Thursday, June 28, 2007

Critical theory sucks life from pop culture classes - Opinion

Critical theory sucks life from pop culture classes - Opinion

1 comment:

Nick J. Sciullo said...

What an interesting take on critical theory. Is critical theory helping or hurting the classroom?

It seems to me that critical theory provides an important lens from which to explore classes that are suppossed to be fun or easy. Maybe I've simply always been partial to critical theory, but I find it exciting to look at Law & Order, The Matrix, Wyclef's song lyrics, etc. and think about not only what's "there," but what else is there.

The idea that theory is a crutch or a means to move away from a text or rhetorical artifiact proper seems to be flawed in that determining what a text or rhetorical artifact is presents an exciting opportunity for debate and thought.

Is something a book because it has pages and we can pick it up and read it? Is it a book because it has a story or plot? Is it a book because it makes us think about ideas? or because we read words on a page?

This is the fun that is critical theory: thought. I hope that students are not condeming critical theory because they fear thought. I hope that people do not look for the easy way out, but instead endeavor to learn more and think harder.

Critical theory enlivens texts and expands horizons.