• What are 'critical readings'?

A text is anything that conveys meaning. It can be print, visual or sound. Its meaning can be superficial or more significant.

And a text can mean different things to different people - readers (responders) - for a range of reasons:

• personal

• social

• historical

• cultural and

• workplace.

These reasons shape the way that we respond to a text.

Therefore the composer of a text and the reader of a text will not bring the same background to the reading of the text.

To give an extreme example:These reasons can explain the difference between you as a reader responding to King Lear and Shakespeare as the composer of the text, making the decisions he did in creating King Lear.

Shakespeare	King Lear &	You - Year 12 HSC English student
personal: 1564 - 1616; male		personal: youngest of 4;boy's school;1989 -
social: actors' company; wife and children		social: peers; neighbouring girl's school; tennis
historical: Tudor kings and queen; autocracy		historical: Cronulla riots; reclaiming the Ashes
cultural: Renaissance; exploration		cultural: iPod; Ian Thorpe; Missy Higgins
workplace: dramatist; actor; manager		workplace: student; McDonald's

 

• Literary approaches to texts - literary theory or critical readings - reflect the response to texts by people with shared beliefs; for example, social, historical, cultural etc.

Critical readings include:

• Postmodernism

• Psychoanalytic criticism

• Feminist criticism

• Marxist criticism

• Post colonial criticism

• Lesbian and gay (Queer) criticism

You are not expected to know all readings and how they apply to your text. It is sufficient to select two to be familiar with and to focus on one in particular.

• Reading and productions

You can link readings and production in this course. Productions are often influenced by critical readings. In any case, a production is, in effect, a 'reading'; it is simply not printed as a book or article.

King Lear, the filmed version directed by Peter Brook, was supported by Jan Kott's reading in his book, Shakespeare Our Contemporary.

A reading that was accessible to students because of the nature of changes it made to the original was Nahum Tate's version of King Lear. Students found it easier to discuss the benefits of a happier ending given the context of Tate's version. They were also better prepared, having read it, to examine Shakespeare's intentions in his text. They were also able to evaluate Shakespeare's use of language against Tate's language.

Akira Kurasawa's Ran, also makes significant changes to King Lear. The play is transported to medieval Japan with the necessary cultural changes. The roles of Goneril, Regan and Cordelia also become male. The striking differences made discussion of issues of production accessible to students and the changed context made the idea of 'reading' clear.