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February 26, 2007
Crazy Lady...Never Thought I'll See You Again
"The Yellow Wallpaper", Gilbert and Gubar
Gilbert and Gubar thought of the narrator of the "Yellow Wallpaper" as a double of Gilman. I agree with them when they stated that "the female author enacts her own raging desire to escape male houses, and male texts....". I think it is a given that women and men react differently about imprisonment. Not trying to be sexist, but it is true. That is why the "cure was worst than the disease". I think that Gilman used a piece what actually happens in reality and made into something that became the heart of the story.
Posted by KevinHinton at 11:35 PM | Comments (1)
I Say To You: Ut Pictura Poesis
Pictures in Poetry: Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn", Brann
Do you know those folks who are in a museum looking at a painting...giving it appreciation. Ode on a Grecian Urn should be appreciated the same way. Brann described that it comes to an end when imitation, mimesis, no longer drives either the visual or poetic arts. It is not "the Urn" itself that makes the poem mimetic, but it is the fact that people are appreciating it as they would a painting in Harlan Gallery. It is more of the description that is more in tune with reality...at least that is what I think. So riddle me this faithful readers...
Do you think that the reaction to the urn or the urn itself makes the poem mimetic to reality?
Posted by KevinHinton at 11:07 PM | Comments (2)
A Devil in A Blue Dress
Beyond the Net: Feminist Criticism as Moral Criticism, Donovan
According to Donovan, women are shown as stereotypes of good and evil. Hanging on the coattails of Kolodny I think, she describes how we make women into either the quiet and intuitive housewife or the sadistic "devil in a blue dress" seductress.
WOW....
It is not very bashing as Kolodny. Jason Pugh said that "Donovan argues multiple valid points about the history of women, and how unrealistic situations have been shown for women in literature." And Donovan does! She make a reference to the good and evil and women by metioning Mary and Eve. Donovan wants us to look at women in literature as the rest of human society as confusing creatures. Why anybody would WANT to take that claim is up for debate, but Donovan do not want us to look at women as black and white.
Posted by KevinHinton at 10:26 PM | Comments (1)
February 25, 2007
The Head Shrinkers of Literature
The Uses Of Psychology, Paris
It is extremely valuable to bring literature and psychology together. The psychologist and the artist often know about the same areas of experience, but they comprehend them and present their knowledge in different ways.
Since I am doing my presentation on this article, I won't go into really great detail. However, Paris made some great points about mimetic criticism. He stated that novel are the closest thing to reality in literature. Over time, the novels became more realistic than some other genres out there. Some literary critics shy away from psychological analysist of fictional characters as if they were real people.That is because the characters are a part of a "dramatic and thematic structures of the works". However, Paris (and I pretty much agree with him) believes that you can't have a legitimate character study without a psychological critcism.
So what draws the line between legitimate criticism of a character or just a confusing list of psychological symptoms for a fictional characters?
Posted by KevinHinton at 5:46 PM | Comments (2)
February 24, 2007
As Real As It Gets
Ch. 4 Intro, Keesey
Freudians, Jungians, Marxists, Thomists, and other supporters of particular psychological or philosophical systems have perforce been interested in literature as a representation of human character and action, as have critics who focus on the issues of race, class, and gender as these are represented in literature.
Some literature has taken some steps to make themselves as real as possible. Think of Jack London's "To Build A Fire", that story would most likely happen in real life. Keesey made great points about what we see in reality and how it could been shown in literature. Unlike reader-resonse theory, the experiences of the characters, NOT the readers, matter. That is why we are bring "psychological or philosophical systems" to figure out what these characters are thinking. I think remember in Intro to Literary Study, Dr. Jerz was kind of reluctant to put a psychological analysis on a fictional character. I agree will him somewhat, but I believe that by making psychological analysis on a character, you can learn a small piece of info about the author. I 'm not sure but this may be Dr. Jerz philosophy " the artist's bed need not be a copy of the carpenter's." Consider this my feeble attempt to analysis a professor.
Posted by KevinHinton at 11:20 PM | Comments (3)
It Seems Like Everyman Is Musical
Everyman, Anonymous
On Everyman living without fear.
Where art thou, Death, thou mighty messenger?
Just as I read this about a year and a half ago, I felt just a little bit confused when I watched it Friday night. I believe that SHU theatre really tried the best to make this play relevant to people (especially Christians) today. The Christian, mostly Catholic overtones, rubbed off in the SHU version from the original version, nevetheless I found it interesting that they made this short morality play to a long morality musical. I noticed that the songs were more contemporary than the speech itself.
I remember reading in Iser that some of the current criticism and revisons of literature is "single-minded". They specifically made to reach the new audience, but I wonder if by doing that they lost some of the messages in the play. I doubt it, but that is the risk you take when you make adaptions to original material. I have a question for you:
If you've seen SHU version of Everyman, do you think they lost something when they made it into a musical or do you think they only made it more relevant to today?
Posted by KevinHinton at 3:29 PM | Comments (3)
February 23, 2007
Kelo The Great's Definition of the Week
The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
I have to present this week on an article explaining psychology. We that word comes to mind, I think of Freud and Jung. Since everyone know about Freudian criticism, this week's word will be...
Jungian Criticism: A type of literary criticism based on the theories of Carl Jung. A theory that differs markedly from the psychoanalytic theory of Freud. Freud focuses on the individual unconscious and its manifestations; Jung identifies and concentrates on a collective unconscious that, he claims, is universally shared by people across cultures. This collective unconscious contains racial memories archtypes, primordial images and patterns, that reflect the elemental content of human experience from its earliest beginnings.
I know it is a shady subject to try to figure out the human psyche of a fictional character. But I think it is more about the author and less about the characters. According to Jung, every group of people has thoughts and reactions, what we call stereotypes. In literature, the authors tap into these stereotypes and use them to build their characters.
Posted by KevinHinton at 1:34 PM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2007
Here We Go Again....Kelo The Great's Blogging Portfolio for EL312
Blogging Portfolio, Hinton
With my experience with blogs, I just like to show off what I have done. So, here is my feeble attempt at playing with the big boys (meaning upperclassmen) on this portfolio. So without further adieu...
Coverage
In this blog, I discussed how we must critique literary texts and shed ourselve from the basic "summary".
Speaking Of Vacuums...Look At This
I discussed how Melville was not immuned to the times.
Old McDonald's Thoughts of Shakespeare
Point by point about what Shakespere inteded and what he uses.
Depth
(I used outside sources on some of these)
Reading Between The Lines
Info from Herbert Simon of Stanford University.
Kelo The Great's Definition of the Week # 2
Showed examples of Black Humor
Speaking of Vacuums...Look At This
Used info on La Amistad
Blogging Carnivale ... Coming soon
Interaction
(Who did I use for inspiration)
Not In A Vacuum
Something Karissa said in our first class.
Speaking of Vaccums...Look At This
Valerie's entry really gave me this idea.
The Lit Crit Gender Gap
Jay Pugh sparked something I thought about the article.
Discussion
Is It Elementary, Watson?
We really talk about a meaning of a work here.
How Are You, Crazy Lady?
A lot of people wonder what I am talking about.
A Kaplan Interpretation
There seem to be a disagreement here.
Timeliness
Not In A Vacuum
2 days prior
Kelo The Great's Definition of The Week # 2
3 days prior
Kelo The Great's Definition of The Week # 4
4 days prior
Xenoblogging
Dave Moio
Time For An Intervention
Talkin' about Keats
Why Lock Up The Beast
Why Caliban is under control.
Tiffany Brattina
Musical Poetry
Shakespeare + Music= Arts
Diana Geleskie
The Hamlet of Last Tuesday
Taking a stab a reader-response crit.
Wildcard
Kelo The Great's Definition of the Week #1
I love the video...
Posted by KevinHinton at 3:15 PM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2007
The Lit Gender Gap
A Map for Rereading: Or, Gender and the Interpretation of Literary Texts
I was not necessarily offended by the Kolodny piece, but it did strike me as wrong, assuming that a male reader are not better readers on a feminist piece than a female reader.
- Jason Pugh
I agree with Jay, there is absolutely no reason that a male reader would be lacking in reading a feminist article. I understand that you need some sort of experience (by being a woman) to understand some of the tones. But the whole reason for reader-response theory is to bring a new way of thinking into a text. For example, if we go into Machinal, men could be a new thought of why men in the play are the main contributors to the Young Woman anguish. No I am not opening the door to sexism, all I am trying to point out is in this type of criticism, we can not degrade works like Machinal to only the intended readers. Besides, I am pretty sure you had to analyze a lot of literature you did not like to read.
Posted by KevinHinton at 9:33 PM | Comments (1)
February 18, 2007
O'Connell's Cloudy Mirror
Narrative Collusion and Occluusion in Melville's "Benito Cereno", O'Connell
I remember the reactions most of the class had when we first read Benito Cereno. A lot of people did not argee with the racist tone that the story had. I had a feeling that Melville himself was racist. But I think O'Connell would disagree with me:
Melville opens his story by setting up the expectation that the reader should be wise and discerning, able to see beyond the allegedly innocent interpretations of Delano.... actual readers must be astute enough to resist the "temptations" of racism and struggle to stave off the seductions of the narrator and Delano's self-serving misinterpretations.
O'Connell mentioned that Melville betrayed the readers by hiding the true meaning from us. Nevertheless, it engages us into the story and arises feelings in us that is normally pacified. O'Connell also noticed that sentimental literature depends on the reader's response. I stated earlier in another blog that it is basically up to us to make great literature. Personally, I would not count Benito Cereno as great literature, but it is definetly memorable literature.
Posted by KevinHinton at 12:44 PM | Comments (1)
The Three-Class Reading System
Readers and the Concept of the Implied Reader, Iser
O.K I thought that Iser was going to kill me will this article... but I saw the three types of reader.
He classified readers into certain types that were pretty interesting to me.
The Superreader
The superreader is something I think that all of us are trying to be that kind of reader. A person who can just spot out intertexual patterns with no problems. They are like codebreakers, decyrpting codes from ones and zeros. I believe that only a small amount of readers are actually superreaders.
The Informed Reader
Most people, and probably all of us, fit this category. This is a reader that:
1.) is a competent speaker
2.) has semantic knowledge and comprehension
3.)has literary competence
The Intended Reader
This reader is the "base" of the readers of a particular author. For example, your Stephen King, J.K Rowling, and John Grisham fans. This group is, what Iser described, as "a sort of fictional inhabitant of the text, can embody not only the concepts and conventions of the of the contemporary public..." Basically, the next big thing in literature. I think these readers would enjoy popular fiction more that any other genre of literature.
These shouldn't be taken religiously. However, it is a good way to distinguish what kind of reader you are and what impact it has on your future reading and with literature itself.
Posted by KevinHinton at 12:11 AM | Comments (1)
February 17, 2007
Learning The Audience
Ch Three Intro, Keesey
Authors grow old and die, and the circumstances of the poem's creation are soon lost in the irrevocable past. But the poem, a foster child of silence and slow time, remains for us in the perpetual present.
Everything we know about all literature is that has been made into a "great work" is that it is the readers, not the authors, that make it so. Therefore, we should focus on the relationship of the reader and the author to find a better meaning. Ponder this question:
Would you have understood The Red Badge Of Courage better if you lived in the Civil War Era?
Maybe so. It is all up to the experiences and time of the reader. If somehow we can send that story back a century the responses would be even more different than it is now. Experiences mean a lot in reader-response criticism. Nevertheless, it is not the only thing. It also depends on how much literature has affected our lives. I bet you you did not feel the same when you read 1984 ,did you?
We must remember that it does not matter "the circumstances of the poem's creation is simply not very relevant." It is up to us, that's right, US (as readers) to make a work of literature great or canonized.
Posted by KevinHinton at 10:42 PM | Comments (2)
Kent's Confusion
On the Third Stanza of Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn", Kent
Our first class meeting (When Dr. Jerz sensed that we were having a too much of a good time and he said that he could "change that") we discussed this poem and I read the three stanza. I remember how confused I was. I think Kent was in the same boat as myself. He stated that we needed a closer scrutiny. He goes all over the place by at first stating that "the reader begins to think that the poet protests too much." WHAT?! Why does that matter, I know that it is Kent's critical take on this, but I don't think that the reader thoughts matter if you are merely looking at why John Keats writes how he writes.
Next, Kent states that the stanza seems a little bit to happy. That most likely could be sarcastic, like when we established that Vanessa Kolberg had mastered that quality (just kidding). The repetition in the third stanza seems to water down the happiness which means that Keats probably meant it to be the opposite. It is like Christmas commercials, they announce it so much that when it finally comes it is not that exciting.
Finally, the structure of all of the sentences is well...incomplete. Is it that Keats wanted it open for interpretation, did he want us to see incomplete thoughts, or was this stanza just incomplete? We may never know...but what we can find out is how the third stanza disrupted the balance of the other stanzas, or in Kent's words, "the third stanza occupies a pivotal position in the ode's entire dramatic trajectory."
Posted by KevinHinton at 7:49 PM | Comments (2)
Old McDonald's Thoughts of Shakespere
Reading The Tempest, McDonald
I liked the McDonald article, due to the fact that it takes you through certain parts of The Tempest point by point. I will make a feeble attempt making it point by point as he did.
I. Ways People Looked At The Tempest Recently
I think Tiffany was right last time when she said that this generation is pretty much pessimistic. Recent criticism of the play has been "single-minded and reductive" , according to McDonald. The Tempest was seen a in a lot more positive light as Yachnin wrote about the strong sense of obedience in the play. In the recent decade, we see this play been demonized in a lot of ways. One of those ways has been the demonization of Prospero because he was drunk with power.
II. Repetition...Best Way To Remember Something
Here, McDonald basically describe in how history repeats itself. Usurpation and assassination has been a theme of some of Shakespeare's plays. Just look at Macbeth and Hamlet. Shakespeare also plays on the technical repitition as well. As far as words and phrases are concerned, he "strives for the power of expression not only by contract words and skipping over nonessential syllable.." He plays with the structures of the play to highlight certain points that he thinks we should remember.
III. See The Pattern?
Shakespeare uses of "minor theatrical strategies" is visible in all of his plays. That is why a lot of stage directors like to direct a Shakespeare play, because it is open to interpretation. This was probably his way to allow people to apprieciate his plays, even though it was never meant to be printed. It is the minute details that makes his plays great, and like McDonald stated "reality is (re)presented on the stage."
IV. Just a Figure of Speech
The uses of irony, metaphors, and similes is essential to The Tempest. For example, McDonald pointed out that Caliban declaring he was free from Prospero, but he became the slave of Stephano.
V. Such a tease.
Shakespeare's play rely on the art of tantilization. Just when you think you know what is going on... a new twist emerge. It is also a tease for the characters, as Thomas Foster (writer of How to Read Literature like a Professor) would say, "the intended goal is never fufilled"." The tease that Shakespeare would always use would be romance (love or lust). McDonald said that "romance depends suspense, secrets, surprises, discoveries, peripetes, awakening, revelations."
VI. Again...Dirty Politics
Unlike other Shakespeare works that show anger and rebellion, The Tempest seem to glorify servitude and obedience. That is an extremely big shift. Also, politics are run by soverignty, that fact that you are not subordinate to anyone. The problem is this play is that the is not enough of soverignty. For example, Caliban and Ariel is Prospero's slaves and Prospero is the slave to his desires for revenge.
Posted by KevinHinton at 7:21 PM | Comments (1)
February 15, 2007
Kelo The Great's Definition Of the Week
Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
A lot of people write in a diary or a journal recounting their lives. There is nothing like raw information as something solid for the plot:
epistolary novel: A novel whose plot is entirely developed though letters, whether through an exchange of letters between multiple characters or through the correspondence of only one character. The form has been employed for the immediacy it lend to the narrative, as well as the opportunity it provides to reveal the intimate, private thoughts of characters.
In Star Trek, the "Captain's Log" in the beginning of the show has a epistolary qualities. We are seeing something that the captian of the Enterprise had seen that day. There was a book I read in middle school called Crash, which is based on the life of a kid who dreams of playing football.
Posted by KevinHinton at 4:56 PM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2007
Can't See Through The Tempest?
The Tempest, Shakespeare
Literary Criticism--EL312
This by far is one of the most confusing plays I have ever known of Shakespeare's. I read a lot on The Tempest, and still couldn't understand, so I decided to watch an actual performance on tape.
The version I saw was strangly produced, but accurate nevertheless.
It seems that all throughout the play, the island, with all of its beauty and luster, had turn Propero into something that he did not want to turn into...his brother, Antonio. Of course, like all the other readings, we will critique this play in other ways but I would like to end with a quote from Gonzalo to show you how strange this play is:
I'll warrant him for drowning;
though the ship were no stranger
than a nutshell and as leaky as an unstanched wench.
Posted by KevinHinton at 3:52 PM | Comments (2)
The Cheat Sheet
Chapter 2 Intro, Keesey
Literary Critcism--EL312
I stated in a previous blog that formalism is sort of like a cheat sheet. Using it you get to learn a great deal about a literary work. This is due to the fact that "formalists refuse to seperate form from content."
The structure and type of poem has everything to do with the meaning. Think of it as a math problem it is more important to find out how you get the answer rather that what the answer is. This may sound redundant, but it is neccessary. Keesey stated that the key concepts of formalist is difficult to go without in a poem. In my Intro to Poetry class, we read the works of Robert Herrick. This is a man who uses the Petrarchan beauty descriptions to describe a woman nevertheless, those descriptions are to graphic to innocent ears. He upholds the beauty (using the Italian sonnet), but uses his own style to write poetry.
Posted by KevinHinton at 3:27 PM | Comments (2)
February 11, 2007
Is It Elementary, Watson ?
Are Poems Historical Acts, Watson
Now instead of looking at the author's biography...we are looking at the author type of writing or genre. Watson had noted that the very method of a poem has a relationship not only with the author but with the time as well. Watson wants us to look at "a poem as a historical act." Just as another part of "genetic criticism". If we look at a English sonnet for example, we look at the poets who wrote them such as Shakespeare and the finally the time, Elizabethean. Another example, an Epic poem, we can look at Milton, and the time would be somewhere near the Glorious Revolution.
Only today we realize that sometimes the method of find the meaning of a work is just as important as the menaing itself.
Posted by KevinHinton at 10:39 PM | Comments (6)
February 10, 2007
Kelo The Great's Definition of the Week
Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
Recently, I watched Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest. I was interested (along with most of the fans) in the main character Captian Jack Sparrow. His fanfare is going to epic proportions because of the fact that he is not a normal hero, in fact he is a....
antihero: A protagonist in a modern work who does not exhibit the qualities of the traditional hero. Instead of being a grand and/or admirable figure-brave, honest, and magnanimous, for example- an antihero is all too ordinary and may even be petty or downright dishonest.
Antiheroes, I think, are the next best thing in popular culture. One of my favorite antiheroes is Marvel's The Punisher (aka Frank Castle). A man who kills to save lives, is that a good thing? This is one the paradoxes that antiheroes use to make them stand out as what we always call a loose cannon.
Posted by KevinHinton at 2:02 AM | Comments (0)
February 5, 2007
How Are You, Crazy Lady?
The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman
I've read this story all through out my career as a Seton Hill student as well as a Godwin High school senior. After reading the story so many times all I can think about is what must have gone through Gilman's mind. Looks like the "genetic criticism" will work well here. Gilman had based her whole story on that dark part of her life. The interesting part is that this depressin had influenced her writing. Gilman had live a terrible life until and decided to end it.
Now if I hadn't known anything about Gilman, would I have known that her work was based on her life. I pretty much had a feeling about Gilman by just reading The Yellow Wallpaper without reading her biography. But as Dr. Jerz had said last class, what the author writes does not mean the author is living that life. Nevertheless, without the "genetic criticism" we might not have known about this very strong connection between Gilman and the story
Posted by KevinHinton at 11:23 PM | Comments (3)
A Kaplan Interpretation
Herman Melville and the American National Sin: The Meaning of 'Benito Cereno, Kaplan
The events of a story by themselves do not always clearly reveal the writer’s judgment on those events; bare plot does not mechanically provide its interpretation.
I see a little bit of Hirsch in Sidney Kaplan. He uses the “Genetic Criticism” method to strengthen his argument about the meaning of Benito Cereno. To Kaplan, Melville had to know his surroundings, the political and social climate of the time to create this short story. So if he had to know his surroundings , it would make sense for us to know it as well. Not to use a lot of quotes in this blog but I have to add this one… Keesey stated before the Kaplan article that “it is the task of the literary historian, however, to discover not what the reader may want the story to mean, but what its author meant.” It is not up to us to know…it is up to Melville. To Kaplan and Hirsch, a historical background will get us closer to Melville, therefore to his meaning. I stated in my last blog that I do not believe that this is the only way to critique a literary work. But a historical viewpoint is a nice background to start off with the author’s intention. To end with what Melville wrote “a skeleton of actual reality to build about with fullness & veins & beauty.
Posted by KevinHinton at 10:45 PM | Comments (3)
A Hirsch Interpretation
Objective Interpretation, Hirsch
no mere sequence of words can represent an actual verbal meaning with reference to public norms alone. Referred to these alone, the text’s meaning remains undetermined
Hirsch stressed the importance of looking at the author’s history to understand the meaning of the text. Just sticking to the text won’t be able to get a very concise interpretation. I understand where Hirsch is coming from; we need background info on the time of the author to maybe determine the intended audience. We can not look at a poem of Poe and explain what it means “to us, today”. It is like playing Russian roulette, by not learning the background of the author, your luck will definitely run out (I apologize for a grim analogy). Personally I disagree, if there is a meaning that the author wants us to see then he or she will make it clear in their literary work. Going more into my analogy, Hirsch stated that: “The array of possibilities only begins to become a more selective system of probabilities …” According to him, with that background knowledge, it is more a game of chance than an interpretation.
We have to realize however that this is only one critical approach that can be placed on literature. There is no totally wrong answer, even though sometimes we can completely mess up the readings from time to time.
Posted by KevinHinton at 10:19 PM | Comments (1)
February 3, 2007
Just Stick To The Facts
Chapter One Intro, Keesey
Inquiries into writers' intimate personal lives and into their social and intellectual backgrounds continue to be the focus of much classroom discussion, continue to be published both by academic and commercial publishers, continue to form the bulk of what is generally called "literary study"
In the beginning, we thought it was essential for us to learn the background of the author life in order to understand the literary work. Keesey, along with myself, disagree with that notion. He describes it as "genetic"...something that is taught in English class in all levels. We look at the history of the writer and his or her comtemporaries to analyze literature. I see "genetic criticism" like an old sit-in restaurant. It good, maybe even better in some situations. However, maybe you need to be in another place in a hurry (I mean use a criticism that maybe outside of the box), so you might want a drive-in or delivery.
I think that is why Dr. Jerz is teaching this criticism to a minimum. We use this crticism as a defense mechanism, fear from a large literary world out there. As Keesey said "genetic approaches no longer monopolize literary study". And of course we should not let it.
Posted by KevinHinton at 9:15 PM | Comments (1)
February 2, 2007
Kelo The Great's Definition Of The Week
Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
In search of another word that I would like to blog, one jumped up at me and slapped me in the face. I remember seeing this term before, but I never knew what it meant:
Black Humor: A dark, disturbing, and often morbid or grotesque mode of comedy found in certain modern text, especially antinovels and absurdist works. Such humor often concern death, suffering, or other anxiety-inducing subjects.
Most people are turned of at the concept of black humor. One of the oldest literature that can be classified as black humor, would be William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. It only recently became popular due to the horrid reaction centuries ago.
One of the most popular black humor books and movies would be American Psycho and Weekend at Bernie's
Posted by KevinHinton at 6:25 PM | Comments (0)