tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48489616578136026312024-02-18T23:33:52.951-08:00En teoría sí...In Theory Yes...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-84521371716300271132009-05-29T02:12:00.000-07:002009-06-07T10:46:43.356-07:00The End of Homosexuality<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>HUM 290A - WORLD OF FILM: </b></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">In this course students will develop the expertise necessary to allow them to communicate intelligently about the artistic medium of film. The course is taught by a team of four professors coming from a range of disciplines. The course begins with an initial unit on the language of film; the course then turns to a series of units focusing on one element closely associated with film, such as photography, mise-en-scène, editing, sound and music, acting, narrative, or ideology; and examine films from a variety of historical epochs and countries. Fine Arts Approaches core.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>DIFFICULTIES:</b></span></p> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Teaching film as opposed to watching movies.</span></p> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Students are unprepared to deal with film in a sophisticated critical way.</span></p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Students resist being asked to address film using the genre's own language.</span></p> </li></ol> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Team teaching ¼ </span> </p> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Jumping in cold to deal with students at a random point in the term.</span></p> </li></ol> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Gender, Sex, Sexual Orientation, and Sexuality 100%</span></p> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Resistance to address critically nearly all of the above categories.</span></p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Concerns with religious, moral, political views.</span></p> </li></ol> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Queer Factor</span></p> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">This unit assumes that students are able to deal maturely with all sorts of questions dealing with queers, such as politics, sexuality, etc.</span></p> </li></ol> </li></ol> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>PROLOGUE TO A DISCUSSION:</b> </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">How can we relate the following two clips to Judith Butler's performative theory of gender?</span></p> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Chris Crocker - No one is “Straight”<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTbo-b5w4vY">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTbo-b5w4vY</a> </span> </p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">La Agrado's monologue in Pedro Almodóvar's <i>All About My Mother</i> (1999)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></p> </li></ol><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><i>Rebel Without a Cause</i> (1955) </span> </p> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Clip #1 – Boy meets boy<br />Chapter 7 (23 minutes 29 seconds)<br /></span><br /></p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Clip #2 – Boy wants to be a man<br />Chapter 14 (41 minutes 58 seconds)</span></p> </li></ol><span style="font-size:130%;"><i>Shortbus</i> (2006): </span><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; page-break-before: always;"> </p> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Clip #1 Girl meets girls</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Chapter 6 (26 minutes 25 seconds)<br /></span><br /></p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Clip # The boy and the mayor</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Chapter 7 (29 minutes 31 seconds</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Clip#3 Boys singing</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Chapter 8 (36 minutes 26)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></p> </li></ol> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-14296579918024569082009-02-07T12:37:00.001-08:002009-02-07T23:20:30.478-08:00Beginning theory with Beginning Theory<div><span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span> </div> <div><span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">FL 200</span><br />As I mentioned last Wednesday, we are starting with the theory component of this class on Monday. Chapter 1 of Peter Barry's _Beginning Theory_ is your reading assignment for that day. I look forward to a lively discussion.<br /><br />Make sure to read critically and judiciously. From time to time I will pop short quizzes on the material covered in Barry's chapters.<br /><br />This is a very accessible theory primer. I am confident that you can get a solid idea from it of each critical paradigm we go over.<br /><br /></span></span></div> <div><span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span> </div> <div><span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="font-size:130%;">For Monday pay special attention to the following:</span></span></div> <div><span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span> </div> <ul><li><span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="font-size:130%;">The tenets of liberal humanism p.16-21</span></span></li><li><span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="font-size:130%;">The two "tracks" in the development of English criticism p.25</span></span></li><li><span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="font-size:130%;">Close reading: Arnold and Leavis p.26-29</span></span></li><li><span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="font-size:130%;">I.A. Richards, the consolidation of liberal humanism and the seeds of the clash with 'theory' p.30-31</span></span></li><li><span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="font-size:130%;">The transition to 'theory' and some recurrent ideas in critical theory p.32-36</span></span></li></ul> <div> </div> <span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="font-size:130%;"> Here is a pretty good summary of the main points of this chapter: <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.colorado.edu/English/courses/ENGL2012Klages/humanism.html">Humanism and Literary Theory</a>. Also, the following text by John Lye, <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/4F70/characteristics.php">Some Characteristics of Contemporary Theory</a>, should be very helpful in trying to understand the assumptions that the kind of critical theory we will be reading makes. </span></span> <div><span class="193493619-07022009"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Contemporary Literary Theory is not a single thing but a collection of theoretical approaches which are marked by a number of premises, although not all of the theoretical approaches share or agree on all of the them. </span></span></div> <div> <p><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>1.</b> Meaning is assumed to be created by difference, not by "presence," (that is, identity with the object of meaning). As the revisionist Freudian Jacques Lacan remarks, a sign signals the absence of that which it signifies. Signs do not directly represent the reality to which they refer, but (following the linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure) mean by difference from other words in a concept set. All meaning is only meaning in reference to, and in distinction from, other meanings; there is no <u>meaning</u> in any stable or absolute sense. Meanings are multiple, changing, contextual. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>2.</b> There is no foundational 'truth' or reality in the universe (as far as we can know)--no absolutes, no eternalities, no solid ground of truth beneath the shifting sands of history. There are only local and contingent truths generated by human groups through their cultural systems in response to their needs for power, survival and esteem. Consequently, values and identity are cultural constructs, not stable entities. Even the unconscious is a cultural construct, as Kaja Silverman points out in <i>The Subject of Semiotics</i>, in that the unconscious is constructed through repression, the forces of repression are cultural, and what is taboo is culturally formulated. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>3.</b> Language is a much more complex, elusive phenomenon than we ordinarily suspect, and what we take normally to be our meanings are only the surface of a much more substantial theatre of linguistic, psychic and cultural operations, of which operations we are not be fully aware. Contemporary theory attempts to explore the implications (i.e., the inter-foldings, from 'plier', to fold) of levels of meaning in language. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>4.</b> Language itself always has excessive signification, that is, it always means more than it may be taken to mean in any one context; signification is always 'spilling over', especially in texts which are designed to release signifying power, as texts which we call 'literature' are. This excessive signification is created in part by the rhetorical, or tropic, characteristics of language (a trope is a way of saying something by saying something else, as in a metaphor, a metonym, or irony), and the case is made by Paul de Man that there is an inherent opposition (or undecidability, or <i>aporia</i>) between the grammatical and the rhetorical operations of language. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>5.</b> It is language itself, not some essential humanness or timeless truth, that is central to culture and meaning. Humans 'are' their symbol systems, they are constituted through them, and those systems and their meanings are contingent, relational, dynamic. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>6.</b> The meaning that appears as normal in our social life masks, through various means such as omission, displacement, difference, misspeaking and bad faith, the meaning that is: the world of meaning we think we occupy is not the world we do in fact occupy. The world we do occupy is a construction of ideology, an imagination of the way the world is that shapes our world, including our 'selves', for our use. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>7.</b> A text is, as the etymology of the word "text" proclaims, a tissue, a woven thing (L. texere, to weave); it is a tissue woven of former texts, echoes of which it continually evokes (filiations, these echoes are sometimes called), woven of historical references and practices, and woven of the play of language. A text is not, and cannot be, 'only itself', nor can it properly be reified, said to be 'a thing'; a text is a process of engagements. Literary Theory advocates pushing against the depth, complexity and indeterminancy of this tissue until not only the full implications of the multiplicities but the contradictions inevitably inherent in them become more apparent. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>8.</b> The borders of literature are challenged by the ideas </span></p> <ol><span style="font-size:130%;">a) that <u>all texts share common traits</u>, for instance that they all are constructed of rhetorical, tropic, linguistic and narrative elements, and </span><p><span style="font-size:130%;">b) that <u>all experience can be viewed as a text</u>: experience insofar as it is knowable is consequently symbolically configured, and human activity and even perception is both constructed and known through the conventions of social practice; hence as a constructed symbolic field experience is textual. </span></p></ol><span style="font-size:130%;">While on the one hand this blurring of differentiation between 'literature' and other texts may seem to make literature less privileged, on the other hand it opens those non-literary (but not non-imaginative, and only problematically non-fictional) texts, including 'social texts', the grammars and vocabularies of social action and cultural practice, up to the kind of complex analysis that literature has been opened to. </span> <p><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>9.</b> So the nature of language and meaning is seen as more intricate, potentially more subversive, more deeply embedded in psychic, linguistic and cultural processes, more areas of experience are seen as textual, and texts are seen as more deeply embedded in and constitutive of social processes. </span></p><span style="font-size:130%;"> <hr align="left"> </span> <p><span style="font-size:130%;">None of these ideas shared by contemporary theories are new to the intellectual traditions of our culture. It appears to many, however, that Literary Theory attacks the fundamental values of literature and literary study: that it attacks the customary belief that literature draws on and creates meanings that reflect and affirm our central (essential, human, lasting) values; that it attacks the privileged meaningfulness of 'literature'; that it attacks the idea that a text is authored, that is, that the authority for its meaningfulness rests on the activity of an individual; that it attacks the trust that the text that is read can be identified in its intentions and meanings with the text that was written; and ultimately that it attacks the very existence of value and meaning itself, the ground of meaningfulness, rooted in the belief in those transcendent human values on which humane learning is based. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:130%;">On the other hand, 'theory people' point out that theory does is not erase literature but expands the concept of the literary and renews the way texts in all areas of intellectual disciplines are or can be read; that it explores the full power of meaning and the full embeddedness of meanings in their historical placement; that it calls for a more critical, more flexible reading. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:130%;">It is the case that Literary Theory challenges many fundamental assumptions, that it is often skeptical in its disposition, and that it can look in practice either destructive of any value or merely cleverly playful. The issue is whether theory has good reasons for the questioning of the assumptions, and whether it can lead to practice that is in fact productive. </span></p> <p><a href="http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/4F70/characteristics.php"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span class="193493619-07022009"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span class="193493619-07022009"></span></span></p></div> <div class="Section1"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-84970496788081595512009-02-01T13:01:00.000-08:002009-02-07T12:37:01.338-08:00El romancero y Mio Cid<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQD8rWhFec7SrPBWoy8YZSL9FLiJXqAdAQnnzY0svR8bARWmi-u-YdeAGbKlnm-b7VUQkEpJIFHx9rFHm48_dVlFA6legYVe9H88EpnGBd2kCzQHz0b2Bj99EAgjdzcBQ8lOH8_zoGV9U-/s1600-h/cid.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQD8rWhFec7SrPBWoy8YZSL9FLiJXqAdAQnnzY0svR8bARWmi-u-YdeAGbKlnm-b7VUQkEpJIFHx9rFHm48_dVlFA6legYVe9H88EpnGBd2kCzQHz0b2Bj99EAgjdzcBQ8lOH8_zoGV9U-/s320/cid.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297939839938522578" border="0" /></a><br /><b style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Español 312 </b><i><b><br /><br /><br /><br /></b></i>El romancero, como veremos, desciende directamente de los cantares épicos como <span style="font-style: italic;">El poema de Mio Cid, </span>sin<i><b> </b></i>embargo difieren mucho de la sobriedad de los mismos. Mientras el <span style="font-style: italic;">Poema de Mio Cid </span>es una celebración de una heroicidad mesurada, los romances buscan efectos dramáticos extremos en brevísimas escenas o viñetas. Suelen empezar de repente (<span style="font-style: italic;">in medias res</span>) y culminar abruptamente. En el caso de la figura de El Cid, como venimos diciendo, su carácter heróico se magnifica, llegando a ser casi una caricatura de sí mismo. Notad, por ejemplo, cómo cambia de signo la masculinidad cidiana en este fragmento. ¿Se atreven a teorizar por qué pasa esto?<br /><br />Si les interesa leer otros romances pulsen el siguiente enlace: <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/El_romancero_viejo">ROMANCERO VIEJO</a><br /><i><b><br />Romance del Cid Ruy Díaz</b></i><br />Cabalga Diego Laínez<br />al buen rey besar la mano;<br />consigo se los llevaba<br />los trescientos hijosdalgo,<br />entre ellos iba Rodrigo,<br />el soberbio castellano.<br />Todos cabalgan a mula,<br />sólo Rodrigo a caballo;<br />todos visten oro y seda,<br />Rodrigo va bien armado;<br />todos espadas ceñidas,<br />Rodrigo estoque dorado;<br />todos con sendas varicas,<br />Rodrigo lanza en la mano;<br />todos guantes olorosos,<br />Rodrigo guante mallado;<br />todos sombreros muy ricos,<br />Rodrigo casco afilado,<br />y encima del casco lleva<br />un bonete colorado.<br />Andando por su camino,<br />unos con otros hablando,<br />allegados son a Burgos,<br />con el rey se han encontrado.<br />Los que vienen con el rey<br />entre sí van razonando;<br />unos lo dicen de quedo,<br />otros lo van preguntando:<br />-aquí viene, entre esta gente,<br />quien mató al conde Lozano.<br />Como lo oyera Rodrigo<br />en hito los ha mirado,<br />con alta y soberbia voz<br />de esta manera ha hablado:<br />-Si hay alguno entre vosotros<br />su pariente o adeudado<br />que se pese de su muerte,<br />salga luego a demandallo,<br />yo se lo defenderé,<br />quiera pie, quiera caballo.<br />Todos responden a una:<br />-Demándelo su pecado.<br />Todos se apearon juntos<br />para al rey besar la mano,<br />Rodrigo se quedó solo,<br />encima de su caballo;<br />entonces habló su padre,<br />bien oiréis lo que ha hablado:<br />-Apeaos vos, mi hijo,<br />besaréis al rey la mano<br />porque él es vuestro señor,<br />vos, hijo, sois su vasallo.<br />Desque Rodrigo esto oyó,<br />sintiose más agraviado;<br />las palabras que responde<br />son de hombre muy enojado:<br />-Si otro me lo dijera<br />ya me lo hubiera pagado,<br />mas por mandarlo vos, padre,<br />yo lo haré de buen grado.<br />Ya se apeaba Rodrigo<br />para al rey besar la mano;<br />al hincar de la rodilla<br />el estoque se ha arrancado;<br />espantose de esto el rey<br />y dijo como turbado:<br />-Quítate Rodrigo, allá,<br />quítateme allá, diablo,<br />que tienes el gesto de hombre<br />y los hechos de león bravo.<br />Como Rodrigo esto oyó<br />aprisa pide el caballo;<br />con una voz alterada<br />contra el rey así ha hablado:<br />-Por besar mano de rey<br />no me tengo por honrado,<br />porque la besó mi padre<br />me tengo por afrentado.<br />En diciendo estas palabras<br />salido se ha del palacio,<br />consigo se los tornaba<br />los trescientos hijosdalgo.<br />Si bien vinieron vestidos,<br />volvieron mejor armados,<br />y si vinieron en mulas,<br />todos vuelven en caballos.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-76618285154416643242009-01-28T23:57:00.000-08:002009-01-29T00:13:54.801-08:00Time for a Thesis<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">FL 200</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/thesis.html">What is a thesis statement? </a> </span><br />A thesis statement:<br /><ul><li>tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.</li><li>is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.</li><li>makes a claim that others might dispute.</li><li>is usually a single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.</li><li>presuposses that you are going to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, thus you may need to convey that position or claim near the beginning of your draft.</li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">How do I get a thesis?</span><br /><ul><li>A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a "working thesis," a basic or main idea, an argument that you think you can support with evidence but that may need adjustment along the way.</li><li>Start by focusing on what is NOT obvious. Look for instances where the text vacillates or equivocates. Focus on the cracks, fissures, interstices in the text through which you may glance hidden meanings. Tease meaning from the text. Make it yield data. </li><li>Interrogate the text: Ask questions about the situations, events, or aspects that have excited your curiosity. Asking questions you stimulate yourself to provide answers and generate connections.</li><li>Bounce off your ideas or plans aloud with a friend: It matters little if the person in question knows what you are writing on. Sometimes when you hear yourself telling what you are thinking it all becomes clear.</li><li>Draw what you are thinking: Diagrams help you visualize your thoughts better and often lead to a tighter thesis.</li><li>Once you think you have a arrived to a thesis, make sure that you follow the advice in the handout titled THESIS STATEMENT BASICS. Make sure that your thesis is an arguable idea or proposition the provides a smart answer to a "problem" you have previously identified. Make certain that your thesis is <span style="font-weight: bold;">NOT</span> a not a title or a fragment, a question, a command, a fact, an announcement, an obvious or evident statement, an unarguable personal opinion, a broad generalization, a simplistic proposition, an immature or tasteless proposal, or a wordy confusing mess. You want the opposite of that. </li><li>Your thesis often evolves as you develop your argument. Make sure to revisit your thesis as you write. Tweak it as needed so that it continues to serve as a road map of the paper for your reader.</li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">How do I know if my thesis is strong?</span><br />If there's time, run it by your instructor or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get some feedback. Even if you do not have time to get advice elsewhere, you can do some thesis evaluation of your own. When reviewing your first draft and its working thesis, ask yourself the following:<ul><li>Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose?If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it's possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.</li><li>Is my thesis statement specific enough?</li><li>Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like "good" or "successful," see if you could be more specific: why is something "good"; what specifically makes something "successful"? Does my thesis pass the "So what?" test? If a reader's first response is, "So what?" then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.</li><li>Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering? If your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change. It's o.k. to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of writing your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary.</li></ul>The following handout: <a href="http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ewricntr/documents/Overvu.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">OVERVIEW OF THE ACADEMIC ESSAY </span></a>from Harvard University's Writing Center provides one of the best explanations of critical argumentative writing that I have ever seen.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-51399201863609815632009-01-27T16:25:00.000-08:002009-01-27T16:28:35.588-08:00The History Channel presents: The Conquerors - El Cid<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">ESPAÑOL 312</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The History Channel presents: The Conquerors - El Cid.</span><br />Known as El Cid (The Leader), the 11-century warrior Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar is often hailed for having "freed his fatherland from the Moors". Yet recent scholarship reveals many contradictions between reality and myth about Spain's first national hero. In one contemporary's words he was "the scourge of his time".<br /><br />Was he arrogant and insubordinate, a stern overlord driven by an unquenchable thirst for money? Before his death, he was already celebrated in a poem written in tribute of the conquest of Almería; posthumously he was immortalized in the great epic Poema de Mio Cid and was the centerpiece for countless other works of literature.<br /><br />Equally at home in the feudal kingdoms of northern Spain and the Moorish-held lands of the south, when he died in Valencia in 1099, he was ruler of an independent principality that he had carved out of eastern Spain. Was Rodrigo a zealous Christian leader or a mercenary that sold his martial skills to Christian and Muslim alike?<br /><br />The episode was uploaded to You Tube and divided in five segments each lasting 10 minutes or less. <br /><br />Enjoy!! It is really interesting.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conquerors : El Cid part 1</span><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0zC8YPXPM8Y&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0zC8YPXPM8Y&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conquerors : El Cid part 2</span><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bg5APgCJhpQ&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bg5APgCJhpQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conquerors : El Cid part 3</span><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uQ8JDXqEIa0&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uQ8JDXqEIa0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conquerors : El Cid part 4</span><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XtpXiJYDZTs&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XtpXiJYDZTs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conquerors : El Cid part 5</span><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lZQFTLQeMVk&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lZQFTLQeMVk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-92123184542535997562009-01-27T13:45:00.000-08:002009-01-27T15:29:31.239-08:00Cat in the Rain - A couple takes<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">FL200</span><br /><br />Yesterday we carried out a "close reading" of "Cat in the Rain". This type of approach to literature is second nature now to many readers, yet it has a clear theoretical origin. What we did was to follow the central tenet of a critical approach called "New Criticism":<br /><blockquote><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">New Criticism (1930s–1960s)</span></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">: </span>Coined in John Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism (1941), this approach discourages the use of history and biography in interpreting a literary work. Instead, it encourages readers to discover the meaning of a work through a detailed analysis of the text itself. This approach was popular in the middle of the 20th century, especially in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region>, but has since fallen out of favor.</span></blockquote><br />Note that New Criticism has "fallen out of favor" not because scholars do not perform "close readings" anymore, but rather because that kind of reading has become second nature. What has changed is that close readings are now seen by many as a first step in approaching a text. Close readings lead to enhanced critical readings that presume further theorizing and the use or deployment of additional theoretical aproaches.<br /><br />Here is a one page analysis of the story. It comes to us from Germany: <a href="http://www.gs.cidsnet.de/englisch-online/Leistungskurs2/hemingway3.htm">http://www.gs.cidsnet.de/englisch-online/Leistungskurs2/hemingway3.htm</a><br /><ul><li>Note what elements are left out by this reader.</li><li>Note what shifts in the chronology of the story the reader makes to solidify his/her views.</li><li>Note the internal contradictions in this reader's take on the story.</li></ul>The reader, however, highlights two important aspects:<br /><ul><li>Children would want to "protect" a cat from the rain, whereas adults know cats can take care of themselves.</li></ul>This is interesting given how everyone else is so concerned that George's American wife/girl does not get wet. Yesterday, as you recall, we wondered whether she is identifying with the cat: "The cat was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on. (...) ‘No, I’ll get it. The poor kitty out trying to keep dry under a table’" (1, ln. 14-15; 21).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/inourtime/section20.rhtml">SPARKNOTES </a>offers this summary of the story:<br /><div class="content_txt"><blockquote>Only two Americans are in the hotel. Their room faces the sea, a public garden, and a war monument. Many Italians come from far away to see the monument. That day, it is raining, and the American wife is looking out the window. She sees a cat under a table that is trying to keep dry. She tells her husband that she is going to get it. He tells her not to get wet. Downstairs, she is greeted by the hotel operator, whose seriousness and willingness to please she adores. When she goes outside, he sends a maid after her with an umbrella. She does not find the cat. She goes back upstairs feeling sad. She asks her husband if she should grow her hair out. He says that he likes it the way that it is. She decides that she wants a bun at the back of her neck, and a cat to stroke, and a table with her own silver, and some new clothing. He tells her to shut up and to find a book to read. She says that she still wants a cat. Just then, someone knocks at the door. It is the maid. She has brought up a cat, at the request of the hotel operator.</blockquote></div><ul><li>Note how terse and minimalistic the summary is.</li><li>Note how the story is told in the present tense. This should always be done in talking or writing about fiction. Stories, poems, plays, etc. always happen, as it were, in the present. That is, they are always "happening".</li><li>Note what points the reader takes for granted in offering this summary.<br /></li><li>Note differences in the language chosen to summarize the story in comparison with the language of the text itself.</li></ul>The take on the story offered by SPARKNOTES is strikingly different from what we considered yesterday:<br /><br /> <div class="content_txt"><blockquote>The American wife expresses a desire for many things in this story. She tells her husband that if she cannot have any fun, then she might as well have things that she wants. In other words, this desire for material goods comes from an inability to acquire intangible goods such as fun and affection. This lack of intimacy is not entirely her husband's fault, of course. She also ignores his compliments.<br /><br />This American way, desiring material objects and becoming bored, is contrasted with an Italian way of vacationing. The Italians arrive in the same location to see the war memorial and honor the war dead. They are more involved in the ideas of the place than in owning things from it. In addition, it is a more communal way of living, to honor the sacrifices of others, rather than to stay inside and read.</blockquote></div><br />Their view appears more weighted towards Marxist and Psychoanalytical approaches.<br /><br />You can find many other positions regarding this text online. As you know, there are sites that offer students the chance to read or use the ideas and or written work of other people. This is plagiarism and it is icky. <a href="http://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1685167.html">However, just as a tool for the workshop it is interesting to look at a least one of them</a>:<br /><blockquote>This is an excerpt from the paper...<br /><br />From bulls to marlins, when Hemingway uses animals in his fiction they are purposefully used to create richer characterization for his human characters. For example, in The Old Man and the Sea, the Marlin is used as an almost worthy antagonist to Santiago and Santiago even admits there is not much difference between him and his fish.<br /><br />In Cat In The Rain, the animal is a cat and it is significant enough to the story and characters that it rates a mention in the title of this short story. The cat has a twofold meaning to the story and the American female traveling with her husband. First, the cat symbolizes how human beings are often faced with larger, more hostile forces than they can contend with on their own. Second, the cat symbolizes the situation of the woman in her relationship. The woman seeks love, comfort, companionship and nurturing from her husband which she does not receive. She, therefore, like the cat "was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on" (Hemingway 167).<br /><br />The cat also has a third relevance to the story and that is that it acts as a surrogate child for the women. She wants "to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her" (Hemingway 169). She wants this as much as she yearns for long hair, i.e., some unique aspect to her identity which a child might serve for her, "I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel" (Hemingway...</blockquote><br /><ul><li>Can you find problems with the selective explanation of the cat as a "symbol" in this paper?</li><li>Is the cat facing "larger, more hostile forces" than it can cope with?<br /></li><li>Is the cat seeking "love, comfort, companionship and nurturing" from the American wife/girl? </li><li>The sexual interpretation of the cat as "symbol" is absent from this paper. Should it be there? How? How would it affect the argument as presented above?<br /></li><li>Can you find problems with the way in which the writer expresses his/her ideas?</li></ul>The questions I am posing here should help you understand the kind of treatment that I give your writing when I read your papers. They should help you be ready to cover all your bases as you prepare to come up with papers, titles, and the all important theses the vertebrate them.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-72362068925307707852009-01-26T23:48:00.000-08:002009-01-27T11:33:43.730-08:00Connell, Whitehead y Barrett<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Español 312</span><br /><br />Monadas, me quedé un pelín mustio hoy pues sentí que los 50 minutos apenas nos daban para todo lo que teníamos que hacer. Es una lástima, pero hay que apechugar, es decir, hay que echarle ganas al asunto.<br /><br />Los textos teóricos o sociológiocos nos sirven de soporte para nuestra discusión de la representación de la masculinidad en los textos.<br /><br />Por ejemplo, con el Poema del Mio Cid tenemos lo siguiente:<br /><ul><li>masculinidad hegemónica - la de el Cid, sus lugartenientes, Alfonso VI, Abengalbón, etc.</li><li>masculinidades subordinadas - la de los judíos (Raquel y Vidas), la de Yusuf, rey de Marruecos, las de los Infantes de Carrión, etc.</li><li>discurso del vasallaje - regula la relación entre el Cid y Alfonso VI, etc.</li><li>relaciones homosociales - hay una larga serie de relaciones entre hombres que o bien están en crisis o bien son celebradas como ejemplares</li><li>la frontera y la masculinidad</li><li>la violencia masculina y la mujer como su receptora</li><li>el artefacto cultural -el poema- y su rol como parte del discurso hegemónico castellano</li><li>etc.</li></ul>Espero que el poema nos dé mucho que hablar el miércoles. ¡Si no, el film de seguro que sí!<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1I5ZcHJzBWw&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1I5ZcHJzBWw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-1020073335192403282009-01-25T16:14:00.000-08:002009-01-25T16:30:10.771-08:00Torrente o el "macho ibérico"<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Español 312</span><br /><br />En 1998 Santiago Segura debutó como guionista, actor y director de su primera película: <span style="font-style: italic;">Torrente: El brazo tonto de la ley</span>. El film tuvo un éxito enorme. Su secuea, <span style="font-style: italic;">Torrente 2 </span>se convirtió en el de mayor éxito de recaudación en la historia del cine español, llegando a ingresar 28 millones de dólares. <br /><br />El personaje principal es la perfecta caricatura del llamado "macho ibérico", como explica el propio Santiago Segura: “Torrente is everything I hate about my country all in one place.” Torrente "is a racist, a fascist, a sexist, a gay-basher, a hater of foreigners, a pig, an idiot, a pervert — for starters", afirma Jack Hitt en su artículo sobre Santiago Segura en el New York Times: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/magazine/12segura.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print">"Sr. Gross Out"</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">ATENCIÓN: </span>Lean el artículo de Hitt <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">antes</span> de ver el clip de la película. Su lectura les permitirá digerir mejor unas escenas que a lo mejor resultan chocantes u ofensivas para algunos.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Tengan presentes las observaciones de Connell y de Whitehead & Barrett</span> sobre la historia de la masculinidad y las maneras en que se construye la misma. Torrente es más que una caricatura o sátira de la exagerada machez ibérica. Su performance revela muchas de las inseguridades y ansiedades que seriamente se teorizan y estudian desde la sociología y los estudios culturales.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NtLdrr9n36k&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NtLdrr9n36k&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-10790706750511951522009-01-25T15:38:00.000-08:002009-01-25T22:05:29.037-08:00Critical Reading - A Powerpuff Girls Example<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">FL 200</span><br /><br /></span>In class last Wednesday we saw how even seemingly trivial texts such as a cartoon episode can yield intriguing and ultimately critically relevant questions when subjected to a special kind of "reading": critical reading.<br /><br />In a nutshell, this is exactly the kind of treatment we are going to be giving literary and non-literary texts in this class.<br /><br />What follow is a more organized version of the notes on the Powerfpuff Girls episode we watched.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:180%;">Powerpuff Girls: The Bear Facts</span></span><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rov3iR-WIEg&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rov3iR-WIEg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />After Mojo JoJo kidnaps and blindfolds him, the Mayor has to rely on the Girls’very different individual accounts of the crime to figure out exactly what happened. But he is still at a loss to explain why the Girls keep giggling at him.<br /><br />1.What’s in Chemical X? ¿What kind of experiment was this?<br />2.Why a scientist, a middle-aged, single man, Professor Utonium, feels compelled to create “3 perfect little girls?<br />a.How does that relate to what other “mad” scientists did before him, such as Frankenstein, Dr. Faustus (Faust), Rotwang (Metropolis), Lex Luthor, (Superman), Herbert West (Re-Animator), Bruce Banner (Hulk), Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Blade Runner), etc.?<br />b.What does his experiment suggest about him, sexually, socially, politically?<br />c.What does his peculiar name suggest about him?<br />3.Why is the Mayor depicted like the old monopolist in the board game Monopoly?<br />a.What does that suggest about the links between the corporate world and political power?<br />4.The “Play-School” telephone that serves to communicate with the Powerpuff Girls sits on the Mayor’s desk. Whose idea it was to have such an infantile looking gadget to confer with super-heroes every time the city is in danger?<br />a.Does this item serve to underline the Mayor’s infantile qualities?<br />5.Why can’t the Mayor read?<br />6.Is Ms. Sarah Bellum really running Townsville? For whom does she work?<br />7.Why does the Mayor draw a picture of himself as a “He-Man”? Is his own masculinity a source of anxiety for him?<br />8.Why does he call for his “Mommy” when he is attacked by Mojo Jojo?<br />9.Why is the girls arch-enemy also a “mad-scientist” like the Professor?<br />10.Why is he a super-gifted monkey?<br />11.Why does he speak with a Japanese accent?<br />12.There is a fade-to-black for a minute or so while the Mayor is in captivity. Why is this? How does this work? How does it relate to the conventions guiding the fade-to-black recourse in film?<br />13.Each of the girls tells the story of what happened differently.<br />a.What visual and narrative resources are used to illustrate each narrative focalization?<br />b.Are the stories the “same”?<br />c.What happens to the other two siblings in every single one of the individual narratives?<br />d.What does this say about the nature of stories and the possibility of an “objective/universal truth?<br />14.There is a pun between the term “bare facts” and the Mayor’s condition as revealed at the end?<br />a.Is this pun also undermining the notion of a true objective account or total truth?<br />15.Buttercup asks Blossom “Why is everything always about you?” after she starts narrating her story: Are narratives always about the narrator or narrative voice?<br />16.Why are Ms. Bellum’s spectacular hair and body always visible but her face always out of view? Is this how power works?<br />17.On another moment one of the girls complains the other’s story is “not making any sense”.<br />a.How is “sense” generated in a story?<br />b.What makes a story “make sense? Who decides that?<br />c.Is “sense” dependent on who is it that tells the story?<br />d.Is “sense” dependent on conventions regarding time (when) and place (where) and narrator (who)?<br />18.Are Mojo’s nunchakus part of his performance as a “Japanese” style villain?<br />19.Why are the little girls so ultra-violent?<br />20.Bubbles concludes her story and begins anew tying the end of a tale to its beginning and forming a narrative loop.<br />a.Is this a postmodern wink in which the narration’s self-referentiality suggests that tales are ultimately only about themselves as tales, as texts, as narrative?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-91360699183061985232009-01-20T16:43:00.000-08:002009-01-20T17:05:06.291-08:00LITERARY SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT AND GLOSSARY OF CRITICAL TERMS<o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceType"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceName"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; 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mso-list-template-ids:-907895052;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:.5in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol;} @list l1 {mso-list-id:1110474523; mso-list-template-ids:-337846818;} @list l1:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:.5in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:red;">FL200</span></b><b><span style=""> & <span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">ESPAÑOL 312</span></span></b><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-size:13;color:black;" >It occurs to me that this brief outline of the major "schools" or "movements" in literary theory and criticism could come in very handy.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-size:13;color:black;" >A more detailed discussion of these critical/theoretical approaches can be found here: <br /><a href="http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm">http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm</a><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-size:13;color:black;" >USE WISELY AND ENJOY!</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style=";font-family:";" >Literary Theory and Criticism</span></u></b><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><</span></b><b><span style=";font-family:";" lang="ES"><a href="http://sparkcharts.sparknotes.com/lit/literaryterms/section6.php"><span style="" lang="EN-US">http://sparkcharts.sparknotes.com/lit/literaryterms/section6.php</span></a></span></b><b><span style=";font-family:";" >></span></b><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Literary theory and literary criticism are interpretive tools that help us think more deeply and insightfully about the literature that we read. Over time, different schools of literary criticism have developed, each with its own approaches to the act of reading. </span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" >Schools of Interpretation</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:placename style="font-weight: bold;" st="on"><st1:placename st="on"><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Cambridge</span></st1:placename></st1:placename><b><span style=";font-family:";" > </span></b><st1:placetype st="on"><span style=";font-family:";" ><st1:placetype style="font-weight: bold;" st="on">School</st1:placetype></span></st1:placetype><b><span style=";font-family:";" > (1920s–1930s)</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: A group of scholars at <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Cambridge</st1:placename></st1:place> <st1:placetype st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:placetype></st1:placename></st1:place> who rejected historical and biographical analysis of texts in favor of close readings of the texts themselves.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:placename style="font-weight: bold;" st="on"><st1:placename st="on"><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Chicago</span></st1:placename></st1:placename><b><span style=";font-family:";" > </span></b><st1:placetype st="on"><span style=";font-family:";" ><st1:placetype style="font-weight: bold;" st="on">School</st1:placetype></span></st1:placetype><b><span style=";font-family:";" > (1950s)</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: A group, formed at the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place> of <st1:placename st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Chicago</st1:placename></st1:placename></st1:placetype></st1:place> in the 1950s, that drew on Aristotle’s distinctions between the various elements within a narrative to analyze the relation between form and structure. Critics and Criticisms: Ancient and Modern (1952) is the major work of the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Chicago</st1:placename></st1:place> <st1:placetype st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype></st1:placename></st1:place>.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Deconstruction (1967–present)</span></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: A philosophical approach to reading, first advanced by Jacques Derrida that attacks the assumption that a text has a single, stable meaning. Derrida suggests that all interpretation of a text simply constitutes further texts, which means there is no “outside the text” at all. Therefore, it is impossible for a text to have stable meaning. The practice of deconstruction involves identifying the contradictions within a text’s claim to have a single, stable meaning, and showing that a text can be taken to mean a variety of things that differ significantly from what it purports to mean.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Feminist criticism (1960s–present)</span></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: An umbrella term for a number of different critical approaches that seek to distinguish the human experience from the male experience. Feminist critics draw attention to the ways in which patriarchal social structures have marginalized women and male authors have exploited women in their portrayal of them. Although feminist criticism dates as far back as Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and had some significant advocates in the early 20th century, such as Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir, it did not gain widespread recognition as a theoretical and political movement until the 1960s and 1970s.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Psychoanalytic criticism</span>:</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" > Any form of criticism that draws on psychoanalysis, the practice of analyzing the role of unconscious psychological drives and impulses in shaping human behavior or artistic production. The three main schools of psychoanalysis are named for the three leading figures in developing psychoanalytic theory: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Jacques Lacan.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><b style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><i><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Freudian criticism (c. 1900–present)</span></i></b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">: </span>The view of art as the imagined fulfillment of wishes that reality denies. According to Freud, artists sublimate their desires and translate their imagined wishes into art. We, as an audience, respond to the sublimated wishes that we share with the artist. Working from this view, an artist’s biography becomes a useful tool in interpreting his or her work. “Freudian criticism” is also used as a term to describe the analysis of Freudian images within a work of art.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></li><u1:p></u1:p><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><i><span style=";font-family:";" >Jungian criticism (1920s–present)</span></i></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: A school of criticism that draws on Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious, a reservoir of common thoughts and experiences that all cultures share. Jung holds that literature is an expression of the main themes of the collective unconscious, and critics often invoke his work in discussions of literary archetypes.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></li><u1:p></u1:p><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><b style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><i><span style=";font-family:";" >Lacanian criticism (c. 1977–present)</span></i></b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">: </span>Criticism based on Jacques Lacan’s view that the unconscious, and our perception of ourselves, is shaped in the “symbolic” order of language rather than in the “imaginary” order of prelinguistic thought. Lacan is famous in literary circles for his influential reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.”</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></li></ul> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Marxist criticism:</span><i style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </i></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >An umbrella term for a number of critical approaches to literature that draw inspiration from the social and economic theories of Karl Marx. Marx maintained that material production, or economics, ultimately determines the course of history, and in turn influences social structures.These social structures, Marx argued, are held in place by the dominant ideology, which serves to reinforce the interests of the ruling class. Marxist criticism approaches literature as a struggle with social realities and ideologies.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><st1:placename st="on"><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><st1:placename style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" st="on">Frankfurt</st1:placename></span></st1:placename><b><i><span style=";font-family:";" > </span></i></b><st1:placetype st="on"><span style=";font-family:";" ><st1:placetype style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" st="on">School</st1:placetype></span></st1:placetype><b><i><span style=";font-family:";" > (c. 1923–1970):</span></i></b><span style=";font-family:";" > A group of German Marxist thinkers associated with the Institute for Social Research in <st1:place st="on"><st1:place st="on">Frankfurt</st1:place></st1:place>. These thinkers applied the principles of Marxism to a wide range of social phenomena, including literature. Major members of the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Frankfurt</st1:placename></st1:place> <st1:placetype st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype></st1:placename></st1:place> include Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, and Jürgen Habermas.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></li></ul> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">New Criticism (1930s–1960s)</span></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">: </span>Coined in John Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism (1941), this approach discourages the use of history and biography in interpreting a literary work. Instead, it encourages readers to discover the meaning of a work through a detailed analysis of the text itself. This approach was popular in the middle of the 20th century, especially in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region>, but has since fallen out of favor.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">New Historicism (1980s–present)</span></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">: </span>An approach that breaks down distinctions between “literature” and “historical context” by examining the contemporary production and reception of literary texts, including the dominant social, political, and moral movements of the time. Stephen Greenblatt is a leader in this field, which joins the careful textual analysis of New Criticism with a dynamic model of historical research.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>New Humanism (c. 1910–1933)</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: An American movement, led by Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer More, that embraced conservative literary and moral values and advocated a return to humanistic education.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Post-structuralism (1960s–1970s)</span></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">: </span>A movement that comprised, among other things, Deconstruction, Lacanian criticism, and the later works of Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault. It criticized structuralism for its claims to scientific objectivity, including its assumption that the system of signs in which language operates was stable.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Queer theory (1980s–present)</span></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">: </span>A “constructivist” (as opposed to “essentialist”) approach to gender and sexuality that asserts that gender roles and sexual identity are social constructions rather than an essential, inescapable part of our nature. Queer theory consequently studies literary texts with an eye to the ways in which different authors in different eras construct sexual and gender identity. Queer theory draws on certain branches of feminist criticism and traces its roots to the first volume of Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality (1976).</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Russian Formalism (1915–1929)</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: A school that attempted a scientific analysis of the formal literary devices used in a text. The Stalinist authorities criticized and silenced the Formalists, but Western critics rediscovered their work in the 1960s. Ultimately, the Russian Formalists had significant influence on structuralism and Marxist criticism.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Structuralism (1950s–1960s)</span></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">: </span>An intellectual movement that made significant contributions not only to literary criticism but also to philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and history. Structuralist literary critics, such as Roland Barthes, read texts as an interrelated system of signs that refer to one another rather than to an external “meaning” that is fixed either by author or reader. Structuralist literary theory draws on the work of the Russian Formalists, as well as the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure and C. S. Peirce.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";font-size:18;" >Literary Terms and Theories</span></b><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Literary theory is notorious for its complex and somewhat inaccessible jargon. The following list defines some of the more commonly encountered terms in the field. </span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Anxiety of influence:</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" > A theory that the critic Harold Bloom put forth in The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry (1973). Bloom uses Freud’s idea of the Oedipus complex (see below) to suggest that poets, plagued by anxiety that they have nothing new to say, struggle against the influence of earlier generations of poets. Bloom suggests that poets find their distinctive voices in an act of misprision, or misreading, of earlier influences, thus refiguring the poetic tradition. Although Bloom presents his thesis as a theory of poetry, it can be applied to other arts as well.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Canon</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: A group of literary works commonly regarded as central or authoritative to the literary tradition. For example, many critics concur that the Western canon—the central literary works of Western civilization—includes the writings of Homer, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and the like. A canon is an evolving entity, as works are added or subtracted as their perceived value shifts over time. For example, the fiction of W. Somerset Maugham was central to the canon during the middle of the 20th century but is read less frequently today. In recent decades, the idea of an authoritative canon has come under attack, especially from feminist and postcolonial critics, who see the canon as a tyranny of dead white males that marginalizes less mainstream voices.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Death of the author</span></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">: </span>A post-structuralist theory, first advanced by Roland Barthes, that suggests that the reader, not the author, creates the meaning of a text. Ultimately, the very idea of an author is a fiction invented by the reader.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Diachronic/synchronic</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: Terms that Ferdinand de Saussure used to describe two different approaches to language. The diachronic approach looks at language as a historical process and examines the ways in which it has changed over time. The synchronic approach looks at language at a particular moment in time, without reference to history. Saussure’s structuralist approach is synchronic, for it studies language as a system of interrelated signs that have no reference to anything (such as history) outside of the system.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Dialogic/monologic</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: Terms that the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin used to distinguish works that are controlled by a single, authorial voice (monologic) from works in which no single voice predominates (dialogic or polyphonic). Bakhtin takes Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky as examples of monologic and dialogic writing, respectively.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Diegesis/Mimesis</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: Terms that Aristotle first used to distinguish “telling” (diegesis) from “showing” (mimesis). In a play, for instance, most of the action is mimetic, but moments in which a character recounts what has happened offstage are diegetic.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Discourse</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: A post-structuralist term for the wider social and intellectual context in which communication takes place. The implication is that the meaning of works is as dependent on their surrounding context as it is on the content of the works themselves.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Exegesis</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: An explanation of a text that clarifies difficult passages and analyzes its contemporary relevance or application.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Explication</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: A close reading of a text that identifies and explains the figurative language and forms within the work.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Hermeneutics</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: The study of textual interpretation and of the way in which a text communicates meaning.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Intertextuality</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: The various relationships a text may have with other texts, through allusions, borrowing of formal or thematic elements, or simply by reference to traditional literary forms. The term is important to structuralist and poststructuralist critics, who argue that texts relate primarily to one another and not to an external reality.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Linguistics</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: The scientific study of language, encompassing, among other things, the study of syntax, semantics, and the evolution of language.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Logocentrism</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: The desire for an ultimate guarantee of meaning, whether God, Truth, Reason, or something else. Jacques Derrida criticizes the bulk of Western philosophy as being based on a logocentric “metaphysics of presence,” which insists on the presence of some such ultimate guarantee. The main goal of deconstruction is to undermine this belief.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Metalanguage</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: A technical language that explains and interprets the properties of ordinary language. For example, the vocabulary of literary criticism is a metalanguage that explains the ordinary language of literature. Post-structuralist critics argue that there is no such thing as a metalanguage; rather, they assert, all language is on an even plane and therefore there is no essential difference between literature and criticism.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Metanarrative</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: A larger framework within which we understand historical processes. For instance, a Marxist metanarrative sees history primarily as a history of changing material circumstances and class struggle. Post-structuralist critics draw our attention to the ways in which assumed metanarratives can be used as tools of political domination.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Mimesis</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: See diegesis/mimesis, above.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Monologic</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: See dialogic/monologic, above.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Narratology</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: The study of narrative, encompassing the different kinds of narrative voices, forms of narrative, and possibilities of narrative analysis.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Oedipus complex</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: Sigmund Freud’s theory that a male child feels unconscious jealousy toward his father and lust for his mother. The name comes from Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, in which the main character unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. Freud applies this theory in an influential reading of Hamlet, in which he sees Hamlet as struggling with his admiration of Claudius, who fulfilled Hamlet’s own desire of murdering Hamlet’s father and marrying his mother.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Semantics</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: The branch of linguistics that studies the meanings of words.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Semiotics </span></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">or </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">semiology</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">: </span>Terms for the study of sign systems and the ways in which communication functions through conventions in sign systems. Semiotics is central to structuralist linguistics.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Sign/signifier/signified:</span></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> </span>Terms fundamental to Ferdinand de Saussure’s structuralism linguistics. A sign is a basic unit of meaning—a word, picture, or hand gesture, for instance, that conveys some meaning. A signifier is the perceptible aspect of a sign (e.g., the word “car”) while the signified is the conceptual aspect of a sign (e.g., the concept of a car). A referent is a physical object to which a sign system refers (e.g., the physical car itself).</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style=";font-family:";" ><u1:p></u1:p>Synchronic</span></b><span style=";font-family:";" >: See diachronic/synchronic above.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-34519584861727293112009-01-19T12:47:00.000-08:002009-01-19T13:28:58.862-08:00<div id="byline" class="byline"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Español 312</span> & <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">FL 200</span><br />Fish: The Last Professor -By Stanley Fish</span><br /></div> <div id="pubdate" class="timestamp">Published in the NYT: January 18, 2009</div> <div id="summary" class="story">A new book argues that higher learning isn't what it used to be, and never will be again.<br /><br /><a href="http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/the-last-professor/">http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/the-last-professor/</a><br /><br />Enjoy us while you have us!!<br />¡¡Disfruten de nosotros mientras puedan!!<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-54606653080715449832008-11-03T20:59:00.000-08:002008-11-03T21:02:49.296-08:00The Obvious Truth About Professors and You<div id="nyt_headline" class="nyt_headline"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">FL 200 </span>& <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">ESPAÑOL 301</span></span><br /><br />I found this article in the NYT to be of interest. Clearly, you will not find it at all compelling. :)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/books/03infl.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink">Professors’ Liberalism Contagious? Maybe Not</a></div> <div id="byline" class="byline">By PATRICIA COHEN</div> <div id="pubdate" class="timestamp">Published: November 3, 2008</div> <div id="summary" class="story">Three sets of researchers recently concluded that professors have virtually no impact on the political views and ideology of their students.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-31057334584937073392008-11-03T13:51:00.001-08:002008-11-03T13:57:30.139-08:00KAFKAESQUE FOOD FOR THOUGHT<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI_Zyc0kSbE8PDr4vlanXKfHbaZCzYFonaPAaCpzEXg4SodhasO_bqw1utTQcnRe4_1RYHSUOTi31Oyr83GCvRk1WukFJy9Bp10EYv2jlsS-8j7RAfHAXppsMv7xCU4h7wq0T71r3CIfUU/s1600-h/kafka.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 124px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI_Zyc0kSbE8PDr4vlanXKfHbaZCzYFonaPAaCpzEXg4SodhasO_bqw1utTQcnRe4_1RYHSUOTi31Oyr83GCvRk1WukFJy9Bp10EYv2jlsS-8j7RAfHAXppsMv7xCU4h7wq0T71r3CIfUU/s320/kafka.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264552562095753858" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:Bookman Old Style;"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">"<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:180%;" >K</span>afka's stories and novels have provoked a wealth of interpretations. <span class="302234121-03112008">[Max] </span>Brod and Kafka's foremost English translators, Willa and Edwin Muir, viewed the novels as allegories of divine grace. Existentialists have seen Kafka's environment of guilt and despair as the ground upon which to construct an authentic existence. Some have seen his neurotic involvement with his father as the heart of his work; others have emphasized the social criticism, the inhumanity of the powerful and their agents, the violence and barbarity that lurk beneath normal routine. Some have found an imaginative anticipation of totalitarianism in the random and faceless bureaucratic terror of <i style="">The Trial.</i> The Surrealists delighted in the persistent intrusions of the absurd. There is evidence in both the works and the diaries for each of these interpretations, but Kafka's work as a whole transcends them all. One critic may have put it most accurately when he wrote of the works as "open parables" whose final meanings can never be rounded off"<span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:78%;" >"Kafka, Franz" Encyclopædia Britannica Online. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:78%;" ><http: 180="" bol="" artcl="44295&seq_nbr=2&page=n&pm=1"> <o:p></o:p></http:></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:78%;" >[Accessed 13 September 2000]. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:9;" ><span style="font-size:78%;">Copyright © 1994-2000 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span> </p> <ul> <li style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"> <div class="Section1"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" ><o:p><span class="302234121-03112008">How would you attempt to make sense of <em>The Metamorphosis</em>?</span></o:p></span></div></li><li style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"><div class="Section1"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" ><o:p><span class="302234121-03112008">What theoretical paradigms could help you? How?</span></o:p></span></div></li><li style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"><div class="Section1"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" ><o:p></o:p></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" ><o:p><span class="302234121-03112008">What sort of theses would you propose to illuminate specific "problems" in the text?</span></o:p></span><br /><p class="MsoNormal"> </p></div></li> </ul></span> <div> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-71940979366167314832008-10-21T12:14:00.000-07:002008-10-21T12:46:09.985-07:00Transgender Romance<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbT5h3PIt0ez5-C5xU-_WiTTNlHIluannufEzuv2iOCtDa8KY4QUtlHkp3MWjOZ5oZr91-el4TrhDoYXdhQg1NuMuLIbSvO3aTqFmh_kdwFGPZRHKK78sAe0uvtT31CmVay4cKVX0arCs6/s1600-h/Thomas+Beatie+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbT5h3PIt0ez5-C5xU-_WiTTNlHIluannufEzuv2iOCtDa8KY4QUtlHkp3MWjOZ5oZr91-el4TrhDoYXdhQg1NuMuLIbSvO3aTqFmh_kdwFGPZRHKK78sAe0uvtT31CmVay4cKVX0arCs6/s320/Thomas+Beatie+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259688545453418434" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;">20th Annual Cervantes Symposium of California</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;">The University of California, Berkeley October 17-18, 2008</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;">Cervantes and Romance</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">Deportment, Reading and Passing: Transgender Spotting in Cervantes's La española inglesa<br />Harry Vélez Quiñones (University of Puget Sound)<br /></div><blockquote><blockquote>I gently asked the physician if she could put the chart down and look at me. After she did so, I explained much to her surprise that I was a transgender woman and that a pap smear wasn’t necessary. She laughed, and I did as well, since I had assumed that I rarely pass. The lesson is one we all can learn. Sometimes we pass and sometimes we don’t.<br />- Gianna E. Israel </blockquote></blockquote><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">La española inglesa </span>is one of the least popular of the twelve short novels included in Miguel de Cervantes’s Novelas ejemplares of 1613. Its generic filiation is probably to blame for that. As Carroll B. Johnson confessed in his masterful essay of 1988: “For years I had my students read only the “realistic-novelistic” stories, because they are obviously and immediately relevant to a number of contemporary concerns (…). I had always shunned <span style="font-style: italic;">La española inglesa</span> because of its membership in the “romance” group” (377). Indeed, early critics of this work such as Rafael Lapesa and Alban K. Forcione had long established how this text is much closer to romance than to the modern novel. Dealing with the conflicted love-affair between the valiant Ricaredo and the beautiful and resourceful Isabela the novel is set in a courtly milieu and it abounds in exotic twists and turns. As Marsha S. Collins puts it:<br /><blockquote>The protagonists’ tortuous path traces a series of adventures that, by accident or providential design, test the steadfastness of their love and religious faith, which are inseparable in La española inglesa. Fate, challenges, and remarkable coincidences —staples of romance fiction— saturate the plot of the tale. (57-8)</blockquote><br />Piracy, abduction, duels, poisoning, disfigurement, murder, and captivity get in the way of both lovers and parents, who, predictably, live long enough to witness a miraculous happy ending. That being said, it is also the case that other more historically grounded critics such as Joseph V. Ricapito, Carroll B. Johnson, and Barbara Fuchs see in this text the very real presence of historical, economic, and cultural conflicts affecting early modern Spaniards. Yet, it would be as interesting to note the extent to which the text’s identity as romance appears to cover up something far more problematic, novelistic, and ─perhaps─ “essential”. Taking Barbara Fuchs’s use of the term “passing” back to its material origins, I propose that we read <span style="font-style: italic;">La española inglesa</span> as a “transgender romance”. That is, I want to suggest that strategies used to create a performance of gender that conceals one’s genetic sex assignment are also at play in texts that gain by covering up their “essential” filiation. The practice as well as the politics of passing in the crossing between ethnicity, gender, and caste and how they structure this transgender romance is at the heart of what this paper aims to discuss.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-25722223181374774782008-10-13T14:15:00.001-07:002008-10-13T14:23:33.769-07:00Carpe Diem on Steroids<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOtTb6t9vSgkMDIugdb6w4jD45CWx1W6AzkRkbtk2lc9OGspmFSMG7KbQZvU7Ru-VPAYTTQwbhv46ohiHRhZINYs301IhLlTdj8V-b-a2tOd8Aew3iUfSQeG1kS3H66XYcFfdtU4O4wHg/s1600-h/Sor_Juana.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOtTb6t9vSgkMDIugdb6w4jD45CWx1W6AzkRkbtk2lc9OGspmFSMG7KbQZvU7Ru-VPAYTTQwbhv46ohiHRhZINYs301IhLlTdj8V-b-a2tOd8Aew3iUfSQeG1kS3H66XYcFfdtU4O4wHg/s320/Sor_Juana.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256751714396215474" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);"></span><div style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">ESPAÑOL 301 -</span>Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz <br />(Juana de Asbaje y Ramírez; ¿1648?-1695)<br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Soneto CXLV - A su retrato</span><br /><br />(Procura desmentir los elogios que a un retrato de la poetisa inscribió la verdad, que llama pasión)<br /><br /> Este que ves, engaño colorido,<br />que, del arte ostentando los primores,<br />con falsos silogismos de colores<br />es cauteloso engaño del sentido;<br /><br /> éste, en quien la lisonja ha pretendido 5<br />excusar de los años los horrores,<br />y venciendo del tiempo los rigores<br />triunfar de la vejez y del olvido,<br /><br /> es un vano artificio del cuidado,<br />es una flor al viento delicada, 10<br />es un resguardo inútil para el hado:<br />es una necia diligencia errada,<br /><br /> es un afán caduco y, bien mirado,<br />es cadáver, es polvo, es sombra, es nada.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">VERSIFICACIÓN Y RIMA:</span><br />Estrofa: Soneto (catorce versos de once sílabas:<br /> dos cuartetos [o serventesios] y dos tercetos)<br />Sílabas: Once en cada verso<br /> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11<br /> Este que ves, engaño colo-rido,<br /> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11<br />que, del arte_ostentando los pri-mores,<br />1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9-10 + 1 = 11<br />con falsos silogismos de co-lores<br />1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11<br />es cauteloso_engaño del sentido;<br />Rima: Rima perfecta con el esquema ABBA ABBA CDC DCD<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TRADUCCIÓN AL INGLÉS</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(She tries to refute the praises inscribed on her portrait by Truth, which she calls passion.)</span><br /><br />This, that you see, this colored treachery,<br />which, by displaying all the charms of art,<br />with those false syllogisms of its hues<br />deceptively subverts the sense of sight;<br /><br />this, in which false praise has vainly sought<br />to shun the horrors of the passing years,<br />and conquering of time the cruelty,<br />to overcome age and oblivion's might,<br /><br />is a vain artifice cautiously wrought,<br />is a fragile bloom caught by the wind,<br />is, to ward off fate, pure uselessness;<br /><br />is a foolish effort that's gone wrong,<br />is a weakened zeal, and, rightly seen,<br />is corpse, is dust, is gloom, is nothingness.<br /><br />(©Alix Ingber, 1995)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-71599941342635853462008-10-07T10:37:00.000-07:002008-10-07T10:47:06.577-07:00Primer ejercicio de poesía<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">ESPAÑOL 301</span><br /><br />Monadas,<br /><br />Mientras yo lucho contra un ingente mar de mocos ustedes tendrán la oportunidad de lucirse a sus anchas analizando y comentando textos poéticos.<br />Eso sí yo les voy a ayudar.<br />De los siguientes 6 pasos yo me encargaré de tres y ustedes llevarán a cabo los otros tres. A mí me tocan los números 2, 3 y 4.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">1- Lectura atenta del texto - Vocabulario y referencias culturales esenciales para la comprensión del texto</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">2- Localización – Quien escribe, cuándo y bajo qué influencias culturales.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">3- Determinación del tema – Asunto o argumento; Tema</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">4- Determinación de la estructura – métrica, rica, tipo de estrofas y/o composición.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">5- Análisis de la forma partiendo del tema – Explica como la forma y el lenguaje del poema explicitan el tema: recursos poéticos usados, tropos, figuras del lenguaje, etc. y cómo éstas funcionan para hacer que el tema del texto se perciba efectivamente.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">6- Conclusión – Reflexiones finales sobre el texto.</span><br /><br />Fernando de Herrera (1534-1598)<br /><br /> Rojo sol<br /><br />Rojo sol que con hacha luminosa<br />coloras el purpúreo alto cielo,<br />¿hallaste tal belleza en todo el suelo,<br />que iguale a mi serena luz dichosa?<br /><br />Aura süave, blanda y amorosa 5<br />que nos halagas con tu fresco vuelo;<br />cuando el oro descubre y rico velo<br />mi luz, ¿trenza tocaste más hermosa?<br /><br />Luna, honor de la noche, ilustre coro<br />de los errantes astros y fijados 10<br />¿consideraste tales dos estrellas?<br /><br />Sol puro, aura, luna, llamas de oro<br />¿oísteis mis dolores nunca usados?<br />¿visteis luz más ingrata a mis querellas?<br /><br /><br />2- Localización – Quien escribe, cuándo y bajo qué influencias culturales.<br />Se trata de un soneto de Fernando de Herrera, poeta español del siglo XVI. Herrera escribe en la tradición renacentista y es, por decirlo así, heredero directo de Garcilaso de la Vega, el “príncipe de los poetas españoles”.<br /><br />3- Determinación del tema – Asunto o argumento; Tema<br />Como gran parte de los sonetos, éste trata temas de amor. La voz poética intenta establecer un diálogo con diversos elementos de la naturaleza para así alabar a una anónima amada. Con el sol habla de la belleza de su “sol” (la amada). Con el suave viento del aura habla de la rubia trenza de los cabellos de la amada. Con la luna habla de los dos astros que adornan el rostro de la amada (sus) ojos. A los tres juntos interroga en el cuarteto final sobre el dolor que sufre el amante y sobre la ingratitud de la mujer.<br /><br />4- Determinación de la estructura – métrica, rica, tipo de estrofas y/o composición.<br /><br />Estrofa: Soneto (catorce versos de once sílabas: dos cuartetos [o serventesios] y dos tercetos)<br /><br />Sílabas: Once en cada verso<br /><br /> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11<br />Rojo sol que con hacha lumi-nosa<br /><br />1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11<br />coloras el purpúreo_alto cielo,<br /><br />1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11<br />¿hallaste tal belleza_en todo_el suelo,<br /><br /> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11<br />que_iguale_a mi serena luz dichosa?<br /><br />Rima: Rima perfecta con el esquema ABBA ABBA CDE CDE<br /><br />Rojo Sol que con hacha luminosa A<br />coloras el purpúreo alto cielo, B<br />¿hallaste tal belleza en todo el suelo, B<br />que iguale a mi serena luz dichosa? A<br /><br />Aura süave, blanda y amorosa A<br />que nos halagas con tu fresco vuelo; B<br />cuando el oro descubre y rico velo B<br />mi luz, ¿trenza tocaste más hermosa? A<br /><br />Luna, honor de la noche, ilustre coro C<br />de los errantes astros y fijados D<br />¿consideraste tales dos estrellas? E<br /><br />Sol puro, aura, luna, llamas de oro C<br />¿oísteis mis dolores nunca usados? D<br />¿visteis luz más ingrata a mis querellas? EUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-38446998982677653112008-10-02T04:39:00.000-07:002008-10-02T04:58:03.957-07:00Image and Illusion in Early Modern Spain - Duke University<span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-family: times new roman;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiIyvHtPlzunbpcrYrIw9TB9lSzZWp1drPVv8baZALsMv25MZ_nWCuxc_k3jm8GMSHK_AsNNv6-2lneNOxFwcjLuRHtcSo6-kOg_S6fMG2hO2sa9AOu5iPUUJkQNDdZnzgGODHpaN4IZzb/s1600-h/CAMPROBIN.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiIyvHtPlzunbpcrYrIw9TB9lSzZWp1drPVv8baZALsMv25MZ_nWCuxc_k3jm8GMSHK_AsNNv6-2lneNOxFwcjLuRHtcSo6-kOg_S6fMG2hO2sa9AOu5iPUUJkQNDdZnzgGODHpaN4IZzb/s320/CAMPROBIN.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252522286883624274" border="0" /></a></span><div style="text-align: center; font-family: times new roman;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Palatino; mso-font-alt:"Book Antiqua"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family:Palatino; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style=";font-size:130%;" >Pedro de Camprobín <i style="">La muerte visitando al caballero </i>(c.1660)</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceType"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceName"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Palatino; 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mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">A couple of you asked me what is it that I am presenting here at Duke University today. Fair question! Here is the abstract of the paper I am delivering later today. I have also added a couple of visuals so that you can better understand what I am proposing.</span><br /></span></p></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b style=""><span style="">The Dream of Olmedo: Trophies of Vanity in Lope, Pereda and Camprobín<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style=";font-size:130%;" ><br />Harry Vélez-Quiñones<br />The <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename st="on">Puget Sound</st1:placename></st1:place></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-size:130%;" ><st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on"></st1:placename></st1:place> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" lang="ES">«La Muerte es como una vieja cortesana que anduviera por cruces y caminos a la búsqueda de obligados compañeros de viaje…»<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><i style=""><span style="">Memento mori</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><i style=""><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <span style=";font-size:130%;" >Read most often in the context of tragedy, Lope de Vega’s <i style="">El caballero de Olmedo</i> (1623) reveals itself as a different kind of fantasy when viewed through the prism of <i style="">vanitas.</i> As tragedy, it is simply the case that don Alonso’s <i style="">hubris </i>leads him to his undoing.<span style=""> </span>His adamant pursuit of doña Inés in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Medina</st1:place></st1:city>, when he is but a <i style="">forastero </i>from Olmedo, sets him on a fatal course against forces that he is not able to control.<span style=""> </span>Commentators have highlighted the hero’s pride and arrogance, yet seldom have readers or viewers been invited to envision don Alonso’s self-image.<span style=""> </span>That is, how exactly should we visualize this small-town <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on"><i style="">hidalgo</i></st1:place></st1:state>?<span style=""> </span>What is it that moves him to act in such a reckless fashion?<span style=""> </span>What is it that he sees in himself that the play does not quite show us?<span style=""> </span>Moreover, how is it that a young lady as well positioned as doña Inés should fall for a stranger such as Alonso?<span style=""> </span>Surely she most see in him something extraordinary that other suitors lack.<span style=""> </span>This paper aims to fill this visual void by proposing that we read <i style="">El caballero de Olmedo </i>in the context of early modern representations of the <i style="">vanitas </i>theme in painting.<span style=""> </span>Antonio de Pereda’s <i style="">Desengaño <st1:state st="on">del</st1:state> mundo</i> o <i style="">Sueño <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">del</st1:place></st1:state> caballero</i> (c.1650-55) and Pedro de Camprobín’s <i style="">La muerte visitando al caballero </i>(c.1660), among other works, can help us understand</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> </span><span style=";font-size:130%;" >the particular construction of masculinity at work in Lope’s play.<span style=""> </span>Don Alonso’s penchant for collecting trophies that exemplify his vanity leads him to a final acquisition, that “vieja cortesana que anduviera por cruces y caminos a la búsqueda de obligados compañeros de viaje…”</span></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center; font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVhXGc2PZ-bU6MZ71NCIjxSAXd3oVS4KTm9lNgaObflan_6qFYhOVkAc48X3BXFml7VO6v76GM01drytTJTy8mmLamA0e76u25f6V1MHCKVVhrHt7IG8C7HDtZprzyEquSSmclAk15lQ2m/s1600-h/PEREDA.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVhXGc2PZ-bU6MZ71NCIjxSAXd3oVS4KTm9lNgaObflan_6qFYhOVkAc48X3BXFml7VO6v76GM01drytTJTy8mmLamA0e76u25f6V1MHCKVVhrHt7IG8C7HDtZprzyEquSSmclAk15lQ2m/s320/PEREDA.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252520961046168578" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"></o:smarttagtype></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Palatino; 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mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style=";font-size:130%;" >Antonio de Pereda, <i style="">Desengaño <st1:state st="on">del</st1:state> mundo</i> o <i style="">Sueño <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">del</st1:place></st1:state> caballero</i> (c.1650-55)<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center; font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-9272805422671932522008-09-27T22:30:00.000-07:002008-09-27T22:38:06.116-07:00Los hijos cargarán con los pecados de los padres<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">ESPAÑOL 301</span><br /><br />Se me ocurre que quizá les sea útil meditar en lo siguiente antes o después de de leer "No oyes ladrar los perros" de Juan Rulfo.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Un tipo de carga:</span><br /><a href="http://www.carm.org/diff/Deut5_9.htm"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Do the sons bear the sins of the fathers or not?</span></a>: Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 5:9 and Deuteronomy 24:16; Ezekiel 18:20<br /> 1. <span style="font-weight: bold;">YES </span>they do<br /> 1. (Exodus 20:5) - "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,"<br /> 2. (Deuteronomy 5:9) - "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,"<br /> 3. (Exodus 34:6-7) - "Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."<br /> 4. (1 Cor. 15:22) - "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive."<br /> 2. <span style="font-weight: bold;">NO </span>they don't<br /> 1. (Deuteronomy 24:16) - "Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin."<br /> 2. (Ezekiel 18:20) - "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Otro tipo de carga:</span><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/aeneas.html">Aeneas </a>was the son of Anchises and Venus. He was a cousin of King Priam of Troy, and was the leader of Troy's Dardanian allies during the Trojan War. After the fall of Troy, he led a band of Trojan refugees to Italy and became the founder of Roman culture (although not of the city of Rome itself). He was the mythical progenitor of the Julian gens through his son Ascanius, or "Iulus," and Virgil made him the hero of his epic, the Aeneid. <br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/barocci/aeneas/aeneas.jpg">See Aeneas </a>- Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius Fleeing Troy, 1596, by Federico Barocci, Galleria Borghese, Rome<br /><a href="http://clipper.jbhs.wi.k12.md.us/%7Ejrobins/Latin/dc-aeneas-bernini.gif"><span style="font-weight: bold;">See Aeneas </span></a>- Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius, 1619, by Bernini, Galleria Borghese, Rome<br /><a href="http://www.wga.hu/art/r/raphael/4stanze/3borgo/1borgo.jpg"><span style="font-weight: bold;">See Aeneas </span></a>- Aeneas carrying Anchises, Ascanius, and Creusa out of Troy ["Fire in the Borgo"], by Raphael and assistants 1511-1515Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-82402574797796770732008-09-27T10:07:00.001-07:002008-09-27T10:24:45.522-07:00Psychoanalysis and Feminism: Sarah Palin & Judith Warner<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">FL 200</span><br /><br />This morning I came across the following <a href="http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/poor-sarah/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">blog entry</span></a> on Sarah Palin by <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">NYT </span>contributor Judith Warner. The post tells how Warner's reading of a photograph of Sarah Palin and elder statesman and Jewish cultural icon, Henry Kissinger, leads her to feel sympathy for the former. The feeling prompts her to compare Palin and Elle Woods, the ditzy, gutsy, hardw0rking, and ultimately brilliant heroine of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Legally Blond </span>and <span style="font-style: italic;">Legally Blond II </span>movies. Faulty as this analogy is, the post and the comments readers made on it are a very interesting read.<br />Warner's analysis falls somewhere between Cultural Studies, Psychoanalytical criticism and Feminism. It raises as many questions about Palin and John McCain as it does about Warner and her take on contemporary American women. <a href="http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/poor-sarah/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Have fun with it!</span></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-30171718018488260982008-09-25T20:59:00.000-07:002008-09-26T10:04:37.899-07:003 tesis, 3 párrafos y 3 opciones para tus ensayos<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">SPAN 301</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span>Como todos sabemos, escribir ensayos críticos no es tan fácil como parece. No solamente es necesario interrogar los textos y luchar para encontrar un buen tema, también hay que esforzarse para crear una tesis estimulante que le haga justicia al tema.<br />Como ejemplo de lo anterior y en preparación para su próximo texto crítico, les presento tres "primeros párrafos" sobre <span style="font-style: italic;">La rosa </span>de Anderson Imbert. Estúdienlos y traten de entender cómo funcionan.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PÁRRAFO NO. 1</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> La rosa </span>de Enrique Anderson Imbert, presenta un espectáculo desolador tras la devastación de una pobre aldea por soldados enemigos. De en medio del desastre surge la posibilidad de restitución o venganza cuando una nueva Judith aparece para hacerle frente al Holofernes cuyas tropas casi violan a su pobre y vieja abuela. Sin embargo, el texto subvierte nuestras expectativas. La rosa roja que antes ha servido para humillar a la anciana pasa a los pechos de la coqueta moza que optará por “hacer el amor y no la guerra”. El recuerdo bíblico es solo eso, una desvirtuada leyenda sobre la que Judith salta como antes ha hecho con el cadáver de la vieja que salva su vida.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 51, 204); font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Este ensayo parte de la idea de que La rosa es una re-interpretación de una historia bíblica: el fatal encuentro entre la heroica Judith y el torpe y lascivo gigante Holofernes. </span> </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">PÁRRAFO NO. 2</span><br /> Si el mito cristiano del origen de la humanidad castiga a la primera mujer y la condena a la reprobación eterna por sucumbir a la tentación del mal y a su vez seducir a su incauta pareja, <span style="font-style: italic;">La rosa </span>de Anderson Imbert parece abrir una puerta a la consolación. La expulsión del paraíso, la tentación carnal y la seducción aparecen en este cuento libres de toda censura moralizante. Judith, la joven que al final del cuento busca con una flor en los pechos al capitán de la tropa que ha diezmado su aldea no lo hace como la bíblica Judith para descabezarlo sino para hacerlo perder la cabeza por sus tentadores encantos. Así como el desliz de Eva conduce a la verdadera población del mundo tras la abolición del falso paraíso en el cual Jehová y la Serpiente luchan, la unión entre la víctima y el guerrero conquistador se presenta como la única opción lógica en un universo moderno, quizá más cínico pero no menos cruel.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153); font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Este ensayo parte de la intuición que tuvimos sobre la correspondencia de la rosa de "Anderson Imbert" y la manzana de George Preedy. Se trataría de un ensayo que ve en La rosa un comentario acérbico sobre el mito de la creación</span><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PÁRRAFO NO. 3</span><br /> Todo texto, como advierte la crítica post-estructuralista, se constituye en relación con otros textos. En algunos casos incluso se puede decir, como habría afirmado Borges, que todo texto es la re-escritura de un texto anterior. No hay ejemplo más claro que <span style="font-style: italic;">La rosa </span>de Enrique Anderson Imbert. Presentado al lector como una carta en la que un anónimo autor re-escribe un cuento de George R. Preedy, la historia que se cuenta en <span style="font-style: italic;">La rosa </span>es a su vez una re-escritura de una popular historia bíblica. El mítico gigante Holofernes se enfrenta otra vez en el cuento de Anderson Imbert a una imponente Judith. Sin embargo, como veremos, se trata esta vez de un combate de otro tipo. Al igual que la inconclusa carta del anónimo autor, el narrador de esta re-escritura bíblica opta por un final abierto que pone en tela de juicio la autoridad de la historia original.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Este ensayo está más interesado en leer el texto de Anderson Imbert como re-escritura. Lo que le interesa al autor es acentuar su carácter post-moderno. Se trata de un fragmento de un mito dentro de un fragmento de otro texto: la anónima carta a George R. Preedy.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-82559336997653140372008-09-23T19:18:00.000-07:002008-09-23T19:26:38.769-07:00My Brain on Crack<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">FL 200</span><br /><br />It occurs to me that this provocative and poignant list hits on some of the issues we talked about when we analyzed Governor Palin's press release concerning the pregnancy of her teenage daughter. It further helps understand the kind of cultural criticism that "reading against the grain" allows you to make. Enjoy it, even if it makes you feel weird.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">This Is Your Nation on White Privilege</span><br /><br />September, 14 2008<br />By Tim Wise<br /><br />For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.<br /><br /> * White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even s black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.<br /> * White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.<br /> * White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in the first place because of affirmative action.<br /> * White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re "untested."<br /> * White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.<br /> * White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.<br /> * White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.<br /> * White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."<br /> * White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago mean you must be corrupt.<br /> * White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people; you're an extremist who probably hates America.<br /> * White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.<br /> * White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a “light" burden.<br /> * And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.<br /><br />White privilege is, in short, the problem.<br /><br />Tim Wise is the author of <span style="font-style: italic;">White Like Me </span>(Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008), and of <span style="font-style: italic;">Speaking Treason Fluently</span>, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull. For review copies or interview requests, please reply to publicity@softskull.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-20597777228768011632008-09-21T10:14:00.000-07:002008-09-21T10:26:35.844-07:00Why Theory? / ¿Teoría para qué?<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">FL 200</span> & <span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">ESPAÑOL 301</span></span><br /><br />This question is one that comes up every year I teach either of these courses. Even students who get into theory wonder at times if it has any other usefulness besides making reading literature a highly challenging proposition.<br /><br />Here then is a challenge to you: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21kristof.html?ex=1379736000&en=cbb2445e0cf1e7f0&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink">Identify theoretical paradigms at work in this article</a>. <br /><br />The text in question is not literary criticism but political analysis. Its author is not a professor or a theorist with a French name but an American journalist from the New York Times. <br /><br />A little bit about him: "Nicholas D. Kristof writes op-ed columns that appear twice each week in The New York Times. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he previously was associate managing editor of The Times, responsible for the Sunday Times" <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/KRISTOF-BIO.html">NYT</a>. Oh, and to top it of he is from Yamhill, Oregon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-81185257649537926852008-09-20T19:56:00.000-07:002008-09-20T20:17:08.366-07:00Cardinal Newman, Father Ambrose St. John, and Oscar Wilde<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">FL 200</span><br /><br />The following two news items and (1 & 3) and the single biographical entry on Oscar Wilde (2) should help us see the extent to which what "happens" inside Dorian Gray's old schoolroom, that is, what is reflected on Basil Hallward's supernatural canvas is still something that troubles the good Christian people of England.<br /><br />(1) <b>Violating Cardinal Newman's wishes The Pope wants to rebury John Newman separately from the man he loved, Father Ambrose St John</b> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/04/catholicism.gayrights">[09/04/2008]</a><br /><br />(2) "[Oscar] Wilde defeated Edward Carson for the foundation scholarship in classics at Trinity College, Dublin, and in 1874 won a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was influenced by John Ruskin, Walter Pater and Cardinal Newman. He became a disciple of aestheticism, pursuing beauty for beauty's sake; his poem Ravenna (1878) won the Newdigate Prize" [<a href="http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/history/people/whoswho/o_wilde.shtm">Wilde's biographical sketch</a>]<br /><br />(3) "Fr. Ian Ker [sic], a priest and biographer of Cardinal Newman, told the Weekend Australian yesterday that homosexulists [sic] were using Newman's close friendship with another priest as a political ploy. 'Clearly' Fr. Kerr said, Newman 'did love his dear friend' but he called it 'ridiculous' to claim, a century after the fact, that they were homosexuals who lived 'as husband and wife.' 'There is no evidence for that whatsoever, and everything he wrote and said suggests he would have thought homosexuality was immoral, not to mention that it was illegal at the time. Theirs was a close friendship that some people are now trying to misrepresent and use for their own purposes'" [<a href="http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=29108">09/04/2008</a>]<br /><br />Sometimes, current events render what we read more dramatic. This is one of those moments.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-31905484104429768762008-09-19T08:37:00.001-07:002008-09-19T11:49:44.414-07:00Postmodernism<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">FL 200</span><br /><br />On Thursday we will be discussing chapter 4 of Barry's book on Literary Theory. That is, we will be talking about <span style="font-weight: bold;">postmodernism</span>. Names such as Jürgen Habermas, François Lyotard, and Jean Baudrillard are on the agenda.<br /><br />Postmodernism is the name of a category and postmodernity is the label applied to the times we currently live in. These names would seem to indicate that we have broken with modernity, yet nothing could be less accurate. Culture works on a principle of accretion. If we are still fairly medieval about a number of things, married to many Renaissance notions, baroque at times, solid defenders of rationalism and other enlightened positions, romantics to the core, etc., it is no less the case that modernism is very much with us today and within postmodernism. Aesthetic currents such as <span style="font-weight: bold;">Cubism</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dadaism</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Surrealism</span>, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Futurism </span>are still in some form alive today. "<span style="font-style: italic;">In some form</span>" is the operational term here.<br /><br />In a nutshell, the relationship between modernism and postmodernism is akin to that between our attitudes towards love at different points in our life. Thus, after having had one's heart broken by the first time our take on love resembles <span style="font-weight: bold;">modernism</span>. Yet, after very many sad, happy, joyful, and deep relationships with many wonderful lovers we tend to be closer to <span style="font-weight: bold;">postmodernism</span>. There is no drama in postmodernism and no regrets. Playfulness is central. A gentle irony pervades it all. There is no "romance of my life", as Dorian would have put it, and that is just perfectly fine. Being together with someone has ceased to be about great verities such as LOVE, MARRIAGE, FAMILY, etc. and has become self-referential: relationships are all about themselves. Etc.<br /><br />Below you will find some basic principles, courtesy of <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/english/Gillies/engl207/pomo.htm">Professor Mary Anne Gillies</a>. Also do make sure to study Professor's Klages handout on postmodernism available <a href="http://www.colorado.edu/English/courses/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html">here</a> and in Moodle. It will make Barry's short chapter much more meaningful.<br /><br /><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">POSTMODERNISM</span>: Label given to Cultural forms since the 1960s that display the following qualities: </p><ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><li><span style="font-size:+1;"> Self reflexivity</span>: this involves the seemingly paradoxical combination of self-consciousness and some sort of historical grounding </li><li><span style="font-size:+1;"> Irony</span>: Post modernism uses irony as a primary mode of expression, but it also abuses, installs, and subverts conventions and usually negotiates contradictions through irony </li><li><span style="font-size:+1;"> Boundaries</span>: Post modernism challenges the boundaries between genres, art forms, theory and art, high art and the mass media </li><li><span style="font-size:+1;"> Constructs</span>: Post modernism is actively involved in examining the constructs society creates including, but not exclusively, the following: </li></ul> <ol style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><blockquote> <li><span style="font-size:+1;">Nation</span>: Post modernism examines the construction of nations/nationality and questions such constructions </li><li><span style="font-size:+1;">Gender</span>: Post modernism reassesses gender, the construction of gender, and the role of gender in cultural formations </li><li><span style="font-size:+1;">Race</span>: Post modernism questions and reassesses constructs of race </li><li><span style="font-size:+1;">Sexuality</span>: Post modernism questions and reassesses constructs of sexuality </li></blockquote></ol>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4848961657813602631.post-47301647784647147282008-09-19T08:37:00.000-07:002008-09-19T09:32:43.549-07:00Las medias rojas<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">ESPAÑOL 301</span><br /><br />Monadas, como van a ir viendo, jugar con los textos siempre es lo mismo que teorizar.<br /><br />Ayer en clase, sin hablarlo, aplicamos nociones del estructuralismo, el post-estructuralismo, el "New Historicism" y, claro, el "close reading" tradicional. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Estructuralista </span>fue el intento de encontrar paralelos en el texto entre las "medias rojas" y otros aspectos. Así sacamos la conclusión de que existe una conexión evidente entre éstas y:<br /><ul><li>el sueño de Ildara de una vida más acomodada que el narrador le atribuye a ella</li><li>el riesgo que toma Ildara de sufrir uan "caída moral" que la lleve a la prostitución</li><li>la brutal paliza que recibe Ildara a manos de su padre</li><li>la inocencia de Ildara que es como una Caperucita Roja [Little Red Riding Hood] que estuviera con el lobo [el tío Clodio] metido en la casa. (Esto no lo discutimos, pero se podría demostrar.)</li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">Post-estructuralista </span>fue nuestro interés en sacar a la luz los silencios del texto. El análisis de la voz narrativa en busca de ambivalencias, ambigüedad, ironía, etc. forma parte de esto. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">"New Historicism" </span>Neo-historicista fue el intento de colocar el cuento en un determinado contexto histórico y una problemática social específica: la inmigración. Nuestro breve análisis del texto en galego sobre la emigración entra dentro de ese paradigma crítico. Un análisis de dicho texto habría mostrado una actitud completamente diferente a la de la narradora. Además nos habría dado pistas para buscar en textos de la época cómo se iban construyendo una serie de discursos conflictivos en torno al problema de la emigración. Los neo-historicistas son un sub-grupo o escuela dentro del post-estructuralismo.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Close-reading </span>- Utilizamos este acercamiento al texto para analizar el tipo de lenguaje que encontramos. Así resulto fácil ubicar el cuento en el medio rural en Galicia. También nos sirvió esta técnica para descubrir cómo el tío Clodio sabe que Ildara le miente. <br /><br />Otro recurso tradicional que empleamos fue nuestro intento de discutir el texto dentro del <span style="font-weight: bold;">movimiento naturalista.</span> Sin embargo, como empezamos a ver, conviene estar alerta y no caer en simplificaciones. Este texto se presenta como texto naturalista, pero esconde tal vez una agenda nacionalista de signo complejo.<br /><br />Habría sido posible acercarnos a este texto desde el <span style="font-weight: bold;">marxismo </span>o el <span style="font-weight: bold;">feminismo</span>...<br /><br />En el apéndice del libro de Jonathan Culler <span style="font-weight: bold;">(LIT)</span> se discuten las distintas "escuelas" o acercamientos teóricos. Es información similar a las que les puse en el blog al principio del curso. Lean estas descripciones y téngalas presentes a la hora de leer los textos.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0