I've been thinking about literature in the 21st century and the comments made last class. Is war really what has become the framework for literature for this century? Is today's art the reflection of the art of survival? Is the beauty of all the art we read found in the triumph of one life over another?
I'm not quite sure I like how art is transforming. I feel like we are regressing; this literature is dominated by macho, brut, male perspective. Where are the female artists? Have they all crawled under a house after swallowing handfuls of sleeping pills? Where are the Marianne Moores and Gertrude Steins of our generation? Have their voices been crushed under the weight of fallen towers?
1 comment:
Hey Jessica: Have heart--in the second part of this class, we will get to this and we will be reading voices that have very different take on the 21st century world than the people we have read so far.......
But your post does allow me talk about something that I have wanted to talk about--I am very aware that we have been reading white male heterosexual works. To call these book "macho" is an understatement. This is something that in my other classes, I have tried to stay away from. I have been someone who has been interested in expanding the literary cannon and I think it is important to read from a multitude of voices--voices that have been marginalized in the academy (as well as obviously in society). And so my syllabi in other classes have a large amount of "minority" voices and I have moved away from a lot of "traditional" texts (although they certainly do hold a place in my classes). But when thinking about this class and looking at the state of our world, I think it is important for us to read through these particular texts and discuss the rhetoric that has been espoused by them. By putting these voices and texts under the microscope, I am hoping that all of us can then apply this analysis as we listen to the debates or read the papers or think about policy. I could write more but my computer is dying.....
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