Dissecting from a Distance: Final Reflection Blog Post

I’ve always loved English courses. Ever since elementary school, I loved to read and write, and then in High School, when I found out English could involve more than just reading and writing, but literary analysis as well, I was a bit resistant at first, but eventually learned to enjoy this aspect of English classes as well. Now, looking back on this first semester of my College experience, and my experience in English 203 in particular, I feel as if I’ve gone through this process of learning about analysis all over again, this time with “meta” analysis.

Throughout my experience in all my high school English classes, we would read a work, discuss the themes, characters, and plot of the work, connect it to something else relevant to the class, and maybe talk a bit about the author, however the majority of the time was always spent on discussing the content of whatever text we were currently reading. In English 203, I was expecting more of the same, perhaps with a bit more difficulty and some more challenging works. I was, instead, blindsided by a course that focused far more on the connections between the texts we studied and, well, literally everything else. From our daily theme-songs to classic holiday movies to “comedy” specials, this class was so much more inclusive and all encompassing in the works we studied that at times I had to remind myself that what I was watching, or reading, or listening to was actually for a class. All of this caught me a little off guard at first, I admit.  In fact, at the beginning of this class, I didn’t really get what we were doing, or how it could possibly be a worthwhile use of time. I mean, how could pairing Walden and Nanette possibly be a good idea?  Eventually, however, the connections between many of our texts became clear, and I found the answer to the my initial questions of “What are we doing in here?” and “How does any of it relate to English?”, but even then, these answers did not come in the form I expected. I was given my answers in the form of more questions, questions that weaved their way through many of the works we studied, and even when they were not present in a certain work, they always found their way back into our discussions somehow.

These questions are what I now know to be “meta” questions. I’d heard the prefix “meta” applied countless times to countless words, without ever really knowing the whole of what it meant. I never gave it too much thought, and I got the gist of it through context most times, anyway, so I never bothered to look it up. Throughout this course however, I’ve come to form my own understanding of “meta”, through our discussions and class and the questions we’ve found in the works we studied this semester. I’ve come  to learn that “meta” just means “self-reflective”.  In our study of “The Importance of Being Earnest” and its author, Oscar Wilde, we discussed Wilde’s use of satire as way to make members the society it satirizes reflect on their collective priorities, or as we put it, raising “meta” questions about the importance that society in Wilde’s time placed on unimportant and arbitrary things by showing characters who place that same importance on things as arbitrary as a name. In our discussions of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”  and the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, we discussed how the plights of the characters in these stories attempt to force people to reflect, or ask “meta” questions, about their own relationship with money and wealth.  In our conversations about Lewis Carroll’s “Alice and Wonderland” and “Alice Through the Looking-Glass”, we discussed how Alice was forced to ask “meta” questions about her identity and how the reader was forced to ask “meta” questions about what we consider traditional versus what we find absurd. Throughout every work we’ve covered this semester, any time we’ve talked about something that raises “meta” questions or engages in “meta” conversation, we’ve been talking about something that makes the readers or some intended audience reflect on some aspect of themselves or the world they live in.

Many times this semester, when talking about “meta” questions and “meta” commentary, we’ve used the phrase “moving one level up” to describe what one does in preparation to say something “meta”. Therefore, it’s been implied, if not outright stated, that  in order for us to better understand and connect to “meta” commentary, and questions, we must not only be able to identify when an author, or text, or other work, “moves one level up” but also, be able to ourselves “move one level up” in order to engage in “meta” conversation. I’m not sure I agree with this phrase. To me at least, “moving one level up” implies that those who engage in “meta” analysis or ask “meta” questions are gaining altitude, like we’re climbing some ladder of thought, moving more and more “levels up” as if the key to enlightenment sits at the top. That is not what I’ve come to think of when I picture “meta” analysis. In my opinion, “meta” analysis, conversations, and questions, most often deal with the abstract. Most “meta” conversations involve, open ended questions, texts that can be interpreted countless ways, and authors with enigmatic intentions. This connection to the abstract signifies in my mind that dealing with “meta” analysis in literature  should be thought of in the same light as trying to enjoy or understand abstract art. In this same vein of thought, it makes more sense to me think of engaging in “meta” conversations and analysis not as “moving a level up”, but as “taking a step back”, like one would when trying to look at a piece of art from a new angle.

It was after I first had this “taking a step back” idea that it clicked for me what the real significance of this course was. English 203 has been one long but important lesson, on how we as students and as literary scholars need to not just  analyze literature from up close, by dissecting the plots and characters and themes of works, but also from afar. We need to be able to take a step back from the specifics and details of the works we study and learn to look at the most important parts in relation to the world and works around it. After all, the class has “Fluid Text” in the name for a reason. As we’ve stated countless times in class, nothing in the world of creativity exists in a vacuum, for all creativity is influenced by something that came before it, it was fascinating to spend an entire semester focusing on texts in relation to works that they draw inspiration from, and it definitely helped cement in my mind the idea that all creativity is connected, in one way or another. This lesson, how to dissect literature from a distance, is one I hope to take with me throughout my career not only in college, but into the workforce as well.  As an aspiring future English teacher, it will be my responsibility to (hopefully) teach a new generation this same lesson some day.

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