Post 5

[Chelsea Bennett]

Hmmm…is there a problem with theory? I’m not quite sure myself. Graff’s believes that Universities and the education system have been unsuccessful in regards to applying theory to literature classes through categorizing each literature class by genres and periods. Through the compartmentalized literary categories, Graff believes theory has become isolated and these different groups of literature don’t integrate with each other. Though he made a few good points I have found that several of my categorized classes at Florida State have been able to integrate with each other even though that wasn’t the professor’s plans. Last year in spring semester I was taking Global Literature, Modern British Novel and though it was literature Spanish Cinema. All very different and yet each had one thing in common, diaspora. It may not lead to theory but all were able to integrate with each other through minorities. We went over the African-American type theory that Toni Morrison wrote about but we never covered other ethnic minorities. Are there theories that cover the Hispanics and Indians?

            Another issue I had with Graff’s essay was; why must every piece of literature have some theory behind it? Authors don’t begin to write their novels wit the idea of Post-Structuralism or New Historicism behind them. They write for the love of it. I don’t browse a bookstore hoping to come across a novel that venture into a Marxist theory. I look for novels that excite me and open me up to new ideas. Theorists don’t necessarily need to always find something in a piece of work to give it meaning. The fact that the piece of work was made and shared through out the world is meaning enough. This class has taught me many new interesting perspectives on how to treat a text educationally, but as a casual reader theory doesn’t mean much.

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