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Bibliography by Courtney Preston

Page history last edited by courtney p 15 years, 1 month ago

Annotated Bibliography Assignment

 

Bibliography By Courtney Preston, The Little Prince Project Team

 

 1. Drewermann, Eugen. Discovering the Royal Child Within: A Spiritual Psychology of the Little Prince. Crossroad Publishing Co. April 1993.

            Com. by Laurie Chisholm. <http://www.drewermann.info/royalchild.shtml> 10 Feb 2009.

 

A psychological approach to understanding The Little Prince. Drewermann, a psychologist and ordained Catholic priest, also formally educated in the field of philosophy, dedicates the entirety of this book to the psychological and spiritual analysis and exploration of The Little Prince. His book initially stood out as a potential resource for the Little Prince Project team because of the following statement from his official webpage: “Drewermann's aim is not simply to produce a work of literary analysis: he wants to describe the reality that the story portrays in his own words and to explore its psychological and existential truth.” In fact, this statement is a strikingly effective wording of the exact reason The Little Prince was chosen as a literary work by the members of the Little Prince project team, as well as an eloquent portrayal of the groups’ project thesis.

Furthermore, Drewermann’s work strongly supports the Little Prince Project team’s assertion that the characters of the story offer rich material for in-depth critical interpretation, as his webpage compiler assures, “The different adults that the little prince met on various planets on his way to earth invite psychological analysis.” In his book, Drewermann goes into great detail discussing each character’s individual psychology as well as the symbols that surround them. His work is particularly helpful to the specific psychoanalysis goals of the Little Prince Project, most significantly because he has the authority of higher education in the field of psychology. Also based on Drewermann’s higher education, the content of Discovering the Royal Child Within is intended for an educated adult audience, thus providing evidence attesting to the Little Prince Project group’s claim that the story of The Little Prince is not exclusively intended for children, and contains important lessons for adult audiences as well.

From a religious perspective, Drewermann draws attention to the parallels that exist between the story of the little prince and stories of princes that exist in many religious traditions. One clear example of this is the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and therefore a prince. He goes on to explore the differences between such religious prince figures and the little prince created by Saint-Exupery. This spiritual angle was not originally considered by the Little Prince Project group, however it offers another angle of exploration that might be useful in further development of the project or as enrichment of individual character analyses.

  


2. Rockwell, Geoffrey. Preprint of: “What is Text Analysis, Really?” 11 Feb 2009.

<http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~grockwel/personal/publications/WhatIsTAnalysis.pdf>

 

 

          An examination of the possibilities held in the future of text analysis and the way in which text analysis tools should be used. Rockwell, as a professor of Computing and Software as well as of Philosophy at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and as Project Leader for the TAPoR project (Text Analysis Portal for Research), is a more than qualified authority on the subject of text analysis. He answers the question of why and how literary text analysis can be useful. His unofficially published article appears in several online academic journals, on his personal webpage, and is linked on the official TAPoR website as well. As with most of Rockwell’s works, the article invites peer review and is intended for academic audiences, however his straightforward diction and humble tone also allow audiences with less knowledge to engage with, and understand it. He approaches the subject of text computing by arguing conflicting opinions and then weighing in on them and explaining the reasoning behind his own beliefs. The logical formation of his arguments, coupled with his un-intimidating vocabulary, make the article much easier to follow and therefore very helpful to amateur text analyzers like the members of the Little Prince Project group.

            One of Rockwell’s primary objectives in the article is to argue that by entering an original text into text analysis tools on a computer, a new kind of broken down text is produced that is useful for analysis as a single entity, as well as for analysis of the original work. He also finds the combination of a text’s deconstructions into new “hybrids” of an original text to be worthy of analysis; he writes, “These new texts come from the decomposition of original texts and recomposition into hybrid new works for interpretation” (p. 1).

After giving a brief history of computer aided text analysis, Rockwell delves into explanations of his, along with his colleagues’, personal experiences with it. He offers his finding “that one of the things that was important was [the] intellectual process of iteratively trying questions and adapting tools to help us ask new questions. We can do so much more now than find words in a string. We can ask about surrounding words, search for complex patterns, count things, compare vocabulary between characters, visualize texts and so on” (p. 5). He goes on to argue for the importance of changing, questioning, and adapting “procedural habits and presuppositions…and [asking] anew how we can analyze text with a computer and whether such computer-assisted interpretations are interesting in and of themselves” (p. 7). He suggests that the best way to go about making new discoveries and testing the bounds of text analysis is by engaging in what he refers to by “research as disciplined play” (p. 8). In support of “playpen” sites like TAPoR Rockwell claims, “We need to play again and make playpens available to our colleagues rather than re-implement a limited set of procedures grounded in one hermeneutic” (p. 7). His interpretation of the academic processes of text analysis as more experimentation based rather than hypothesis based is helpful to the Little Prince Project group’s use of TAPoR analysis tools, particularly his discussion of sorting word frequency.

            Rockwell concludes this article with a plea for increased access to text analysis tools as well as to greater amounts of online texts, for the benefit of curious academics like himself, in the growing field of computer aided text analysis.

 


3. Holland, Norman Norwood. Holland's Guide to Psychoanalytic Psychology and Literature-and-psychology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press US, 1990.

 

<http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/UFDC.aspx?n=palmm&c=psa1&m=hd1J&i=45366> 11 Feb 2009.

 

 

          A guide to understanding “literature-and-psychology”. Holland outlines information aiding the basic understanding of psychoanalysis, and takes a close look at the study of psychology in literature. The book is intended for a broad academic audience of students and teachers alike, Holland even addresses his possible readers in his introduction, offering the various reasons his book could be helpful or interesting to them. His casual tone brings the reader closer to the material without taking away from the academic worth of his subject matter. As a professor with psychoanalytic experience including his involvement in programs at the Institute for Psychological Study of the Arts at the University of Florida and the Center for Psychological Study of the Arts at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Holland is a modern and relative influence on the study of psychology in the arts.

            Holland begins by confessing that his attempt at passing along genuine knowledge and holistic understanding of psychoanalysis will fail because he can’t offer the reader the necessary hands-on experience, however he assures that the knowledge gained from his text will provide what he calls “an intellectual road map” to psychoanalysis (p. 3). Furthermore he confesses, “I make no claim that this is an ‘objective’ survey of psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic criticism in the usual sense of the word” (p. 4), because he does not believe true, unbiased, objectivity can exist. He goes on to promise to pass along his knowledge of the “truth” to the best of his abilities, and does so by summarizing the history and different phases of psychoanalysis. He leads the reader through a basic understanding of Freud all the way up to contemporary thoughts, with an emphasis on the arts.

            As Holland describes the ways in which psychology appears in literature he continues to point out the subjectivity of the practice, which is directly in line with the aims of the Little Prince Project group. As with Holland’s guide, the understanding that the project’s psychoanalytical approach to The Little Prince is merely a starting point is important. The final project is not intended as fact, especially due to the lack of higher education and hands-on experience of the group members. However, with the support of resources like Holland, the Little Prince Project can be successful in establishing an academic foundation for continued in depth criticism and enrichment of Saint-Expuery’s The Little Prince, which is precisely the project’s purpose.  

 


4. Pyle, William Henry. A Psychology For Beginners Boston: Silver, Burdett & company, 1917. <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18477/18477-h/18477-h.htm> 11 Feb 2009.

 

 

“A Study of the laws of human behavior—that is the purpose of this book.”  As this statement from the author’s preface makes clear, Pyle’s main objective is to pass along an understanding of human nature. Pyle also makes his intended audience apparent as he addresses both teachers and students in separate prefaces. Similar to Norman Holland’s warnings in Holland's Guide to Psychoanalytic Psychology and Literature-and-psychology, Pyle warns students that one can’t fully understand psychology solely from a book, but like Holland, he assures his book will provide helpful tips and facts that he believes have significance. Furthermore, his statement that he has “tried to keep in mind all the time the practical worth of the matters discussed, and the ability and experience of the intended readers” (p. 1). His understanding that his readership is inexperienced with the subject of psychology makes him a valuable learning source for the psychoanalytically inexperienced Little Prince Project team.

Pyle covers the psychological topics of: development, race, mind, body, inherited tendencies, feeling, attention, habit, memory, thinking, and individual differences. However it is his discussions of the science of human nature and applied psychology that are the most relevant to the aims of the Little Prince Project group. They will be valuable aids in understanding and evaluating the individual characters of The Little Prince from a psychological perspective.

 


5. Yang, Shanel. “Lessons on Men from The Little Prince: The King” <http://shanelyang.com/2008/10/17/lessons-on-men-from-the-little-prince-the-king/>

11 Feb 2009.

 

 

          A subjective opinion of the character of “The King” from Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s novella The Little Prince. Although this is not an authoritative piece, the opinion of UCLA law graduate, Shanel Yang, is an enriching perspective that relates to my specific responsibilities in the Little Prince Project group. She cites important quotes from the king’s chapter as well as some thought provoking questions for her readers, such as: “What do you think of the king?”, “Have you ever known anyone like him?”, “Have you ever acted like him yourself?” I think her questions can give me a good starting point in my analysis of the king, as well as aid my thought process when I begin to write several blog entries from the king’s perspective, as a part of my group’s final project.

            Yang also provides personal answers to her own questions, which I find interesting and helpful as well. Although I do not agree with all of her opinions, they are helpful backdrops for my own, and in a sense they also offer something to respond to with my blog entries. What I mean by “respond to” regards to Yang’s intended audience; she is an online blogger trying to help enrich the lives of others. Her blogging goals have the same objective as the Little Prince Project, because we are similarly attempting to achieve enrichment of understanding, whether it is our personal understanding of The Little Prince, or the understanding of anyone else that might find our topic of interest. This is why we have chosen our topic, and why we have crated a website, so that like Yang, we can share our interpretation with the public.

            Yang also includes similar analyses of the other characters in The Little Prince, which can be likewise helpful to my fellow members of the Little Prince Project team.

 

 

 

 

 

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