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

[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.