demonstrating the study guide’s membership in that tradition through its kinship with Matthew Arnold’s A Bible Reading for Schools (1872). It argues, moreover, that the genre finds further motivation in the demands of practical criticism. The final part explores the diachronic development of the balance between interest and disinterest within the study guide, and argues for a reconfiguration of the concept of disinterest such that it might accommodate a more inclusive, and less conflicted, literary pedagogy.
The study guide provides a space for reflection upon the discipline’s implicit values and intuitions of purpose. It is argued that such a reflection leaves us better equipped to tackle ongoing challenges to the discipline
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
- …
