May 3, 2007
Thanks Jay.
I just want to thank Jay for his input on my paper.
I looked over his and was unable to find anything wrong with it.
As our peer reviewing process began, I was a little worried knowing my partner was Jay. I was expecting him to rip apart my paper and make me feel like a horrible writer; however, I was surprised when he said that I had a very good start to my paper, I just need to add more with the Id and the Superego into my paper to support my psychoanalytic criticism in "The Tempest" and Cinderella.
As he was looking over my paper, I glance over and see that my first whole page is covered with his pen. Most of his comments were constructive and helpful and a lot of them were positive remarks on my ideas and sentences.
Looking over Jay's paper, I could not really find a lot of problems except for use of the same word in his paper, which I also did in my paper. Jay was very clear and precise with his arguments and ideas as well as went in depth into his paper. His structure was well done and it is noticed that he organized in a way to prove his argument in a great way.
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May 1, 2007
Reflections on Term Projects
I am only going to tak about a few presentations. Sorry if you weren't one of them, I hope you are not offended. This is just very time consuming.
Congratulations to everyone for doing a fabulous job on the projects. Every project was unique and original and made very strong arguments and comments : )
Karissa and Jay's presentation was very original and was a breath of fresh air to see that for once we could use slang and improper language. Their idea and argument was that AIM chat could be a literary form of its own. They explained that with its pervasiveness, IM language is becoming a genre all its own and it has conventions like any other, and develops as the technology does. AIM chat can be seen as a lack of form, but the reality of the language is that the lack of "form" creates the newer version of form.
Even though I am not a fan of fantasy literature, Valerie and Tiffany's presentation was very informative and original. The website/blog they created with the outside links were very useful and creative. They explored the books of J.K Rowling's, particulary Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, through several theories we have studied in class, mostly Canon, Authorial Intent, Reader Response, and Freudian.
Gina and Mitchell and their project is next. Their main idea was about the ideal viewer of children's programs.The idea of an ideal viewer would be proposed from the standpoint of the creators of the programming. This leads us to a more mature adult standpoint, not the innocent point of view of a child. Which leads to the question then, is the ideal viewer really the ideal viewer for children’s programming. Their arguments and use of outside material, the videos online, supported their arguments by showing that even though the main viewers of the shows are children, most of the content is for the adult viewer.
The rest of the presentations were great. Every project was completely different and used different kinds of criticisms. Through these presentations, it gave me a different viewpoint and a better understanding to the criticisms.
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A Little 411 On My Term Paper
Here is just a little bit of what I am doing for this wonderful 15-20 page paper.
ENJOY and feel free to leave some comments : )
So it is noticed that literature is a dream written down. Literature contains both the obvious text and the subtext. The obvious text is known as the conscious, while the subtext is parallel to the unconscious. The subtext is what we criticize and where we recognize the dreams of the characters. It is noticed that psychoanalysis reads too much into the meanings of things. It is the job of a literary critic to delve deeper into the text and the intent of the author. The criticism seems a bit reductive. Freud has shown that what we do, say and write- as well as what we fail to do, say and write-bears the stamp of our unconscious. Freud believes that our unconscious thoughts that are unacceptable and choice of certain images and symbols not only in our thoughts but in writings have more than meets the eye. Psychoanalytic criticism also helps achieve a better understanding of a writer’s triumphs and failures even though our judgment as to what a writers triumph and failure is based on considerations which are fairly independent of psychoanalysis. How the audience responds and perceives the author’s work explains the eventual failure and success based on the overall theme of their work and how the audience can relate towards it. The author’s of “The Tempest” and Cinderella chose particular symbols and objects, the tempest and the fairy godmother, as well as powers of magic, to emphasize the idea that in order to fulfill dreams and desires one must have the help of magic.
In most literature, stories start with a character in trouble which leads to dreams and desires to escape their problems. Within “The Tempest” and the Disney animated feature film, Cinderella, the idea of a dream and desire of achieving a better life is seen with the use of magic. In the Tempest, Prospero uses his magic to create a tempest to get revenge with his brother and his assistants when they land on his island. In Cinderella, a fairy godmother helps her meet the prince with the use of magic that allows for her dream to come true at the end of the story. The idea of magic relieving one's problems is far-fetched and unrealistic, yet it is a choice behind both authors used to gain the audiences attention. Behind both stories the main focus is on a desire, a desire found within a dream and a storm that became attainable through the help of magic. Shakespeare’s story as well as Disney’s animated film is considered unrealistic popular fiction. Approaching these different stories with psychoanalytical criticism shows Freudian’s perspective of dreams and trying to achieve desires through dreams. The author’s choice of including both magic and dreams captivates the audience and allows for them to relate to the idea of dreams.
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Blog Carnival - Education and Criticism
Tiffany posted a blog carnival question regarding teaching literary criticism and education. Even though I am not an education major here at Seton Hilll, even though I used to be, I still find this subject very interesting.
We may not have known it when we were in school but our teachers in school approached literature in a particular fashion that eventually affected us more than we thought.
If I was to pursue my teaching career, which I am thankful I decided against, I would not just teach only a few criticisms, but I would present my students to all the criticisms, and as we do in this class, I would then pick a piece of literature and choose a particular criticism and in class discuss their take on criticizing the work with this type of criticism.
By doing this, as Karissa mentioned in her blog, it would 1) keep their attention, 2) create interest in the work itself (and not just in the pieces of the work), and 3) help them help themselves (and each other) understand both the work and the type of criticism at the time.
I would introduce the students to both the background of the author as well as the history during this specific time period to see if it had any effect on the work as a whole.
I would want to emphasize the flexibility of the study of literature and emphasize to the students that there is more to literature than the plot and that there is never a "right" answer to the work, there is only endless possibilities that one needs to explore through different types of criticisms.
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Blogging Portfolio III
This blog portfolio is short and sweet. This does not show the full extent of my literary growth throughout this class but it does show how I have turned out. Each week I think I have progressed from a sophomore in a hard upper level class to a sophomore who has accomplished more in this past semester in this one class than in her whole high school career.
Through many blog entries presented in blogging portfolio I and blogging portfolio II and presentations, not only have I learned through Dr. Jerz, but also through my peers, and I thank you all.
The blogging readly helped me and I think for many of the other students to keep track of our thoughts. For our critical exercises, to clear up confusion on a particular topic, discussions, projects, and papers, I used our blogs as a reference to all the criticims we have learned.
Coverage and Timeliness:
Greenblatt and Culture
Barker, Hulme and Nymphs??
Garson and Keats
de Man and signs
Miko and "The Tempest"
Guetti and Aesthetic
Feldstein and "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Keesey and Chapter 7
Eagleton, Literature and History
Depth:
Not much in depth writing about these essays and articles. I was so concentrated on the project and paper, sorry.
Interaction:
Blog Carnival comment
Vanessa, Culture and I
Blog Carnival:
Teaching Literary Criticism
Discussion:
de Man discussion
Apostrophes
Term Project and Paper:
Reflections on Term Projects
Garden State and "The Yellow Wallpaper"
A Little 411 On My Term Paper
Research Paper Workshop
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