Making one’s point of view: Approaching literary analysis and critical theory through David Bowie’s “Lady Stardust"

Autori

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54103/2035-7680/17891

Parole chiave:

Bowie; Gender Studies; music and literature; Sound Studies; Cultural Studies; textual analysis

Abstract

Some years ago I used a Bowie song, “Lady Stardust”, for a warm-up activity at the beginning of a BA course in English Literature focusing on gender issues from the Romantic Age to the present. Resulting from that didactic experiment, this article aims at proposing ways in which Bowie’s song and its lyrics can help students approach the interconnections between textual analysis and critical theory (Gender and Cultural Studies) by rooting them into language and social history. Furthermore, through reference to Sound Studies and ‘aurality’, it also invites the reader to reflect on how music can offer a valuable contribution for approaching literary and cultural studies, involving some pedagogical reflections inspired by Elena Madrussan’s recent volume Formazione e musica: L’ineffabile significante nel quotidiano giovanile (Mimesis 2021).

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Biografia autore

Pietro Deandrea, Università degli Studi di Torino

Pietro Deandrea is Associate Professor in English and Postcolonial Literature at the University of Torino, Italy. His monographs are Fertile Crossings: Metamorphoses of Genre in Anglophone West African Literatures (Rodopi 2002) and New Slaveries in Contemporary British Literature and Visual Arts: The Ghost and the Camp (Manchester UP 2015). He also teaches courses on literary translation, and has translated fiction, poetry and drama, including writers such as William Shakespeare, Moniza Alvi, William Beckford, André Brink, Ethan Coen, John Graham Davies, Buchi Emecheta and Abi Morgan.

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Pubblicato

2022-05-30

Come citare

Deandrea, Pietro. 2022. «Making one’s Point of View: Approaching Literary Analysis and Critical Theory through David Bowie’s “Lady Stardust"». Altre Modernità, n. 27 (maggio):225-38. https://doi.org/10.54103/2035-7680/17891.