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.

Apology for literature.

When I first heard the word ‘Criticism’, what I thought was something negative. I considered criticism as found something wrong in works and fixing etc. This is probably because I have seen ‘criticism’ which is used negative meaning- in magazine and newspaper, some people who are so called critic deal with certain works (movies, books, paintings) and point out what is wrong with the work. However, critic was not what I used to think. And especially about literature criticism, it was apologizing literature and studies the position of literature concerning with many social parts- politic, culture, society. Moreover, we might be able to think about our life or moral issues with criticism.
Aristotle’ is also literature criticisms against the anti-literatures of that society represented by Plato. Aristotle said that “Literature, especially tragedy, occurs fear and pity and brings catharsis of those feelings.” Against Plato who assert that tragedy gives people an impetus and make their morality go astray, Aristotle argued that tragedy rather improve people’s morality by achieve purification of mind. In other words, tragedy make people not do bad things by literature itself had done the bad things, so that, audiences do not need to do that. Therefore he saved literature from Plato’s argument.
I think apology of literature is worth when the point of view which consider literature as useless and immoral thing. These days in my country regard humanity study, including studying literature, is regarded impractical thing. Many high school students want to get practical major which can make them easy to have a job after they graduate. And this situation can be crisis of literature and its value. Similarly when Puritanism argued that literature made people immoral and even philosophy attacked literature reasoning its impracticalness, Sir Philip Sidney said the aim of literature is “teaching people and make them pleasure” in his .
In teaching, is function of instruction, which 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, 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.
There is British saying that “Shakespeare cannot be changes with India.” Through this saying, we can 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.

( Because I refereed dictionary, and didn't write in one day.. it can be awkward to native English speaker )

09-23-08

Edward Wadie Saïd was a Palestinian American literary theorist, cultural critic, political activist, and an outspoken advocate of Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and is a founding figure in postcolonial theory.[1]
Said was born in Jerusalem(then in the British Mandate of Palestine) on November 1, 1935. His father was a wealthy Protestant Palestinianbusinessman and an American citizen who had served under General Pershing in World War I, while his mother was born in Nazareth, also of Protestant[2] Christian Palestinian descent.[3]His sister was the historian and writer Rosemarie Said Zahlan.
Said referred to himself as a "Christian wrapped in a Muslim culture". He experienced much confusion growing up and was quoted as saying that:
With an unexceptionally Arab family name like Said connected to an improbably British first name (my mother much admired the Prince of Wales in 1935, the year of my birth), I was an uncomfortably anomalous student all through my early years: a Palestinian going to school in Egypt, with an English first name, an American passport and no certain identity at all.[4]
According to Said's autobiographical memoir, Out of Place,[4] Said lived "between worlds" in both Cairo and Jerusalem until the age of 12. In 1947, he attended the Anglican St. George's Academy when he was in Jerusalem. However, his extended family became refugees in 1948 during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War when their neighborhood of Talbiya was captured by Jewish militia groups, along with the western part of Jerusalem, which became part of the State of Israel:
I was born in Jerusalemand had spent most of my formative years there and, after 1948, when my entire family became refugees, in Egypt. All my early education had, however, been in élite colonial schools, English public schoolsdesigned by the British to bring up a generation of Arabs with natural ties to Britain. The last one I went to before I left the Middle East to go to the United States was Victoria College in Alexandria, a school in effect created to educate those ruling-class Arabs and Levantines who were going to take over after the British left. My contemporaries and classmates included King Hussein of Jordan, several Jordanian, Egyptian, Syrian and Saudi boys who were to become ministers, prime ministers and leading businessmen, as well as such glamorous figures as Michel Shalhoub, head prefect of the school and chief tormentor when I was a relatively junior boy, whom everyone has seen on screen as Omar Sharif.[4]
In 1951, Said was expelled from Victoria College for being a "troublemaker",[4] and was consequently sent by his parents to Mount Hermon School, a private college preparatory school in Massachusetts, where he recalls a "miserable" year of feeling "out of place".[4]Said later reflected that the decision to send him so far away was heavily influenced by the 'the prospects of deracinated people like us being so uncertain that it would be best to send me as far away as possible'.[4]Despite feeling out of place, Said did well at the Massachusetts boarding school often 'achieving the rank of either first or second in a class of about a hundred and sixty'.[4]
Said earned an B.A., summa cum laude (1957) from Princeton University and an M.A. (1960) and a Ph.D. (1964) from Harvard University, where he won the Bowdoin Prize. He joined the faculty of Columbia Universityin 1963 and served as Professor of English and Comparative Literature for several decades. In 1977, Said became the Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia and subsequently became the Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities. In 1992, he attained the rank of University Professor, Columbia's most prestigious academic position. Professor Said also taught at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Yale universities. He was fluent in English, French, and Arabic.[citation needed] In 1999, after his earlier election to second vice president and following its succession policy, Said served as president of the Modern Language Association.
Said was bestowed with numerous honorary doctorates from universities around the world and twice received Columbia's Trilling Award and the Wellek Prize of the American Comparative Literature Association. In 1999, he was the first to receive the prestigious Spinoza Lens [www.spinozalens.org], a bi-annual prize for ethics in The Netherlands. His autobiographical memoir Out of Place won the 1999 New Yorker Prize for non-fiction. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Royal Society of Literature, and the American Philosophical Society.[5]
Said's writing regularly appeared in The Nation, The Guardian, the London Review of Books, Le Monde Diplomatique, Counterpunch, Al Ahram, and the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. He gave interviews alongside his good friend, fellow political activist, and colleague Noam Chomsky regarding U.S.foreign policy for various independent radio programs.
Said also contributed music criticism to The Nation for many years. In 1999, he jointly founded the West-East Divan Orchestra with the Argentine-Israeli conductor and close friend Daniel Barenboim. The orchestra is made up of musicians from Israel, Palestineand the surrounding Arab countries.
Edward Said died at the age of 67 in the early morning of September 25, 2003, in New York City, after a decade-long battle with chronic myelogenous leukemia.[6]
In November 2004, Birzeit University renamed its music school as the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in his honor.[7]
In January 2006, anthropologist David Price obtained 147 pages of Said's 238-page FBIfile through a Freedom of Information Actrequest. The records reveal that Said was under surveillance starting in 1971. Most of his records are marked as related to "IS Middle East" ("IS" = Israel) and significant portions remain "Classified Secrets."[8]