In our short time together we have really focused on the theme of Reason and more specifically how very complicated it can be to define what Reason is in any given context. We looked at Kant and Descartes who created a very specific philosophical vision of Universal Reason meant to fuel the Enlightenment. This gave us a lot of pros and  cons to think about ( think about the double edged sword of Enlightenment). We also looked at those who have critiqued this reason (Moliere, Akinari, Voltaire) and have tried to offer us a type of irrationality that seems inherent to our very nature.

One of the results of this kind of Universal Reason (or even of the Mind/Body split) is the creation of many binaries. Good/Evil; Feminine/Masculine; Strong/Weak; Naive/Experienced; Pessimism/Optimism; Religious beliefs/ Secular beliefs (there are many more). This week for your first blog post, I would like you to very informally discuss what you think happens when these binaries break down (as they do in the case of every text we have read thus far).

I want you to think of literature as an experimental space where we can think about the blurring of lines and the breakdown of two distinct types of thought that aim to dismiss anything that doesn’t categorically fit.

Please choose one of the texts and write 250 words or more (but don’t get too crazy!) about a binary that is being questioned. Tell me how the binary is being questioned..and what this means for the meaning of the text as a whole. This is informal and meant to be a brainstorming activity for you. However, I expect you to write something thoughtful and engage with the texts. 

Please post your response as a comment to this post. All responses are due by Friday at Midnight. (I will read them with my coffee Saturday am 🙂 )

See you next week!

no blog post for Bewitched- this will be moved to a later date! Please read the text regardless for Monday’s class.

-CL

Reading here for 9/12

Bewitched, Akinari (1)

Below you will find a the stage performance of Tartuffe in English. It is a bit cheesy but I think it works well to visualize the text. I highly recommend reading the text first and then watching the performance otherwise you may be a bit lost. This particular production uses a different translation, however, you still could follow along in the text should you choose. Have a wonderful labor day weekend!

Click on the following links if you would like to know a bit more about this weeks readings 🙂 :

Rene Descartes

Kant

Mary Wollstonecraft

” 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 !