It's hermenuetic, man

[icepixie]

BWAH!

Post-modernist deconstruction of a grocery list, as seen on metaquotes.

Sheer brilliance. And people wonder why I don't want an advanced degree in English...

Comments

[calixa.livejournal.com]

*cringes*

FIRST YEAR FLASHBACKS! Noooooooooooooo -

[icepixie]

Seriously. I at least didn't run into serious deconstruction until my second year, in an otherwise-fabulous Modern Irish Lit. class. And then we did a lot with postmodernism in one of my history classes last semester. It's infesting other fields! Kill it, kill it!

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Good god, they're still into that deconstruction crap? I thought by now they'd surely have come up with something new to torture themselves and their students with! Of course, I suppose if it's not deconstruction, it's all the Freudian stuff, which also makes me want to kill people. (Yo, dude, sometimes the knight's sword is just the knight's sword! Were you all repressed in previous lives, or something??)

And yes, you couldn't pay me enough to get a graduate degree in English Lit. Not no way, not no how. Which is part of why my hunt for an MFA program in Creative Writing, preferably somewhat locally, is so depressing. I do not want an MA with a focus, people!

[icepixie]

An entire seminar on postmodernism--including lots of deconstruction--was offered at my school. Sigh.

There's one professor at Kenyon who is really, really, really into the Freud stuff. She was actually my advisor; I never took a class with her, but I hear they were all excessively Freudy. Good, but whoa. That said, I ended up using a lot of that kind of repressed Victorian stuff in an essay about The Turn of the Screw I wrote for my big final comps exam, so I was glad a friend of mine had taken that class and could report to me on it.

And yes, you couldn't pay me enough to get a graduate degree in English Lit.

I'm with you. Oof. I imagine at some point in the next few years I'll get an MLS/MLIS, but I really doubt an English Lit. grad degree will ever come my way. Ack.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

(Before I forget, I love your icon--v. cool!)

An entire seminar on postmodernism--including lots of deconstruction--was offered at my school. Sigh.

Eeek. Though, I'm pretty sure I could have taken a seminar in Literary Theory. Guess which course I avoided at all costs?

I was led to believe that a prof's leanings in terms of theory were largely a product of how old they are/when they were in school. I loved the Freudian prof dearly, because he was just such a damn good teacher, but I would start to tune out when he'd get into swords and cigars and other such phallic objects. I mean, enough already!

Some of my friends and I got into this discussion a bit the other day in my post about writing--after all, how much symbolism is really intentional, and how much is just a pattern that isn't there but is imposed by the reader--or the prof who needs to publish a paper? I really do wonder. I don't know about you, but my English degree bestowed upon me the amazing ability to see symbols in my own life--and we all know that a book accidentally falling into the trash has more to do with physics than anyone's symbol of anything! It's an interesting way to look at writing, I think, but it's so easy to take it too far, IMO.

[icepixie]

(Before I forget, I love your icon--v. cool!)

Thanks! It's a stock photo from this site, which is amazing.

Eeek. Though, I'm pretty sure I could have taken a seminar in Literary Theory. Guess which course I avoided at all costs?

Heh. I tended to avoid them as well; I got a smattering of all the big schools in my other Lit. classes, particularly in the catchall "Kenyon seminar" I took while I was abroad. We had the Postmodernism class, Theory of Comedy, and a Narrative Theory course specifically, if I remember correctly. Kenyon is still very big into "New Cricitism" thanks to John Crowe Ransom (who had a massive influence on our English department). Since it's basically strict Formalism, including lots of close readings, that is fine with me! *g*

I was led to believe that a prof's leanings in terms of theory were largely a product of how old they are/when they were in school.

I can see that, definitely.

Symbolism and taking it too far: I would agree. I've read essays where I just sort of stood back and boggled at the author for coming up with such BS. It's worse when it's a field other than English; there are some travesties being committed in the study of history. Imposing a set of connections and symbols on a piece of literature is more acceptable to me than doing the same to history, because humans like that kind of thing, generally; it's not unlikely that it would show up in a creative work. More likely than over hundreds of years of actions committed by very different people. And you really haven't hit the brick wall of academia until you've read a set of essays on postmodernism in the study of history. It made my heart ache.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

you really haven't hit the brick wall of academia until you've read a set of essays on postmodernism in the study of history. It made my heart ache.

Oh god, they try to do this to history now, too? How insane!! I mean, I just... ::boggle::

BTW, I just sent an email to your LJ address and it occurs to me that I should have put "alto2" in it somewhere so you'd know it was from me. Duh! Anyway, the subject is RVW, so don't assume it's spam! :)

[icepixie]

Oh god, they try to do this to history now, too?

They do it to everything anymore, except the hard sciences. It makes me weep.