Out with a Bang

Unfortunately, due to annoyingly imposing medical conflicts, this will be my last post among VERY few.

I have learned so very much from this course.  Not only from Dr. Sexon and the curriculum, but from my fellow classmates.  I've known since I was in 4th grade that I want to be a journalist, so it was such a surprise to me to hear of all the reasons why people chose this belittled major.  From those who were born with the talent to write, to those who have gone through sixteen majors on their journeys to English, I find every one of them fascinating.  I love the different views that everyone has in class.  It shows me that I'm definitely in the right major.  I have seen that two plus two doesn't always have to equal four.  It can equal 13 or purple.  This is the beauty that is English majors.  We can see that everyone can interpret a piece of art, whether it be literature or a painting, in millions of ways even if we disagree on minute details.  What a great way to be able to think.

The different schools of criticism add to the variety with which we are enabled to think.  Looking at other texts, ignoring the author's background entirely, making everything link to a sexual connotation are all ways to break down a piece of literature.  It's a great way of giving readers the options between the schools of criticism or being the critic in their own personal way.

Well, here's signing out one more time.  2 + 2 = ?????

Review from Wednesday

I know it's a little late, but I decided to  put up the info from Wednesday, just in case some procrastinators like myself need to look it up.

Review:

1. D.H. Lawrence said, " Trust the tale, not the teller."

2. Centripetal: within the text Centrifugal: goes outside the text

3. Frye Box: where is scapegoat (pharmakos)?   Ironic Comedy

4. Baseball/umpire = scapegoat; taking out frustration on another to avoid personal blame

5. All literature is displaced myth.

6. Aristotle's definition of tragedy: imitation, action, serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude

7. dromenon: something done

8. Don Quixote: What does Senor Canon believe about literature? It's didactic

9. logos: the power to create through the agency of the WORD

10. "The sense of reality is far higher in tragedy than in comedy."

11. All comedy is directed at  the inflexible person.

12. According to Sidney, brazen = nature, golden = poetry

13. Abram's Grid (4 elements)

14. According to Frye, all structures and words are partly rhetorical, and hence literary. Pg. 350

15. Plato banishes poets in Book X of The Republic because they are useless, deranged liars.

16. Literature should teach, should have good morals, not just entertain.

*Pathos: low mimetic

17. Methos: plot Ethos: character Dianoia: theme

18. According to Shelley's Defense, "poets are the unacknowledged legislatures of the world."

19. Low mimetic mode corresponds to the descriptive phase. *We live in the descriptive*

20. According to Sidney's Defense, the poet never affirms anything, therefore the poet never lies.

21. Literally speaking, according to Frye, what the poet meant is the poem.

22. totolgy: circular response

23. According to Shelley, imagination is superior to logic and reason.

24. epiphany: sudden manifestations of the divine

25. Pg. 100 of Frye. Lycidas: archetypal criticism

26. Alazon: imposter 

*soldier

*learned professor

27. metonomy: bad poet

Good luck everyone!

My Imitation of an Imitation

After class, I was intrigued by the thought of everything being an imitation of an imitation.  I got my picture of my kitten, Travie. And as I was downloading it, I realized how deep that statement really is. Here's my picture, more thoughts to follow...class is about to start:)

Surprise, Surprise

I entered English 300 thinking it was going to be just another lit criticism class.  Wow, was I wrong.  I finally got a professor who didn't start class by breaking down the syllabus and reviewing campus policies.  Instead, we were plunged into an amazing discussion on the vast locations and users of literature.  I was fascinated to think of all the "uppity" engineering and math intellects who express my English major as "not useful unless you want to teach." I can't wait to tell them about our opening discussion.

I admit, I have some reservations about the reading of Don Quixote, but maybe I'll love it so much I'll have to join the "1,000 page + book club." It is, after all, only 60 pages shy of the 1,000 page mark.  We shall see.