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In Chapter 5 of Moran’s Interdisciplinarity, there is a section called Geography as Text that talks about how the representation of geography can be used to manipulate or form people’s perception of geography or places – just like how the representation of an idea through words can be manipulated or formed to change people’s perceptions of the idea.

This section of the chapter was most memorable to me because the many parallels between geography and text on paper intrigued me greatly, and I found connections between this idea and the books we read in class very easily. For example, the Stratosphere and glamorous signs in Las Vegas were the “texts” that reflected an image of Las Vegas in D’Agata’s About A Mountain; Bechdel’s father used house decorations and designs to create a false image that covered up his secret about his homosexuality.

The theme of appearance and reality is not uncommon, but what made this part of Interdisciplinarity intriguing for me was that the theme was applied to a “science”. Usually society treats science as facts, as reality. What appears to be in science must be real. There is no need for a distinction between appearance and reality. Except…that is not true, as Moran proves.

One does not need to delve into deep literature to come across misconceptions of certain places that are caused by inaccurate or biased portrayals of those places. For example, pretty much everyone from my home (Hong Kong) thinks that New York state equals New York City. On the other hand, some people in the States do not know how liberal Hong Kong is and think that it is as conservative as mainland China.

Throughout Interdisciplinarity, Joe Moran attempts to connect the multiple disciplines of knowledge that make up our world. While various different disciplines have a connection with each other, Moran believed that science was the key to uniting all of the different types of knowledge. In specific, biology was stressed to be the most important field of science that would interconnect the disciplines.

So why is biology so important? Well to start, it is one of the most important fields of study, because it is what makes up our body, as well as our environment. Edward O. Wilson was a huge advocate for science and biology, and its importance in seeing similarities in the disciplines. Wilson believed that there was a link between genetic evolution and cultural evolution.

Since all humans are born with biologically similar brains, the mind and it’s effects have to be a result of biological evolution. Neuroscience is important when considering the biological theory of everything. Studying the brain and its effects can tell us a lot, and since the evolution of culture progresses from memories and experiences of the past, culture can directly be paired with neurology and the sciences. Culture is defined as the customs, traditions, arts, and achievements of a specific group. The passing down of all of these aspects of culture heavily relies on memory and consciousness. Therefore, scrutiny of the brain and it’s parts can tell us a lot about culture, as well as literature. Lauren Slater includes neuroscience in her metaphorical memoir, Lying. In her surgical procedure she undergoes, her corpus callous is severed. I believe Slater includes this specific information about the brain and how it affects her life in order to give a scientific explanation for her childhood and how her past can be explained and her life improved, by a simple neurological surgical procedure. If Slater can do this for her past, it might be possible in the future, with far more scientific findings, to analyze culture scientifically, via a biological study of members of a culture.

Treading back to Wilson, a theory of consilience was highly considered. Consilience is the idea that separate and unrelated sources of information can be presented together to make strong conclusions. Interdisciplinary in a way is a form of consilience, seeing how the combination of multiple disciplines can attribute for the learning of new knowledge. We see consilience in About a Mountain by John D’Agata, as well as the podcast Serial, by Sarah Koenig. In both of these forms of creative nonfiction, Koenig and D’Agata act as skilled writers, as well as researchers. As they add their research contributions to their novel/podcast, they take research information from various different disciplines and combine them in order to make a conclusion. In About a Mountain, D’Agata uses his abundance of scientific information, as well as political and social research in the hopes of making a statement about society and the world that we live in. Koenig chooses to include observations from many different sources, and uses them to her advantage in telling Adnon’s story, and her attempt to prove his innocence.

As of right now, a theory of everything has not been achieved and the entirety of disciplines have yet to be connected. It may never happen, but as long as experts from each discipline continue to collaborate their ideas, it is inevitable that new perspectives will be added, and knowledge of each discipline will continue to grow.

 

In our discussion on Chapter 4 of Interdisciplinarity today, we discussed the relationships between history and literary criticism as academic disciplines. In particular, we talked about the importance of context in being able to closely read a piece–in other words, it is important to understand the life and times of the author, so that we may have a better understand of what they may have meant by their prose/poetry, and/or what universal themes or truths they were attempting to discuss. After all, what’s the point of literary criticism and analysis other than to discover an author’s one true intention, right?

…Right?

No, not right. While this line of thinking–taking the context of an author’s experience into account and using to spearhead analysis–can be useful, it often leads to a point where there is only one “acceptable” interpretation of a work.

Does the context of a piece necessarily have to affect one’s views of it or its meaning? Does individual thought have a place in academic thinking–particularly literary criticism? Can we allow our subjective experiences to inform our interpretations of art?

Continue reading “Reader/Response”

In Interdisciplinarity, Joe Moran discusses the importance of literature to history as a discipline and its development as science.  New Historicism is a shift in the way historians look at history.  Marxism is a prime example.  Marxism states that history shapes the production of art, culture and ideas.  On these grounds, we are able to study history by looking critically at the art, culture and ideas that existed during a certain time period.  Marxist schools of thought and the emergence of new historicism have strongly influenced the way historians think, not only in regards to socio-political structure, but also in the way history relates to art, culture and the social sciences.

Continue reading “New Journalism and New Historicism”

In chapter four of Joe Moran’s educational book interdisciplinary  there is a section titled “Knowledge and Power”. It explores Michel Foucault’s work in a field that can be accurately termed “the history of systems of thought”.

Foucault was a French historian of ideas who lived from 1926-1984. His work focused on the relationship between knowledge and power and how it is used in society as a means of control. Continue reading “Knowledge & Power”

I believe Joseph Moran’s section on feminism in his book Interdisciplinarity  is one of the most important I’ve read thus far. The feminist perspective is unique and in that while integrating various disciplines, it aims also to challenge the existing beliefs of the disciplines and deracinate their patriarchal roots. Continue reading “The Feminist Perspective”

Theory whether it be scientific or literary, serves the purpose to question the various interpretations of the world around us by using language to structure our perceptions to convey our beliefs. Moran defines scientific theory as being an advancement in knowledge within a specific discipline in a systematic form so as to propose a law about the natural world, resulting in verification. This is most typically done through the scientific method. The scientific method serves as a universal means to test a question with a universal language of hypotheses, materials, method, results, and conclusion. After any given experiment it done, it is understood that the results must be done so that it is repeatable to be accepted or else, the question is still posed. Literature on the other hand has a different and more malleable meaning according to Moran’s writing. Continue reading “Language, Culture, and Literariness”

John Frow urges writers to “… rather than claiming to speak for anyone else, intellectuals should speak as intellectuals and address their readers as such”(78).  I thought this was interesting in relation to “Serial”, in which Sarah Koenig, who is an experienced producer and journalist, sort of seems to be coming from a bit more everymans place in her research.  In one instance Koenig is doing some field reporting but notes interruptions at one point to go for food (sets a more than casual tone). Why does she include these tidbits instead of sanitizing them as she does on this American Life? Well, you could look at this from two ways: one is that she is showing her audience her faults and  talking to them as she would anyone else, or she’s manipulating her habits as a journalist and a person to appeal to her audience that reaches across the demographics. Continue reading “Frow and the Question of Writing Up and Down”

The word “queer” holds a mostly negative connotation these days; it means weird, strange, things that are disturbingly different. Historically, it’s been used as a pejorative term for homosexuals. To be queer is not to be normal, and is not something to be proud of for most people looking to fit in. However, the academics surrounding the sexuality of those who lie outside the realm of “normal” have embraced the word, and take power in it. This subversion of power is what Queer Studies is focused on. Continue reading “Subversive Studies”

During the late 1960s and through the 1970s, led by Stuart Hall, The Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies began to incorporate sociology as a significant cultural study. Hall believed that sociology should be considered as a cultural study due to its wide-ranging spectrum of theories and methods which relate to other important disciplines, such as philosophy, history and politics. What also made sociology all-encompassing was its inclusion of everyday practices, rituals, social groups and all different kinds of media. One of the main concerns of the Center dealt with social structure versus individuality and how the two effect one another. The term functionalism refers to the argument that the social world constrains and limits the individual within certain parameters. Meanwhile, interactionism is the opposite, it argues that the individual can interact productively with the social world, without outside influence.

Continue reading “Sociology as a Cultural Study”