Street Smarts and Critical Theory: Listening to the Vernacular (Wisconsin Project on American Writers) - Softcover

McLaughlin, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299151743 ISBN 13: 9780299151744

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996

Synopsis

    Everybody’s got a theory . . . or do they?
    Thomas McLaughlin argues that critical theory—raising serious, sustained questions about cultural practice and ideology—is practiced not only by an academic elite but also by savvy viewers of sitcoms and tv news, by Elvis fans and Trekkies, by labor organizers and school teachers, by the average person in the street.
    Like academic theorists, who are trained in a tradition of philosophical and political skepticism that challenges all orthodoxies, the vernacular theorists McLaughlin identifies display a lively and healthy alertness to contradiction and propaganda. They are not passive victims of ideology but active questioners of the belief systems that have power over their lives. Their theoretical work arises from the circumstances they confront on the job, in the family, in popular culture. And their questioning of established institutions, McLaughlin contends, is essential and healthy, for it energizes other theorists who clarify the purpose and strategies of institutions and justify the existence of cultural practices.
    Street Smarts and Critical Theory leads us through eye-opening explorations of social activism in the Southern Christian anti-pornography movement, fan critiques in the ‘zine scene, New Age narratives of healing and transformation, the methodical manipulations of the advertising profession, and vernacular theory in the whole-language movement. Emphasizing that theory is itself a pervasive cultural practice, McLaughlin calls on academic institutions to recognize and develop the theoretical strategies that students bring into the classroom.

About this title

From the Publisher:

McLaughlin's book Critical Terms for Literary Studies (coedited with Frank Lentricchia) has sold more than 30,000 copies since 1990.

About the Author:

Thomas McLaughlin is professor of English at Appalachian State University. He is the author of Literature: The Power of Language and coeditor of Critical Terms for Literary Studies and Reading for Difference.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0299151743
• ISBN 13: 9780299151744
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192