Literary Theory and Theories

The first time that I studied literary theory was in graduate school -- this was after finishing my major in English and teaching high school English for six years. So I was deep into literature but had only heard of "theory" -- it sounded rather far away.

So when I started reading literary theory it was a kind of revelation. It was as if I finally started to understand what I had been doing all that, as if things finally started to make sense. I had been trained in "New Criticism" -- I was interested in many other approaches, especially ones that addressed the CONTENT of literature, not just its FORM.

Many of you found literary theory "interesting." I loved what Rachel says on her blog about feminism... :) Yes, we need to look at these "lenses" and see how they can help us start seeing literature, and the world, with new insight.

Defining the Media

Brendan says that the mass media is "information marketed to large numbers of people." Justin talks about how the mass media is conveyed via a technology, and, thus, new or evolving technologies change the way we receive mass media. Kristen has expressed confusion about what the media is today, about how changes in technology change not only the way media is delivered, but in fact what the media itself is.

True Americans

Thinking about the war in Iraq I went back and read an 1849 essay by Henry David Thoreau known as, "Civil Disobedience." Thoreau was writing during the time of slavery and of the Mexican War -- a war that he, and many others, considered to be completely immoral. They believed that America had declared war and invaded Mexico without sufficient cause, or more precisely, that President Polk had created a false justification for the war. Abraham Lincoln was, at the time, a member of the house of representatives and actually called for the impeachment of President Polk over the Mexican War -- it was the first action that Lincoln had taken that made him known across the country.

Thoreau talks about people who simply went along with the government,

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgement or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens.

Thoreau also talks about what it means to be an American and a follower of the founding fathers. He says,

There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free-trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both. What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them.

As I was thinking about parallels between the Mexican War and the War in Iraq, I discovered I was not the first to make that connection; it was made at least as early as 2003 by Ruben Arvizu.

Support the Troops

I just read a very interesting article in the New York Times about "A Soldier Who Hoped to Do Good." It talks about a young man who seems like a very upright person, but who decided, after his first tour in Iraq that it would be against his morality to return. I also just came across a site Veterans for America which looks at the effect of the war on American troops. I have also been reading Military Blogs, such as Milblogging.com -- today's post had YouTube footage from an ambush, this morning I guess. Brings the war right to your screen. I think the best military blogs I have seen were linked to aapavatar.net. I hope all of you find good sites to understand the war, part of that, of course, is understanding what the war is like from an American soldier's point of view.

How better to "support the troops" than to find out what the war is like from their perspective. "Supporting the troops" also means understanding the war more generally, finding out its causes, its effects on the people in Iraq and in the world and determining best how to END it.

War - Iraq

The Iraq War has certainly been on my mind -- I guess it has been on everyone's mind, but do we talk about it? What is really going on there?

It was sobering in class on Tuesday to learn about so many students in our class that knew someone, had friends or relatives that were stationed in Iraq. We discussed how the events of the war were scaring our soldiers, and why some of them choose or are even eager to return to Iraq.

I had the wrong day for the film that was shown "Iraq for Sale" but I try the link to see a trailer on the web and that it is being shown in many places nearby.

Where will this discussion take us?

Odysseus -- among the maidens!

After reading some of the wonderful contemporary translations
of the Odyssey you all have made -- including one where
Telemachus brushes his teeth --  I have decided to get my
hands dirty, too, with a translation. That was "hands" I said.
Anyway, I remember a scene where Odysseus has been washed
ashore naked after a shipwreck and is found by a beautiful
princess and her ladies-in-waiting while they are bathing.
Quite the moment!

Pope and Butler record one moment as follows:

Alexander Pope:

To them the king: "No longer I detain
Your friendly care: retire, ye virgin train!
Retire, while from my wearied limbs I lave
The foul pollution of the briny wave.
Ye gods! since this worn frame refection know,
What scenes have I surveyed of dreadful view!
But, nymphs, recede! sage chastity denies
To raise the blush, or pain the modest eyes."

Samuel Butler

But Ulysses said,
"Young women, please to stand a little on one side that
I may wash the brine from my shoulders and anoint myself
with oil, for it is long enough since my skin has had a
drop of oil upon it. I cannot wash as long as you
all keep standing there. I am ashamed to strip before a
number of good-looking young women."

Allen:

Excuse me, ladies.  I hope you don't mind looking
The other way while I stand up out of the water,
To wash off the, uhm, salt.
Come on now, don't just stand there staring,
A little privacy, please.
After all my battles and surviving the shipwreck
I'd like a hot shower and shave.
Some Calvin Kline "Eternity" cologne and lotion...
Say, didn't I mention looking away?

Writing and Introductions

Whew, writing is hard work! I have been writing most of the day, working on the book I am writing about using technology to teach literature and I know that my students have been writing a great deal -- at least I hope they have, since there is a paper due tomorrow.

On Thursday we had a good talk about writing papers. All but two students had heard of the "five-paragraph" paper, and after I talked about its strengths and weaknesses, a show of hands indicated that three or four students had heard teachers talk about some of the formulaic problems that the five paragraph paper can lead students into.

One of the things we talked about was how the five-paragraph paper idea produces introductions like making sausage from a meat grinder. When, in fact, it is hard to write good introductions. I was reading this morning a new book by Franco Moretti and he talks about the difficulty he has with introductions, which, in fact, are almost always written after everything else, so that it really should be some kind of postlude, but then, it does have to go first. "Immediately one starts writing an introduction, one wants to write the exact opposite of an introduction. I have tried to resist this impulse, then to subdue it, then to disguise it."

Today I completely rewrote the introduction to the chapter I am writing about using literary archives. Aargh! Introductions!

Speaking of introductions and their difficulties, our next project is a very close look at what may be the most famous introduction in the world, well, at least the introduction to one of the most famous literary works in the world, Homer's Odyssey.

Playing with Someone Else's Poem!

"Don't write in your book!" Didn't your teachers tell you that? And, when it comes to poetry, the author was the master, a genius, and it was up to us to figure out WHY he or she wrote it that way. Reading was not about challenging works of art, but appreciating them. Of course, not to deface them. No mustaches painted on the Mona Lisa, for heaven's sake!

Well, now we are kicking Keats around! So I add in my kicks.

Heaven?

happy
happy
happy
happy

flowery
sweetly
maidens
ecstasy

forever
forever
forever
forever

unravished
unheard
unweari-ed
desolate
silent form


Keats on Mountain Climbing

Mountain breathing is a cold panting,
Bare trees, far above all town folk
What is the mad pursuit?

Keats comes out pretty reduced in the two little games I play with him. I must be the first to use Keats to write about mountains, but then I love mountains, and mountain climbing.

A Keats Kick

Ok, so after reading "Autumn" in class, and then reading on Rachel's blog a creepy Keat's poem, "Le belle damn sans merci," I am started on a Keats kick. Someone asked me the other day in class if I liked "Keats"? Well, what do you say to THAT? Keats' kick, I say! From "truth is beauty" to zombies, it would seem after reading Rachel's favorite Keats.

Any of you read Keats famous odes? How about, Ode on a Grecian Urn? That might be a good one for some class analysis.

Now comes a professor who does analyze that poem in class. What does he do? He teaches students to "deform" it! Take a look at Mr. Jeffery Robinson's approach to the immortal Keats and see what you think! One of his student's writes:

• I slowly crushed the piece into different shapes. I broke it down and built it up again. I RETURN, RETURN, DELETE, DELETE, DELETED. Up and down the words skipped, lines jumping and leaping all over the computer screen trampoline.

Is this anyway to treat great poetry?? I was talking about being on a Keats' kick, not kicking Keats! Not cutting and pasting Keats! Hypertexting him even. Who would dare do that?!

Fall is coming!

Reading everyone's favorite poems and watching the rain come down, and the leaves falling all over my yard, is making me think of the changing season. I don't want summer to go away! As one of Sarah's favorite poems stated "summer's lease has all too short a date"! (I guess you all know who wrote THAT...)

I am thinking about poetry to match the change of seasons, and one of the most famous, and most beautiful, comes to mind, "To Autumn" by Keats. Take a look and see if you agree. I carefully chose the version that I linked to because it has a copy of the original manuscript in Keat's own handwriting that you can look at. You can see how he changes his ideas and words. Amazing. Keats is considered by many to be the second greatest writer in the English language. ( I guess you all know who is supposed to be THE greatest.) Keats died so young. He actually died in Rome and the same day that I had my picture taken in the Coliseum in Rome (that is the picture of me on this site), I also visited the last place he lived, a little apartment next to the Spanish Steps (a gathering place in Rome). They have made in the apartment a little museum in his honor -- he was only there a couple of months, if I remember right.

Well, if the season must change, then celebrate it with Keats, I say! To paraphrase Baudelaire, be drunk on wine, on virtue, on poetry, and, on Keats!

Everyone made a blog in 15 minutes, wow!

I really enjoyed our first class meeting and I am so intrigued by the diversity in our class -- I mean we have freshman in their first college class EVER and seniors, people from all different kinds of majors, people into books, others into football. This is going to be an interesting group of people to come to know better!

I just visited everyone's blog and several people have already found poetry and figured out how to make links to it. The idea is to also write on your blog about why you like the poem -- and to push yourself to look at details, to read the poem carefully, find its mysteries that you still don't know how to solve and bring them to us.

I bet in class tomorrow we will hear about some most interesting poems. I wonder what each of you are thinking about this class so far? Any comments??

Welcome to Literary Interpretation

I am a great lover of poetry and literature and I hope that you will join me in this passion!

Here are several of my favorite works that we might want to discuss together:
"My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke (1948)
"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell (1681)
"The World is Too Much With Us" by William Wordsworth (1807)

Post your comments on these poems!