Book•
Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction
01 Jan 1997-
TL;DR: Theoretical Schools and Movements: Identity, Identification, and the Subject Theoretical schools and movements as discussed by the authors have a long history in the field of movement theory and movement.
Abstract: 1. What is theory? 2. What is Literature and Does it Matter? 3. Literature and Cultural Studies 4. Language, Meaning, and Interpretation 5. Rhetoric, Poetics, and Poetry 6. Narrative 7. Performative Language 8. Identity, Identification, and the Subject Theoretical Schools and Movements References Further Reading Index
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01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: In Unit Operations, Ian Bogost argues that similar principles underlie both literary theory and computation, proposing a literary-technical theory that can be used to analyze particular videogames and argues for the possibility of real collaboration between the humanities and information technology.
Abstract: In Unit Operations, Ian Bogost argues that similar principles underlie both literary theory and computation, proposing a literary-technical theory that can be used to analyze particular videogames. Moreover, this approach can be applied beyond videogames: Bogost suggests that any medium -- from videogames to poetry, literature, cinema, or art -- can be read as a configurative system of discrete, interlocking units of meaning, and he illustrates this method of analysis with examples from all these fields. The marriage of literary theory and information technology, he argues, will help humanists take technology more seriously and hep technologists better understand software and videogames as cultural artifacts. This approach is especially useful for the comparative analysis of digital and nondigital artifacts and allows scholars from other fields who are interested in studying videogames to avoid the esoteric isolation of "game studies." The richness of Bogost's comparative approach can be seen in his discussions of works by such philosophers and theorists as Plato, Badiou, Zizek, and McLuhan, and in his analysis of numerous videogames including Pong, Half-Life, and Star Wars Galaxies. Bogost draws on object technology and complex adaptive systems theory for his method of unit analysis, underscoring the configurative aspects of a wide variety of human processes. His extended analysis of freedom in large virtual spaces examines Grand Theft Auto 3, The Legend of Zelda, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and Joyce's Ulysses. In Unit Operations, Bogost not only offers a new methodology for videogame criticism but argues for the possibility of real collaboration between the humanities and information technology.
413 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reflect upon and attempt to understand the changing theoretical nature of post-World War II Anglo-American economic geography, and contrast the kind of theorizing that first occurred in the discipline during the 1950s with the very different kind now carried out under what has been called the cultural turn or the new economic geography.
Abstract: In this article, I reflect upon and attempt to understand the changing theoretical nature of post–World War II Anglo-American economic geography. In particular, I contrast the kind of theorizing that first occurred in the discipline during the 1950s with the very different kind now carried out under what has been called the “cultural turn”or the “new economic geography.” I argue that, during this transition, not only did the use of specific theories alter, but the very idea and practice of theorization also changed. I characterize the phases of this movement by using the terms “epistemological” and “hermeneutic theorizing,” defined on the basis of works by pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty and science studies writer Donna Haraway. I argue that “epistemological theorizing” best describes the first period of theorization in the discipline around the quantitative revolution of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and that it is bound by the quest for accurate (mirror) representation. In contrast, hermeneutic t...
283 citations
Cites background from "Literary Theory: A Very Short Intro..."
...Based on other criteria, however, Gibson-Graham’s claim possesses all the attributes of a theory (Culler 1997, chapter 1)....
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...Along with theoretical redescriptions go practical effects such as changed views about the object of inquiry, altered practices of study, and the establishment of new social groupings and institutions (Culler 1997, 4)....
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...To do so, though, requires a broad definition of theory, such as Culler (1997) provides, and a willingness to keep the conversation going between different traditions....
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...For Culler (1997), their disciplinary “outsideness” makes such works theoretical....
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...Culler (1997, 15–16) provides the broader argument and the basis for my example here....
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01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a taxonomy of the most common types of choices available to an improviser at the time of performing an improvised piece, including the most important ones from a phenomenological perspective.
Abstract: and general in order to be able to be performed on a wide variety of new inputs. The inputs may be an inventory of notes based upon key, style, et cetera. (Pressing’s cognitive model calls this the “referent.”) My taxonomy is a way of making those inputs clear. 184 Since improvisation (and composition) is fundamentally cognitive and motor selection, then this presupposes a set of things from which to select. One can only select if there are options, choices. Now, it seems that whether a person (agent) is aware (conscious or cognizant of the options (all or even some)), one may always post facto reconstruct the set of choices which were available or present to the agent at the time of selection. By this I mean the set of choices that were available to the agent from an objective point of view. This set has little to do with the actual, individual conscious states of the agent; however, it does involve many specific conditions of the agent and the agent’s environment. For example, a musician S may say that “it never occurred to me to play that B-flat after the A,” even though objectively that choice was available to S. Sometimes, however, we describe others, and even ourselves, as just doing something—no other options presented themselves to consciousness. So, “selection” may seem like an inappropriate term or concept for what is going on in improvisation. It may, however, seem more accurate in composition. When humans perform actions in quick succession, consciously it does not seem like a choice or decision is being made for each separate action. In fact, in some cases it may be difficult to individuate the rapid succession of actions into discrete units. It seems to be a unitary flow of movements. These are half-intentional actions. Beside the (SCI) case, examples of this kind of phenomenon are playing sports, talking, and just mundane actions like walking to the market. From a phenomenological perspective, in some moments the choice or decision aspect can be discerned, while other moments “feel” automatic. Consequently, it is in these seemingly automatic moments that selection may be an erroneous description. But there are several pieces of evidence that suggest that in both cases similar or the same processes are realized. First, it would be impossible to account for talent and skill if some sense of choice or selection or decision was not involved. Indeed, psychologists and others 185 indicate that some people are better than others (usually in some specific domain of behavior) in their speed of thinking, choosing, and moving in situations that require rapidity. In other words, if we cannot attribute responsibility to selection or choice, even in an attenuated sense, training and effort would be diminished or demolished. Why would one train if one could not control the automatic thinking or moving? What would be our understanding of talent and expertise? Second, there is reductio ad absurdam argument that can be given here, analogous to the one Thomas Nagel presents in the classic “Moral Luck” article. One could argue that artistic agents are never responsible for anything they do; they have no agency because all novel thoughts impinge. Humans do not cause their thoughts and selection. My only response is that creativity is still a mystery, and we are not yet epistemically entitled to run this argument to the point of absurdity. Furthermore, cognitive science has informed us that even in these moments sub-conscious motor and kinetic programs or mechanisms are running. Some of these were delineated for improvisation above. This is one reason why a phenomenology needs to be appended to cognitive models and the like. One should also be interested in what is present to the consciousness of the agent, and what is consciously occurring while playing (if anything), not only the underlying processes posited by a cognitive theory, nor what could be going on as argued for in a philosophical theory. David Sudnow is perhaps the best example of a phenomenological approach to improvising. By introspecting on his improvised piano playing and his learning how to play 62 For example, see Sian Beilock, Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal about Getting It Right When You Have To (New York: Free Press, 2010). 63 Thomas Nagel, “Moral Luck” in Mortal Questions, Canto Classics Series (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 24-38. 64 David Sudnow, Ways of the Hand: The Organization of Improvised Conduct (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978), and David Sudnow, Ways of the Hand: A Rewritten Account, foreword by Hubert L. Dreyfus (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001). 186 paino and improvise, Sudnow gives excellent descriptions of the process and actions. One of the most important insights he gives is that selection in jazz piano improvisation is in large part about fingering and the way one’s hands and fingers move across the keys. I can attest that the same is true for stringed instruments, like guitar. Often, when I improvise, my attention is on finger patterns that I know work (with embellishments) over certain “changes.” How strongly the phenomenology of playing an instrument comes to play in thinking about creativity and improvisation in particular comes to the fore in this extraordinary account of a conversation with the famous, brilliant pianist Bill Evans. ... I [Gene Lees] kidded him [Bill Evans] about his rocking a finger on a key on a long note at the end of a phrase. After all, the hammer has already left the string: one has no further physical contact with the sound. ‘Don’t you know the piano has no vibrato?’ I said. ‘Yes,’ Bill responded, ‘but trying for it affects what comes before it in the phrase.’ Evans reveals that there are motor selections that do not enter into the perceivable product (in this case sounds) but yet affect properties of that product. Not all selections will be perceivable in the final product (e.g., performance, recording). One should also be aware that selection may be coerced in both a literal and metaphorical sense. External factors such as authorities may constrain what artists do, thereby eliminating or reducing choices. I may only have the resources to learn one instrument. If I only know how to play saxophone, I am not going to pick up a trumpet. At any given time t, the agent (improviser, player, performer) has twelve pitches available in the range physically determined by the instrument. This range is vague because 65 Gene Lees, “The Poet Bill Evans,” in Reading Jazz: A Gathering of Autobiography, Reportage, and Criticism from 1919 to Now, ed. Robert, Gottlieb (New York: Pantheon, 1996), 424. 187 given certain techniques, which some musicians are able to do and others not, and physical enhancements to instruments, the range can be extended, both to the top and bottom of the frequency or pitch range. But it would wrong to suppose that this complete selection options set is fully available every time, in every context to an improviser. What decreases the possibilities of the selection options group are the constraints that are given and/or accepted by the player, the genre, context, et cetera. Now, the agent may at any point deviate from these constraints (intentionally or otherwise), but she may not deviate from the complete selection options group, unless she changes instrument or technique. The idealized selection options group is coextensive with the set of all physically realizable pitches and all possible durations. This set may be expressed in many ways. For instance, one could simply give the Hertz (Hz) cycles (frequency) of the pitch indexed to a timed duration, such as eight seconds or two seconds. Obviously, this is an infinite set, because the duration of a produced pitch could be infinitely long, and the sound waves, although severely limited by human audibility capacity (even non-human animal audibility) could be infinitely low or high, although there are frequencies which we cease to call sounds. Practically, in Western music theory, the accepted range of pitches is the human audition range (called audio or sonic), 66 I am assuming the agent is using the Western Equal Temperament (ET) tempered system. On the drawbacks of the exclusive use of the ET system that was more or less codified in the eighteenth century, see Ross W. Duffin, How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care) (New York: W. W. Norton, 2007). Scholars have identified at least 150 different temperament tuning systems in Western art music. Of course, ET does not apply to many non-Western music systems. The locus classicus is J. Murray Barbour, Tuning and Temperament: A Historical Survey, Dover Books on Music Series (n.d., n.p., 1951; reprint ed., New York: Dover, 2004). 188 which is approximately from 20 50 Hz (the lowest pipe organ sounds) to 20,000 30,000 Hz; while the accepted range of durations caps out at 128 notes. Selection is the process of choosing an output. The output may be physically realized or produced sound, or a notation for a realizable sound, or both. A single selection is actually an array of various factors as explicated in Pressing’s cognitive model. In using the term “choosing,” or “choice,” again I make no commitment to a theory of free will. This theory and taxonomy may remain neutral. If free will is false, then the selection process will be a product of some set of causal laws. Those causal laws will still have to operate within the taxonomy. Moreover, ideally a selection may be viewed as a choice of each discrete unit with relevant arrays, even though phenomenologically one may not be aware of all of the arrays. A musical phrase or lick may be played wherein the agent chose to play the lick as a whole. The entire phrase, then, which may consist of several pitches of different durations, dynamics, rhythms, and attacks, is the unit of selection—not each discrete pitch et cetera. Following are the selection options sets for musical sound generation (
273 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a teaching experiment with digital storytelling revealed how this humanistic genre enabled by contemporary technology might contribute to a more creative integration of business study with the liberal arts, and the authors described how they used storytelling as a way to connect business and the arts.
Abstract: This essay recounts how a teaching experiment with digital storytelling unexpectedly revealed how this humanistic genre enabled by contemporary technology might contribute to a more creative integration of business study with the liberal arts.
272 citations
Cites background from "Literary Theory: A Very Short Intro..."
...“The theory of narrative,” Culler (2011) goes on to say, “might, then, be conceived as an attempt to spell out, to make explicit, this narrative competence” (p. 84)....
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...Developing the kind of multileveled communication exhibited in my students’ digital storytelling helps reveal to them the “logic of story” (Culler, 2011, p. 83) that will be part of their future professional careers....
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...Culler (2011) writes, Stories are the main way we make sense of things, whether in thinking of our lives as a progression leading somewhere or in telling ourselves what is happening in the world....
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References
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01 Mar 1992TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the conflicts of modernity and modernity's relationship with the self in moral space and the providential order of nature, and present a list of the main sources of conflict.
Abstract: Preface Part I. Identity and the Good: 1. Inescapable frameworks 2. The self in moral space 3. Ethics of inarticulacy 4. Moral sources Part II: Inwardness: 5. Moral topography 6. Plato's self-mastery 7. 'In Interiore Homine' 8. Descartes's disengaged reason 9. Locke's punctual self 10. Exploring 'l'Humaine Condition' 11. Inner nature 12. A digression on historical explanation Part III. The Affirmation of Ordinary Life: 13. 'God Loveth Adverbs' 14. Rationalised Christianity 15. Moral sentiments 16. The providential order 17. The culture of modernity Part IV. The Voice of Nature: 18. Fractured horizons 19. Radical enlightenment 20. Nature as source 21. The Expressivist turn Part V. Subtler Languages: 22. Our Victorian contemporaries 23. Visions of the post-romantic age 24. Epiphanies of modernism 25. Conclusion: the conflicts of modernity Notes Index.
5,608 citations
TL;DR: This chapter discusses Diachronic Linguistics, a branch of linguistics that focuses on the study of language structure and semantics through the lens of evolutionary psychology.
Abstract: Introduction to the Bloomsbury Revelations Edition Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the Third Edition Editor's Introduction, Roy Harris Introduction 1. A Brief Survey of the History of Linguistics 2. Data and Aims of Linguistics: Connexions with Related Sciences 3. The Object of Study 4. Linguistics of Language Structure and Linguistics of Speech 5. Internal and External Elements of a Language 6. Representation of a Language by Writing 7. Physiological Phonetics Appendix: Principles of Physiological Phonetics 1. Sound Types 2. Sounds in Spoken Sequences Part One: General Principles 1. Nature of the Linguistic Sign 2. Invariability and Variability of the Sign 3. Static Linguistics and Evolutionary Linguistics Part Two: Synchronic Linguistics 1. General Observations 2. Concrete Entities of a Language 3. Identities, Realities, Values 4. Linguistic Value 5. Syntagmatic Relations and Associative Relations 6. The Language Mechanism 7. Grammar and Its Subdivisions 8. Abstract Entities in Grammar Part Three: Diachronic Linguistics 1. General Observations 2. Sound Changes 3. Grammatical Consequences of Phonetic Evolution 4. Analogy 5. Analogy and Evolution 6. Popular Etymology 7. Agglutination 8. Diachronic Units,Identities and Realities Appendices Part Four: Geographical Linguistics 1. On the Diversity of Languages 2. Geographical Diversity: Its Complexity 3. Causes of Geographical Diversity 4. Propagation of Linguistic Waves Part Five: Questions of Retrospective Linguistics Conclusion 1. The Two Perspectives of Diachronic Linguistics 2. Earliest Languages and Prototypes 3. Reconstructions 4. Linguistic Evidence in Anthropology and Prehistory 5. Language Families and Linguistic Types Index
4,697 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1916
TL;DR: A brief survey of the history of Linguistics can be found in this paper, with a focus on synchronic and diachronic Linguistic information. But it is not a comprehensive survey of all of the major aspects of linguistics.
Abstract: Introduction to the Bloomsbury Revelations Edition Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the Third Edition Editor's Introduction, Roy Harris Introduction 1. A Brief Survey of the History of Linguistics 2. Data and Aims of Linguistics: Connexions with Related Sciences 3. The Object of Study 4. Linguistics of Language Structure and Linguistics of Speech 5. Internal and External Elements of a Language 6. Representation of a Language by Writing 7. Physiological Phonetics Appendix: Principles of Physiological Phonetics 1. Sound Types 2. Sounds in Spoken Sequences Part One: General Principles 1. Nature of the Linguistic Sign 2. Invariability and Variability of the Sign 3. Static Linguistics and Evolutionary Linguistics Part Two: Synchronic Linguistics 1. General Observations 2. Concrete Entities of a Language 3. Identities, Realities, Values 4. Linguistic Value 5. Syntagmatic Relations and Associative Relations 6. The Language Mechanism 7. Grammar and Its Subdivisions 8. Abstract Entities in Grammar Part Three: Diachronic Linguistics 1. General Observations 2. Sound Changes 3. Grammatical Consequences of Phonetic Evolution 4. Analogy 5. Analogy and Evolution 6. Popular Etymology 7. Agglutination 8. Diachronic Units,Identities and Realities Appendices Part Four: Geographical Linguistics 1. On the Diversity of Languages 2. Geographical Diversity: Its Complexity 3. Causes of Geographical Diversity 4. Propagation of Linguistic Waves Part Five: Questions of Retrospective Linguistics Conclusion 1. The Two Perspectives of Diachronic Linguistics 2. Earliest Languages and Prototypes 3. Reconstructions 4. Linguistic Evidence in Anthropology and Prehistory 5. Language Families and Linguistic Types Index
4,601 citations