Author: Caitlin Crowe

For our first major assignment in this course, I wrote an essay titled “Looking More Closely Still”. In this essay, I focused on the Suspicious Pants tweet epigraph, which we examined in class during its first few sessions.

I explain how through class discussion, each of my peers and I had differing opinions on what we saw in these pants. As I mention in the essay, this notion parallels the concept of each individual reader analyzing texts in their own unique ways. Some people will have specific quotes that resonate strongly with them, while others may read that same quote and have a total opposite understanding. Furthermore, I affirm that it is important to allow the opinions of others into your mind in order to learn yourself. I then related the Suspicious Pants to the reading of Euripides’ The Bacchae. The Bacchae tells the story of Greek god Dionysus, who returns to his homeland of Thebes in search of revenge against those who spoke ill of his late mother. His authority as a god is not taken seriously upon his arrival. As I mention in my first essay, “Dionysus began to curse the women who spoke against him, who happened to be his mother’s sisters. These Maenads, as they were called, brought havoc to Thebes, which greatly angered Pentheus. Pentheus locked up Dionysus, which resulted in the derangement of the Maenads. Agave, one of the Maenads, was under the possession of the Bacchus, which caused her to kill Pentheus.” I focus on line 1281 of the play, which reads “Look more closely still. Study it carefully.” Agave returns to Thebes exuding with pride over the supposed lion that she thinks she killed. In line 1281, Cadmus speaks this proposition with hopes of bringing clarity to Agave and her action.

When I originally analyzed this quote back in September, my thought was focused on being open to the interpretation of literature from peers. I explain in my essay “It took Cadmus saying for her to actually look at it in order for her to realize she was the reason her son was dead. Her close minded viewpoint relates to those suspicious pants—if you only look at things from only your own perspective, you restrict yourself from gaining valuable insight.” Through discussion with my groupmates about the Suspicious Pants and studying the pants carefully, I was able to notice details that had gone unnoticed upon first glance. These details include but are not limited to: the wrinkles in the pants creating eyelids, the buttons in the pocket looking like eyes, and the stitching along the beltline resembling lips.

While I still agree with this interpretation, now that I’ve gone through this course, I’ve realized that this quote also applies to both the concepts of New Criticism and New Historicism that we learned this semester. According to The Bedford, New Criticism is defined as “a type of formalist literary criticism characterized by close textual analysis”. In this course, I have quite literally looked more closely at the texts we worked with, practicing the close textual analysis that The Bedford describes. This work was done through diligent reading of the course materials, as well as providing specific textual evidence in writing the mini-collaborations, such as the Frenzy regurgitation piece from October. As I have spent time reading for this course, I have studied each text carefully, as Cadmus suggests. Coming into class, I was prepared for the discussions that would ensue. I feel as though I was able to focus on thinkING and understanding by doing this, which is what I stated was a goal of mine in my September essay. Looking “more closely still”, however, is not just limited to the New Criticism perspective. 

New Historicism, as I have learned, demonstrates another connection to Cadmus’ line in The Bacchae. According to The Bedford, New Historicism “assumes that literary works both influence and are influenced by historical reality, and they share a belief in referentiality, that is, a belief that literature both refers to and is referred to by things outside itself.” The careful study that has taken place throughout this semester was mostly done in a New Historic manner. We went outside of the texts through watching films, discussing laws about films such as the Hayes Codes, and reading author interviews in order to more carefully study our course materials. I now realize that in order to “look more closely still”, you need to educate yourself on the influences that affect a piece of literature so a more well rounded understanding can be achieved.

Those Suspicious Pants that we examined in class have formed a through line, connecting all of the work done this semester. Every time we started a piece of literature, I found myself feeling a recurring sense of confusion, as I did on day two of this class while looking at the Suspicious Pants. I see now that this tweet embodies what this course is all about. At first glance, literature seems daunting. Especially in this course, I was initially overwhelmed with the language of Frenzy and reading the picaresque novel I Am Not Sidney Poitier. Percival Everett’s style of work was not something I was familiar with prior to starting this course. However, the longer time you spend working with a text, you begin to have bits and pieces of understanding. This remains true for the study of The Bacchae and Frenzy that were done in this course toward the beginning of the semester. As I explain in my first essay, when I read The Bacchae for the first time, I understood the gist, but realized I had missed key details after talking with group members. Slowing down, going back into the text, and re-reading after discussion allowed me to realize where I had missed. Furthermore, I was able to have a better understanding of the plot of The Bacchae after reading Percival Everett’s Frenzy. In Frenzy, Everett teaches his readers the story of The Bacchae through his unique adaptation of the characters and the plot. His inclusion of the narrator, Vlepo, as the “seer”, gives readers a first hand point of view in actions and thoughts of characters, which are then reported back to Dionysos. For example, Everett writes on page 17 of Frenzy “Dionysos looked to me. ‘I will put you into a woman and you will tell me what is felt.’ Before I could offer my opinion, I was in the body of a woman, feeling her delirium, walking toward a freshly killed deer from which others were tearing strips of flesh.” Everett’s adaptation of The Bacchae allows the reader to gain a new understanding of a more ancient text.

The experience of reading The Bacchae first, followed by Frenzy, was important in my understanding of the importance of viewing literature from a New Historical lens. Had we not gone outside the text and read The Bacchae, as a new historicist would do, the plot of Frenzy would’ve made little sense. I would have viewed it as an isolated piece of literature, unable to achieve a deeper understanding. Everett’s weaving of Euripides’ work into his own, without plagiarism of course, demonstrates intertextuality. This term is defined in The Bedford as “The condition of interconnectedness among texts, or the concept that any text is an amalgam of others, either because it exhibits signs of influence or because its language inevitably contains common points of reference with other texts.” Intertextuality is the basis of the New Historic way of looking at literature, and taking this course has allowed me to understand this.

This entire semester, we have been working on the concept of intertextuality. We have done this through “looping back”, as Dr. McCoy says to previous works we studied and finding the connection between them and the current piece. As I look back on my time in ENGL 203, I realize that those Suspicious Pants set the foundation for what we would learn about in the class. All that we have done ties back to those first few class meetings and discussions.

In the conclusion of my first essay, I state that my goals for this class include: refraining from focusing on my end grade, honoring the thoughts of my peers, and slowing down. As I reflect on this course, I believe that I can say I achieved my goals. Although I thought avoiding the pressure of the grade would be a significant challenge, it was actually a refreshing experience. Back in September, I believed this would be the case because of my former educational experiences. I have always strived for perfection and placed unrealistic expectations on myself for a grade. Removing the looming thought of the grade from the course seemed impossible at the time, but I am glad that I met the challenge. Experiencing this course free from the grade made me engaged without pressure or fear. Achieving these goals did not occur without reminders of the purpose of the course, though. As Dr. McCoy would say, the “ghost of previous training” did make its appearance quite often throughout the semester. At times, I found myself operating through moves in a checklist fashion, just trying to get things done. Slowing down was the hardest part of this course for me, but the challenge was rewarding and allowed me to learn how to “take care of readers” —another one of Dr. McCoy’s phrases— in my work. By taking time and focusing on the process, I feel as though I have been able to craft better, more coherent work. As I continue through my collegiate career, I will remember those Suspicious Pants and all that I have learned in this course.

Upon entering Dr. McCoy’s class on the second day— I missed day one due to a change in schedule— I found myself in a classroom community I have yet to experience. I had just changed my concentration to English, and I walked into this class with a cautiously eager mindset. I briefly reviewed the course syllabus prior to class, but was reassured by Dr. McCoy that time would be spent going over it. With my first glance, I immediately noticed the Suspicious Pants.

I honestly thought it was just a tweet that Dr. McCoy had liked, with no correlation to our coursework. I then noticed how it was placed under the title “Our Course Epigraphs”, so I knew it had to be important. I thought to myself, “Why would a professor have a silly tweet as one of the cornerstones of the course?” It was through our class discussion that I began to understand.

 While in class, my peers explained to me what had happened on day one. They all discussed what they noticed about the pants, and began sharing with me their own ideas. I contributed to the discussion by stating how the buttons in the pocket looked like eyes, and how the wrinkles below the pocket formed the ‘eyelids’. We asked questions such as “Are the pants themselves suspicious, or are they suspicious of something?” It was interesting to hear what my classmates made out of the tweet, which we all agreed was a funny thing to analyze for a collegiate English class. 

As we continued through class that day, we began a small group discussion about Geneseo alum Laura Skrzpczyk’s blog entitled The Art of Scaring. Her piece discusses how there is often not a lot of transparency in collegiate partnerships, and how the use of support systems helps eliminate the “scary” of college. In our group, we each put forth our experiences in college thus far. Our different years, majors, and our fears about being in a class structured in an innovative way became the focus of the conversation. Coming from all different backgrounds, we all saw a piece of ourselves in this article, just as we had seen different aspects when looking at the pants. Through these in-class exercises, I took a step outside of my own vision and connected with my classmates through listening to what they had to say. I left class that day feeling more at ease and open minded toward the course.

Looking at the Suspicious Pants tweet and reading The Art of Scaring reminded me of an idea that was reinforced in my previous English classes. As readers, we all will have our own perceptions and interpretations of literature. Discussing our individual viewpoints and hearing how they differ from others allows us to think of things we would otherwise not have, which is quite the rewarding experience. Certain aspects of a text may stand out to others, while some may be more well versed with theme ideas rather than specific text details. We each contribute our own understanding to the class, sparking scholarly discussion. This notion reinforces the idea of class community, which I have noticed is an important aspect of this course over the first few periods. Through our discussions of acting in good faith, it is clear that as members of this community we must welcome everyone’s unique perspectives, and I value the openness that our class setup establishes in order to do this successfully.

The way in which we analyzed the Suspicious Pants can be applied to the reading of Euripides’ play, The Bacchae. Even after taking a theater history course last fall, I still find myself struggling with Greek literature. The language is highly complex and difficult to understand, especially when the piece was made to be listened to, not read. The first time I read it, I had a basic understanding of the plot but was still quite confused. However, with each re-reading I did, I discovered new details that I had previously missed. Just like with the pants, the longer I spent looking, the more details I saw. 

As I read, I began to see connections between this piece of ancient literature and a modern day social media post. In Euripides’ The Bacchae, Diosnyus returns to Thebes under the facade of a strange and mortal man, where his power as a god is questioned. Dionysus began to curse the women who spoke against him, who happened to be his mother’s sisters. These Maenads, as they were called, brought havoc to Thebes, which greatly angered Pentheus. Pentheus locked up Dionysus, which resulted in the derangement of the Maenads. Agave, one of the Maenads, was under the possession of the Bacchus, which caused her to kill Pentheus. In line 1280 of Euripides’ The Bacchae, Agave questions Cadmus about what the head that she was holding really was. She was displaying it with great pride, completely oblivious to what she had done. To this, Cadmus replied “Look more closely still. Study it carefully” (line 1281). Agave, the mother of Pentheus, was so focused on the one interpretation in her mind that she thought was right. She was convinced she had murdered a lion. It took Cadmus saying for her to actually look at it in order for her to realize she was the reason her son was dead. Her close minded viewpoint relates to those suspicious pants—if you only look at things from only your own perspective, you restrict yourself from gaining valuable insight. When you are stuck in your own way of viewing something, letting in another person’s viewpoint can bring clarity. As the semester progresses, I hope to apply Cadmus’ dialogue to the way I approach coursework. By close looking and careful study, you focus on the process of thinking. This allows for a richer connection between reader and text, which is the ultimate goal of this course.

My personal goal for this course is to take on learning through a new lens. As someone who has always been focused on the end result and the number attached to it, this course will be challenging for me. Steering away from being driven by the grade is something I’ve never done, but I am up to the challenge. Taking on this new style of a class, I aim to remember that there is significance in taking the time to probe deeper and both listen to and value the thoughts of my peers. I yearn to take Dr. McCoy’s advice on slowing down to focus on the process, and better myself as a reader and writer in doing so.