Back when I was dabbling in considering a humanities PhD (and coming from a very myopic/technical undergrad degree) I worked near a bookstore with a Literary Criticism section and found this book was really accessible/well-written as a crash course on humanities-style "readings" of text in general — basically it a) summarizes the main "useful" concepts from psychoanalytic theory (without getting too deep into the complexities of the full Freud oeuvre) and then b) goes through multiple famous examples of interesting literary analysis/criticism which "applies" those concepts.
Other interesting meta-literary criticism books from this brief excursion in my life included:
- Shklovsky - Theory of Prose
- Bakhtin - The Dialogical Imagination
- Propp - Morphology of the Folktale (more as an example of formalism taken to an extreme)
- Barthes - S/Z (ditto)
- Todorov - The Fantastic
- White - Tropics of Discourse
Nov 24, 2024
Related Recs
I read the preface to the English Edition during my second year of college and proceeded to read the entire thing during the next years. It's quite dense, and goes into detail on a few historical and uses economy lingo that can be complicated to understand, a lot of paragraphs I had to read again and again. However, the most interesting aspect of the book is the dialogue between Marxist theory and Foucaut that the two authors are able to draw, alognside a psychoanalisys of the neoliberal subject.
It's a book I usually always have on my table to go back to and reference. I highly recommend especially to people who are interested in Foucault.
Jan 14, 2025
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read my first little bit of theory for my sociology course and ngl this is so crazy
Jan 26, 2024
If you've ever wanted to start reading theory (or simply read more of it) but feel overwhelmed with where to begin, check out this handy dandy Google drive chock full of readings and resources. And remember that autodidacts reign supreme!
Mar 28, 2025
Top Recs from @iconicindex
Finally saw this for the first time (on 35mm thxx Prince Charles Cinema) and wow. Jonathan Glazer and co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière spending all of pre-production re-writing the script without informing the studio… DP Harris Savides pushing the boundaries of underexposed film and getting the craziest deepest browns and purples out of Kodak stock… Alexandre Desplat starting with what seems like a very polite classical score and then gradually bringing in heavy synth bass… and of course Nicole Kidman throwing herself headlong into an insane role (and apparently bullying the producers for more $$$ when they finished under budget)
Nov 10, 2024
The less you read about it (or look at maps) the better. Just enter via Haight Street, turn your phone off and wander 'til you reach the ocean. If you go on a Sunday afternoon and you didn't already come across it, proceed to turn your phone back on and track back to the 6th Avenue Skate Park to check out the roller disco party 🛼🔊😎
Mar 3, 2024
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Because of the extensive tradition of pirate radio in the UK (from Radio Caroline on down), London probably has the most insane landscape of 24/7 internet radio in the world. I've tried to rank these in terms of approximate popularity ranging from NTS (as mentioned) on down to purely DIY weekend-only amateur collectives like LWSTD. If you don't know the stations in your city, just have a quick google and do some Instagram "Following" list exploration and it should be pretty easy to find more (e.g. in Amsterdam check out Echobox, Radio Tempo Não Pára, RRFM, etc...)
- NTS (Dalston) https://www.nts.live/
- Rinse FM (Hoxton) https://rinse.fm/
- Worldwide FM (Islington) https://worldwidefm.net/ (currently mostly on ice but great archive)
- Balaami (Peckham) https://www.balamii.com/
- Soho Radio https://sohoradiolondon.com/
- Reprezent Radio (Brixton) https://www.reprezentradio.org.uk/
- Netil Radio (Hackney) https://www.netilradio.com/
- Subtle Radio (Hackney) https://www.subtleradio.com/
- Voices Radio (Kings Cross) https://www.voicesradio.co.uk/
- Aaja (Deptford) https://aajamusic.com/radio/
- Do You!! Radio (Hackney) https://doyou.world/
- LWSTD https://www.lovewillsavetheday.fm/
Apr 4, 2024