Portfolio 1: Riding the Roller Coaster of Literary Criticism

Well this has been an interesting beginning of the semester.  I admittedly have felt quite overwhelmed at times.  I’ve spent hours blogging, doing the readings, and writing casebooks.  I have literally spent almost entire weekends doing nothing but literary criticism.  I’m not sure whether I really am getting things or not.  Sometimes I feel like I’m really getting things and other times I feel frustrated and like I don’t understand anything.  It is truly a roller coaster ride of ups and downs.  However, I really do think that I am learning to see things in a completely different way.  In EL150, I remember Dr. Jerz telling us that there was no big dusty book of answers, and I thought I understood it then, but now I think I really get it.  The non-existence of a “right” answer doesn’t just apply to what something symbolizes, it applies to what school of criticism one uses, and it even applies to what literature can be defined as.  Keeping all that in mind, I do think I am making progress, and there are even times I really like to blog.

Coverage and Timeliness:  I completed all assigned blogs and posted them all on or before the time that they were due.  So here is the list of all my blogs: 

• Mighty Mutability
• A Blast from the Past: Litotes
• Taking the Personality Out of Poetry?  I Didn’t Think It Possible
• What Would a Formalist Do?
• Misleading, Misinforming, Misguiding:  The Flip Side of Literature
• The Pattern on the Wallpaper Represented in Words
• Brushing Up on Symbolism
• There may be no such thing as an “unmediated” response, but there is such a thing as limited perceptions
• Question: What’s the Point?  Answer: Read Watson’s Essay!
• Happily Ever After…or Not
• What Not to Do: Assume the Author Agreed with Popular Opinion
• Expectancy + No Answer ≠ Pleasure
• Extending Beyond Normal Realms: The Definition of a Word to a Formalist
• If Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder, then a Beholder is Required
• Epanalepsis?  A Literary Term that Causes Seizures?
• Father=Mother=Bird?
• If a Poem is Beyond Our Reach, Then How is the Human Mind Any Better?
• The Best of Both Worlds (Minus Hannah Montana)
• Contrasts in the Male and Female Present Not Just in Kolodny, But in Literary Terms Too?
• Not Just Unreliable, But Pretending to Be Reliable
• “A Tired and Drained Language"
• Your Definition of Objectivity Sounds Subjective to Me
• Gender is Not the Only Factor
• French, Anyone?

Depth: For the most part, I consider all of my blog entries to be well-thought out.  I spend a lot of time on my blog entries.  However, there are still a few that really went above and beyond.

• Misleading, Misinforming, Misguiding: The Flip Side of Literature.  In this blog entry I quoted from my Western Cultural Traditions textbook to analyze the power of books, not just to enlighten, but to control others.

• The Pattern on the Wallpaper Represented in Words.  In this entry, I show my mastery of formalism as I carefully analyze a passage from Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” 
• Happily Ever After…or Not.  Here, I argue that the ending of Shakespeare’s The Tempest does not have as happy an ending as some may believe.  I carefully analyze the implications of some of Shakespeare’s word choices.
• Gender in Not the Only Factor.  In this entry, I both disagree and agree with Kolodny’s essay.  I argue that gender is not the only factor that affects a reader’s interpretation and is in fact no more important than any other of these factors.  However, I agree with her idea of “revisionism.”
• The House of Mirrors: Finding the Reflections of Pride and Prejudice in Joyce’s “The Dead.”  This is probably my favorite blog entry and you’ll probably see it pop up again later on in my portfolio several times.  I examine the possible existence of an intertextual relationship between P&P and “The Dead.”  I also did outside research to set up the possibility of Joyce’s intention to allude to P&P.

Blog Carnival: Several of my classmates (Derek, Angela, Katie, Kayley, and I) all decided to apply a school of literary criticism to Joyce’s “The Dead.”  It instigated some amazing discussions and some thought-provoking entries.

• Blog Carnival—Cover Blog Entry. Derek explains what we’re all doing and kicks off the carnival.
• The House of Mirrors: Finding the Reflections of Pride and Prejudice in Joyce’s “The Dead.”  My blog entry for the carnival.
• Come one, Come All to Our Carnival of “The Dead.”  Here, I wrap our carnival up with a brief summary of everyone’s blog entries and the discussions which took place.

Interaction: In these blogs, I either help my peers understand something or help to keep discussion going.

• In Bethany Bouchard’s You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too, I politely disagree with her.

• In Kayley’s Where does the talent come from?  I politely disagree with her view of historicism and elaborate on something a classmate said.
• In Erica’s Where is the Perfect Formula for Literary Criticism?  She helps me to understand that there being so many possible interpretations of literature isn’t a bad thing, but instead a good thing.  I add my own analogue to help my classmates understand this concept as well.
• In Angela’s In the Left Corner, Weighing 200 Pounds, is T.S. Eliot! I politely disagree with her take on “The Red Wheelbarrow.” 
• In Derek’s The Human Struggle between Earth and the Afterlife, Derek helps me to see “Ode on a Grecian Urn” in a new light.  I add more to his take and quote from Eagleton to further support my point. 
• In Katie’s Something a Little More Concrete, I share with her my frustrations and try to explain formalism and its ability to be combined with other schools of criticism.
• In Bethany Merryman’s “however defined,” I leave her a lengthy comment and refer her to Angela’s blog. 

Discussion: These are blogs in which I participated in discussions with my peers.

• Mighty Mutability.  In this blog where I consider the mutability of language, several of my peers offer their thoughts on the issue and both Dr. Jerz and I respond.
• Misleading, Misinforming, Misguiding: The Flip Side of Literature.  In this blog my classmates respond to my surprise that literature can be used in negative ways as well as positive.  I respond in order to encourage continued interaction.
• There may be no such thing as an “unmediated response,” but there is such a thing as limited preconceptions.  In this blog entry, I disagree with Keesey and opine that I think there is value in reading a text with as few preconceived opinions as possible.  My classmates all agree with my view and elaborate on it, as I reaffirm my beliefs in a comment myself.
• The Best of Both Worlds (Minus Hannah Montana).  This is a relatively recent blog where I consider the different significations of a “reader.”  Angela answered and I wrote a lengthy comment back.  I am hopeful that discussion will continue on this blog entry.
• The House of Mirrors: Finding the Reflection of Pride and Prejudice in Joyce’s “The Dead.”  This is my carnival entry and it had some great un-going discussion.  All of our carnival blogs did actually.
• Bonus: Derek’s Male vs. Female—Who is Better…I realize that according to the assignment page, the discussion blogs are supposed to consist of discussions that took place on my blog entries, but Derek, Angela, and I had such a great discussion that I wanted to share it here too. 

Xenoblogging:

• The Comment Informative: In Bethany Bouchard’s Alert the Pope! I left her two comments where I use my knowledge of Chaucer to explain some background to my classmates about both Chaucer and oral tradition.
• The Comment Primo: I left the first comment which helped spark some discussion on Angela’s The Formalities of Formalism, Bethany Merryman’s On Earth of Eternity, and Ellen’s The Space Between. 
• The Comment Grande: I left several well-thought out and long comments on Derek’s Male vs. Female—Who is Better…Also, I left very long thorough comments on all of the Carnival blogs.

 

Wildcard:

• French, Anyone?  I picked this blog mostly because I spent a while writing this blog and was proud of it.  I tried to make a connection between my two majors (French and English Literature), by observing an inordinate amount of French-based words in Melville’s “Benito Cereno.”  I also included questions to my peers to help facilitate discussion, but no one ever commented on it.  So I wanted to draw some attention to this ignored blog. 

Previous Portfolios:

• EL150: Learning the University Mind-Set
• EL150: According to Confucius Reflection is Noble—That’s What I’m Doing Here
• EL150: Do You Believe in Magic?

Read my classmates' portfolios.