Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Monday, December 8

GROUP PRESENTATIONS 2:

Group 3: Feminists

  • Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Rosie the Riveter
  • bell hooks
  • Pat
  • feminism in time (20's, 60's, etc) and in DQ (or lack of)
  • pg 99: shepherdess
  • resignification: gender equality in education
  • 4 waves of feminism by bell hooks:
  1. civil war- suffrage
  2. 40's- 80's- thoughts but no actions
  3. 90's- better
  4. not defined, post-feminism including race/ class
  • Idea- ambiguous
  • 'feminine mystique' by Betty Friedman
  • Margaret Fuller 'man vs man,' 'woman vs woman'

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Group 4: reader- response

TELEPHONE GAME :

“My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin.”

This shows the plethora of understanding that makes up the reader response criticism.

INFOMERCIAL:

M: “Hey you!”
K: “Me?”
M: “Yes, you! Are you board with your old version of literary criticism?”
K: “What?!”
M: “You look like you could use a new variety of literary criticism!”
K:“Um… ok?”
M:“I thought so. Do I have a deal for you! For just 29 easy payment of $42.88 (plus shipping and handling) you could have at your disposal the greatest way to read since, well… reading.”
K: “What? Only 29 easy payments of $42.88? Tell me more!”
M: “Well… Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or "audience") and his or her experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content and form of the work. Or in other words, IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU!”
K: “It’s all about me? Sounds great!”
M: “YES! It is great! Reader response criticism allows the reader to create the story just as much as the author does. Without the reader the text is only words on a page.”
K: “I’m important!”
M: “Yes you are!”
K: “Where do I sign?”
M: *Attention. This offer is only for a limited time. If you order within the next 30 seconds get a hardback copy of ‘Green Eggs and Ham.’ Call our toll-free number at 1-800-888-8888, operators are standing by.

THE 600 CLUB:


MC: me!
Jiwan: herself (average person)
Alex: Freud (sex)
Kyle: southern Baptist minister (religious)

MC: Welcome to the 600 club, tonight, we will be discussing the poem ‘The Flea’ by John Donne. Our panelists include: a hologram of Sigmund Freud, Reverend Leghorn from Jackson, Mississippi and Jiwan.
The Flea by John Donne.
To open our discussion I will ask Freud to start. What do you think is the deep underlying meaning of Donne’s poem?

Freud: This text is riddled with sexual innuendos. The blood of the flea represents mans need to reproduce and their innate inability to restrain themselves. The mixing of the blood symbolizes a forced, selfish act of sexual dominance, where the woman is completely helpless. Man’s ego, sexually and otherwise, is a reflection of the act of suppression of the Oedipus complex.

MC: Thank you Freud, and to you Reverend Leghorn.

Reverend Leghorn: The poem the flea is clearly a representation of the holy trinity. God is the flea; now bear with me folks, because he is the I Am. The flea is the one who consecrates the act, in the sucking of the blood, or Jesus. Jesus is clearly the blood, and blood is in all of us, therefore Jesus is in all of us. The spirit is… well, actually the spirit has nothing to do with it, but clearly the trinity is present.

MC: What an enlightening interpretation Reverend, now Jiwan.

Jiwan: Well I think…

Freud: It is not about what you think; it is about what I know.

RL: There goes your ego again Freud, let the girl speak.

Freud: The poem is clearly about a forced and premarital sexual act. The thrusting, the pounding, this is clearly a representation of the man’s phallic…

RL: The act of sex is preordained by God, and it is a post marital act, and not to be taken lightly, therefore it is ungodly for a poem to mention this heinous act. Premarital sex is the devil.

Freud: What does God have to do with this?

RL: God is EVERYWHERE!!!

… [and argument ensues]…

RL: GOD!

Freud: SEX!

MC: Gentlemen! That’s enough from you. Jiwan, please tell us what you think.

Jiwan: Well, I believe the poem is about the symbolic act of flea mixing the blood and the fluids of the woman and the man during intercourse. I do not believe that the ego, the holy trinity, Oedipus, or whether the sex is post-marital or premarital is of any consequence. But rather the poem should be read and interpreted anyway that you want.

Freud: You reader-response critic!

… [RL and Freud continue argument] …

MC: Well, sadly that is all the time we have. See you next time on the 600 club.

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Finals information:

  • all criticisms are at each other's throats, but must work together

NEW CRITICISM:

  • IA Richards: practical criticism
  • things that are in the poem are ok, but outside NOT OKAY!
  • John Donne: 'The Valediction...' is really about a man leaving his wife for a long time and telling her not to be sad
  • everyone reads poetry as if the poem doesn't exist
  • someone dying: need to pay attention to the words of the poem
  • As= simile
  • does the life of Donne effect our reading? should it?
  • Robert Penn Warren: book on new criticism

DECONSTRUCTION:

  • there is outside of the text, because everything is a text

READER- RESPONSE:

  • natural association with texts
  • personal loves and meanings
  • Stanley Fish: like it because it reminds you of something else
  • made the students find the poem in a list of nonsense

ALL OTHERS:

  • they are a reaction against New Criticism's restrictions
  • helps us understand the text as a text

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