Well after an entire semester of reading more material then I would like I am finally glad to be done, but realistically are we ever done? Yes I am glad to be done with assignments but I will never be done with literary criticism. When this class first started I was completely scared. I had heard horrible nightmarish stories about this class and when I saw we would be reading the almost 1,000 pg book of Don Quixote it only reaffirmed my fears but its now December and I am glad to still be enjoying the class. I think I will always be reading things critically but now I'll be able to actually read them with multiple critical glasses.
There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. Every sentence is doubly significant, and the sense of our author is as broad as the world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Friday, December 12, 2008
Touchstone
So, sadly I have not found a specific touchstone that I can remember. There have been so many times that I have read something that opens my eyes to something and makes me see things in a completely knew way, but after a while they become completely lost to me. I get so caught up in the rest of the reading I rarely remember what had just opened my eyes. Even though I cannot think of a touchstone there was a time when I was reading that so many connections came together for me and everything began to make since. When I was reading Phillip Pullmans, His Dark Materials there was a part in it when Mary Malon has to enter a new world. She asks Dust where it is and he tells her the portal is on Sunderland Ave. I was completely excited because in Children's lit Sunderland and Wonderland are major themes in our class and I had no Idea how His Dark Materials was connected. Then as soon as I saw Sunderland in the book so many connections started appearing. I saw how Lyra was like Dorothy and Alice and how there was so much more to this book then what first appeared.
I remember it being really late at night and having no one to share my excitement with. I know that this isn't something that has changed my life or altered my view on the world but it was definitely and moment where so many things just came together and made since to me.
I remember it being really late at night and having no one to share my excitement with. I know that this isn't something that has changed my life or altered my view on the world but it was definitely and moment where so many things just came together and made since to me.
Romance Box
For the box that I chose to write more in depth about was the Romantic Box in the Tragic section.
This is the Elegiac section.
that features elegies morning the death of Heroes.
This is my favorite box mainly because I really love the heroes in this section. I love Beowulf and King Arthur and the sad endings.
These people are people that are higher then normal people as in that they are stronger or more intelligent and closer to being godlike. They may have more strength then normal men, like Beowulf who has the strength of twenty men in each arm and can hold his breath for hours and Arthur who is much more noble then the rest. yet even though they are stronger and set on a higher plane then normal humans they are still human and still must come to an end.
But one thing that I wanted to add was the female hero. I think in this box would be Joan Of Arc. She was a hero who was higher then mere mortals. She was closer to God, or the gods then we will ever be and she sacrificed her life and became an immortal hero.
This is the Elegiac section.
that features elegies morning the death of Heroes.
This is my favorite box mainly because I really love the heroes in this section. I love Beowulf and King Arthur and the sad endings.
These people are people that are higher then normal people as in that they are stronger or more intelligent and closer to being godlike. They may have more strength then normal men, like Beowulf who has the strength of twenty men in each arm and can hold his breath for hours and Arthur who is much more noble then the rest. yet even though they are stronger and set on a higher plane then normal humans they are still human and still must come to an end.
But one thing that I wanted to add was the female hero. I think in this box would be Joan Of Arc. She was a hero who was higher then mere mortals. She was closer to God, or the gods then we will ever be and she sacrificed her life and became an immortal hero.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Marxist
Marxist view of Don Quixote
Some of the important key points of Marxism:
The upper class is taking advantage of the lower class which can be seen in the treatment of the characters in the story.
No Imagination in Marxism. They don't focus on the poem or the beautiful images. Its not as important as the underlying message of the text.
They focus on the economic status surrounding the text and who is involved in the story.
They look at the text to determine which class is being valued above the other and which class is being taken advantage of.
Time period of the era is more important then imagination. Not about the artistic quality.
You can find and interpret what a Marxist will chose to point out in a text by looking at the social class of its characters.
Don Quixote is an upper class person who doesn't pay for anything while Sancho is a lower class poor man who takes the blame and beatings for Quixote.
Depends on what type of glasses you wear as you read. If you put on Feminist glasses you will see the text in a feminist way, new Criticism glasses you see it as a New Critic.
Some of the important key points of Marxism:
The upper class is taking advantage of the lower class which can be seen in the treatment of the characters in the story.
No Imagination in Marxism. They don't focus on the poem or the beautiful images. Its not as important as the underlying message of the text.
They focus on the economic status surrounding the text and who is involved in the story.
They look at the text to determine which class is being valued above the other and which class is being taken advantage of.
Time period of the era is more important then imagination. Not about the artistic quality.
You can find and interpret what a Marxist will chose to point out in a text by looking at the social class of its characters.
Don Quixote is an upper class person who doesn't pay for anything while Sancho is a lower class poor man who takes the blame and beatings for Quixote.
Depends on what type of glasses you wear as you read. If you put on Feminist glasses you will see the text in a feminist way, new Criticism glasses you see it as a New Critic.
Group Presentations
Freud's Phallic hour
Under every Text there is a sexual meaning that can only be found if your not looking at it. Ha Ha
Starring!:
The host Sigmund Freud, informing his guests that their lives were completely different then what they thought.
The original Oedipus who killed his father and married his mother and poked out his eyes. What a tragic story!
The Dark depressed Hamlet who killed his uncle murdering his father and went crazy!
The Little Girl in Red who delivers cookies to her beloved Grandmother.
The original crazy man who thought Halloween was everyday!
Cervantes the author of the famous Don Quixote!
Freud reveals his guests ulterior motives they were unaware of themselves.
Under every Text there is a sexual meaning that can only be found if your not looking at it. Ha Ha
Starring!:
The host Sigmund Freud, informing his guests that their lives were completely different then what they thought.
The original Oedipus who killed his father and married his mother and poked out his eyes. What a tragic story!
The Dark depressed Hamlet who killed his uncle murdering his father and went crazy!
The Little Girl in Red who delivers cookies to her beloved Grandmother.
The original crazy man who thought Halloween was everyday!
Cervantes the author of the famous Don Quixote!
Freud reveals his guests ulterior motives they were unaware of themselves.
Don Quixote
As I was reading Don Quixote one of the things I think is so funny about it is how every one seems to humor him by going along with all of his crazy quests. Like the part when Sancho leaves Don in the woods to give a letter to his love and meets with the barber and the priest and they dress up like women to convince him to come home. Then they meet up with a few others who also help pretend to be who their not so they can help Don Quixote. I just think how silly it is that they think that by going along with his fantasy they are helping him. I do understand that Don Quixote is completely insane some times and I would also humor him because I know that he would try and kill me if I told him he wasn't a real knight.
And also another thing. Even though Sancho knows that the people are pretending and he knows they are openly lying to Don Quixote he still falls for everything they say. He was right there when the barber and the Priest decide to dress up to fool Don Quixote but he still believes them when they lie to Don Quixote. I feel so bad for Sancho, he thinks that he is going to get all this land from Quixote and doesn't doubt him the entire book.
I think my favorite line in the book is when Sancho is worried there wont be any islands left, so Don Quixote turns to him and says something like, well if there are no more islands left then there is always Denmark. Like he can just give away a country.
I still do have a few more hundred pages left but Don Quixote is always surprising me and inventing some crazy way become the best knight he can be. I wish that I could be as determined as Don Quixote is about something that I really do have to be good at.
And also another thing. Even though Sancho knows that the people are pretending and he knows they are openly lying to Don Quixote he still falls for everything they say. He was right there when the barber and the Priest decide to dress up to fool Don Quixote but he still believes them when they lie to Don Quixote. I feel so bad for Sancho, he thinks that he is going to get all this land from Quixote and doesn't doubt him the entire book.
I think my favorite line in the book is when Sancho is worried there wont be any islands left, so Don Quixote turns to him and says something like, well if there are no more islands left then there is always Denmark. Like he can just give away a country.
I still do have a few more hundred pages left but Don Quixote is always surprising me and inventing some crazy way become the best knight he can be. I wish that I could be as determined as Don Quixote is about something that I really do have to be good at.
Individual Presentations
Stanley Fish Milton scholar yet has never taken a class in Milton
Has been called a maverick and a sophist
to the question
None what so ever
Susan Gubar and Sandra Gilbert The mad woman in the attic
angels and monsters
either pure
rebellious unkempt crazies
Homi Bhahba English professor in Harvard
Questions of Cultural identity
signifies and signifier are not unified
cope with reality
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