Month: August 2016

Pleasure of the Text

Chelsea Largent Leave a comment

” Pleasure/Bliss: terminologically, there is always a vacillation- I stumble, I err. In any case, there will always be a margin of indecision; the distinction will not be the source of absolute classifications, the paradigm will falter, the meaning will be precarious, revocable, reversible, the discourse incomplete.”

” The text you write must prove to me that it desires me. This proof exists: it is writing. Writing is the science of the various blisses of language.” 

  • Roland Barthes- The Pleasure of the Text (Translation by Richard Miller)

Welcome to Great Works II 2850! In this course we will be asking innumerable questions about Literature and its relationship to culture. This is a not a survey meant to solidify imposed Westernized images of what literature might mean or be to us but it is rather a class meant to unpack and examine the many varied aspects that make up meaning and reassemble them for ourselves. We will look at texts from many different perspectives (cultural, social, philosophical, scientific, etc..) and find a space in which these many discourses converge.

I would like us to start from a place that doesn’t always make us comfortable-  the margin, the indecision, and the indistinguishable. To use the words of Roland Barthes as metaphors for our semester long journey, I want us to think of ourselves as erring,  stumbling through, or wandering around these texts without necessarily searching for a truth or reason but rather for a space in which we can find pleasure as a reader and as a part of the world. Taking this image forward throughout the semester I think will help us all to envision a way of reading or seeing that helps us to make connections that work for us and ultimately, help us to find an interpretive sense that fosters understanding, in both the cultural and semantic sense, of each work.

Ultimately, I want you to approach these texts with fresh eyes and open them up and find a way to critically engage with the work. This is the most important goal of the semester- to be able to critically think about the ways in which our reading and our interpretations come about and undo them to see what we can find.

I am so looking forward to meeting you all and I hope we have a wonderful semester !