IMP+Outline

=Project Title:= =Critical Theory: What can we see through Kanye West’s glasses?=

Overview:
== According to the National Council of the Teachers of English, "(1) The study of literature must. . . move from 'a closed conversation to an active dialogue.' Students must be encouraged not only to respond personally but to discern authorial intent or cultural bias and be equipped to resist manipulation, to take responsibility for their own 'meaning making.' (2) Furthermore, . . .teachers can no longer be priests and priestesses exhorting their congregations to venerate the canon of classical works. English classrooms must become sites for the critical examination of all sorts of texts, including newspapers, movies, and television programs" ("From Closed Conversation to Active Dialogue" 73). By teaching students to examine literature through a critical lens, teachers will enable students to take control of their own learning. College students increasingly find themselves unprepared for the level of literary analysis they encounter in the university classroom: "In the past decade or so, critical theory has played an increasingly important role in professional conversations between college and literature professors and has become more visible in college literature classrooms as part of what it means to study literature" (Appleman 5). == == Richland School District II requires all high school English classes to write four predetermined essays and two choice essays per grade level. Two of these predetermined essays--the critical lens paper and critical stance paper—seem to be particularly troublesome for both the teacher and the student. These essays require students to examine literature through a critical theory lens. This instructional multi-media project will teach learners to analyze literary texts through a variety of critical lenses such as the reader response lens, the historical lens, the feminist lens, the Marxist lens, the psychoanalytic lens, the archetypal lens and the deconstruction lens. Many of the teachers in the district have communicated a desire to learn more about theory in order to be able to teach it more effectively. ==

= Outline: =

1. Definition of ideology (Video introduction)
=== 2. Why? Comparison between looking through special lenses and analyzing literature through a critical lens. Special lenses may be employed to help us see things differently or to highlight some things and blur others. ===