This is the first time i've heard an argument against the literary theory I was taught in university. I guess I haven't been looking, but i'm happy to hear what you have to say considering I never was very good at framing a text within the limits defined by my textbook on theory. Seems so obvious that the standard for literary theory shouldn't be able to fit into strictly defined categories. It may be fine and practical as I think you noted at some point, but not as a starting point. Though I did enjoy the psychoanalytic lens. At the very least, the concrete design of each type of literary theory gave me the opportunity to experiment with reading in ways I wouldn't have done otherwise. It is worth learning, I think, but only as a way of understanding yourself as a reader and what interests you about what you read. Interested to watch more of your videos!

@Maddieelovesu

Жыл бұрын

Love this response!

planning to take my master's degree and your videos are helping me prepare for it :D 2024 this year and your lectures are timeless. thanks doc!!

Thank you Dr Masson. You are changing the lives of thousands of people for the better

So refreshing to hear an academic who hasn't been swallowed up by contemporary identity politics 👍🏼

@VioletDeliriums

5 ай бұрын

There is no escape from identity politics, for everything he states is from a point of view. He certainly has a traditional Eurocentric point of view that had been, up until recently, normalized due to European dominance. The assumption he outright states is that we are to revere some canon of greats and understand it as what is understood as the intention of the author. That is, the "intentional fallacy." None of this is to say that what he is doing is wrong, or that it is something that should not be studied. However, he is positing that there is a "right" was to read something and a "wrong" way. For him, the "right" was is to assume that ancient European theorists are simply to be revered and not questions, regardless of the effects of doing so on non-Europeans. You are mistaken that what he is doing is not "identity politics." He seems to be defending a European christian point of view and privileging it over any other, and rooting it in his interpretation of what he can portray as "that which is great."

You are honestly doing a great service to people of faith, Sir. Hope to hear from you.

@LitProf

Жыл бұрын

I am glad to be of service!

Thank you for making these courses available on YT despite a technophobic inclination, of which I share. Each lecture has been a gift. My undergrad thesis was an argument that pre-modern agri-craft living informed our poetic sensibilities. Not the most profound observation, but one that fuels a need for deeper study. Somehow the ongoing dialogue between John Vervaeke & Paul VanderKlay’s fed the algorithm that delivered Dr. Masson’s vast catalogue.

Speaking from Brazil! Although I do not feel compelled to agree with the premises, what I really find interesting here is the chance of having a different perspective on literary studies. There is an evident merit in breaking with the monolithic assumptions and pervasive pre-understandings on literature carried out in the academic universe. Thank you for presenting things from a fresh, intrepid point!

@LitProf

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Ana, that’s one of the reasons I put these lectures online!

From a rookie English professor just starting out, thank you so much for these lectures.

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you like them!

Sir your courses are great and wholesome , Thanks for sharing them with the world.

@LitProf

3 жыл бұрын

Glad you like them!

Thank you so much for uploading your lectures online, sir! The pandemic has confined us to our homes and its sad to study these theories only as pdfs. I was searching for some audio-visual material and found your's! Hoping to learn and enjoy.☺

@LitProf

3 жыл бұрын

Glad to hear you have found an alternative to reading PDFs! Hope you find them helpful.

@koaalijah8294

2 жыл бұрын

i guess it's pretty randomly asking but do anybody know of a good site to stream new movies online ?

@koaalijah8294

2 жыл бұрын

@Alexzander Colten Thank you, I went there and it seems to work :D I really appreciate it !

@alexzandercolten9628

2 жыл бұрын

@Koa Alijah glad I could help xD

@sk.armanali85

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks you very much sir for uploading such helpful videos. I am watching you from a very remote village of India.

I love this lecture. I’m so tired of seeing agendas thrown on books. Groups, including the ones I’m apart of, make the story about them instead of trying to see and feel the author. And amusing enough the other the author in the same way they feel the author is othering them. If you’re going to make it about your victimhood then write your own book.

@LitProf

4 ай бұрын

Glad you appreciated it. I think most people are tired of the narcissistic critics and their agendas. Please subscribe, like, and share.

You are wrong sir, Many people do listen to your interesting lectures. I send u my love and respect from Iraq.

I am so thankful I found your site. Thank you 🙏

watching from Nigeria. Currently an M.A student. These lectures are so relevant to me sir. Your faith makes your analysis so distinct. thanks. God bless you.

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching. Hope you find them helpful.

@abopeace3640

2 жыл бұрын

@@LitProf indeed! its just, the classes on Longinus, Aristotle and a few others you mentioned aren't on the channel. would have loved that.

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

I don’t understand. I have lectures up on those writers.

@abopeace3640

2 жыл бұрын

@@LitProf just found them. apologies.

I am an English Teacher at a School here in Delhi, India. Thank you sir for making these videos. I listen to these as podcasts on my drive to and from school. I am learning everyday. Thank you. Could anyone write the full name of the "tree killer" book he is referring to around 16:15?

This course looks amazing!

This course sounds very helpful to any lover of literature

@LitProf

3 жыл бұрын

I think it is. Thanks.

You've gained a subscriber here✋ here you go you deserve a like indeed. A grad of E.L.L here from Kuwait. Thanks a lot.

@LitProf

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much!

I'm in my first semester of a master's program in English Literature. I'm taking a class in literary theory which is focused completely on contemporary trends, some of which (particularly posthumanism) have been challenging to me as they conflict with Christian teaching. I was very happy to stumble upon this channel and see the great material you are covering here. I think your lectures will be a great supplement to my (perhaps unbalanced) program. Thank you for your effort and generosity to share.

@LitProf

Жыл бұрын

Glad they are of help. I’m very curious what you are reading for the posthumanism section.

@Sharpgeared

Жыл бұрын

@@LitProf We discussed posthumanism during our section on disability studies (for which we read Mitchell and Snyder among others), but we will be returning to the topic with a week on posthuman feminism. For that, we will be reading Stacy Alaimo, Elizabeth Grosz, and Rosi Braidotti.

I don't believe in existence of such a thing as "the word of God", however I found this lecture informative and agree with many things it said about the subversive nature of Modern Literary Theory.

Looking forward to listening in Scott!

@LitProf

4 жыл бұрын

Doug Sikkema Thanks. Glad to hear you're interested.

@gp1004

4 жыл бұрын

Likewise!

A perfect followup and extension of Yale's Harold Bloom. The Bible is the gateway to all great literature.

I wish the English Department in the university I am attending listened to this

A word in edgewise FWIW from a retiree who has nothing better to do than posting here : THE BEST two definitions i ever heard about critics ( be them literary, theater, movie, restaurant, basically ANY critics) are taken from 1) A German comedy called Didi und die Rache der Enterbten and 2) Cocktail, starring Tom Cruise. 1) re restaurant critics: uncle Titus , never being able to afford the tab in an upscale restaurant turned said inability into a "profession". 2) quote from Cocktail, starring Tom Cruise addressing an open University "would-be professor" panning his business plan :" I ain't gonna take this from a guy who's hiding in here because he can't hack it out there (in the real world)." PS incidentally the star and author of the German comedy, Dieter Hallervorden, happens to be a modern German version of Chaplin, himself a comic genius & self-made artistic Renaissance man. Much obliged for being a torch bearer for Truth, prof Masson.

"contemporary agendas being foisted on the text" I like this word.

@chipwhitley

3 жыл бұрын

Absolutely. What a breath of fresh air. Ultimately these modernist approaches invite a “domineering” attitude to the text. Great stuff. Thank you for uploading.

@Marteenez_

Жыл бұрын

Literary critique through a lens may well dominate and bias the direction you take, but your subconscious is acting in this way, involuntarily and possibly uncontrollably. Literary analysis through a lens is a way of examining literature to explore and expose the underlying power structures, ideologies, and social norms that shape the text. These critical lenses aim to uncover the biases, assumptions, and limitations that are inherent in many works of literature and reveal how they reflect, reinforce, or challenge dominant social norms and values that contrast in our 'contemporary' ones. By using critical lenses, literary analysis becomes more than just an interpretation of a text; it becomes a way of uncovering hidden meanings and exploring the complex relationships between literature and society. These approaches can help readers and scholars better understand the historical and cultural context in which a work of literature was written and how it continues to shape our understanding of the world today. It seems a bit shallow to dismiss this approach in a single sentence. Maybe you disagree and think the analysis stops where you have defined, I think is worthwhile putting on other hats, consciously, and trying to see past our own perspectives.

@LitProf

Жыл бұрын

My subconscious? What evidence is there for this all-explanatory hypothesis?

@Marteenez_

Жыл бұрын

@@LitProf Your flippant response suggests that it's not even worthwhile entertaining my point. Fair enough, maybe what I wrote came off with some animosity. I apologise for that, I find these videos very valuable and enjoy watching them and I don't necessarily disagree with your view, I just think there is at least some merit in alternatives. Some all-explanatory response is not what I was going for here anway. Surely you don't disagree that there are inherit subconcious biases in everything we do or think? As for evidence - rational and empirical - I think it is reasonable to suggest that biases arise from our highly idiosyncratic experiences. Empircally, there is a wealth of evidence that shows a very high degree (I've seen upwards of 95% quoted) of mental processes are subconcious.

@LitProf

Жыл бұрын

Sorry, I am thinking about a Freudian concept here. You may not mean it so technically. The problems with social media…

"Literature can be considered an analysis of experience, and a synthesis of its findings into a unity."

I’ve been going down a rabbit hole of literary theory lectures, and I just wanted to say how much I loved yours! I’m a high school student trying to start a literary magazine at my school, and I was wondering if you had any advice you’d want to share on how to accomplish that. Great video!

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much! Are there many students with literary interests at your school?

@mgenburn5339

2 жыл бұрын

@@LitProf I think so. One, I go to a school with an IB program, which is very focused on bringing out writing talent. Also, I’ve been asking around in my classes and it seems the demand for such a thing (a place to showcase/craft literary and artistic talents) is there. As of now, however, there isn’t any poetry or creative writing club set up.

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

The one thing I would certainly avoid in a literary magazine is literary theory, unless it's that of the historical sort.

@mgenburn5339

2 жыл бұрын

@@LitProf I agree, I don’t think high schoolers would be very interested in that haha. Just wondering if you had any experience with literary magazines

@nozecone

2 жыл бұрын

@@mgenburn5339 I would suggest looking into on-line platforms, the ones that provide for 'blogs', etc. There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, they can be pretty straight-forward.

I looked for a course on literary theory, and the first one I get isn't a nihilistic, post-modern desecration of western culture. What luck! thanks for uploading this lecture series, I will watch it in full

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

I hope you find it helpful. I get to contemporary literary theories in another series.

@Portitforward

Жыл бұрын

@@LitProf Thanks! I'll let you know what I thought of it when I'm done. Very useful so far - about to start the second Aristotle video.

Thank you Dr. Masson for the wonderful lectures! I am learning so much. I would like to know the title of the text by Augustine that you mentioned in this lecture.. As a Christian I think it would help my spiritual growth.

@LitProf

9 ай бұрын

On Christian Teaching

I'm starting to like English Literature.

Hi Scott, greetings from Munich. I appreciate your lectures and listen to all of them. To this particular one I must add though that Karl Marx read the tragedies once a year, in Greek. His vision of communism was, that everybody would do so. Also, Marx - and his whole family - were big Shakespeare fans and knew the plays by heart.

@LitProf

3 жыл бұрын

Did he read them in English, or the wonderful German translation?

@MartinThau

3 жыл бұрын

@@LitProf I should think in English, since he lived - like a Bohemian & in dire straits - in London.

@adamqadmon

2 жыл бұрын

@@LitProf to add to that, I think you were also a bit off on the reductionism part, although also right. Nietzsche was incredibly well educated and a philologist, his first work was devoted to Greek tragedy and philosophy, and his will to power wasn't his only concept. However, it could be argued that he leaned on it far too much. Nonetheless, that doesn't make him a hater of culture. Same goes for Freud but of course with different issues. I think the problem is actually the skewed reading of them rather then they themselves. There's some fundamental disjunctive way in which these big and problematic figures have disseminated throughout academia and I'm not sure what is the cause of this.

14:55 personal bookmark 34:26 39:48 42:11 44:27

What a relief to hear you say straight forward what these modern theories are doing to literature.

It is very uplifting to hear your bravery in pointing at how postmodern humanities professors hate humanities. Thank you!

Thanks so much ❤️💐 keep on posting your lectures please.... Though the first lecture sounds introductory yet a lot to learn... I just want to knw that how the people like me can get the material you are sharing with your class? Like you are talking about Plato's book 7 and 10....

@LitProf

3 жыл бұрын

I am largely talking about Books 7 & 10, though it is important to understand the whole context of The Republic, which is a discussion of the nature of justice.

Terrific!

HI Dr. Masson, our Literature department hopes to have you as one of our guest speaker for a discussion in Literary theory. Our UNiversity will be so happy to get in touch with you for a short Lit conversation 🙂

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

Look forward to hearing more!

This is great ...

Is there a preferred edition of The Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism? I imagine newer versions will reflect a more modern sensibility. What other titles might be included in a home library of literary theory?

@LitProf

9 ай бұрын

I use the second.

Hi Dr Masson - great content. What is that massive book you said to get about 15 mins in?

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.

I watched this and now I'm showing it to my friends.

@Travis_Kent

2 жыл бұрын

I'm thinking about binging the whole series overnight.

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

Seriously?

@Travis_Kent

2 жыл бұрын

@@LitProf Yes. I've been looking for a very long time for someone to explain things the way you do. I've had lots of inclinations in this direction through CS Lewis and Jordan Peterson and some others. I just started an online college this past week and needed a refresher on critical theory bs, but this goes way deeper into what I'm looking for as the counter and better position.

@Travis_Kent

2 жыл бұрын

My book club was so enthralled by this lecture that we decided to put off reading Andrew Klavan's Another Kingdom series until after we finish these lectures.

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

That's great. Hope you find it helpful!

What "tree-killer" book is he talking about?

Brilliant. From India.

Exactly why I will not be doing a masters in English, I'll quit while I still like to read 😅

Is there a reading list? Or resources that I may be able to find somewhere? Also your stuff about the bible in the latter 3 of this lecture, you seem to be referring to another set of series, is this the bible as literature series?

@LitProf

Жыл бұрын

I have series on all sorts of topics. I am afraid these are lectures that I have just reposted. There is a reading list of course. I usually mention the work at the outset of the lecture. They weren’t adapted for the KZread audience, just made available.

@LitProf

Жыл бұрын

I am pretty sure it is the Bible as Literature series.

I think the Romantics got it right, or at least tha part about the affective-expressivist assumptions of poetics. The classical West took mimesis via Aristotle as the basis for understanding poetry. All other literary traditions, including the Japanese, Chinese, etc., took affective-expressivism as the basis of poetics--leaving the West as the odd man out. It turns out that premodern theory in the west ran into its own contradictions, which is one of the reasons why we see the shift from the 16th c. renaissance from a dominant mimetic assumptions.

@LitProf

Жыл бұрын

Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback. Western art, not just poetry, is rational up until the nineteenth century, and it is because of mimesis. What the dominant mode of art is globally is irrelevant to my point. There is very little rational that can be said or analyzed about expressionist art, because it doesn’t seek to be understood that way. Whereas literary criticism requires a rational poetics.

I am sincerely hoping that you are still lecturing and I want the sequence of videos that follows this one please. Is that possible?

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

The sequence is on the KZread channel under ‘playlists’

What is the Augustin's work he referenced at 34:55

@LitProf

4 ай бұрын

On Christian Doctrine

Bravo

This is a truly great video, but at 29:52 you are talking about Roland Barthes and I disagree with that part. He never said that the reader's intentions are irrelevant and he actually proclaimed the opposite. Secondly, in his view the intentions of the author are irrelevent, not the author himself, so trying to understand them was not his point of interest. He believed that focusing on that part leads to ignoring more relevant elements of the whole.

@LitProf

3 жыл бұрын

I disagree. I think Barthes is saying more than the New Critics said about the ‘intentional’ and ‘affective’ fallacies in ‘The Death of the Author’

What's the name of that massive guide book, please?

@LitProf

Жыл бұрын

It was the Norton Anthology

Thanks to your lecture! Could i get PDF file?

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

I don’t have one

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

No notes

whats the name of the text for this course?

@philipmorise7970

3 жыл бұрын

i mean the anthology

@LitProf

3 жыл бұрын

I used the Norton

@philipmorise7970

3 жыл бұрын

@@LitProf thanks. great lecture too!

@LitProf

3 жыл бұрын

@@philipmorise7970 Thank you!

Sir , Can you please upload a lecture on ode to a Nightingale by John Keats. Your lectures are very pleasing and informative.

@LitProf

3 жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/pm2L1pKHmr3Joc4.html

And talking so "liberally" about Jesus and Christianity is not putting an agenda-specific view unto literature? huh who would've thought?

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

It depends on what one's view of human nature and the nature and work of language. I am no Cartesian modernist.

Felt great to hear the appreciation of the classics, but why did this have to be framed as christian apologetics? I'm a non-naturalist atheist (aka a humanist). Is this for me at all? There have to be others like me, right?

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

There are a few like Thomas Nagel, though he is abandoning the atheist camp too. I don't see it as Christian apologetics. Revelation provides a more coherent worldview than the Classical framework, and it has not been superseded.

I came here to get something about literary theory and its history but I am hearing the lecturer explains his subjective opinions about contemporary formations of literature. The lecture lasts 45 minutes and he spends 20 minutes just talking about what he does not like to do.

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

Then you are listening to the wrong lecture. This was explaining the course syllabus to my class and making a few general remarks. The lectures proper begin the next class.

Wow, who knew you were going to be shilling for Jordan Peterson and painting humanities researchers with such a broad brush, all in one video. You clearly have as much of an agenda as you accuse others of having.

@LitProf

2 жыл бұрын

What 'agenda' might that be?

I understand you're offering a corrective to what you see as Romantic overreach, which is productive; but in the bigger picture the largely mimetic assumptions of pre-Romantic poetics in. the West is an outlier, seen from a global history of literary traditios and their assumed poetics. Viewing all poetic genres through the lense of mimesis--the primacy of fiction derived from the stage and theater via Aristotle's Poetics--ends up distorting those other essentially non-mimetic genres. In the end, the Romantics were the end process of a corrective that began in late Italian Renaissance with the significant modification of Aristotle and the acceptance of lyrical premises and affective-expressivist poetics.

@LitProf

Жыл бұрын

Interesting comment.

@LitProf

Жыл бұрын

I think my point is not that there never were any other types of poetics, but that without the normativity of mimetic poetics, poetics becomes chaotic.

I wanted to be a writer. To write a book after reading which people would commit suicide. Would that not be greatest reflection upon a human nature. Contrary to common perception this was very evangelical ambition because to be borne again your old needs to die. Will definietly watch your lectures and share thoughts on scripture as well as our necessity as christians to get involved in politics

This cannot be for real. You sir have no idea what you're talking about.

@mwalsh128

3 жыл бұрын

Well that was a well formed argument.

I think he has an important point about putting more emphasis on pre-romantic era, but he’s extremely reductive and dismissive of post-modern theory and teachers of such. To say that such teachers hate literature or that those interested in studying Marx will come away wanting to “burn books” is exactly what he rails against: pushing an agenda. I’m still interested in the initial premise but disagree that you can’t enjoy works of lit once you study PM theory. To say such is just disingenuous.

@LitProf

Ай бұрын

You might think I am mistaken. I am not disingenuous. I have observed it regularly. The cynical motives imputed to authors by the critics are evident, and if they are accepted then it destroys students’ love of literature. The critique of my critique is more likely to be disingenuous.

@GAIJINGUY

Ай бұрын

@@LitProf I appreciate your reply. I spend a lot of time myself engaging with PoMo theory and though some scholars can be dismissive and don’t put works in proper context as you mentioned, I’ve not felt that it was even close to a majority and I myself often come away from such theory applications with a deeper love and appreciation of lit works.

@LitProf

Ай бұрын

@GAIJINGUY Not sure how that is possible. Can you give an example?