Post 5 - Reflection

[Carmelo Rubio]

Well, I suppose that this last post will not really be based too much on theory per say, but I wanted to take this opportunity to share exactly what my feelings on this class actually are. I have found literary theory to be one of the more rewarding classes that I have taken. Throughout the course of the semester I’ve been challenged by literary theory, what has definitely been one of the harder classes that I’ve taken, but at the same time the class has forced me to think about things in ways that I’ve never even thought about before. By learning to think about things through a variety of different perspectives, i feel that people can often find themselves better than before. Thinking critically is a major skill, not just for literature, but throughout life itself. I’ve been able to take the things that we've learned in class and apply them to my daily life, and the critical thinking skills that I’ve learned in this class have forced me to think about my own life more critically, and thus make me realize what changes need to be made for a better life as a whole. So, while definitely struggled during some particular readings, and barely managed to grasp certain concepts (ie post structuralism), I believe that at the end of the day, taking literary theory has benefited me on not only an academic level but on a personal level as well. In fact, before I took this class, I had just changed my major to exploratory, and really didn't know what I wanted to actually end up doing. I've since changed my major to English literature, and this class definitely had an influence on me making that decision. So, while I hear everyone say that they hate this class, I just wanted to use this last, perhaps a bit unprofessional, post to say how much I've truly appreciated it.

[Emmalee Warchol]

            POST 5 A review of this class

            Since you are a professor who does enjoy feedback of any kind and does seem to use it I just wanted to state my opinions about your class. I was intrigued going into this class because I did want to learn about how differing theories of thought applied to literature. While I had no inkling that there were theories specifically about literacy, I found that most philosophical theories did surface directly or indirectly in this class. I prefer lecture-based classes. While some days it is indeed boring and you find your mind wondering, other days I was fully emerged in the topic at hand. I found those days were often toward the end of the semester. Perhaps its because I had gained some background knowledge but I think it is mostly because those days the class as a whole had discussions. There were some people who spoke p every day while there where others who spoke maybe one or two times throughout the class. I enjoyed hearing everyone. The class may have only had thirty people in it but everyone had their own point of view or outside experience that expanded the topic.

            I was so thankful you did your best to breeze through the early philosophers. Though some of their ideas were intriguing and others confounding, its so far in the past that its hard to connect to. It was important and I feel it should stay apart of the curriculum because it’s the bases of modern thought. The most beneficial part of the class were the emails summarizing the next theorist. Some ideas were easy to grasp and do not necessarily need these summaries but other stories I found I would read look up and just exclaim “WHAT?!”. I think you should summarize everyone just in case there is that one person who doesn’t understand. Just because you summarized it did not mean we didn’t have to do the readings. You still had to read in order to participate. I think that the explanations really helped people and that they lead to more people participating in the discussions. That is the end goal for me: grasping the material and seeing everyone’s point of views on it. You did well and I appreciated that you worked with us to better your class throughout the semester and not just waiting until next time you taught it. 

[Bri Shatanoff]

I, too, would like to share my feelings on this course. Initially, I was confused. I was confused as to why this class was a requirement and I was confused as to what we were studying. However, by the end of this course, I have come to realize the material we have read and analyzed has helped me to take on a different perspective as I come across various works of writing. What stood out to me the most is whenever I had thoughts about a work of writing, it usually aligned with a theory. For instance, and as I stated on our final quiz, I always thought that because a piece of literature is old, it must mean it is great. I have had professors tell students that the novel is wonderful and they do not understand why we do not want to read it because it has been around for centuries so there's some reason we are still reading it today. When we began studying Samuel Johnson and what he believed, I thought "BINGO". But then when I signed up for some British Novel class and began reading these old novels, I did not enjoy them. Was I crazy? How come they were still around? Who the heck thought they were great? But according to Samuel Johnson, it was supposed to be a great novel. Then we encountered Tompkins, and I found that I related more to what he believed, which was basically although something is critiqued and reviewed time and time again over the years, it still does not bring us to one final conclusion about it because it has so many opinions on it. Just from one class, all 25 students have their own opinion on Jane Eyre; not all 25 believed it to be great.To wrap this up since I hit the 300 word count, although this course was challenging and many times confusing, I know it will benefit me with the rest of my courses, career, and in every day life.

[Blair Stokes]

Post #5

As for a review of the class, I personally will likely not rely on theory, like ever again. I think it was interesting to learn about, but in the end, I don’t want to be told how to read. I also don’t want to rely on one theory to guide all of my further readings. I don’t want to be pigeonholed as just a Marxist or just a feminist. I want to pick and choose theories I like and use them freely, if I so choose. Hell, I might choose not to ever use a theory again. I think it’s good to know that these things are out there, but ultimately, I don’t think I’ll ever use theory again. But the class was nice, albeit scary. I didn’t skip due to participation quizzes, which is good I guess. My mind felt like it exploded and died a few times in the class so that’s also good I guess, because that doesn’t happen often. I’m ambivalent about this class really. Probably wouldn‘t take another theory class though.

Pt.2 and reply to class discussion: 

As we discussed earlier in class, it is a little structuralist and counterproductive of Barbara Christian to propose a binary opposition of oppressive white male writers and oppressed black female writers. The problem with this set up of her argument is that she forgets that these aren’t the only sides of writing, these aren’t the only people in the equation. While this is reductive framing, I think it would also be reductive to dismiss Christian’s argument based on the fact that she’s writing about what she knows. Would she have any real right to talk about magical realism and Hispanic authors? Is she an authority on that? Probably not. She’s doing justice for the “works” she cites. I think we would consider that cultural appropriation. These are the cultures she is familiar with, this is what she knows.