Character

Over the last few decades, character-based criticism has been seen as either naive or obsolete. But now questions of character are attracting renewed interest. Making the case for a broad-based revision of our understanding of character, Character rethinks these questions from the ground up. Is it really necessary to remind literary critics that characters are made up of words? Must we forbid identification with characters? Does character-discussion force critics to embrace humanism and outmoded theories of the subject? Across three chapters, leading scholars Amanda Anderson, Rita Felski, and Toril Moi reimagine and renew literary studies by engaging in a conversation about character. Moi returns to the fundamental theoretical assumptions that convinced literary scholars to stop doing character-criticism, and shows that they cannot hold. Felski turns to the question of identification and draws out its diverse strands, as well as its persistence in academic criticism. Anderson shows that character-criticism illuminates both the moral life of characters, and our understanding of literary form. In offering new perspectives on the question of fictional character, this thought-provoking book makes an important intervention in literary studies.

Over the last few decades, character-based criticism has been seen as either naive or obsolete. But now questions of character are attracting renewed interest. Making the case for a broad-based revision of our understanding of character, Character rethinks these questions from the ground up. Is it really necessary to remind literary critics that characters are made up of words? Must we forbid identification with characters? Does character-discussion force critics to embrace humanism and outmoded theories of the subject? Across three chapters, leading scholars Amanda Anderson, Rita Felski, and Toril Moi reimagine and renew literary studies by engaging in a conversation about character. Moi returns to the fundamental theoretical assumptions that convinced literary scholars to stop doing character-criticism, and shows that they cannot hold. Felski turns to the question of identification and draws out its diverse strands, as well as its persistence in academic criticism. Anderson shows that character-criticism illuminates both the moral life of characters, and our understanding of literary form. In offering new perspectives on the question of fictional character, this thought-provoking book makes an important intervention in literary studies.

THE LEGENDARY TEACHER OF STORY . . . Robert McKee's new book CHARACTER: The Art of Role and Cast Design for Page, Stage and Screen is an excellent companion volume to his hugely successful STORY: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting and DIALOGUE: The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage and Screen. Divided into four parts (In praise of Character, Character Creation, The Character Universe and Character Relationships) CHARACTER has a primary purpose of enriching the reader's insight into the nature of a fictional character and sharpens the creative techniques necessary to invent a complex cast of personalities, starting with the protagonist then adding the cast of supporting roles. McKee uses scenes from classic films and television programmes, Sex and the City, Casablanca, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Fawlty Towers, and the works of classical dramatists, Homer, Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, to demonstrate how characters are constructed and developed for page, stage and screen. Robert McKee is an author, lecturer and story consultant whose popular writing workshops have brought him international fame. His book STORY, is the basis for his programme and it has defined how we regard the art of story creation. In STORY's companion volume, DIALOGUE, McKee offers the same in-depth analysis of how actors speak on the screen, on the stage and on the page. CHARACTER is a masterly work with a primary purpose of enriching the reader's insight into the nature of a fictional character and sharpening the creative techniques necessary to invent a complex cast of personalities, starting with the protagonist then adding the first, second and third tiers of supporting roles. CHARACTER is a brilliant addition to the genre and is essential reading for all aspiring writers.