apology for literature :)

Sorry for your not being majoring English

In Korea, it is hard to find a job as humanity major. Humanity includes Literature, History, Philosophy, and Psychology etc. People think those studies as impractical thing to apply to real life. More and more students tend to avoid to major literature. We can say that it is crisis of literature. Therefore, once I tried to double-major business which is popular to employer. After took several business classes, I thought that I am so fortunate to study literature. Though I do not degrade other major, but what I felt was those kinds of study was like “skill,” not study. So I want to say sorry for other major student.
By the way, the solution turned out more clearly when we face the crisis. And I want to find the solution at Sir Philip Sidney’s criticism. Didactic and entertain are the main characteristic of literature. He said the aim of literature is “teaching people and make them pleasure.” In teaching, as a function of instruction, it is not only moral but also help audience to have recognition by experience that literature gives. In Korea, when there was illuminism, literature is used to enlighten people. So, literature gives us instruction and leads us to have new or changed recognition. Literature also gives us pleasure which we can get when concentrating on the work. So, I thought about the meaning of “read for fun.” We have fun when we doing what we like. For example, we have fun when we enjoy sport or even gambling. But, the fun from literature is different kind of fun (and it should be). Pleasure from play is usually based on self-effacement, but pleasure from literature is based on self-perception. In addition, Aristotle said that we experience Catharsis through psychological comfort which came after conflict and tension that made by fear and pity. Though professional knowledge is very important these days, literature is also very important. This is because we need not only profound knowledge but also emotional mentality together. In Joseon dynasty (in Korea), there was a state exam to become government official. And there, giving poetry exam was necessary. In my opinion, it might have been a reflection of thought that people who instruct and undertake administration should have intelligence, cultural background and humanness through the literature. In short, only people who have profound knowledge of literature (poetry) can be given opportunity to participate on politics.Like above, literature is priceless even today which purchasing practical value. By literature, we can enrich our humanness, and achieve self-development. Literature, according to Plato and Aristotle, is mimicking of reality. We might see the poetry is not related to our lives but, in fact, it is mimicry of our lives. While reading, we agree or disagree with the action of character. In this way, we can share life experience, learn wisdom and finally can make our lives something worth. For example, in the book Don Quixote page 267, the innkeeper said “I’m concerned, I can tell you that when I hear about those furious, terrible blows struck by the knights, it makes me want to do the same, and I’d be happy to keep hearing about them for days and nights on end.” And I thought that this part represent the function of literature which satisfies the desire of mimicry. The innkeeper can experience that he could never do in reality.
Till now I explained how valuable the literature itself is. Then, why did I choose “English” literature? Not Korean literature even though I am Korean. If I majored Korean literature, I could learn only from Korean only about Korea. Fortunately, these days there are many books translated as Korean like Don Quixote that we learned in our class, but still there is limited number of books are translated. How fortunate English speakers are! They can experience many kinds and genre of literature because almost every literature work is translated in English. That means you can have more opportunity to learn and enjoy from literature. And also, there exist difference when I read Shakespeare sonnet in English and Korean. When reading in Korean, it is hard to get delicate sense of aesthetic beauty of sonnet, and difficult to recognize details that the poet intended to express. So, this is why I study English literature even though it takes more time and effort.
Lastly, there is British saying that “Shakespeare cannot be changed with India.” Through this saying, I could recognize British people’s thought about how worth literature is. And I hope people, who are now buried under practical values, can think about the worthy of literature.

After Kari's presentation.

After Kari's presentation, I was impressed about children's literature.

We usually think "good people will get good thing and bad people will get bad thing."
Untill now, I believed this too, and I have thought that this idea is emerged to every people unconciously. But, thinking about the literature which we read when we were very young, every book has its "instruction" like that. most of them end with happy ending by giving good things to good character. There was no doubt when I understand that way. I thought it is natural. However, in reality sometimes bad people got luck while good people go through bad things, as Kari said.

Even though the reality show the difference what we've learned from literature-especially
fairy tales, I think we still believe the fairy tale myth, which is good/bad people will get good/bad things "someday". (That might be the motivation for people to live thier life positivley.)

Nov/24/08

Today, I really impressed by Douglass's apology. 'being illiterate' is that I usually expereinced when I was young especially when traveling. It is kind of scary to be illiterate in certain society. It made me have feeling isolated.
And that is also a reason that I start studying English by my self. What I could see as much as I know. The more I learned, the more I could get. In my first travel, every thing was mass. All explanation was in English, so that I could not even get where to stop on public transportation. Without my father, I would have become a lost child. But, after studying English, 'going abroad' become more interesting. I could find what I want to see by myself, I could go where I wanted to go. Such a great experience!

I'm still not good at English though, I say to myself that I'll try hard to study English so that I could see, learn, and experience more thing next time.

touchstone :)

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
- Shakespeare, sonnet 18 –




As soon as the professor said “pick your touch stone”, I thought of those lines which are above. I learn that sonnet a year before, and because of that sonnet I decided to study English literature actually. I was so attracted by Shakespeare. Therefore the professor’s mentioning about this poem last class was very coincident and also very meaningful to me. While I read that sonnet, what I first thought about is that “I want to be the person that Shakespeare wrote a poem for.” How somebody can be praised like that. After few minutes thinking about that, I was impressed again by the ability of literature. What literature is doing is making me think about a beauty of a woman who lived thousands years ago. She is still alive in the poem and nothing else could preserve her beauty but poem.

During the class I learned that literature is imitation of nature. And I felt like applying it in this poem too. When I read this poem in past, I just focused on how powerful the literature is. But now, I also thought about that this poem reflects reality. The desire which try to protect the beauty of one person would be occurred from the limit of reality. What I want to say is that in reality, time always destroys something and human cannot protect it from time. This would make the desire to preserve beauty which is something idealistic and soon disappeared.

In my point of view, this looked pursue “beauty” which is easily explained as a purpose of literature, but at the same time it looked contain dark side of reality.

Edward Said

My book, orientalism, is that western's the inhumainzation of the estern by intentional emphasis of difference between western and estern.
I made an apporoach with 3 ways.
1) the regulation and system of social inner strucuture is formed by elites' discourse. So, by accepting this point of view, I argured that any history is not standardized but something dynamic. The relation between imperialism and orientalism can be explained in this context.
2) the second hegemony is about holding a general public by an act of pursuation. And it's dpne unconciously. It makes subultern regard the surpression as a natural and anchangable thing.
3) the division between western's epistemology and estern's ontology originated from the contrast of dichotomy of self and others. And it developed as division between 'development/barbarity' 'advanced/uncivilized' 'rational/irrational'. This provided a foundation and excuse to western's imperialist for occupying the 3rd world under the name of civilization.

What I want to say is that we have to call in question about the history which is interpreted at the point of western, in order to avoid ideological consumption that is accepting western's hegemony and fallacy as a truth.

Oct . 27

Samuel Jonson
-Poetry: should be simple, easy to understand. Obscurity is pointless rambling.
-Biography: should be exactly the truth. It should only talk about who the man was. (should not praise)
-
-manuscript is both good and original. But the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.

Longinus
-the authentic aim that literature must be judged is whether or not it reaches suplime (nearest can be expressed in term….but is cannot be expressed because it is incredibly beyond anything else-like what we’d talk about anagoges in Frye.) It is possible you to exult in expression of language and control of metaphor.
-True writer: Homer and Poet Sophoe(?) because they have an elevation in certain moment with the memory grasps onto and just stays there, never go away. (like flash of lightening)

Michel Foucault
- French critic, critical studies in social institution, ~ power, relationship with modern world. / Post-structuralist. Archeology of knowledge.
- 3 volume modern history sexuality. Introduction/ Latin and Greek word history sexuality.
- Nothing should be categorized as one thing.

Julia Kristeva
- Psycho analyst. At the age of structuralism.
- Semiotics : have no absolute meaning. “How” the word is said like a rhythm.
Inner-textuality :following the meaning in the text.

Archetypal (myth)

p. 105

The archetypal critic studies the poem as part of poetry, and poetry as part of the totla human imitation of nature that we call civilization. Civilization is not merely an imitation of nature, but the process of making a total human form out of nature, and ir is impelled by the force that we have just called desire.


I thouth that the 'nature' which is imitated in the poem is indicating the whole nature. The word nature was not a specific one, so I had to understand as the word stands-the way I used to understand it. However, in this sentense, thanks to the world "civilization" I could have little more concept of the word nature. Civilization is process of making total human form out of nature, and that was what peotry imitated.