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I've been trying to figure out why I was relatively silent throughout our critical race theory day compared to postcolonial theory day.
Sure, I admit that I struggled with toeing the line between political debate and literary application, which may have deterred me from speaking my mind (this being an English class). Maybe I felt unmoored and unsure of where to even begin to tackle the enormous issue. Though I've made no conclusions, I think it may be because I thought of it as an ISSUE rather than a THEORY.

The following is not a criticism of Dr. MB's curriculum, but perhaps more of a critique of the literary curriculum at large:
I feel like we do a disservice to these various identity theories by limiting them to a day's worth of discussion. Merely acquainting ourselves with the "tip of the iceberg" isn't enough for such universal theoretical lenses; identity theories pervade nearly every culture around the world, and deserve to be applied to literature as thoroughly as close reading or deconstruction. Qualifying them as academic theories makes them less scary than if they were social issues.

I know there is only so much time to learn in one semester, but I guess what I'm trying to say is by limiting time spent on these social/identity-based theories we risk relegating them to a) uncomfortable topics or b) that weird place in-between discomfort and willingness to discuss (read: political issues) rather than different ways to analyze literature.

This is me trying to figure out what the hell I'm trying to say:

Maybe I'm better at Q&Q than Paragraphs

Source:https://i.redd.it/j51a17rxq7801.gif

Pleasure in Reading

In Peter Barry's Beginning Theory, there is one particular quote that stuck in my mind. On page 24, in the first full paragraph of the page, Barry explains that, "The notion of literature giving pleasure will now seem an unremarkable sentiment, but Sidney’s aim was the revolutionary one of distinguishing literature from other forms of writing, on the grounds that, uniquely, literature has as it primary aim the giving of pleasure to the reader.” (Barry 24) It is also explained that works of fiction and the like were thought of as works of the devil. (24). Why do you think that fictional works, poetry, and representation works were thought of as works of the devil?

Photo: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-book-with-heart-shaped-pages-and-white-royalty-free-image/548327833

Quotes & Questions post info

What makes certain lines from a text jump off the page and fill you with interest and curiosity? Why do some passages carry more meaning and significance than others?

For example, Roland Barthes tells us:

The modern writer (scriptor) is born simultaneously with his text; he is in no way supplied with a being which precedes or transcends his writing, he is in no way the subject of which his book is the predicate; there is no other time than that of the utterance, and every text is eternally written here and now.
― Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author

This idea, that there is no Great and Powerful Author behind every text that we read, that the writer of a text has no special authority (see how the word author works there?) over our reading of that text, was a little mind-blowing when Barthes first proposed it. But it's an awesome, liberating idea - one that acknowledges our power and freedom as readers to not just interpret but also create a text as we read and understand it. In short: there's a lot to discuss about this passage, isn't there?

Book and tablet photo by Engin_Akyurt on Pixabay.com

On the Fridays that you don't have paragraphs due, we'll have what I call Quotes and Questions. Your responsibility will be to post a quotation that seems to merit in-depth discussion OR a question that you think we all need to consider about our recent readings - one that will enrich our thinking or help us consider the texts we've discussed in a useful way.

As with the paragraphs, we will both post them here and read them aloud in class.

You are required to give your post two labels 1) the name of the theory for the day (they are listed below in my labels on this post), and 2) Quotes & Questions. If you are posting a quotation, you must give a correct citation for it (line numbers for poetry; page numbers for prose). You do not have to post anything other than your quote or question - no elaboration is required here unless you choose to offer some.

Although you are not required to post an image in your Quotes & Questions posts, you are highly encouraged to include one that illustrates the idea expressed (if you do, please be sure to credit the image source, as in your paragraph posts).