Franco Moretti

Franco Moretti

Moretti presents a new idea to us. He proposes the idea of distant reading. What that means is instead of reading the whole literary text, we only read a small amount and focus more on secondary sources of the text. We look to things that other people wrote about the text. In doing this, we will be able to focus more the theme and other literary devices that are in the text. We will be able to learn more about the text. Moretti points out that the US is known for doing close readings. He says it would be hard for us to change but it would be beneficial. I would have never thought about doing it the way he suggests, but I actually think it might be a good idea. When I think about it, I learn way more about a piece when I do a paper on it than I do if I just read it. So, it does make sense. Here is an article in the New York Times about distant reading.

http://tinyurl.com/7vvo3br

Martha C. Nussbaum

Martha C. Nussbaum

Martha Nussbaum believes that reading literature will help us move to a better world. She thinks that multi-culturism is bad because we stop identifying and relating to other cultures. We are no longer empathetic with them. This is why Nussbaum says that literature is good. We can read literature and relate to other cultures. We can put ourselves in their shoes. With multi-culturism, we have a biased judgement of people. We expect them to act and think a certain way. But, if we read literature, we can see what different cultures are like. Our views could be changed. She also says that literature is important when dealing with politics. She said anyone who is involved in politcs should be involved with literature because it makes people more compassionate and it also helps people deal with the hardships of life. If children read more literature, then they will be better prepared for life. If something bad happends to them, they will be better prepared because at least in some way they have experience it before, even if it was only in their mind.

Stephen Greenblatt

Stephen Greenblatt

Greenblatt says that old historicism views include thinking that history is a process that man cannot change. He says this is not true, that man can and does change the process. Greenblatt believes that history is contigent. What that means is that things could have happened differently. It is accidents that change history. Think about all of the accidents that has changed our history. First, Columbus finding America was an accident. The following site has five accidental inventions that has changed history. Some of them are surprising.

http://tinyurl.com/bqryyg



Greenblatt says that in "old" historicism, critics cannot judge a piece of work based on the time that it was created in. He argues that "new" historicism judges the work based on the time they were created in. Some things we would have to judge something based on the time it was created in. Now, whenever you see a movie or tv show about the past or the future it is really about what is going on right now. I believe that is true of some shows that are about the present. For example, Family Guy comes across as a comedy, but it really is making fun of and addressing the politcs that are going on in our time right now.







Edward Said

Edward Said

Edward Said explained Orientalism as a view or perception of the Eastern people made by Western society. He explains that usually these views were negatice or incorrect. Said said that Western society usually got their ideas and perceptions of the Eastern people from romanticized images of them. More often than not Western views were completely wrong and completely stereotypical and racist. He said that Western society pretty much invented Orientalism and the negative views of the Orient. "The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe's greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilization and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other." Said is describing the Orient and the places where it became itself away from itself. People migrated out of the Orient bringing its culture and civilization with them.  He warned to Orients not to play into the stereotypical views of the Western people. Said talks about how people will judge other people just based on their ideas of them. They really do not know them, but they will still pass judgement on them. This makes me think about myself in some ways. I have two chronic pain diseases. I have fibromyalgia and endometriosis. There are some days that I am not able to get out of my bed. On those days, I will have to miss class. Most of the time I do not tell my teachers why I missed, because really what can they do? But I know that some of the teachers that do not know about my condition probally thinks I am being lazy and just cutting class, when that is really not the case at all.

This is a wonderful video that shows Said being interviewed and talking about Orientalism.



Stanley Fish

Stanley Fish

Stanley Fish believes there is no formal way for interpreting or deciphering a text. He says that readers don't read text, they write text. For example, when we read a poem, we are writing the poem ourselves by bringing our own interpretations and experiences to the poem. So what exactly does a writer do then? A writer issues an invitation to the reader to bring their rules and set of conventions to the text. We all live by unsaid rules of conventions. Think about it. When we go to a restaurant, we usually assume that we should be seated by a hostess, unless there is a sign. If someone seats themselves at a restaurant that they are supposed to wait for a hostess, people don't know what to do. This is an example of interprative community.

Fish introduces us to the term anti-foundationalism. Anti-foundationalism says that theory is just a description after the fact that we make sense of things, instead of actually applying the theory to everything else. We have theories and then we apply them to the text. But Fish believes that is not what is actually happening. He believes that our theory is just us describing what has happened. It does not have any consequences. There is a good article about anti-foundationalism at http://tinyurl.com/c3wx2h4.

This video really doesn't have much to do with this blog post but I wanted to include it becaues I really enjoyed Fish's speech about Liberal Arts.





Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard

Baudrillard says that our society has replaced all meaning and reality with signs and symbols.  Places and things like Vegas are reality for people now. Reality TV isn't just TV for some people. It is life. This makes  me think of when I went to Disney World and they had a rollercoaster simulater there. You put into a computer what kind of turns and flips you would do, then you would get into this circle machine that looked like a rollercoaster on the inside. There would be a huge screen in front of you showing you the track you made. The machine you were in would actually do every flip and turn you typed in. But it didn't actually roll anywhere. It felt just like a real rollercoaster.

Below is a video comparing Baudrillard's theory to the Matrix.



Gayatri Spivak

Gayatri Spivak

In A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, Spivak uses a story to illustrate the subalter. Bhubaneswari Bhaduri killed herself because she was entrusted with a political assassination and she could not go through with it. She killed herself while she was menstrating so people would know she wasn't pregnant. However, her message is silenced by her family because no one will tell or talk about why she killed herself. Her family tells people they can look that information up in the records. This illustrated the subaltern even though she technically wasn't truly one. Her death is an example of ad hoc. She tries to give a message through it, but she is still silenced. This is why she is related to subalterns. She feels she cannot have her voice heard, so she does something extreme to make it heard. She makes sure no one misinterprets her death to be because of an illegitimate child.

Below is a video of Spivak being interviewed.