Read up through Realism in the text.
James Joyce...author/contemporary
It's as if the growing trust in science validates and answers the questions we may have.
General INTEREST...in science...bring scientific approaches to literature.
The idea of time changes...used to be based upon the natural world...sun, moon, bird migration...weather cycles.
But, in modern times, seconds off could really ruin a train schedule as trains could run into each other or how they have set times of arrivals and departures.
stream of consciousness type of writing....a narrative, weaving the tale as your mind navigates all the input...what territory are their own territories?
What theories explain the validation of modern writing?
Technology infringes on time
....sometimes the writers try to get inside the heads of modern people and what it's like to live in these times.(the flow of imagination...)
Photographs
Telephones
Internet
Films
Digital TV
Books on tape!
yet, Literature stands apart as an entity alone...used to reign supreme before all this modern tech arrived on the scene!
All the philosophies still thrive...just newer theories change as our valuation of literature changes.
IDEA FOR FINAL:
2 questions perhaps
address the questions: What is Literary Criticism and why does it matter?
it tries to say "what is literature good for?"
writers want to engage people in their environments...tell more about them, illuminate what may be going on behind the scenes..the real-deal or not
Then, the reader gets to inhabit that world even for just a temporary time
"An imaginary garden with real toads in it!"
Tom Wolfe, author....hip, high-style writer
does huge amounts of research...journalist and Fiction (Bonfire of the Vanities)
"....you can't make fiction more wild than real-life..."more recently...the Rise of Ethnic Literature
-the whole world is open to us now...
Dr. Nelson reads us a short story: "On Hope"
Then..."Happy Endings".....HILARIOUS!! Margaret Atwood...splenderiferous!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Class Discussion 12/08/08
Text analysis programs:
"Visual Text"
"T Lab"
"Automap"
free, free, free
windows-based
Then, on to discussion about final critique assignment
Most students focusing on "Nine" short story
I'm going with "Waiting" by Amos Oz
Speculating the review of the story..
Well, Amos Oz writes this short story about a an older man who receives a note via another person that just says "Don't worry about me."....and it's from his wife!
This man kind of floats from point to point of some usual places she may be...even takes a nice long hot shower, has a meal, and a beer at some point during his casual search for her. Maybe he's assuming she'll pop up from a quick errand...just seems less bothered by the scenario than most people might be. Then, again, they have been married at least 25 years and have twin daughters together..so maybe it's just a given that couples go their own way each day...and come together at home later, no set time other than the choir rehearsal they had Friday night together.
He finally decides to go look around for her and has a mongrel dog follow him around the town, which mostly lay in siesta...a February "gray and moist" day...with fog almost touching the rooftops of homes.
Elements of Fiction to consider:
1. Characters
2. Plot (causality)
3.Setting
4. Point of View (1st person, 3rd person most common)
5. Style (narration...discusses an unfolding of events, description...just a description of a specific action, place, person, Dialogue...interactions verbally between characters.)
6. Theme
Review due Friday, Dec. 12th at midnight....yeeha!
"Visual Text"
"T Lab"
"Automap"
free, free, free
windows-based
Then, on to discussion about final critique assignment
Most students focusing on "Nine" short story
I'm going with "Waiting" by Amos Oz
Speculating the review of the story..
Well, Amos Oz writes this short story about a an older man who receives a note via another person that just says "Don't worry about me."....and it's from his wife!
This man kind of floats from point to point of some usual places she may be...even takes a nice long hot shower, has a meal, and a beer at some point during his casual search for her. Maybe he's assuming she'll pop up from a quick errand...just seems less bothered by the scenario than most people might be. Then, again, they have been married at least 25 years and have twin daughters together..so maybe it's just a given that couples go their own way each day...and come together at home later, no set time other than the choir rehearsal they had Friday night together.
He finally decides to go look around for her and has a mongrel dog follow him around the town, which mostly lay in siesta...a February "gray and moist" day...with fog almost touching the rooftops of homes.
Elements of Fiction to consider:
1. Characters
2. Plot (causality)
3.Setting
4. Point of View (1st person, 3rd person most common)
5. Style (narration...discusses an unfolding of events, description...just a description of a specific action, place, person, Dialogue...interactions verbally between characters.)
6. Theme
Review due Friday, Dec. 12th at midnight....yeeha!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Class Discussion 12/03/08
Stories from The Atlantic and The New Yorker
See Review prompt on D2L for specifics of final paper...
A writing exercise: Try to write an equal sentence from a story that is written by a renowned writer!
Must try that!
Spent classtime discussing the final "review" paper, reviewing a story and then analyzing the text of "Nine."
See Review prompt on D2L for specifics of final paper...
A writing exercise: Try to write an equal sentence from a story that is written by a renowned writer!
Must try that!
Spent classtime discussing the final "review" paper, reviewing a story and then analyzing the text of "Nine."
Monday, December 1, 2008
LYRIC POEMS
18th and 19th centuries...yet
Many critics feel the US is still ("popular" genres as a basic) in a Romantic era.
A Romantic revolution against poetic langaguage!
Literature of a common people...an equal people, and independence reigns as priority.
Rejects neoclassical formats and favors lyrical writing.
Beauty lies in choas....strangeness, wierdness perhaps. Throw out the orderliness and bring on a free-form creative flow.
(i.e. a manicured garden as opposed to wilderness, the latter is what's desired in
Romanticism.)
"Romanticism raises imagination over reason."
Now, not just romantic love stories, but strange stories that contain creative use of scenes and people and activities that may be strange, wierd, creepy...unbelievable.
Reconnect with nature...responsive reaction...engage and imagine.
Fresh language + blank verse + figures of speech + irregular + imagination + nature
Gonna take a sentimental journey...
Keats and "Negative capability" the poet should be selfless and maybe even distance themself from their work and engage those of opposite mind-sets.The poet mingles ideass to bear and sets a buffet for the reader. No judgement enlisted...just making the recipe of the poem..facilitates the words and lets it be.
Wordsworth Lyrical Ballads
to choose from common life, use real language spoken by real men,
Passions of men intermingled with nature
Not confined by civilized society and conventions of behavior...
talk to a dandylion...
Simplicity reigns
A holistic rubric
Many critics feel the US is still ("popular" genres as a basic) in a Romantic era.
A Romantic revolution against poetic langaguage!
Literature of a common people...an equal people, and independence reigns as priority.
Rejects neoclassical formats and favors lyrical writing.
Beauty lies in choas....strangeness, wierdness perhaps. Throw out the orderliness and bring on a free-form creative flow.
(i.e. a manicured garden as opposed to wilderness, the latter is what's desired in
Romanticism.)
"Romanticism raises imagination over reason."
Now, not just romantic love stories, but strange stories that contain creative use of scenes and people and activities that may be strange, wierd, creepy...unbelievable.
Reconnect with nature...responsive reaction...engage and imagine.
Fresh language + blank verse + figures of speech + irregular + imagination + nature
Gonna take a sentimental journey...
Keats and "Negative capability" the poet should be selfless and maybe even distance themself from their work and engage those of opposite mind-sets.The poet mingles ideass to bear and sets a buffet for the reader. No judgement enlisted...just making the recipe of the poem..facilitates the words and lets it be.
Wordsworth Lyrical Ballads
to choose from common life, use real language spoken by real men,
Passions of men intermingled with nature
Not confined by civilized society and conventions of behavior...
talk to a dandylion...
Simplicity reigns
A holistic rubric
Romanticism, after the Holiday with a contemporary poem
"The main tenets of Romanticism included a shift from faith in reason to faith in the senses, feelings, and imagination; from interest in urban society and its sophistication to an interest in the rural and natural; from public, impersonal poetry to subjective poetry; and from concern with the scientific and mundane to interest in the mysterious and infinite. The most important tenets of Romanticism, however, were belief in the importance of the individual, imagination, and intuition." (http://www.4classnotes.com/romantic%20period%20notes.html)
Ah, the mysterious and infinite....art for the sake of art...writing for the sake of writing...cooking for the sake of cooking, for that matter.
As Thanksgiving approached and I was polishing old family silver for the dining table, I was swept back to previous holidays with family. Some wonderful and some not so wonderful. Arguments, drunken behavior, messes, over-eating. Yet, the strongest memories are those of laughs, luscious smells of the food, the too-strong hugs of uncles, disgust at the pigs feet on the table, and that huge pot of Swedish meatballs I would just hang around with the cousins.
It was "romantic" and festive...it transcended the divorce and the family struggles to a magical arena of comfort and stability, even if it lasted only one day.
I chose this next poem from Poetry.com because I think it stirs feelings that most of us have concerning life and death. His story could be any one's story. It reminds the reader that as we grow older, time seems to speed up and we know the end is getting closer. We are then old enough not to have regrets and to be thankful for the time itself.
This Is My Story
by: Dusty Duty
When I pass over, and the time has come
And I look on days gone by,
To think about the race I've run
About life and the time to die.
While looking back on the wrist of time
Is there anything I would like to change?
Can't leave now, the race isn't over
So let me quickly work to re-arrange.
Now each pulse seems a bit quicker
A little faster than before,
The days piled up against my soul
As the sand piles on the shore.
Now,Let Gabriel sound his trumpet
What is there yet to be done?
To sing my song and praise the Lord
My course is finished and the fight is won.
Ah, the mysterious and infinite....art for the sake of art...writing for the sake of writing...cooking for the sake of cooking, for that matter.
As Thanksgiving approached and I was polishing old family silver for the dining table, I was swept back to previous holidays with family. Some wonderful and some not so wonderful. Arguments, drunken behavior, messes, over-eating. Yet, the strongest memories are those of laughs, luscious smells of the food, the too-strong hugs of uncles, disgust at the pigs feet on the table, and that huge pot of Swedish meatballs I would just hang around with the cousins.
It was "romantic" and festive...it transcended the divorce and the family struggles to a magical arena of comfort and stability, even if it lasted only one day.
I chose this next poem from Poetry.com because I think it stirs feelings that most of us have concerning life and death. His story could be any one's story. It reminds the reader that as we grow older, time seems to speed up and we know the end is getting closer. We are then old enough not to have regrets and to be thankful for the time itself.
This Is My Story
by: Dusty Duty
When I pass over, and the time has come
And I look on days gone by,
To think about the race I've run
About life and the time to die.
While looking back on the wrist of time
Is there anything I would like to change?
Can't leave now, the race isn't over
So let me quickly work to re-arrange.
Now each pulse seems a bit quicker
A little faster than before,
The days piled up against my soul
As the sand piles on the shore.
Now,Let Gabriel sound his trumpet
What is there yet to be done?
To sing my song and praise the Lord
My course is finished and the fight is won.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The Romantic Era!
Yes, out with rules and restraint! Let us eat cake.
Romanticism involves creativity, experimentation, and artistic freedom.
It seems the French Revolution was largely due to a reaction against "the excesses of absolute government.... and the economic transformation of society." There was a large intellectual as a direct result of the Enlightenment. It is amazing to me to see the connections and gradual growth of the arts and literature as political environs change.
Nationalism and how people used "folk song formats" to express their cultural foundations.(the ideas of "individual rights but also the obligations of the individual toward society or the nation as a whole..."
And, probably much alike the reoccurring theme in human history, a struggle between liberal thought and conservative thought that played out via religion, art and literature as well.
Kant
"literature is ruled only by its own laws rather than by morality and education"
Wow, this was a completely new approach and really throws all that classical thought right out the proverbial window.
"Kant argues, however, that using reason without applying it to experience will only lead to illusions, while experience will be purely subjective without first being subsumed under pure reason." The Kantian System
"There is no science of the beautiful, but only critique."
"All bodies are extended" and
"Everything which happens has its cause"
So, the Romantic period gave writers the ability to write about anything! Yes!
And, of course, I will choose a female poet!
Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
by Emily Dickinson
Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds –
To a heart in port –
Done with the compass –
Done with the chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the sea!
Might I moor – Tonight –
In thee!
Yes, this is romantic and inspiring. Ms. Dickinson states that reality and measure have no place in romance, that her desire needs no compass...no chart...to "row" to her own Eden, a man whom she desires. Love, a luxury filled of wild nights.
A sea of love and feelings so quickly stated and aptly told with emotion.
The poem reflects a freedom of expression and no real reference to God or politics and does not relate a moral cause. She revels in a love and writes of it...freely.
Philosophers Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer saw themselves as correcting and expanding the Kantian system.
Romanticism involves creativity, experimentation, and artistic freedom.
It seems the French Revolution was largely due to a reaction against "the excesses of absolute government.... and the economic transformation of society." There was a large intellectual as a direct result of the Enlightenment. It is amazing to me to see the connections and gradual growth of the arts and literature as political environs change.
Nationalism and how people used "folk song formats" to express their cultural foundations.(the ideas of "individual rights but also the obligations of the individual toward society or the nation as a whole..."
And, probably much alike the reoccurring theme in human history, a struggle between liberal thought and conservative thought that played out via religion, art and literature as well.
Kant
"literature is ruled only by its own laws rather than by morality and education"
Wow, this was a completely new approach and really throws all that classical thought right out the proverbial window.
"Kant argues, however, that using reason without applying it to experience will only lead to illusions, while experience will be purely subjective without first being subsumed under pure reason." The Kantian System
"There is no science of the beautiful, but only critique."
"All bodies are extended" and
"Everything which happens has its cause"
So, the Romantic period gave writers the ability to write about anything! Yes!
And, of course, I will choose a female poet!
Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
by Emily Dickinson
Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds –
To a heart in port –
Done with the compass –
Done with the chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the sea!
Might I moor – Tonight –
In thee!
Yes, this is romantic and inspiring. Ms. Dickinson states that reality and measure have no place in romance, that her desire needs no compass...no chart...to "row" to her own Eden, a man whom she desires. Love, a luxury filled of wild nights.
A sea of love and feelings so quickly stated and aptly told with emotion.
The poem reflects a freedom of expression and no real reference to God or politics and does not relate a moral cause. She revels in a love and writes of it...freely.
Philosophers Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer saw themselves as correcting and expanding the Kantian system.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Class Discussion 11/24/08, follow up to The Enlightenment
Reason and Beauty
Why do we critique literary works? how do we...and what do we use as our reasoning base
to come to such judgements?
Habib points to the valuation of employed reason tocome to an opinion.
Come to opinions not from preconceived notions rather from empirical research.
Hmmm, how do I form my opinions....I bet I'm pretty set in my ways.
The way we think is governed by practice and we need to be vigilant when we cast judgement.
Why do we critique literary works? how do we...and what do we use as our reasoning base
to come to such judgements?
Habib points to the valuation of employed reason tocome to an opinion.
Come to opinions not from preconceived notions rather from empirical research.
Hmmm, how do I form my opinions....I bet I'm pretty set in my ways.
The way we think is governed by practice and we need to be vigilant when we cast judgement.
Chapter 13, The Enlightenment
Habib states that the Enlightenment was "a broad intellectual tendency, spanning philosophy, literature, language, art, religion, and political theory," and has been called the "age of reason."
Among the philosophers mentioned in that chapter, we will focus upon John Locke, Edmund Burke, and Mary Wollstonecraft.
Locke:
Encourages to look at the world as a group of facts, that result in sensations which wev process mentally and arrive at truths and abstract ideas. Language should be used to clarify an idea and therefore we should attempt to be concise with word and expression "literalization of language" to avoid abusing the language with "error and deceit." An advocate for empirialism, Locke suggests we create the world through language and allow it to provide coherence to external reality. So, we need to be clear, sober, and true when using language....not metaphor and illusion!
Burke:
Desires "to conserve the essential economic and political fabric of feudalism." He's a conservative who thinks we must adjuct to gradual change with a starting point at reality, not the absract and idealist set of principles not related to actual conditions. He maintains that human use falsehoods to reason and that our sensory perceptions tend to rule our thoguhts and translations of the world around us. (BAD HUMANS!)Yet, he does interject that the imagination allows us to produce new images,therefore we can create and "enlarge our stock" of knowledge.We need "refined judgement" via sense, imagination, and the conclusions we draw from such information. Sublime is "the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling" i.e. pain, danger, and terror...and they are vast, rugged, often obscure and dark.We can use wit stimulate our pleasure, becuase it is wit enables us to make connections between things we are familiar with. We must come to a place of understanding with the use of "good taste" when we "extend our knowledge" and exercise our brain with by assimilating new ideas. I guess, not so much reason and clarity, but the usefullness of what we do experience.
Wollstonecraft:
Hmmm, a feminist! Yes, finally. She felt women could have reason and felt women should benefit from education as men had throughout the centuries. "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" in 1792 expressed her concerns for the economic and educational rights of women. That truth must be common to all...and she does anticipate a negative male reaction to her asssertions! the simple truths should not just include the male intellect....but all individuals. No predujice and misogyny...men contribute to the degradation of females as "artificial, weak characters" and this is a mistake.Women should not be enslaved by the ideas of men and held captive by societal expectation that a women look nice and BE nice and controllable. Social equality will lead to educational equality....but not quickly she concedes. The entire political and economic system is built upon the separation of women from education and societal position. Though, later feminists took some issue with her thoughts about marriage and her ideas that "morality and virtue shoudl be founded on eternal and immutable principles." Yes, feminists come in different forms and vary in opinion...as they should, being individuals and all! She did demand a radical restructuring of the social and political orders to garner female equality.
Among the philosophers mentioned in that chapter, we will focus upon John Locke, Edmund Burke, and Mary Wollstonecraft.
Locke:
Encourages to look at the world as a group of facts, that result in sensations which wev process mentally and arrive at truths and abstract ideas. Language should be used to clarify an idea and therefore we should attempt to be concise with word and expression "literalization of language" to avoid abusing the language with "error and deceit." An advocate for empirialism, Locke suggests we create the world through language and allow it to provide coherence to external reality. So, we need to be clear, sober, and true when using language....not metaphor and illusion!
Burke:
Desires "to conserve the essential economic and political fabric of feudalism." He's a conservative who thinks we must adjuct to gradual change with a starting point at reality, not the absract and idealist set of principles not related to actual conditions. He maintains that human use falsehoods to reason and that our sensory perceptions tend to rule our thoguhts and translations of the world around us. (BAD HUMANS!)Yet, he does interject that the imagination allows us to produce new images,therefore we can create and "enlarge our stock" of knowledge.We need "refined judgement" via sense, imagination, and the conclusions we draw from such information. Sublime is "the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling" i.e. pain, danger, and terror...and they are vast, rugged, often obscure and dark.We can use wit stimulate our pleasure, becuase it is wit enables us to make connections between things we are familiar with. We must come to a place of understanding with the use of "good taste" when we "extend our knowledge" and exercise our brain with by assimilating new ideas. I guess, not so much reason and clarity, but the usefullness of what we do experience.
Wollstonecraft:
Hmmm, a feminist! Yes, finally. She felt women could have reason and felt women should benefit from education as men had throughout the centuries. "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" in 1792 expressed her concerns for the economic and educational rights of women. That truth must be common to all...and she does anticipate a negative male reaction to her asssertions! the simple truths should not just include the male intellect....but all individuals. No predujice and misogyny...men contribute to the degradation of females as "artificial, weak characters" and this is a mistake.Women should not be enslaved by the ideas of men and held captive by societal expectation that a women look nice and BE nice and controllable. Social equality will lead to educational equality....but not quickly she concedes. The entire political and economic system is built upon the separation of women from education and societal position. Though, later feminists took some issue with her thoughts about marriage and her ideas that "morality and virtue shoudl be founded on eternal and immutable principles." Yes, feminists come in different forms and vary in opinion...as they should, being individuals and all! She did demand a radical restructuring of the social and political orders to garner female equality.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Ch. 12 finish and Ch. 13, Enlightenment
John Locke,
Edmund Burke,
and Mary Wollstonecraft.
Reason drives peoples visions of how to approach writing.
No one has to cow-tow to authority!
Used to access the neo classical as the source of knowledge, but they reformulate it in the Enlightenment.
Pope as a writer....Wit
Neoclassical concepts: rules of the unities: time, place, and action. Also, it puts and emphasis on the importance of nature. (permanence, connection to the divine, the power of the divine..art must be measured and inspired from nature.
What is wit? To Pope it was intellectual acuity.
taking two dissimilar objects or thoughts and finding a common ground.
capacity to find hidden relationships underlying the appearance of things.
Broad and heated debate...what is Wit?, "wit is a negative quality, puns are the lowest form of writing. distorts clear and truthful insight."
Puritans saw it as morally defective and corrupt...
Three modes of communicationExpressive, transactional, and poetic
More of Pope
Wit is the poetic use of the language... being able to criticize poems is an art, see the picture of the poem and see the wit.
Follow Nature! derive inspiration from it...unity and order...look up "The Rape of the Lock" by Pope..
Literary Artifacts,,,,think out a few in my head for class..
Edmund Burke,
and Mary Wollstonecraft.
Reason drives peoples visions of how to approach writing.
No one has to cow-tow to authority!
Used to access the neo classical as the source of knowledge, but they reformulate it in the Enlightenment.
Pope as a writer....Wit
Neoclassical concepts: rules of the unities: time, place, and action. Also, it puts and emphasis on the importance of nature. (permanence, connection to the divine, the power of the divine..art must be measured and inspired from nature.
What is wit? To Pope it was intellectual acuity.
taking two dissimilar objects or thoughts and finding a common ground.
capacity to find hidden relationships underlying the appearance of things.
Broad and heated debate...what is Wit?, "wit is a negative quality, puns are the lowest form of writing. distorts clear and truthful insight."
Puritans saw it as morally defective and corrupt...
Three modes of communicationExpressive, transactional, and poetic
More of Pope
Wit is the poetic use of the language... being able to criticize poems is an art, see the picture of the poem and see the wit.
Follow Nature! derive inspiration from it...unity and order...look up "The Rape of the Lock" by Pope..
Literary Artifacts,,,,think out a few in my head for class..
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Class Discussion 11/12/2008
Conference that Dr. Nelson spoke at in Iowa last Friday.
Multi-modal (multimedia) writing
Saw and visited with Debra Marquart, a a poet and a professor at Iowa State
watched Youtube...."Video Poetry"
We can access archives.org for video that isn't subject to copyright infringement problems. Or, some popular video can be used as an "educational purposes" platform, therefor not strictly a problem.
Various literary forms in a wide range of forms.
"The message is in the medium." qtd.
"Movie Maker" (downloaded just now!)
"I-Movie"
to use as the tool to create a visual critique!
Contemporary rhetoric is very different from how we used to say things'''
i.e. old James Bond films as opposed to the new one to be released this Friday.
Nowadays, heroes may fall and then continue on as a hero.
Why would "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" movie be so popular around the time of our recent 2008 economic crisis?
if it's popular, then it is teaching...and we want to gain something from the story.
Film project....not too big...some literary work to set to video for a visual critique.
Critique Paper due Monday, November 17th
Multi-modal (multimedia) writing
Saw and visited with Debra Marquart, a a poet and a professor at Iowa State
watched Youtube...."Video Poetry"
We can access archives.org for video that isn't subject to copyright infringement problems. Or, some popular video can be used as an "educational purposes" platform, therefor not strictly a problem.
Various literary forms in a wide range of forms.
"The message is in the medium." qtd.
"Movie Maker" (downloaded just now!)
"I-Movie"
to use as the tool to create a visual critique!
Contemporary rhetoric is very different from how we used to say things'''
i.e. old James Bond films as opposed to the new one to be released this Friday.
Nowadays, heroes may fall and then continue on as a hero.
Why would "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" movie be so popular around the time of our recent 2008 economic crisis?
if it's popular, then it is teaching...and we want to gain something from the story.
Film project....not too big...some literary work to set to video for a visual critique.
Critique Paper due Monday, November 17th
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Class Discussion 11/5/08
Discussion about assigned Paper, due November 17th!Use Plato or perhaps Aristotle to reconcile a sonnet...peom...show how time of composure is important, show importance of structure, how careful is the construction of the composition?
Validate it with the rubric of the philosopher I choose...what do I value in the piece?
Classmates discuss their thoughts about works they may choose to do the paper...and the Professor discusses some key points of these poems/works and how we might approach our piece.
"Think about stuff from the same era, who's in the era and category?"
"drop our choice into the litmus (critical theory) and see if it turns blue (fits the neo-classical format)"
Is there a lesson? moral and cultural implications? apy attention to the underlying message and language used to portray ideas.
Pope
Validate it with the rubric of the philosopher I choose...what do I value in the piece?
Classmates discuss their thoughts about works they may choose to do the paper...and the Professor discusses some key points of these poems/works and how we might approach our piece.
"Think about stuff from the same era, who's in the era and category?"
"drop our choice into the litmus (critical theory) and see if it turns blue (fits the neo-classical format)"
Is there a lesson? moral and cultural implications? apy attention to the underlying message and language used to portray ideas.
Pope
Monday, November 3, 2008
Class Lecture Notes November 3, 2008
Sidney whispers the ideas of Horace...and builds upon these ideas by elevating the poets.
Poets are chief among teachers; poets have the ability to inspire through "God"...tap into peoples emotions. Poem have noble law of a "golden world" ...and the world is "brazen"...bronze, inferior to the golden world the poet creates.
Winter Trees Cough Like Old Menby Eugenio Montejo
Winter trees cough like old men
about death's white nightmares
while the rain talks in Latin.
They cough about the sobbing tragic
ash, they bind valises for leaving,
they darken—and in the chill
of frost from the sun,
the lungs bristle to see coffins hidden
in the dry capes of kings.
Who is the speaker? words express : cough, death's, sobbing, tragic, darken, chill, frost, coffins, capes....A funeral? Latin used for burial rights?(metaphorical language) used for the funeral(literal scenario)...
When you use metaphors you have the vehicle and the tenor. i.e. The thing you are after and the way you get to it.
My life has stood-a loaded gun
by Emily Dickinson
My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day
The Owner passed - identified -
And carried Me away -
And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -
And now We hunt the Doe -
And every time I speak for Him -
The Mountains straight reply -
And do I smile, such cordial light
Upon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face Had let its pleasure through -
And when at Night - Our good Day done -
I guard My Master's Head -
'Tis better than the Eider-Duck's
Deep Pillow - to have shared -
To foe of His - I'm deadly foe -
None stir the second time -
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -
Or an emphatic Thumb -
Though I than He - may longer live He longer must - than I -For I have but the power to kill,Without--the power to die--
Speaker? a human being, a person discussing their feeling of being "a loaded gun"...the language used allows an idea to be brought forth without saying the straight forward truth.
Harmony and balance....can be set to "The Yellow Rose of Texas" as Dr. Nelson so nicely sang for us in class!
Neoclassical critics....the unities...place, time and action.
Rule-bound...stick to a "composition as a rational and rule-bound process"
What are the forms the literature takes to reveal the metaphor?
can these rules be used for contemporary literature/films....?
the big fight is whether plays and poems have to follow rules...should these rules be broken? If it "ain't in the classics...then it ain't anything."
i.e. Shakespeare has plays in five acts...does this conform? is there beauty in tragedy?
continue reading...Dryden, Pope, and Johnson....pg. 284 and onward
What is the situation?
What attitude toward the situation?
Poets are chief among teachers; poets have the ability to inspire through "God"...tap into peoples emotions. Poem have noble law of a "golden world" ...and the world is "brazen"...bronze, inferior to the golden world the poet creates.
Winter Trees Cough Like Old Menby Eugenio Montejo
Winter trees cough like old men
about death's white nightmares
while the rain talks in Latin.
They cough about the sobbing tragic
ash, they bind valises for leaving,
they darken—and in the chill
of frost from the sun,
the lungs bristle to see coffins hidden
in the dry capes of kings.
Who is the speaker? words express : cough, death's, sobbing, tragic, darken, chill, frost, coffins, capes....A funeral? Latin used for burial rights?(metaphorical language) used for the funeral(literal scenario)...
When you use metaphors you have the vehicle and the tenor. i.e. The thing you are after and the way you get to it.
My life has stood-a loaded gun
by Emily Dickinson
My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day
The Owner passed - identified -
And carried Me away -
And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -
And now We hunt the Doe -
And every time I speak for Him -
The Mountains straight reply -
And do I smile, such cordial light
Upon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face Had let its pleasure through -
And when at Night - Our good Day done -
I guard My Master's Head -
'Tis better than the Eider-Duck's
Deep Pillow - to have shared -
To foe of His - I'm deadly foe -
None stir the second time -
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -
Or an emphatic Thumb -
Though I than He - may longer live He longer must - than I -For I have but the power to kill,Without--the power to die--
Speaker? a human being, a person discussing their feeling of being "a loaded gun"...the language used allows an idea to be brought forth without saying the straight forward truth.
Harmony and balance....can be set to "The Yellow Rose of Texas" as Dr. Nelson so nicely sang for us in class!
Neoclassical critics....the unities...place, time and action.
Rule-bound...stick to a "composition as a rational and rule-bound process"
What are the forms the literature takes to reveal the metaphor?
can these rules be used for contemporary literature/films....?
the big fight is whether plays and poems have to follow rules...should these rules be broken? If it "ain't in the classics...then it ain't anything."
i.e. Shakespeare has plays in five acts...does this conform? is there beauty in tragedy?
continue reading...Dryden, Pope, and Johnson....pg. 284 and onward
What is the situation?
What attitude toward the situation?
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Sir Philip Sidney and T. S. Eliot!
"The original title of the poem was "Prufrock Among the Women," and Prufrock, as a balding, weak, neurotic, effete intellectual, is both baffled and intimidated by women. Perhaps the central image of his anxiety is his being "pinned and wriggling on the wall" (58) under the unflinching gaze of women (exacerbated since the women's eyes, much like their "Arms that are braceleted and white and bare" [63], seem eerily disconnected from their bodies). At least here the women seem to be paying attention to him, however hostile they may be. By the end of the poem, Prufrock feels ostracized from the society of women, the "mermaids singing, each to each. / I do not think that they will sing to me" (124-125). Interestingly, Prufrock's obsession with his bald spot rears its ugly head here; the beautiful, vain mermaids comb the "white hair of the waves blown back" (127). As hair is a symbol of virility, Eliot suggests that Prufrock's paralysis is deeply rooted in psycho sexual anxiety." (http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/prufrock/themes.html )
Yes, Sidney says the ultimate aim of the third kind of poetry to "both delight and teach." Not restricted to any certain subject matter and not actually "reality" portrayed, but probability and idealized situations."
The chief competitors for grandness in poetry will be moral philosophy and history.
Well, heck. Poetry tells a story...shares an emotion...tools and toils the language to bend it to our will as we attempt to express some ideas or stories we just have to put down on paper or in the air. We read words in poetry that we may use in our every day life, yet in print and formidably crafted, they come to life! "I just can't put into words"...."it's on the tip of my tongue"...these sentences are made of language...and express the very desire to express our self with pointed grace.
Yes, Poetry should and can and will be nothing and all things...and as we enjoy it we can know that it is a gift. Surely as I set and write this blog, I am counting on my fingers, my computer, and electricity...and the Internet, of course....but, mostly I am pulling verbs and nouns and adjectives that have been stored in my brain for only a bit over 40 years. Language...expression...love, passion, energy, flow, rhyme, rythm....satire...humor....glib, I love it all. OK, back to the real discussion!
Is Prifrock talking to himself or some one else or to a reader? He's running through these ideas over and over in his mind...he's scared of women! maybe just one woman...but it seems to have deeply affected him. He plays with ideas of telling his thoughts...then recoils?Maybe he just doesn't feel his life has had any value or that he is getting old and realizes missed opprotunity and trying to give himself a "pep talk?" Hmm, I am trying to pinpoint what Sidney might ultimately have to say about a poem such as this. Perhaps that the poem doesn't portray a beauty...an idealized reality...that it has no knowledge to share. I do like the poem...wish I could have been in class as you all took it apart for understanding. Yet, the poem is pretty much a sad lament on living in fear and lost opportunity, iced with a dab of fantasy of what could have been. The poem isn't "sacred" as Sidney would have liked...yet sacred are a human's feelings.
"The original title of the poem was "Prufrock Among the Women," and Prufrock, as a balding, weak, neurotic, effete intellectual, is both baffled and intimidated by women. Perhaps the central image of his anxiety is his being "pinned and wriggling on the wall" (58) under the unflinching gaze of women (exacerbated since the women's eyes, much like their "Arms that are braceleted and white and bare" [63], seem eerily disconnected from their bodies). At least here the women seem to be paying attention to him, however hostile they may be. By the end of the poem, Prufrock feels ostracized from the society of women, the "mermaids singing, each to each. / I do not think that they will sing to me" (124-125). Interestingly, Prufrock's obsession with his bald spot rears its ugly head here; the beautiful, vain mermaids comb the "white hair of the waves blown back" (127). As hair is a symbol of virility, Eliot suggests that Prufrock's paralysis is deeply rooted in psycho sexual anxiety." (http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/prufrock/themes.html )
Yes, Sidney says the ultimate aim of the third kind of poetry to "both delight and teach." Not restricted to any certain subject matter and not actually "reality" portrayed, but probability and idealized situations."
The chief competitors for grandness in poetry will be moral philosophy and history.
Well, heck. Poetry tells a story...shares an emotion...tools and toils the language to bend it to our will as we attempt to express some ideas or stories we just have to put down on paper or in the air. We read words in poetry that we may use in our every day life, yet in print and formidably crafted, they come to life! "I just can't put into words"...."it's on the tip of my tongue"...these sentences are made of language...and express the very desire to express our self with pointed grace.
Yes, Poetry should and can and will be nothing and all things...and as we enjoy it we can know that it is a gift. Surely as I set and write this blog, I am counting on my fingers, my computer, and electricity...and the Internet, of course....but, mostly I am pulling verbs and nouns and adjectives that have been stored in my brain for only a bit over 40 years. Language...expression...love, passion, energy, flow, rhyme, rythm....satire...humor....glib, I love it all. OK, back to the real discussion!
Is Prifrock talking to himself or some one else or to a reader? He's running through these ideas over and over in his mind...he's scared of women! maybe just one woman...but it seems to have deeply affected him. He plays with ideas of telling his thoughts...then recoils?Maybe he just doesn't feel his life has had any value or that he is getting old and realizes missed opprotunity and trying to give himself a "pep talk?" Hmm, I am trying to pinpoint what Sidney might ultimately have to say about a poem such as this. Perhaps that the poem doesn't portray a beauty...an idealized reality...that it has no knowledge to share. I do like the poem...wish I could have been in class as you all took it apart for understanding. Yet, the poem is pretty much a sad lament on living in fear and lost opportunity, iced with a dab of fantasy of what could have been. The poem isn't "sacred" as Sidney would have liked...yet sacred are a human's feelings.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
CLASS LECTURE NOTES
Discussion of upcoming paper assignment:
1. Maybe choose a contemporary poem or literature and apply a philosophical viewpoint..not a critique from me, but an analysis of the poem via the theory.
2. or a paper that compares Plato vs. Aristotle using our own top 5 favorites from one of our lists.
The rise of theology and how Christianity affects opinions of the day...
The Roman Empire falls and leaves a time of feudalism groundwork...literacy lead to having access to reading The Bible....access to God...access to enlightenment.
Plato left the "groundwork" for what Christianity attempts to create a critical philosophy upon.
Forms = Ideals = God, the Church links these ideas to draw conclusions
Then, why read? The Christians would say "to be closer to God, gain salvation....morals"
Poem in class : "Huswifery" by Edward Taylor
Make me, O Lord, thy Spinning Wheele compleat;Thy Holy Worde my Distaff make for mee. Make mine Affections thy Swift Flyers neate, And make my Soule thy holy Spoole to bee. My Conversation make to be thy Reele, And reele the yarn thereon spun of thy Wheele.
Make me thy Loome then, knit therein this Twine: And make thy Holy Spirit, Lord, winde quills:
Then weave the Web thyselfe. The yarn is fine. Thine Ordinances make my Fulling Mills. Then dy the same in Heavenly Colours Choice, All pinkt with Varnish't Flowers of Paradise.
Then cloath therewith mine Understanding, Will, Affections, Judgment, Conscience, Memory; My Words and Actions, that their shine may fill My wayes with glory and thee glorify. Then mine apparell shall display before yee That I am Cloathd in Holy robes for glory.
Accepted as approved by Puritan Church since it was Christian-themed...
And..."Here followes some verses upon the burning of our house, July 10th, 1666"
by Anne Bradstreet
In silent night when rest I took, For sorrow neer I did not look, I waken'd was with thundring nois And Piteous shreiks of dreadfull voice. That fearfull sound of fire and fire, Let no man know is my Desire. I, starting up, the light did spye, And to my God my heart did cry To strengthen me in my Distresse And not to leave me succourlesse. Then coming out beheld a space, The flame consume my dwelling place.
And, when I could no longer look, I blest his Name that gave and took, That layd my goods now in the dust: Yea so it was, and so 'twas just. It was his own: it was not mine; Far be it that I should repine.
He might of All justly bereft, But yet sufficient for us left. When by the Ruines oft I past, My sorrowing eyes aside did cast, And here and there the places spye Where oft I sate, and long did lye.
Here stood that Trunk, and there that chest; There lay that store I counted best: My pleasant things in ashes lye, And them behold no more shall I. Under thy roof no guest shall sitt, Nor at thy Table eat a bitt.
No pleasant tale shall 'ere be told, Nor things recounted done of old. No Candle 'ere shall shine in Thee, Nor bridegroom's voice ere heard shall bee. In silence ever shalt thou lye; Adieu, Adeiu; All's vanity.
Then streight I gin my heart to chide, And didst thy wealth on earth abide? Didst fix thy hope on mouldring dust, The arm of flesh didst make thy trust? Raise up thy thoughts above the skye That dunghill mists away may flie.
Thou hast an house on high erect Fram'd by that mighty Architect, With glory richly furnished, Stands permanent tho' this bee fled. It's purchased, and paid for too By him who hath enough to doe.
A Prise so vast as is unknown, Yet, by his Gift, is made thine own. Ther's wealth enough, I need no more; Farewell my Pelf, farewell my Store. The world no longer let me Love, My hope and Treasure lyes Above.
Text notes: Line 5: fire and fire, Fire! and Fire! Line 11: beheld a space, watched for a time Line 14: I blest his name that gave and took, see Job 1:21 Line 24: Sate, sat Line 40: Arm of flesh, see 2 Chron. 32:8; Isa. 9:18-20; Jer. 17:4-7 Line 42: Dunghill mists, see Ezra 6:9-12. Line 43: House on high erect, see 2 Cor. 5:1; Heb. 11:10 Line 48: Enough to doe, ie. enough to do it Line 52: Pelf, property, possessions Line 54: Treasure lyes Above, see Luke 12:34
further discussion of "signs" and allegorical thought...
Augustine talks about a "slippery connection between what is stated and what is meant.."
A word "queer" used as a pejorative term...though perhaps it started as "odd"
every word has a signifier and a sign...the representer can't always completely clearly state its meaning...language is slippery...
pg. 158...in text..."things are signs. but not all things are signs..., every sign is a thing...but not everything is a sign"....eeek! confuse me already.
reference to God gives things meaning...that's it...that's all.....all material existence must be an evidence of God and his Glory...we can study those things to get to God and his salvation.
1. Maybe choose a contemporary poem or literature and apply a philosophical viewpoint..not a critique from me, but an analysis of the poem via the theory.
2. or a paper that compares Plato vs. Aristotle using our own top 5 favorites from one of our lists.
The rise of theology and how Christianity affects opinions of the day...
The Roman Empire falls and leaves a time of feudalism groundwork...literacy lead to having access to reading The Bible....access to God...access to enlightenment.
Plato left the "groundwork" for what Christianity attempts to create a critical philosophy upon.
Forms = Ideals = God, the Church links these ideas to draw conclusions
Then, why read? The Christians would say "to be closer to God, gain salvation....morals"
Poem in class : "Huswifery" by Edward Taylor
Make me, O Lord, thy Spinning Wheele compleat;Thy Holy Worde my Distaff make for mee. Make mine Affections thy Swift Flyers neate, And make my Soule thy holy Spoole to bee. My Conversation make to be thy Reele, And reele the yarn thereon spun of thy Wheele.
Make me thy Loome then, knit therein this Twine: And make thy Holy Spirit, Lord, winde quills:
Then weave the Web thyselfe. The yarn is fine. Thine Ordinances make my Fulling Mills. Then dy the same in Heavenly Colours Choice, All pinkt with Varnish't Flowers of Paradise.
Then cloath therewith mine Understanding, Will, Affections, Judgment, Conscience, Memory; My Words and Actions, that their shine may fill My wayes with glory and thee glorify. Then mine apparell shall display before yee That I am Cloathd in Holy robes for glory.
Accepted as approved by Puritan Church since it was Christian-themed...
And..."Here followes some verses upon the burning of our house, July 10th, 1666"
by Anne Bradstreet
In silent night when rest I took, For sorrow neer I did not look, I waken'd was with thundring nois And Piteous shreiks of dreadfull voice. That fearfull sound of fire and fire, Let no man know is my Desire. I, starting up, the light did spye, And to my God my heart did cry To strengthen me in my Distresse And not to leave me succourlesse. Then coming out beheld a space, The flame consume my dwelling place.
And, when I could no longer look, I blest his Name that gave and took, That layd my goods now in the dust: Yea so it was, and so 'twas just. It was his own: it was not mine; Far be it that I should repine.
He might of All justly bereft, But yet sufficient for us left. When by the Ruines oft I past, My sorrowing eyes aside did cast, And here and there the places spye Where oft I sate, and long did lye.
Here stood that Trunk, and there that chest; There lay that store I counted best: My pleasant things in ashes lye, And them behold no more shall I. Under thy roof no guest shall sitt, Nor at thy Table eat a bitt.
No pleasant tale shall 'ere be told, Nor things recounted done of old. No Candle 'ere shall shine in Thee, Nor bridegroom's voice ere heard shall bee. In silence ever shalt thou lye; Adieu, Adeiu; All's vanity.
Then streight I gin my heart to chide, And didst thy wealth on earth abide? Didst fix thy hope on mouldring dust, The arm of flesh didst make thy trust? Raise up thy thoughts above the skye That dunghill mists away may flie.
Thou hast an house on high erect Fram'd by that mighty Architect, With glory richly furnished, Stands permanent tho' this bee fled. It's purchased, and paid for too By him who hath enough to doe.
A Prise so vast as is unknown, Yet, by his Gift, is made thine own. Ther's wealth enough, I need no more; Farewell my Pelf, farewell my Store. The world no longer let me Love, My hope and Treasure lyes Above.
Text notes: Line 5: fire and fire, Fire! and Fire! Line 11: beheld a space, watched for a time Line 14: I blest his name that gave and took, see Job 1:21 Line 24: Sate, sat Line 40: Arm of flesh, see 2 Chron. 32:8; Isa. 9:18-20; Jer. 17:4-7 Line 42: Dunghill mists, see Ezra 6:9-12. Line 43: House on high erect, see 2 Cor. 5:1; Heb. 11:10 Line 48: Enough to doe, ie. enough to do it Line 52: Pelf, property, possessions Line 54: Treasure lyes Above, see Luke 12:34
further discussion of "signs" and allegorical thought...
Augustine talks about a "slippery connection between what is stated and what is meant.."
A word "queer" used as a pejorative term...though perhaps it started as "odd"
every word has a signifier and a sign...the representer can't always completely clearly state its meaning...language is slippery...
pg. 158...in text..."things are signs. but not all things are signs..., every sign is a thing...but not everything is a sign"....eeek! confuse me already.
reference to God gives things meaning...that's it...that's all.....all material existence must be an evidence of God and his Glory...we can study those things to get to God and his salvation.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Chapter 8, The Medieval Era
"Intellectual and Cultural Progress"
This period of time was NOT "ignorant of the classical Greek and Roman traditions"
ENTER: Christianity!
recognized as the official religion of the Roman Empire by 381, and the Church's unity survived the empire.
"Monasticism" a strict regimen of poverty, obedience, humility, labor, and devotion....well, Monks, of course!
Charlemagne : significant figure, crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in 800...which "signified the formation of the Holy Roman Empire."
brought about a cultural and administrative revival that "sponsored a renovation of literature, philosophy, art, and education."
Augustine (354-430)
synthesis of classical and Christian traditions.
Divine Revelation...a divine plan
He placed importance on "the original sin" and that man should seek redemption via Jesus Christ for man to access grace.
He condemned liberal studies!beauty was not so much based upon beautiful objects but a harmony between material, intellectual, and spiritual terms.
he cites Signs: Unknown and ambiguous signs in the scriptures..signify and enable spiritual elements.
He also suggests that rhetoric should be used for training the intellect yet we need to be aware of its use as we may be inclined to point it in mischievous and vain ways.
So beware figurative expressions because one word may mean something other than what it appears. He asserts that all significant knowledge and wisdom comes from the Divine...it is in the scriptures....where men can use reason to understand the world. We must "ascend from the the literal understanding of our world to a symbolic view"
Yes, a precarious balance between Christianity and rhetoric styling...the religious speaker must speak in eloquent and highly stylized linguistic manner to honor The Word...."cultivate good habits and give up evil ones"
Finally....
Augustine's definition of Christianized rhetoric:
"To speak eloquently, then, and wisely as well, is just to express truths which it is expedient to teach in fit and proper words."
Well, that takes the fun out of it! Yes, I understand those were trying times and there was upheaval in how people saw themselves in their world and then deal with the truth once they saw it. Religion acts as a comfy blanket, protect you from the troubles of the world for a bit and help you have compassion for others...but you still wake up to reality and social marginalization in some form.
This period of time was NOT "ignorant of the classical Greek and Roman traditions"
ENTER: Christianity!
recognized as the official religion of the Roman Empire by 381, and the Church's unity survived the empire.
"Monasticism" a strict regimen of poverty, obedience, humility, labor, and devotion....well, Monks, of course!
Charlemagne : significant figure, crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in 800...which "signified the formation of the Holy Roman Empire."
brought about a cultural and administrative revival that "sponsored a renovation of literature, philosophy, art, and education."
Augustine (354-430)
synthesis of classical and Christian traditions.
Divine Revelation...a divine plan
He placed importance on "the original sin" and that man should seek redemption via Jesus Christ for man to access grace.
He condemned liberal studies!beauty was not so much based upon beautiful objects but a harmony between material, intellectual, and spiritual terms.
he cites Signs: Unknown and ambiguous signs in the scriptures..signify and enable spiritual elements.
He also suggests that rhetoric should be used for training the intellect yet we need to be aware of its use as we may be inclined to point it in mischievous and vain ways.
So beware figurative expressions because one word may mean something other than what it appears. He asserts that all significant knowledge and wisdom comes from the Divine...it is in the scriptures....where men can use reason to understand the world. We must "ascend from the the literal understanding of our world to a symbolic view"
Yes, a precarious balance between Christianity and rhetoric styling...the religious speaker must speak in eloquent and highly stylized linguistic manner to honor The Word...."cultivate good habits and give up evil ones"
Finally....
Augustine's definition of Christianized rhetoric:
"To speak eloquently, then, and wisely as well, is just to express truths which it is expedient to teach in fit and proper words."
Well, that takes the fun out of it! Yes, I understand those were trying times and there was upheaval in how people saw themselves in their world and then deal with the truth once they saw it. Religion acts as a comfy blanket, protect you from the troubles of the world for a bit and help you have compassion for others...but you still wake up to reality and social marginalization in some form.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
NEO-PLATONISM, Class Discussion 10-15-08
Plotinus...
The One
The Divine Mind or Intellect
The All-Soul
referenced in class:
William Wordsworth Poem, Intimations of Immortality
John Donne Poem,
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
RHETORIC!!!
Yeeha...
What is rhetoric? How is it employed?
Greeks: 3 valued perspectives when constructing a story or speaking in public;
Ethos (character) Pathos (emotion) and Logos (logic)
Figures of speech used to aid well-tooled rhetorical writing:
Simile
Metaphor
Hyperbole
Alliteration
Consonance
Onomatopoeia
Irony
Euphemism
Apostrophe
Understatement
Personification
Metonymy
Synecdoche
Oxymoron
Paradox
Antithesis
Assonance
Anaphora
Chiasmus
Litotes
Pun
site for A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms:
http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/rhetoric.html#10
top 20 least known terms!
http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/unfamiliarterms.htm
STUDY these terms for class...know examples and descriptions..
http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/20figures.htm
What is rhetoric? How is it employed?
Greeks: 3 valued perspectives when constructing a story or speaking in public;
Ethos (character) Pathos (emotion) and Logos (logic)
Figures of speech used to aid well-tooled rhetorical writing:
Simile
Metaphor
Hyperbole
Alliteration
Consonance
Onomatopoeia
Irony
Euphemism
Apostrophe
Understatement
Personification
Metonymy
Synecdoche
Oxymoron
Paradox
Antithesis
Assonance
Anaphora
Chiasmus
Litotes
Pun
site for A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms:
http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/rhetoric.html#10
top 20 least known terms!
http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/unfamiliarterms.htm
STUDY these terms for class...know examples and descriptions..
http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/20figures.htm
Monday, October 6, 2008
October 6 Class Discussion SUBLIME TO ME...
What is sublime to me as I read or watch some form of literature?
I am moved...I am not within myself, but I am with the story. I have emotional responses to what I am seeing and I don't try to rationalize what I am feeling about.
Today, actually I am quite tired. It's pretty much mid-terms and I am not feeling much about what I see or experience other than my studies and reviews...
But...here goes...
In different stages of my life, sublime would be quite oppositional. Well, what I mean is that my frame of mind has a direct effect on what transports me...what is the vehicle for removing my focus from myself and to greater, more important beautiful ideas.
I hear songs from the 1970's and I am immediately taken back to a specific memory of that time...even just historically. "A,B,C" by The Jackson Five can immediately take me back to my bad-teethed years when I was a "tom boy" but had one best friend. That friend saw me through all these years...still catch her on-line some days and call when we can. So, that song makes me feel the world is OK, that there is hope...that there is this big world out there and nothing bugging me should really matter.
But, the real sublime transports are novels I read or movies I watch.
A story about a woman who dies and leaves her family...yet leaves behind all these individuals who grow simply because of her death...fighting it all the way...not knowing that things have a way of working out. Heck, doesn't everyone love a sad story to remind us of what a gift each day is...or to "make that move," ....or forget a transgression...
Sublime:
The Monarch Trees in Monterey, California What can I say...it is breath-taking....wonderful...sublime.
"Stop the clock..." by W.H. Auden ...a poem about losing a loved one.
created in such a manner that touched me....a remark to the world that nothing is the same...life can't go on without that someone...stop the time, "he was my North, my South, my East and West....make it a huge procession that he is gone....
I thought that love would last forever......I was wrong"
pour away the ocean...nothing good can ever come...
Geez, I am tearing up now just at the thought of it...it is sublime to me.
"Meet Joe Black" Movie re-make. The idea that life is taken for granted, that there is more going on around us than what we can see. Heck, even Death wants to take some "life" back with him!
"Don't Rain on My Parade" sung by Streisand! sweet...female revolution! Don't walk on the grass.....don't skate on the ice...don't say that...be agreeable... screw that, that's what the songs says...
I am moved...I am not within myself, but I am with the story. I have emotional responses to what I am seeing and I don't try to rationalize what I am feeling about.
Today, actually I am quite tired. It's pretty much mid-terms and I am not feeling much about what I see or experience other than my studies and reviews...
But...here goes...
In different stages of my life, sublime would be quite oppositional. Well, what I mean is that my frame of mind has a direct effect on what transports me...what is the vehicle for removing my focus from myself and to greater, more important beautiful ideas.
I hear songs from the 1970's and I am immediately taken back to a specific memory of that time...even just historically. "A,B,C" by The Jackson Five can immediately take me back to my bad-teethed years when I was a "tom boy" but had one best friend. That friend saw me through all these years...still catch her on-line some days and call when we can. So, that song makes me feel the world is OK, that there is hope...that there is this big world out there and nothing bugging me should really matter.
But, the real sublime transports are novels I read or movies I watch.
A story about a woman who dies and leaves her family...yet leaves behind all these individuals who grow simply because of her death...fighting it all the way...not knowing that things have a way of working out. Heck, doesn't everyone love a sad story to remind us of what a gift each day is...or to "make that move," ....or forget a transgression...
Sublime:
The Monarch Trees in Monterey, California What can I say...it is breath-taking....wonderful...sublime.
"Stop the clock..." by W.H. Auden ...a poem about losing a loved one.
created in such a manner that touched me....a remark to the world that nothing is the same...life can't go on without that someone...stop the time, "he was my North, my South, my East and West....make it a huge procession that he is gone....
I thought that love would last forever......I was wrong"
pour away the ocean...nothing good can ever come...
Geez, I am tearing up now just at the thought of it...it is sublime to me.
"Meet Joe Black" Movie re-make. The idea that life is taken for granted, that there is more going on around us than what we can see. Heck, even Death wants to take some "life" back with him!
"Don't Rain on My Parade" sung by Streisand! sweet...female revolution! Don't walk on the grass.....don't skate on the ice...don't say that...be agreeable... screw that, that's what the songs says...
Friday, October 3, 2008
CASSIUS LONGINUS
The "sublime"...
Longinus states that the sublime consists "in a consummate excellence and distinction of language, and...this alone gave the greatest poets and historians their pre-eminence...For the effect of genius is not to persuade the audience but rather to transport them out of themselves."
Debate: does art come from "innate genius or from conscious application of methodology and rules?"
It should elevate us, says Longinus...and I agree.
In this chapter, Habib cites five sources which Longinus felt met the "sublime" nature of poetry and art:
Robust ideas
The inspiration of "vehement emotion,"
Proper construction of figures, of thought and speech,
Nobility of Phrase (diction and metaphor usage),
and the general effect of dignity and elevation.
Thus, constructing an organic whole.
Some of my most favorite forms of literature, both classical and modern do "carry" me away.
I simply love a story that pricks my ears and my heart..that when the story is over I question my previous opinions or even construct new ideas about what I perceive as reality. I remember walking out of the theater after watching "Pulp Fiction" and just looking at people differently. I actually felt anxious about what was really going on around me...as if there was a whole dimension of life that existed beyond my knowledge. Well, of course it does! Yes, we tend to get all wrapped up in what we perceive as our own function of the day that maybe we forget that the world doesn't center around us. I felt like my youngest son...simple, naive, and vulnerable and I liked it.
Longinus pulls together so many thoughts of what poetry is (well, art and all that good stuff) and what it provides us slovenly humans! And, when we read his opinions and interjections, it raises us up to expect more and understand what we appreciate about what we read and watch...beyond our over-due bills and stresses of the day.
Thank goodness. This course is forcing me to re-evaluate previous studies of Literature and Poetry with a capitol "P"
Within boundaries, greatness is found. And, greatness exists within us if we pursue it.
The power of language to illuminate our thoughts and question our ideals...
Let's be transported...rather than just persuaded as we listen and see the world around us.
This is me in my "rose colored-lenses" saying "yes, take me away and lift me up..alter what I think I know and raise me to a higher ground where I am small and ideas are huge!"
Longinus states that the sublime consists "in a consummate excellence and distinction of language, and...this alone gave the greatest poets and historians their pre-eminence...For the effect of genius is not to persuade the audience but rather to transport them out of themselves."
Debate: does art come from "innate genius or from conscious application of methodology and rules?"
It should elevate us, says Longinus...and I agree.
In this chapter, Habib cites five sources which Longinus felt met the "sublime" nature of poetry and art:
Robust ideas
The inspiration of "vehement emotion,"
Proper construction of figures, of thought and speech,
Nobility of Phrase (diction and metaphor usage),
and the general effect of dignity and elevation.
Thus, constructing an organic whole.
Some of my most favorite forms of literature, both classical and modern do "carry" me away.
I simply love a story that pricks my ears and my heart..that when the story is over I question my previous opinions or even construct new ideas about what I perceive as reality. I remember walking out of the theater after watching "Pulp Fiction" and just looking at people differently. I actually felt anxious about what was really going on around me...as if there was a whole dimension of life that existed beyond my knowledge. Well, of course it does! Yes, we tend to get all wrapped up in what we perceive as our own function of the day that maybe we forget that the world doesn't center around us. I felt like my youngest son...simple, naive, and vulnerable and I liked it.
Longinus pulls together so many thoughts of what poetry is (well, art and all that good stuff) and what it provides us slovenly humans! And, when we read his opinions and interjections, it raises us up to expect more and understand what we appreciate about what we read and watch...beyond our over-due bills and stresses of the day.
Thank goodness. This course is forcing me to re-evaluate previous studies of Literature and Poetry with a capitol "P"
Within boundaries, greatness is found. And, greatness exists within us if we pursue it.
The power of language to illuminate our thoughts and question our ideals...
Let's be transported...rather than just persuaded as we listen and see the world around us.
This is me in my "rose colored-lenses" saying "yes, take me away and lift me up..alter what I think I know and raise me to a higher ground where I am small and ideas are huge!"
Monday, September 29, 2008
Horace, Chapter 5
The "chorus" in plays represents "society" or it's popular views of a certain period of time in History.
Web site visited in class:
http://www.dreamingmethods.com/
What are the parallels between written literature and this digital media-based delivery of storytelling?
tells a story
evokes emotion
shares a moral message
has a climax
leaves questions behind
every one would experience it differently
invites personal action/awareness
similar to Plato, Aristotle, and Horus...at least SOME aspects of what each might suggest literature should contain.
Horace, why leave his beloved Queen Dido and found Rome?
Horace finds middle ground between the ruler of the time and his own opinions of what life should be like for himself and his countrymen... "anxiety about property has stained the mind, we can hope for the composition of poems?"
"Epicurianism" : not stoic, finding pleasure in the finer things in life....sensual pleasures. A theory about the value of things and how we engage with these things. Food: not just nourishment, but pleasurable.
Poetry transcends political values/environs....seeks universality. "small private wealth, large communal property."
The things he values: "good health, peace of mind, and poetry... a lack of commitment even to non-commitment."
He gestured what he could say in his writings and still stay safe.
Web site visited in class:
http://www.dreamingmethods.com/
What are the parallels between written literature and this digital media-based delivery of storytelling?
tells a story
evokes emotion
shares a moral message
has a climax
leaves questions behind
every one would experience it differently
invites personal action/awareness
similar to Plato, Aristotle, and Horus...at least SOME aspects of what each might suggest literature should contain.
Horace, why leave his beloved Queen Dido and found Rome?
Horace finds middle ground between the ruler of the time and his own opinions of what life should be like for himself and his countrymen... "anxiety about property has stained the mind, we can hope for the composition of poems?"
"Epicurianism" : not stoic, finding pleasure in the finer things in life....sensual pleasures. A theory about the value of things and how we engage with these things. Food: not just nourishment, but pleasurable.
Poetry transcends political values/environs....seeks universality. "small private wealth, large communal property."
The things he values: "good health, peace of mind, and poetry... a lack of commitment even to non-commitment."
He gestured what he could say in his writings and still stay safe.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Aristotle and Oedipus Rex
OK, let's have a go at this one!
Aristotle and his theory of substances and Universals! Some ideas close to Plato's views, yet so many differences and arguments between the two. Metaphysics is a wonderful topic to discuss in class. The idea that ideas themselves are real and that the physical being is the illusion...the temporary. Love it, but I still can't wrap my head around all the implications and also how ignorant I am as a human.
Oedipus Rex: Tragic!
A man can see, yet does not truly look at the truth....a "seer" cannot see, yet can see the truth.
Duality...that one can be a brother to his own son. And, the web of lies built when individuals try to sway the future of inevitability. Oedipus cannot see in front of him or even behind himself...
Two sets of King and Queen...two herdsmen, two brothers, two daughters and two sons, as well as two cities. Oppositional? Yin and Yang?
I am looking forward to today's class discussion to hear other opinions and thoughts...and get some more insight on the messages in the play as well as the root of the "disease."
Aristotle and his theory of substances and Universals! Some ideas close to Plato's views, yet so many differences and arguments between the two. Metaphysics is a wonderful topic to discuss in class. The idea that ideas themselves are real and that the physical being is the illusion...the temporary. Love it, but I still can't wrap my head around all the implications and also how ignorant I am as a human.
Oedipus Rex: Tragic!
A man can see, yet does not truly look at the truth....a "seer" cannot see, yet can see the truth.
Duality...that one can be a brother to his own son. And, the web of lies built when individuals try to sway the future of inevitability. Oedipus cannot see in front of him or even behind himself...
Two sets of King and Queen...two herdsmen, two brothers, two daughters and two sons, as well as two cities. Oppositional? Yin and Yang?
I am looking forward to today's class discussion to hear other opinions and thoughts...and get some more insight on the messages in the play as well as the root of the "disease."
Monday, September 15, 2008
Key Questions on Plato
What is the distinction Plato makes between forms and reality?
Forms, as Plato would suggest, are what we may see as a physical likeness, an idea, or a stage...set up to convey a story. Almost as if what we see isn't what's there, rather what we perceive to exist.
How does Plato differentiate between the role of the poet and that of the philosopher?
Though Plato links philosopher and poet closely, the poet shares ideas that are beautiful and aestetic (which can sometimes be dangerous in form and content!)....while the philosopher shares ideas of what goodness and reality SHOULD be...a higher form of reality that we should aspire to.
How might it be said that the poet imitates imitations? Remember the bed, the carpenter, and the poet.
What is the basic connection between morality and poetry that Plato identifies as being a problem?
Plato suggests that poetry walks a dangerous line of romanticizing dangerous behaviors and feelings...and that such falsehoods or false thoughts or even bad, human behaviors and thoughts should not be presented. We should visit ideas with careful thought, argument, and analysis!
Why would Plato have the exemplary poet leave the city?
Habib makes a great deal out of the notion of unity in Plato. How is unity obtained in the city, in his view?
Plato uses Socrates as a figure in his dialogues. How? Plato uses Socrates as the voice of wisdom...reminding others of their ignorance and attempting to educate others.
Socrates is Plato's vehicle to share knowledge and teach others. Whether he's a real person or a "form" there is a presentation of a story/a reality that Plato wants his reader to see the way Plato presents that reality. Controlling and censored...yet seems to always impart a message or a lesson.
Forms, as Plato would suggest, are what we may see as a physical likeness, an idea, or a stage...set up to convey a story. Almost as if what we see isn't what's there, rather what we perceive to exist.
How does Plato differentiate between the role of the poet and that of the philosopher?
Though Plato links philosopher and poet closely, the poet shares ideas that are beautiful and aestetic (which can sometimes be dangerous in form and content!)....while the philosopher shares ideas of what goodness and reality SHOULD be...a higher form of reality that we should aspire to.
How might it be said that the poet imitates imitations? Remember the bed, the carpenter, and the poet.
What is the basic connection between morality and poetry that Plato identifies as being a problem?
Plato suggests that poetry walks a dangerous line of romanticizing dangerous behaviors and feelings...and that such falsehoods or false thoughts or even bad, human behaviors and thoughts should not be presented. We should visit ideas with careful thought, argument, and analysis!
Why would Plato have the exemplary poet leave the city?
Habib makes a great deal out of the notion of unity in Plato. How is unity obtained in the city, in his view?
Plato uses Socrates as a figure in his dialogues. How? Plato uses Socrates as the voice of wisdom...reminding others of their ignorance and attempting to educate others.
Socrates is Plato's vehicle to share knowledge and teach others. Whether he's a real person or a "form" there is a presentation of a story/a reality that Plato wants his reader to see the way Plato presents that reality. Controlling and censored...yet seems to always impart a message or a lesson.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)