Textual Intervention

A book critique of Textual Intervention: Critical and Creative Strategies for Literary Studies by Pope, R.
The aim of this book is to challenge and change texts. If you consider reading as a form of rewriting, every intervention you make in the text is an act of intervention. The book provides a wide range of strategies for exploring texts through rewriting as well as analysis. It is about reconstruction and deconstruction, in other words, it is known as textual intervention.
As Pope (1995) states,
“every turning you take, every choice and combination you make will be gauged against one already taken and made in your base text. The latter is therefore, in every sense, the base from which you must depart and to which you must return. But where you go in the meantime- and how and why- is largely upon to you. In fact, helping you work out the where, how and why of your own critical and textual trajectories is one of the main aims of this book.” (p.2)
With reference to the style adopted, it is informal and there is a direct relationship with the readers as an attempt to lighten the usual style of academic discourse. This book is intended for learners and teachers in a wide variety of literary, linguistic and cultural studies courses. It is a combination of discourse analysis, performance techniques, critical thinking and creative writing. According to Pope (1995), “the approach proposed in this book is basically simple and practical (…) it involves criticism, creativity, the exercise of power and the activity of change. I shall describe it from two points of view, textual and educational.” (p.1).
The book is organized in five chapters. In the first chapter, the author introduces the basic method and its principles on how to intervene a text. In the second chapter, he explores the construction of subjectivity and agency in and around texts. In the third chapter, it is explained how to articulate narrative from the micro level to the macro level; he also features some experiments with narrative in films. In the fourth chapter, Pope argues that “ through dramatic intervention we experiment with alternative moves that might have been made or turns that might have been taken; and through dialogic techniques we explore the various voices and discourses in play within and around a work.” (p.xvi). In the fifth chapter, the author provides a general summary and reference section.
Broadly speaking, this book is a valuable resource for critical and creative practices. It is basically a critical-creative handbook since it offers a range of interactive and interventive strategies in which readers are encouraged to engage in structure yet playful rewriting of any text they meet. Textual Intervention by Rob Pope addresses practical concerns of teaching and learning at the interface of language and literary studies.











References
Pope, R. (1995). Textual Intervention: Critical and Creative Strategies for Literary Studies. London, UK: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.