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Postmodern Pooh
A sequel of sorts to the classic (and bestselling) sendup of literary criticism, "The Pooh Perplex
Purporting to be the proceedings of a forum on Pooh convened at the Modern Language Association's annual convention, "Postmodern Pooh brilliantly parodies the academic fads and figures that hold sway at the millennium.
Deconstruction, poststructuralist Marxism, new ...more
Purporting to be the proceedings of a forum on Pooh convened at the Modern Language Association's annual convention, "Postmodern Pooh brilliantly parodies the academic fads and figures that hold sway at the millennium.
Deconstruction, poststructuralist Marxism, new ...more
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
August 17th 2006
by Northwestern University Press
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Full disclosure: As far as Winnie the Pooh is concerned, I'm in Dorothy Parker's camp. I think it's nauseatingly cutesy dreck that condescends to children. But that's neither here nor there, because the target in "Postmodern Pooh" is not Pooh. In this sequel to his earlier book, "The Pooh Perplex", Crews instead takes aim at various current fads in academic literary criticism, using Pooh as a vehicle. This is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, but the results are hilarious...more
A biting send up of postmodern literary criticism. Crews takes on deconstruction, biogenetics, radical feminism, queer cultural studies, and neo-Marxism to name a few. The absolute best chapters are the first and last where Crews brilliantly captures the inanity of Derrida and Stanley Fish respectively. A must read for anyone who finds themselves slightly suspicious of the postmodern pooh on offer, especially by certain proponents of the emerging church.
Moses Operandi
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone willing to take a laugh at Academia's excesses.
Shelves:
readandenjoyed
This was a worthwhile read, and definitely biting satire, but it fell short of its predecessor in humor; perhaps because it's too realistic. Academia, the target its' jokes are directed at, has grown far more outrageous since Crewe first penned "The Pooh Perplex" to instant success. Many of the essays in Postmodern Pooh are all too believable. The one that really shines out is the essay "The Fissured Subtext" by Crewe's vitriolic post-structuralist Marxist, Carla Gulag, the J...more
This book is the perfect summary of why I didn't go into graduate school for literature. If you think that the parody essays exemplifying different theoretical approaches in this book are over the top and unrealistic, just go look at the listing of presentation and paper titles for the Modern Language Association--those are even scarier. I keep this one around as a good reminder that us academic types should refrain from taking ourselves too seriously. It's a dangerous temptation to start thinki...more
Hilarious. I quite enjoyed the essay where it's argued that A.A. Milne molested Christopher Robin.
Very biting and very funny. Crews is a skillful satirist.
Very funny, but slightly misguided (academically speaking).
I had to read this for a class. It was a series of essays about ways to interpret Winnie the Pooh... VERY WEIRD, much like my class.
view all 3 comments
2.5 stars
Maybe I just hold Winnie the Pooh too dearly, but I couldn't completely enjoy the things that were written in this book. I do see the satire of it, and the mocking of various literary theories and how the theorists take themselves too seriously (and sometimes try too hard to find "evidence" to back up their theories... one thing I hated about analytical English classes), but it just hurt my heart to read some of the things that were written about Winnie the Pooh an...more
Maybe I just hold Winnie the Pooh too dearly, but I couldn't completely enjoy the things that were written in this book. I do see the satire of it, and the mocking of various literary theories and how the theorists take themselves too seriously (and sometimes try too hard to find "evidence" to back up their theories... one thing I hated about analytical English classes), but it just hurt my heart to read some of the things that were written about Winnie the Pooh an...more
Brilliantly done, but not as novel as its original, Pooh Perplex.
It would make a good secondary course book (along with its companion book) but is definitely not stand-alone in a course of Lit Crit, which is how I was introduced to it.
My ambivalence lies here: Yes, it's a brilliant mockery of literary theorists, but pedantic, egoist, idiotic text is still pedantic, egoist, and idiotic even if it's intended to be that way.
I detested it, and yet I value what ...more
It would make a good secondary course book (along with its companion book) but is definitely not stand-alone in a course of Lit Crit, which is how I was introduced to it.
My ambivalence lies here: Yes, it's a brilliant mockery of literary theorists, but pedantic, egoist, idiotic text is still pedantic, egoist, and idiotic even if it's intended to be that way.
I detested it, and yet I value what ...more
Not as funny the second time around... Or maybe I've just been out of grad school for too long to appreciate the jokes. If I recall correctly, "The Pooh Perplex" was better.
This book was mildly amusing. I think I would have liked it better if it was just a series of critical essays and not a discussion among critics. I enjoy reading critical essays, even though I'm not an English scholar by profession. Reading these essays, however, made me glad that I chose science and don't have to debate literature with people like those profiled in this book.
I am sure I was not able to appreciate it as well as someone who is immersed in these kinds of literary criticisms, but all you have to be is someone living in a postmodern society who reads to see it is hilarious and spot on!
a crazy bunch of essays on postmodernism, deconstructionism, and all other isms in relation to winnie the pooh.
now that i think my brain is deteriorating due to my recent interest in us weekly, i've picked this book up to reel my brain back into action, and it's doing the job. excellent.
now that i think my brain is deteriorating due to my recent interest in us weekly, i've picked this book up to reel my brain back into action, and it's doing the job. excellent.
This is a brilliant piss-take, so to speak. It really pokes fun at literary theory, at the different critics and critical schools, and at the dangers of believing too thoroughly in any school of theory. A must-read for all English majors and students of literary criticism.
Sky
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
capitalist, and people who read to much
Shelves:
pastloves
This was such a funny book. The inside joke was that if you got the joke, the joke was on you. Satire is not the easiest thing to read and enjoy, and I so enjoyed this one. Seriously, I believe pooh was written by Virgina Wolf...
Very humorous. Especially the last few chapters. If you're not up to speed on literary criticism, perhaps review some of that first, so that you may enhance your appreciation of Crews' satire.
it's good to know if academics are incapable of laughing at themselves, there is someone there to laugh at them.
A fun analysis of postmodern literary theory.
Sastrawirya
marked it as to-read
Ed
marked it as to-read
Sutida
marked it as to-read
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“The immediate issue here is whether the Pooh animals realise they constitute a de facto nudist colony.”
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