For Wednesday: Sappho, Stung With Love: Her Girls and Family (pp.33-53) & The Wisdom of Sappho (pp.83-87)

For Wednesday's class, be sure to read the poems listed above and instead of questions, we'll have our In-Class Writing #3 now instead of next week over some aspect of the reading.

But here's a hint: many of these poems seem to play into her role as a teacher, or instructor for younger girls. In this way, they sound like advice or wisdom literature, some of them direct, others cleverly disguised. Think about how we might construct the roles expected of women at this time, and how Sappho tries to teach women to navigate these roles without losing their sense of individuality and female community. 

See you on Wednesday! 

Slight Schedule Change!

NOTE: Monday's reading/questions are in the post below this one

I've decided to make a slight change to this week and next week in order to give you a solid two weeks to write Paper #1. I always meant to do this, but I assigned the paper later than I expected. So I moved two days around so that the paper will be due immediately after Labor Day. The schedule for the next two weeks will now look like this:

30        Sappho, Stung With Love: Desire and Death-Longing (pp.21-29) & Troy               (p.59)

SEPTEMBER

1          Sappho, Stung With Love: Her Girls and Family (pp.33-53) & The Wisdom             of Sappho (pp.83-87)/In-Class Writing #3

3          Culler, Literary Theory, Chapter 4: “Language, Meaning, and                                 Interpretation”

 

6          LABOR DAY

8          Paper #1 due in class

10        Culler, Literary Theory, Chapter 5: “Rhetorics, Poetics, and Poetry”/

            In-Class Writing #4

Let me know if you have any questions! The Paper #1 assignment is a few posts down if you misplaced your hard copy. 

For Monday: Sappho, Stung With Love: Desire and Death-Longing (pp.21-29) & Troy (p.59)

Helen of Troy from the 2004 film, Troy

READINGS: Desire and Death-Longing (pp.21-29) & Troy (p.59)

Answer TWO of the following as before: 

Q1: Compare the following translation by Anne Carson with the poem on page 21 that begins "Like a gale smiting an oak." (each stanza on this page is a separate incomplete poem):

Eros shook my

mind like a mountain wind falling on oak trees. 

Though both are the same poem, the translation almost suggests otherwise. What does our translator, Aaron Poochigian, add to the poem that the one here leaves out? Which ones seems to call more attention to itself? Which one seems to you the richer (or more literary) experience?

Q2: Try to recreate the context for the poem on page 23 that begins "That fellow strikes me as god's double..." which is almost a complete poem. What relationship does the speaker have with the two other people in the poem? Can we assume or guess at any of the genders in the poem? Is the speaker a man or a woman? We know that one of the characters is a "fellow," but is there anything else? What causes the speaker's jealousy?

Q3: Which poems seem the most autobiographical of the poet's experience? While we can't really say who Sappho was with any certainty, are their poems that seem too personal to be complete fabrications? Discuss at least one poem and explain where you see more truth than fiction.

Q4: One of Sappho's most famous poems (almost complete) is the one on page 59, which begins "Some call ships, infantry or horsemen..." It's one of the few poems where Sappho uses allusions to Greek myth, in this case, Helen of Troy (who abandoned her family to run away with Paris to Troy, which started the Trojan War). How does she envision and relate to Helen? In her eyes, what made Helen do what she did? Would Sappho do the same? 

For Friday: Sappho, Stung With Love, "Goddesses" (pp.5-17)

NOTE: Sappho's poems have almost been completely lost to the ages. All we have are a few fragments and one complete poem (p.9). So read these carefully and imagine what might have been, as well as what we have. Often, the poems hint at the invisible lines that followed. We'll talk more about her life and times in class, but the Introduction, as well as the notes to each poem, will give you a lot of context if you're interested (though you don't have to read this). 

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: In the Introduction to Stung With Love, Carol Ann Duffy writes, “Scholars often comment on Sappho’s ability to activate multiple perspectives within the same poem and to elide differences between the subject and object” (Duffy xxxi). Where do we see this quality in the opening poems, and particularly in her one complete poem on page 9, “Subtly bedizened Aphrodite”? Where do we see perspectives switch, or an object become a subject?

Q2: Since this chapter is called “Goddesses,” what relationship do Sappho’s speakers seem to have with the gods? What do they ask of the gods? What kind of ‘religion’ or faith do they seem to hold with them? Consider the fragment: “God-crafted product of the tortoise shell/Come to me, be voluble” (17)

Q3: How does Sappho make her poetry "worth reading" and/or how does it "call attention to itself"? Where do we see moments that invite us to keep asking questions, and keep trying to find answers, rather than simply shrug and say "what do you mean by that?" Do some fragments do this more than others? 

Q4: These are primarily lyric poems, which Culler writes in Chapter 5 "are fictional imitations of personal utterance. It is as if each poem began with the invisible words, "For example, I or someone could say,"" (75). Are there any clues to help us distinguish whether these are fiction or autobiography? Who is the "I" in these poems? Are we sure (or not sure) it's the poet herself? Are they even all female speakers? 

Paper #1: The Theories of Sappho (due Friday, Sep.3 in class)

 

For your first paper assignment, I want you to play with the idea that works of literature can also be theories, as their ideas and language can be used as a ‘light’ to illuminate other works of art and literature. With that in mind, I want you to use one of Sappho’s poems as a theory that can help you interpret or analyze another work of art (a book, film, song, painting, etc). Remember that Culler writes, “Works regarded as theory have effects beyond their original field...the main effect of theory is the disputing of ‘common sense’: commonsense views about meaning, writing, literature, experience.” So how can one of Sappho’s poems help us see something new, puzzling, or exciting in your work of art? In other words, what didn’t you see or understand about this work until you looked at it through the eyes of Sappho?

FIRST, I want you to close read the Sappho poem: explain what makes it a unique work of literature (Culler, Chapter 2) rather than merely an incomplete poem or an ancient advertisement. Remember that Culler says “Aesthetic objects, for Kant and other theorists, have a ‘purposiveness without purpose’...[we are] not to take the work as primarily destined to accomplishing some purpose, such as informing or persuading us.” So what makes the poem call attention to itself, and how do the sounds, language, images, etc. lead to one possible interpretation of the work?

THEN, I want you to use this poem to examine one or two specific passages in your work of art. Based on your interpretation of the poem, how can these ideas/theories be used to uncover a specific reading/analysis of this work? Be specific, and compare ideas in the poem to passages in your work: QUOTE small passages from each so we can see them side by side. Show us how Sappho’s poem helps you see something new (or challenge something old) in your work of art.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

• No formal introduction: just start examining Sappho’s poem.
• Briefly introduce your work of art in the second part: make sure we know who created it, what it’s about, when it was created, etc.  
• Quote from each work and examine these quotations; a close reading is showing us how the language = meaning, and not simply assuming we understand.
• Quote at least once from Culler’s Literary Theory to aid in your reading/interpretation of either work.
• Cite all of your quotations according to MLA guidelines.
• Have fun with the assignment and try to challenge yourself! The more specific you are, and the better you can ‘think out loud,’ the better you’ll do on the assignment.

DUE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3^rd IN CLASS! (yes, bring it to class—we’ll discuss it)

For Wednesday: In-Class Writing #2

 Just as a reminder, there is no reading for Wednesday's class, unless you're behind and need to catch up on Chapters 1-2 (read them, since they'll be important for your first paper!). Instead, bring your FAVORITE BOOK (or a close second) to class on Wednesday, since we're going to write about something related to it, and related to the Paper #1 assignment, which I'll hand out in class. 

ALSO: You can bring a Kindle or a PDF copy on your laptop/device if you don't have a physical book with you. I just want you, if possible, to bring a book you can thumb through in class. 

See you then! 

For Monday: Culler, Literary Theory, Chapter 2

Just like last week, read Chapter 2 of Culler and respond to two of the questions below. Bring these questions to class on Monday so we can discuss them and ultimately, so I can give you credit for them. 

Q1: Many theorists, according to Culler, believe that all aesthetic objects (such as literature) must have a "purposiveness without purpose" (33). How do you understand this term, and how might it distinguish literature from, say, an instruction manual or a political manifesto?  

Q2: Culler writes that "what it implicitly says about making sense relates to the way it itself goes about making sense" (34). How does this relate to intertextuality and the idea of all art being a copy of a copy of a copy? 

Q3: Culler suggests that "the more the universality of literature is stressed, the more it may have a national function" (37).  Based on this, how might literature have created a sense of Englishness or even Americanness? (he hints at Jane Austen in the chapter, who we'll be reading before long!).

Q4: Do you think literature have the power to ennoble us and make us better human beings? Is that an outdated (or naive) notion, or is it one of the chief qualities of literature? Is literature inherently 'moral'? Or is that a quality of theory (making us see morality in an otherwise valueless text)? 

For Friday: Culler, Chapter 1: "What is Theory?" (from Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction)

Answer any TWO questions in a short response, at least a few sentences, but try to avoid simple yes/no questions, or restating the question. You might not really know the 'answer' to any of these  questions, so try to think out loud on paper. These questions are geared to help you work through tough readings and ideas rather than prove mastery of a subject (which according to Culler, is impossible to do with theory anyway!). 

Bring your responses to class on Friday; I'll take them up in class for your first response grade (see syllabus for details). 

Q1: One of Culler’s most important points about theory is that “works regarded as theory have effects beyond their original field” (3). What do you think this means? Related to this,  how could literary texts also become theories? For example, could The Hobbit be a theory? Jane Eyre?

Q2: How can writing about a thing create a thing? The book uses the example of sex and sexual relations; how can writing about marriage (for example) actually create the social codes of marriage?

Q3: Why do many theorists suggest that writing is more than a supplement (or duplication) of speech? Is it possible for something to be truly original, and not a copy of a copy of a copy?

Q4: Quoting the famous (and famously difficult) French theorist, Jacques Derrida, Culler writes, “There is no outside-of-text’: when you think you are getting outside signs and text, to ‘reality itself,’ what you find is more text, more signs, chains of supplements” (12). What do you think he means by this? Can you give an example of this in the ‘real’ world?

Welcome to the Course!

Welcome to our class blog for Intro to Literary Study, a course that is designed to challenge what you read, how you read, and the different ways you can read a single text. Ideally, by reading some very common and 'canonical' works, we can come to a better understanding of how a single book can exist for decades, centuries--or even longer--constantly finding new readers and interpretations. 

In Culler’s book, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (which you’ll be reading soon!) he writes that “Literature is a paradoxical institution because to create literature is to write something according to existing formulas…but it is also to flout those conventions, to go beyond them” (40). In other words, literature has to follow everything that came before it, while also making us forget what came before by breaking the very rules it tries to follow. The best literature (and art) is thus a process of making and re-making, teaching us to forget and reminding us where we came from. Along the way, we’ll learn some key ideas of literary theory to help us ‘see’ the seemingly invisible connections that link each work to its author, its society, and its moment in history. Ideally, you’ll come away with new ways to read your favorite books, and a deeper appreciation for the so-called classics that you found boring in high school. 

Make sure to buy the following books for the class...we'll start reading from Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction for Friday! If you have any questions, please e-mail me at jgrasso@ecok.edu.

NOTE: The posts below this one are from the last time I taught this class in 2016, so don't worry about them (or get scared by them). It's not the work you'll do for this class so you're not responsible for any of it.