April 27

Last Monday of class :( Summer is on the way

When I was in high school, I had this teacher who was obsessed with the "Hero's Journey." We spent 3 months on interpreting the hero's journey in Beowulf and Star Wars. We compared Beowulf and Luke Skywalker's journey's to the traditional journey of the hero. At the end of the semester we had to analyze "Star Wars : A New Hope" and Luke's journey to becoming a hero. Now whenever I watch, see, or hear anybody mention Star Wars I think of that paper I had to write; I think about Luke's perilous journey to becoming the hero- Call to Adventure, Refsal of the Call, Meeting with the Mentor, Crossing the Threshold, Road of Trials, Refusal of the Return, Magic Flight, Master of Two Worlds.

April 24- On Beauty

English Literature wasn't a subject to study until 1833, you would study Classical Literature- literature in Latin. Would reading literature in latin make you feel smarter? Literature is about interpretation and feeling and if reading it in latin is the "classic" way to read, do you get more out of the text? I think that it could lose some of the meaning because text loses something in translation, not everything can be translated exactly the way it is supposed to be written.

Zadie Smith hates the objectification of women and the facts that the left can't talk about it. Howard says he doesn't believe in "beauty" yet the second two beautiful women show him the time of day he drops his pants. The fact that he contradicts his beliefs is what Zadie Smith is trying to show everybody.

April 22- Theory and On Beauty

Literary Theory: varying ways to read and make meaning of a text

New Criticism: 1920's-1950's, way of seeking out contradictions in a text and figuring out how those contradictions unified the text and created meaning
-Looking at just the text itself and trying to figure out what the author meant.
-1960's: cultural revolution in America, England and France

Psychoanalysis, Unconscious: this directs our thoughts and actions; Oedipus complex (desire for father and desire to kill mother). Latent content of dreams in order to understand, reading you as if you are a text to figure out what dreams and thoughts mean.

Feminism: movement for woman's equality and rights in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. Where you read texts to discover hidden or not hidden meanings about female desire, empowerment, equality, sexuality, gender politics, and POWER and SUBJECTIVITY. What makes a woman a woman, a man a man? Who cares what the author thought?

Critical Race Theory: how do the depictions of race determine power?

Texts have a larger cultural meaning. With the various theoretical movements the meaning of a "text" changes.
--Texts: poems, novels, plays, films, TV shows, movies, digital images, art, painting, CD's, music, graffiti, clothes, merchandising, advertising, cultural artifact--- anything that can be interpreted.

Queer Theory: gender issues, power, gender depictions, hetero-normative ways of thinking. Analyzing a text for any type of gender issues. How is queer identity constructed in a text?

Theories that look at a text to analyze and attempt to delve deeper: Power, identity, subjectivity, political significance, cultural significance, types of representation.

Deconstruction: French philosophy of Jacques Derrida. Came along in the 1970's and onward. Question meaning, to question stable notions off identity, to question stable notions of what a person is. Questioning how language makes meaning. Challenging the fundamental meanings of Western culture.

Privileged Oppositions

Logos: speech and reason in Greek. Speech is always privileged over reason. Speech and reason are always privileged over textual writing. We grant more authority to speech and reason than to writing and non reason.
Logocentric: we privilege the faculty of reason over all else. In the history of the West, reason has been used to judge what makes a human a human. In literature and philosophy, in political reports or expeditions too far away-lands, non-white peoples are judged to be without reason and therefore not fully human.

Essentialism: What is the essence of the human

April 15- On Beauty

Tax Day! I hope everybody has filed their taxes on time! :)

Should grades matter? I think that they should matter to an extent. In society we put so much pressure on high school students to go to college and get a degree and go to grad school, and potentially get a doctorate. Since there is so much pressure on students to receive a degree beyond high school, those who decide not to get a degree are left behind. They are told that they wont be able to find a good paying job without that degree. Society has made it impossible for someone with just a high school degree to feel adequate. When applying for jobs, most applications ask for what "higher education" the applicant has received and those that haven't received a college degree are looked over simply because of that fact, even if they could be amazing at that job.

April 13- On Beauty

The objectification of beauty, in our culture, has made it difficult for many to see themselves in any way other than the "trophy" aspect of beauty- perfection described as stick skinny, blond, blue eyed, rich. We use the objectification of beauty to describe our relationships. Love gets objectified in the media, literature, movies, and music. Many search for "the one" based on what has been portrayed in the media as the perfect partner. Yet what happens when the perfect partner betrays you? In On Beauty, Howard betrays Kiki by having an affair while on a business trip. Does she leave him or stay? To some people she should leave him as soon as she found out yet to others marriage is a sacrament of love and devotion- for better or for worse. Does love forgive that pain? Should love be able to forgive that betrayal? In Kiki's case she does forgive him until she finds out that it wasn't just a one night stand- it was a month long affair with Clair.

April 8- On Beauty

Zadie Smith's novel On Beauty deals with the politics of beauty. She states in an interview that her novels should be political and moral. If a novel tells you to be moral in a certain way then they it is a bad novel. She states that art is a reflection of morals and a reflection of authors’ morals. Art is a case of attempting to view both sides of the story. "The Culture wars": the political people on the left vs. the political people on the right who deal with the canon, literature, and genres. Left is multi-culturalist and they believe that there is no such thing as great art, while on the Right there are the conservatives who believe that there are only a few great artists. The novel, On Beauty, is about the culture wars on the Left is Howard and his family and on the Right is Jerome and Monty Kipps and his family. Jerome will be the one mediating between the Culture Wars of the two families.

Characters
The Kippes: From the Caribbean, live in England. A very religious family, pro-business.
The Belseys: The family in America: Howard and Kiki, Jerome, Zora and Levi. They live in an old Victorian house. Howard is a professor at Wellington College. They are stunned that Jerome has become a Christian. Kiki is Black and Howard is White.
Monty and Howard are both Renaissance Art professors, both are writing novels and yet Monty's will reach the top of the bestseller list and Howards will not. Howard attacks Monty's analysis of a Rembrandt poem in a scholarly journal- yet Howard had the wrong picture.

Why is Howards son working for Monty?
-He is working for Monty to attempt to get his fathers attention. Yet it is strange to see a character go from a more liberal lifestyle to a conservative lifestyle to gain attention from a parent. In high school the students who wanted attention from their parents attempted to do so by going against the "typical" student life, by becoming more liberal.

April Fools Day!- Art and Lies

Circle time :) - Class Discussion