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January 28, 2007
Inhabiting Spaces
Foster (19,20) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)
"Literary geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time the spaces that inhabit humans" (165-166).
As a military brat who moved around a lot as a kid (although not nearly as much as most) I have witnessed first hand how people are affected by location. It really makes a difference to who you are as a person, and if we remember nothing else from this class please remember that that if something makes a difference in real life, it is probably something you want to pay attention to in literature. To quote Dr. Jerz from good old EL250 "Literature is a representation of reality." As we all probably had to identify and talk about the importance of setting in high school, I know I only thought about it on one level, rather than all the levels Foster explains, such as the link to character, plot, theme - all the major elements of literature. I really like the depth Foster goes into to really explain how important it is and that he gives examples in his book because I know in high school I didn't realize quite how significant it is. But, at the same time as I read it in the book, I think "yeah, of course...I knew that!" But, as Chera said in her blog entry for the first set of chapters we were assigned in Foster's book: "Sometimes you need someone to bring something up in order to know you know it" (Click here to check out the entry if you didn't get to read it before class Friday.)
Posted by LorinSchumacher at January 28, 2007 4:15 AM
Comments
I feel the same way, I am also a military brat having been uprooted mayny times in my life. I know exactly what u mean when people are affected by location. It makes a big difference where people live and the experiences they have. Lol! and said the same thing, yeah i knew that, but it needed to be writen out for me to read and realize it.
Posted by: Corinne Lauer at January 28, 2007 11:20 AM
YAY for military brats! This is one of the good things about blogs...you can learn a lot about the students in the class, especially what we have in common, which can be difficult in a larger class like this.
Posted by: Lorin Schumacher at January 29, 2007 12:45 AM