Because if it can't, what is feminist criticism for?
To keep a certain class of academics off street corners? ;-)
The point of fiction (in so much as it needs to have a point) is to tell a story, surely? Some classes of storytelling may have other purposes also, but that shouldn't detract from the entertainment value.
And 'damaging modes of thought' is a very subjective opinion. An anti-war comic such as Charlie's War could be seen as damaging if one wanted to use the magazine in which it was first published to inspire young boys to become good soldiers, but is more widely regarded as a well-researched and though-provoking tale of WWI from the point of view of the common man.
A very good story will provoke thought, but not always in the way the creator might have intended. I see the Chronicles of Narnia as inspiring pagan literature, no matter what CS Lewis was thinking when he wrote them.
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Date: 2006-05-19 06:42 pm (UTC)To keep a certain class of academics off street corners? ;-)
The point of fiction (in so much as it needs to have a point) is to tell a story, surely? Some classes of storytelling may have other purposes also, but that shouldn't detract from the entertainment value.
And 'damaging modes of thought' is a very subjective opinion. An anti-war comic such as Charlie's War could be seen as damaging if one wanted to use the magazine in which it was first published to inspire young boys to become good soldiers, but is more widely regarded as a well-researched and though-provoking tale of WWI from the point of view of the common man.
A very good story will provoke thought, but not always in the way the creator might have intended. I see the Chronicles of Narnia as inspiring pagan literature, no matter what CS Lewis was thinking when he wrote them.