In my last post, I expressed my surprise that by reading the fourth chapter of Interdisciplinarity, I was able to connect the books we are exploring in class to Marxist theory. A few days later, I found the entry “Marxist criticism” in The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms and must admit that I had missed something important in my last post – Marxist literary criticism has been pretty prevalent in the West since the 1940s (Murfin & Ray, 282). Had I known this, it wouldn’t have been a surprise to me at all when I was able to look at Cane and Meridian through the lens of Marxist criticism. Continue reading “Endless Theories”
History as it pertains to literature
Chapter 4 of Moran’s Interdisciplinarity discusses the relationship between history and literature. Upon reading this, I could not think of anything but Meridian. History has been a central theme through all of our class discussions and individual readings from start to finish in this book. Everything from the setting to the dialogue between characters is rooted in historical context, and I felt that Meridian served as a prime example of the relationship that Moran explores in this chapter of his book. Continue reading “History as it pertains to literature”
The Importance and Rationality of Impatience In the Case of Feminism
As many of us may know, feminism has been the subject of debate and scrutiny for as long as we can remember in our immediate lives. From job inequality to societal values, women have never really seemed to get what they want or even what they deserve. Part of this, it seems, is the misconception that the force that feminists bring to their requests and demands is a statement of vengeance or a superiority complex. In Interdisciplinarity, Moran says that feminism “has been founded on an impatience with the power arrangements…and the way that the experience of women is devalued or excluded” (Moran 92). Continue reading “The Importance and Rationality of Impatience In the Case of Feminism”
Perception of Female and Male Bodies
Reading about the way Lynne copes with (or attempts to cope with) her rape reminded me directly of the story I am reading for my creative writing class, and Moran’s meditations on feminism. The men in Lynne’s life challenge her experiences and promptly dismiss them (“[Altuna Jones] looked at Lynne with pity, for she had obviously not been—in his opinion—raped”) and following the assault Lynne has sex out of obligation, grief (175). She is degraded by both the men and women in town, as the men ignore her and the women “began to curse her and to threaten her” (180).
In Cheryl Strayed’s autobiographical work, “The Love of My Life,” she documents the defeating loss and grief she felt upon the early death of her mother. Though married, she copes (or attempts to cope with) the loss by having sex with men and women she does not know and will not remember. In these encounters she experiences a separation from her body: “With them, I was not in mourning; I wasn’t even me. I was happy and sexy and impetuous and fun.” While emotionally she feels no connection to these encounters or the people she has them with, her friends and family cut her off, and in her grieving she develops an addiction to heroin.
Making Connections
I think too much. My mind is constantly at work filling itself with intricate but tangled thoughts and ideas, neurons rapid-firing, and I often find it hard to keep up with myself. I think this is one of many reasons I gravitated towards the English major- because English study corrals my unruly thoughts and helps me make sense of them. Continue reading “Making Connections”
The Psychic Struggle of Authors
It is no secret that pieces of literature can contain pieces of history. Many times authors will insert allusions that help to set the locale of their book without explicitly stating the setting. But literature doesn’t just interact with historical events; it also interacts with historical figures, particularly past writers. Continue reading “The Psychic Struggle of Authors”
Marxism in Literature
The novel at the center of our latest class discussion by Alice Walker, Meridian, is a gem of a book that I have found deeply thought-provoking as well as an overall invigorating read. The protagonist, Meridian, has been a mystery that is gradually unfolding as I reach the end. Her values and morals as a Civil Rights Worker in the southern region of the USA fit smoothly into her station, and they are relatively clear to the reader, as Meridian is an astounding thinker. It is when she has a fleeting conversation with her close college friend, Anne-Marion, that we are introduced to Meridian’s perspective on Socialist and Communist theories, which have been significantly contributed to by the ideas of Karl Marx. Continue reading “Marxism in Literature”
English Versus Every Other Subject
While reading Chapter 4 of Moran’s Interdisciplinarity (which basically said the same thing over and over again in the thirty pages), I noticed that the text kept bringing up the idea that although History and English had separated from each other as disciplines, historians drew “on ‘soft’ sources such as literary tests, autobiographies…as well as ‘hard’ sources such as official government documents, state papers and statistical data” (Moran, 111). Why does this matter, you might ask? Well, this proves, to me at least, that no matter how rigidly separated any of the disciplines are, they still draw on aspects of each other to essentially “back-up” the claims being made. So if English texts are so important to make connections to other disciplines, why does it still get the bad reputation? I guess I will never know, but the question will continue to puzzle me throughout the semester.
Marxism and Our Class Assignments?
When we first started reading Jean Toomer’s Cane and Alice Walker’s Meridian, I probably would have laughed if someone had told me I would be, somewhere down the line, talking about them in the context of how they support Marxism. To be clear, I’m not going to refer to them as socialist works (for that’s quite an intuitive leap, although I’m sure it would be an interesting interpretation). Rather, I’m interested in how Interdisiciplinarity devotes a section to the theories of Marxism in respect to how literature, culture, and history all intersect. Continue reading “Marxism and Our Class Assignments?”
Fascinated by Queer Theory
Moran’s investigations into feminist theory offer an interesting probe into queer theory. He notes society’s need to categorize and diagnose sexuality: “from the late nineteenth century onward, the homosexual became a named category or species, whereas previously same-sex love had just been an activity undertaken by a wide variety of people” (97). Sexuality not only needs to be defined and categorized, but also it becomes tied to personality, becomes “entangled in much wider issues… of masculinity, capitalism, and national identity” (99).
At the Trans? Fine By Me talk I went to recently, one of the speakers mentioned a man who was gay who was assaulted. However, she noted, this man was not assaulted for his sexuality. He was not with his partner, and therefore the assailant would have no way of knowing his sexuality. Rather, he was assaulted because the assailant believed he failed at his gender. He was believed to not be actively expressing his masculinity enough, and because of this, the assailant believed he was homosexual. Thus, his masculinity tied directly to his sexuality, as Moran suggests is a common fault.