HUM LIT Blog Central

Prompt: Post some reflections on your ideas about the author and how it relates to the digital literature we considered in class. Here are a few opening questions:

What do you make of these? Are they fun? Are they frustrating? What do they mean? Does it make sense to even ask the questions? What approaches to reading do they invite or discourage? Do you think there’s intention or a lack of it behind them? Does the built-in interactivity make them seem richer or poorer to you?

While blogging: don’t forget to visit your group-mates and leave some comments.

What do we do with authors? On a commonsense level, the author is important as the creator of the text. We couldn’t have the poem, story, article, or book without its author. Even though the neccesity and importance of the author will seem totally clear, obvious, even unquestionable, I want to ask you to think a bit further about it.

The Theory Toolbox suggests that sometimes we need to question common sense, to see whether the assumptions upon which it is based seem valid. We can also think about some of the consequences or what choosing one view leaves out.

Here are a few possible issues with commonsense thinking about authors. Could it be that we exaggerate the role of the maker, who after all is sometimes a collaborator, often draws on sources and models, works with an editor, etc. Once a book is written, do we need the author? What about those texts we can now only credit to anonymous? Do we lose anything when we lose touch with the author?

Now we’re thinking less about an author’s role in making than about the author function — that is, how an author continues to be important in a text; or what uses we make of the author. Knowing about the author of a text can sometimes seem to help us understand it. We often refer to the author to support our experience of a text: I reacted to X, which was Author Y’s intention….

This bring us closer to the continuing power of the author — in the exertion of authority over the scope and meaning of a text. When in doubt, or when we want to assert the accuracy of our perception, we may want to refer to the author. He or she becomes like an expert witness giving testimony at a trial. What do we think of this powerful function? Sometimes the answer depends on whether it’s used for or against us!

Over the next week I’d like us to be reflective about the role of authors — that is the role or function we give them. Let’s think about how we invoke them, what kind of proof they give or don’t, and the consequences. Is there anything wrong with deferring to the author, to intention? What do we do with a multi-authored text? Does author’s intention save the day or create more problems?

In Ceremony, we learned to appreciate the importance of stories within an oral tradition. They can help constitute the values of a culture and given its members a sense of belonging. The corrido plays a similar function in the American southwest, particuarly along the Rio Grande border with Mexico.

Corrido’s are always narratives — that is, they tell a story.  But they are sung more often than written, and in the years before recording, would have been transmitted from one singer to another.  A typical corrido deals with factual incidents that one might today see in the newspaper, but obviously the events and perspectives are shaped specially by the singer/teller for a specific audience.

The corrido’s are a local form folk culture. We’ll look at one especially famous one later this week — dealing with events and a figure who rose to become a hero in the eyes of many.  But first we’ll look into the background and context of typical corridos, which by the way … were and are still sung en espan~ol.

Corridos Sin Fronteras

Reread the story passages and post two paragraphs to your blog — discussing the importance of “story” for this novel, the character of Tayo, or Laguna culture. This should be your third blog post — unless you’re an over-achiever!

(pp. 1, 2, 13, 37, 46, 53, 71, 81, 105, 113, 128, 132, 139, 142, 151, 153, 170, 180, 182, 206, 247, 255, 257, 258, 260, 262)

Here are a few interesting responses: Casey N, Dan P, Maureen S, Joe V, and David Z.

Next week we’ll begin with a discussion of two different kinds of folk or popular texts. Joel Chandler Harris published the Uncle Remus tales in a Georgia newspaper. We’ll ask questions about who read them, why, and how we might read (interpret) them today.
In past semesters, students have found it very helpful to try reading them aloud. This is because Harris has attempted to “spell-out” the sounds of African-American vernacular speech.

Please print out these tales, which are followed with some blues lyrics that we’ll discuss Wednesday. Finally, don’t forget that our first novel Cermony is coming up. You won’t be able to read it the night before! And I do think a quiz would be a good motivator.

Here’s a first prompt to help you with your first post of substance:

Think about how the “Why Theory” article encourages skeptical questioning. Seemingly natural facts (like Fairy tales are for children, their purpose is to entertain, chidlren ought not be scared, children cannot understand the dangers of the world) can be unravelled with the aid of theory; “the upsetting of the ‘natural fact’ is the beginning of being able to see things clearly.”

In a response of 2-3 paragraphs, discuss what has or might be called into question about our ideas of Fairy Tales. If we read them anew, without our prior preconceptions, what might we perceive or learn?

Check your IUP Email for a username and password. This should allow you a link through which you can login, change your password, and participate in two blogs. You’ll have access to a personal blog (titled with your name, though you can change the display) and to our group ENGL 121 Blogroll.*
1. Identify your group mates, sit with them, and  Login to your individual blog.
2. Once logged in, check your address and then bring it to the instructor station; we can add your name and address to the blogroll, so the class and I can find you. See the ENGL 121 Blogroll Please don’t add this now from your computer, unless you wait until after class, as you’ll likely erase something a classmate is doing.
3. Choose a Presentation / theme, or make other cosmetic changes (via the dashboard).

4. Add links to the blogs of your groupmates using the Dashboard / Links  menu.

5. Write and publish your first substantial post, discussing my question about theory and fairy tales.

*If you don’t see the ENGL 121 Blogroll listed at the top of the screen, please let me know so I can give you permission.

This week I hope to kick off the class with some unpredictable readings, a kind of safari adventure in language. If we can “unlearn” or rethink some limiting habits or prejudices about how and why read, this will empower us as readers… of everything from poems to want ads.

Perhaps the motto for the week should be: take nothing for granted. Even very commonsense and obvious “truths” are worth taking the measure of again –like the idea that literature is written by talented and inspired individuals for the purpose of self expression.

In-class write/discuss: What is literature?

• What is literature, how would you define it? What is not literature? Are there essential qualities in a text that mark it as special?
• Do we approach “literature” differently than other things we read?
• What does it say about literature that we study it? What do good readers/students/teachers of literature do?

Smal/Large Group Discussion: Exhibit Varieties of Texts (web selection)

• Groups - What marks your reading as literary or non-literary?
• Are there qualities in the language or expectations that arise given the “type” of writing it is?
• Can it be read within a literary frame? Should it? Do you want to? What difference would it make?
• In what ways does it seem appropriate to read, discuss, even interpret it in Hum Lit?

Syllabus review
Note -Preview: How to approach readings from the Theory Toolbox

HW Mon: Check/reset email and network login. Begin reading Varities of Texts (handout)
HW Weds: Finish Varieties of Texts and read “Why Theory” handout
HW Fri (for Weds after Labor Day): Read Grimms Tales (download, print from e-readings)