Pg. 518
"By this time Don Quixote had kneeled down next to Sanco and looked, with startled eyes and confused vision, at the person Sancho was calling queen and lady, and since he could see nothing except a peasant girl, and one not especially attractive, since she was round-face and snub-nosed, he was so astounded and amazed that he did not dare open his mouth."
I found this passage interesting, and perhaps it defends DQ's sanity. He creates his own reality, but does not believe the patronizing fantasies that Sancho is feeding him. Though, much earlier in the novel, he confused as promiscuous chambermaid (at the inn/castle) to be a beauteous maiden, though her breath was rank. (One of the funniest parts, in my mind). It seems that DQ is the only one capable of inventing his own vision of reality (which is appropriate). Like a little kid with an imaginary friend, you can never tell the child where his/her friend is. If you do you are terribly mistaken and you're probably sitting on it
Henry Louis gates
This is me...
Don Quixote
Friday, December 12, 2008
Don Q
After the Marxist presentation, who's argument of Don Quixote I found convincing, I began to think of Don Quixote differently. His naivete became less endearing, more harmful since Sancho Panza did pay for all of DQ's dismissals of the rules.
But then, because of my English Renaissance Drama capstone class, I began to wonder if Don Quixote isn't more about self-fashioning and less about the glass ceiling. Despite the "warning" at the end of the book, it seems that Don Quixote advocates for social mobility...though this assertion is complicated by the fact that everyone notices DQ's costume, no one is fooled by his knight errantry, and most think he's crazy.
Does this reinforce the glass ceiling? It appears so, but I don't like to believe that. Sancho Panza's social climbing does allow for self-fashioning and the possibility of upward mobility in the classes. Since this book was written on the tail end of the humanism movement, by a non-nobleman, it makes sense that this topic would be complicated, but perhaps hopeful. Afterall, Cervantes has been imortalized...I couldn't tell you who the king of spain was at this time
But then, because of my English Renaissance Drama capstone class, I began to wonder if Don Quixote isn't more about self-fashioning and less about the glass ceiling. Despite the "warning" at the end of the book, it seems that Don Quixote advocates for social mobility...though this assertion is complicated by the fact that everyone notices DQ's costume, no one is fooled by his knight errantry, and most think he's crazy.
Does this reinforce the glass ceiling? It appears so, but I don't like to believe that. Sancho Panza's social climbing does allow for self-fashioning and the possibility of upward mobility in the classes. Since this book was written on the tail end of the humanism movement, by a non-nobleman, it makes sense that this topic would be complicated, but perhaps hopeful. Afterall, Cervantes has been imortalized...I couldn't tell you who the king of spain was at this time
synopsis of group presentations
New Criticism
aka Formalism
Values technique/structure/rhyme and meter (in poetry)/etc
Stays inside the text
Deconstruction
No absolute meaning in a text
No such thinkg as "outside the text" (differs from New Criticism thus)
Counters the idea of unity.
No "well wrought Urn" of the New Critics
STC
Frye pg 350, No aesthetic principles of self containment may work
Feminism
Reductive:
only looks at how women are treated or portrayed in the text, also how many women there are, and if the text is written by a man or woman. If the work doesn't meet such a critic's standards then it is denounced by said critic.
Expansive:
Bell Hooks; asks what kind of literary work is this? Contextualizes feminism
Reader Response
"spectacles" to see each work differently
Personal interpretation matters
Psychoanalysis
Freud
Ego, Id, Superego
Creation of Modern Age
Marxism
Social heirarchy
Social class
Class struggle
aka Formalism
Values technique/structure/rhyme and meter (in poetry)/etc
Stays inside the text
Deconstruction
No absolute meaning in a text
No such thinkg as "outside the text" (differs from New Criticism thus)
Counters the idea of unity.
No "well wrought Urn" of the New Critics
STC
Frye pg 350, No aesthetic principles of self containment may work
Feminism
Reductive:
only looks at how women are treated or portrayed in the text, also how many women there are, and if the text is written by a man or woman. If the work doesn't meet such a critic's standards then it is denounced by said critic.
Expansive:
Bell Hooks; asks what kind of literary work is this? Contextualizes feminism
Reader Response
"spectacles" to see each work differently
Personal interpretation matters
Psychoanalysis
Freud
Ego, Id, Superego
Creation of Modern Age
Marxism
Social heirarchy
Social class
Class struggle
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
My Apologies
Maggie Casey
Apology of Literature
12/03/08
My Passport is a Library Card:
A Defense of the Immeasurable Merits of Studying Literature
I am twenty-one years old. In my life, I’ve only lived in two towns. I have traveled a bit—to Norway and Mexico, and some parts of the United States that seem like a different country. I consider myself to be relatively intelligent, although perhaps reality TV stars and people who can’t find China on a map are not the best yard stick by which to measure myself. But how can I be a smart person when I’ve lived such a short, sheltered life? I’m majoring in English Literature—a language I’ve spoken since birth, which doesn’t seem too complicated. But if Literature were that easy, even if reading and comprehending a text is all that is required, then why do my friends in Biochemistry complain every time they have to read a book or write a paper? Perhaps it is because Literature is simple in its approach, and challenging in its application that it must be disparaged by those who do not excel at its practice. I would like to take the opportunity to defend my choice to major in English Literature and affirm that not only is it a highly educational experience but a spiritual journey as well.
Percy Shelly said that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, an idea that I believe to be true. What is history if not a piece of prose: it has voice, perspective, and a usually one-sided account of events. Movies are modern day theater and the most renowned playwright, William Shakespeare, is also heralded as the epitome of a writer (defined by Keats as Negative Capability). Through my education that has been focused on Literature I have learned about history, theatre, art, and contemporary issues (for who was not affected by Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone?) I can read about science in David Quanum’s The Reluctant Mr. Darwin and learn much more than Darwinian theory. I can read a biography of Marie Antoinette and learn about a culture and sexism in addition to historical events. In reading Plato’s Republic, I learn more about literature than about his broader philosophy. In reading Don Quixote, I can enjoy a literal and comical farce about a wannabe knight errant or a multi-dimensional text about the different aspects of literary criticism.
The world is at my fingertips, quite literally. I can turn a page and be transported through time and space. What a valuable education I can get if I only read! But the questions always come, even to the most enthusiastic English Literature major: ‘what next?’ Yes, I’m capable of being voted MVP for the trivial pursuit game, but that’s not a career.
The questions concerning careers after undergraduate school often bombard all graduates, but towards the English Major I feel that the asker is genuinely curious. After all, what can you do with a degree in English Literature? No one seems to know. Maybe Matthew Arnold knows. Although his Essay “The Study of Poetry” focuses more on the relationship between Religion and Poetry, interpretations allow for a link to be formed between Literature and Education. Education, learning, questioning, is a way of life, the only way of life this undergrad student can imagine. While education is ultimately didactic, (what did you learn at school today?) a degree in English Literature is perplexing because it doesn’t seem practical, and is especially focused on aesthetic value. That’s why I’ve memorized “The Idea of Order at Key West”: for it’s aesthetic value. Matthew Arnold said, “For poetry the idea is everything; the rest of the world is illusion”. My world of poetry is real to me, as if I’m a confidant of Anna Karenina, or a guest at Gatsby’s party. My education is one of transportation; I learn through experiences that aren’t my own, but I’m learning more than I could if I were limited to everyday experiences.
English Literature majors and Don Quixote have a lot in common: our ideas are real, and we prefer to live in a world of books, instead of a world held together by the rough theories of physics. The world of chemistry and quantum physics seems made-up, to me: like the theory about soap bubble galaxies. The world I live in will not change with the discovery of another dimension or a greater understanding of Wormholes in time. My life is changed by words, symbols typed and printed on to the page, symbols of love, life, and beauty. “‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ –that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know,”: so goes the last line of George Keats’ poem “Ode to a Grecian Urn”. My rather expensive and invaluable education has been directed towards learning this simple maxim. What I study is educational, analytical, and historical, but what I have learned is that there is no letter grade that can reflect the hours of joy I experienced from reading Don Quixote or the peace that I’m brought by reading the Touchstone lines of my favorite books. My education exposes me to religious experiences in literature; I could learn Accounting (if I were so inclined) but Literature is not something one learns, it is something that one experiences.
T.S. Eliot said, “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” To piggy-back on Eliot’s genius, I feel that this quote encapsulates both my education and my love of literature. Reading is exploring, so whether or not I’m reading about Dorothy trying to get home to Kansas, I am changed by my own share in the character’s experience. I begin reading every night seated in the right hand corner of the couch; I have a cup of tea in my hand, my elbow propped on a pillow, and warm socks. When I finish my book, I’m sitting in the exact same spot with my legs curled under me and while the physical view hasn’t changed, the world looks different. The world is different. I am different, also, better; and I will never cease from exploration.
Apology of Literature
12/03/08
My Passport is a Library Card:
A Defense of the Immeasurable Merits of Studying Literature
I am twenty-one years old. In my life, I’ve only lived in two towns. I have traveled a bit—to Norway and Mexico, and some parts of the United States that seem like a different country. I consider myself to be relatively intelligent, although perhaps reality TV stars and people who can’t find China on a map are not the best yard stick by which to measure myself. But how can I be a smart person when I’ve lived such a short, sheltered life? I’m majoring in English Literature—a language I’ve spoken since birth, which doesn’t seem too complicated. But if Literature were that easy, even if reading and comprehending a text is all that is required, then why do my friends in Biochemistry complain every time they have to read a book or write a paper? Perhaps it is because Literature is simple in its approach, and challenging in its application that it must be disparaged by those who do not excel at its practice. I would like to take the opportunity to defend my choice to major in English Literature and affirm that not only is it a highly educational experience but a spiritual journey as well.
Percy Shelly said that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, an idea that I believe to be true. What is history if not a piece of prose: it has voice, perspective, and a usually one-sided account of events. Movies are modern day theater and the most renowned playwright, William Shakespeare, is also heralded as the epitome of a writer (defined by Keats as Negative Capability). Through my education that has been focused on Literature I have learned about history, theatre, art, and contemporary issues (for who was not affected by Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone?) I can read about science in David Quanum’s The Reluctant Mr. Darwin and learn much more than Darwinian theory. I can read a biography of Marie Antoinette and learn about a culture and sexism in addition to historical events. In reading Plato’s Republic, I learn more about literature than about his broader philosophy. In reading Don Quixote, I can enjoy a literal and comical farce about a wannabe knight errant or a multi-dimensional text about the different aspects of literary criticism.
The world is at my fingertips, quite literally. I can turn a page and be transported through time and space. What a valuable education I can get if I only read! But the questions always come, even to the most enthusiastic English Literature major: ‘what next?’ Yes, I’m capable of being voted MVP for the trivial pursuit game, but that’s not a career.
The questions concerning careers after undergraduate school often bombard all graduates, but towards the English Major I feel that the asker is genuinely curious. After all, what can you do with a degree in English Literature? No one seems to know. Maybe Matthew Arnold knows. Although his Essay “The Study of Poetry” focuses more on the relationship between Religion and Poetry, interpretations allow for a link to be formed between Literature and Education. Education, learning, questioning, is a way of life, the only way of life this undergrad student can imagine. While education is ultimately didactic, (what did you learn at school today?) a degree in English Literature is perplexing because it doesn’t seem practical, and is especially focused on aesthetic value. That’s why I’ve memorized “The Idea of Order at Key West”: for it’s aesthetic value. Matthew Arnold said, “For poetry the idea is everything; the rest of the world is illusion”. My world of poetry is real to me, as if I’m a confidant of Anna Karenina, or a guest at Gatsby’s party. My education is one of transportation; I learn through experiences that aren’t my own, but I’m learning more than I could if I were limited to everyday experiences.
English Literature majors and Don Quixote have a lot in common: our ideas are real, and we prefer to live in a world of books, instead of a world held together by the rough theories of physics. The world of chemistry and quantum physics seems made-up, to me: like the theory about soap bubble galaxies. The world I live in will not change with the discovery of another dimension or a greater understanding of Wormholes in time. My life is changed by words, symbols typed and printed on to the page, symbols of love, life, and beauty. “‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ –that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know,”: so goes the last line of George Keats’ poem “Ode to a Grecian Urn”. My rather expensive and invaluable education has been directed towards learning this simple maxim. What I study is educational, analytical, and historical, but what I have learned is that there is no letter grade that can reflect the hours of joy I experienced from reading Don Quixote or the peace that I’m brought by reading the Touchstone lines of my favorite books. My education exposes me to religious experiences in literature; I could learn Accounting (if I were so inclined) but Literature is not something one learns, it is something that one experiences.
T.S. Eliot said, “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” To piggy-back on Eliot’s genius, I feel that this quote encapsulates both my education and my love of literature. Reading is exploring, so whether or not I’m reading about Dorothy trying to get home to Kansas, I am changed by my own share in the character’s experience. I begin reading every night seated in the right hand corner of the couch; I have a cup of tea in my hand, my elbow propped on a pillow, and warm socks. When I finish my book, I’m sitting in the exact same spot with my legs curled under me and while the physical view hasn’t changed, the world looks different. The world is different. I am different, also, better; and I will never cease from exploration.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
I am Don Quixote
If Dr. Sexon is right, that the world is divided into pragmatic Sancho Panzas and idealistic Don Quixotes, I must confess that I am a Don Quixote. Every book that I love, I wish I could jump into like Mary Poppins into a chalk painting. Every time I read Gone with the Wind, I get the urge to wear corsets and hoop skirts, to waltz and flirt. I get so emersed in the books that I love, that I wish my emersion was literal. If I could, I would become a part of my favorite books. I would attentd Gatsby's parties, walk the halls of Hogwarts, interview Grace of Margaret Attwood's Alias Grace, watch the bull fights with Jake, from The Sun Also Rises. That's what I consider moving literature, when I am so involved with the pages that I would give anything to live them. I'm sure this is how Don Quixote felt, it's just that he believed that he could live them!
Don Quixote
First Part, Chapter XIV, pg. 99
"Moreover, you must consider that I did not choose the beauty I have, and, such as it is, heaven gave it to me freely, without my requesting or choosing it. And just as the viper does not deserve to be blamed for its venom, although it kills, since it was gven the venom by nature, I do not deserve to be reproved for being beautiful, for beauty in the chaste woman is like a distant fire or sharp-edged sword: they do not burn or cut the person who does not approach them."
I love this entire page, and only relayed a small part of Marcela's self-defense. But, for it's early publication, this is a profoundly feminist argument that doesn't seem to be mocked or satirized by Cervantes or the other characters. This is another example of the low-mimetic in Don Quixote: the chaste virgins, the beautiful damsels, they can be victims, but they can also be criminizlied just as Marcela is because of their beauty. Beauty was considered a curse, a test, in the more strict Christian sects, and it was a woman's fault to be beautiful. In the low-mimetic, life-like version of the story, men are held accountable for their lusts. Even Don Quixote...
"Moreover, you must consider that I did not choose the beauty I have, and, such as it is, heaven gave it to me freely, without my requesting or choosing it. And just as the viper does not deserve to be blamed for its venom, although it kills, since it was gven the venom by nature, I do not deserve to be reproved for being beautiful, for beauty in the chaste woman is like a distant fire or sharp-edged sword: they do not burn or cut the person who does not approach them."
I love this entire page, and only relayed a small part of Marcela's self-defense. But, for it's early publication, this is a profoundly feminist argument that doesn't seem to be mocked or satirized by Cervantes or the other characters. This is another example of the low-mimetic in Don Quixote: the chaste virgins, the beautiful damsels, they can be victims, but they can also be criminizlied just as Marcela is because of their beauty. Beauty was considered a curse, a test, in the more strict Christian sects, and it was a woman's fault to be beautiful. In the low-mimetic, life-like version of the story, men are held accountable for their lusts. Even Don Quixote...
Don Quixote and the Low Mimetic
Maybe it's just taken me the entire semester for this to click, but I had a light-bulb moment about 200 pages into Don Q: the novel, while it contains all four seasons, is basically a low-mimetic account of a romantic knight's journey.
I knew that Don Quixote lived in the low-mimetic phase and that he dreamed of the Romantic...but I think this goes beyond what was said in class...or my idea is exactly what Dr. Sexon said, I just didn't put it together until Sancho and Don Q spen 1 paragraph getting their butts kicked and the next page and a half lying in the field discussing how badly they are hurt and whether to seek revenge against their assailants for the damage done.
The novel spends as much time or more talking about how much wine Sancho drinks, whether or not Don Q sleeps, and how hungry they are as it does about their adventures and conflicts. It's humorous because Don Quixote doesn't know if knights errant are allowed to sleep because he's never read an account of it: by definition Romance does not concern it's self with the mundane events of life like the Low-mimetic does.
so, my appologies if this is simply a repetition of a point that has been made all semester long, but I gained a new perspective reading instead of simply listening to the genius insights of Dr. Sexson.
I knew that Don Quixote lived in the low-mimetic phase and that he dreamed of the Romantic...but I think this goes beyond what was said in class...or my idea is exactly what Dr. Sexon said, I just didn't put it together until Sancho and Don Q spen 1 paragraph getting their butts kicked and the next page and a half lying in the field discussing how badly they are hurt and whether to seek revenge against their assailants for the damage done.
The novel spends as much time or more talking about how much wine Sancho drinks, whether or not Don Q sleeps, and how hungry they are as it does about their adventures and conflicts. It's humorous because Don Quixote doesn't know if knights errant are allowed to sleep because he's never read an account of it: by definition Romance does not concern it's self with the mundane events of life like the Low-mimetic does.
so, my appologies if this is simply a repetition of a point that has been made all semester long, but I gained a new perspective reading instead of simply listening to the genius insights of Dr. Sexson.
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