Jump to content

Your Scholar or Theorist Mt. Rushmore


Recommended Posts

That was a neat video; thanks for sharing!  I'm assuming it's yours?  If so, do you mind telling me what music you used?  I liked it lots.  The music towards the end was Dylan, right?  Which song?

 

yessir. there's a paper that goes with it, but that's not nearly as fun. the music used is:

 

"mea culpa" // brian eno & david byrne

"paris is burning" // st. vincent

"most of the time" // bob dylan (post-broken neck, which is the best dylan)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(That and eating disorders. I really want to teach an eventual class on celebrity memoirs and Portia de Rossi's is so relevant to my interests but how?) 

 

Yes yes yes. It seems to not have been done much, though fat studies/body studies is happening. Is it possible to be too close to something to write about it academically? With this one, I just might be.

Edited by asleepawake
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I say, I feel that DFW is a great writer. I don't think he's pretentious at all. I get the sense that he comes across like that because he's overly self-conscious and that leads to reflexivity that can get annoying. It's a struggle. But there are times where I think he feels free and that is where his prose really shines. I don't think that he's doing whatever he's doing to 'act clever'.

 

I think that M.H. Abrams does an admirable job as a critic. Derrida's reading skills I think, are often overlooked in favor of his philosophy -- but he is an incredible reader as well. I.A. Richards had some good stuff too. Call me old skool.

 

Unfortunately? I don't have a theorist/ scholar Mt Rushmore. I was a biology undergrad for one semester... my admiration, sadly, is mainly reserved for the writers who touch my heart. It is not too difficult to be clever, I think. But it is difficult to express something complicated in a very concise and touching manner -- http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15401'>like so or http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-lemon/'>like so. I am quite sick of cleverness and am not very clever myself. I just know that I'm in this because I feel that literary studies have become some sort of desperate search for 'clever' and 'original' ideas. If it were a matter of having 'good ideas' I wouldn't even be doing this. But I do want to remind people of the power of great literature.

 

All the scholarship in the world could not have persuaded me to drop a lifetime of science studies and do my degree in something that I had no guarantee of passing. The only reason why I took that huge risk is because I felt that it was worth it, worth the exposure, worth the time talking about things I loved -- no matter if I failed the degree -- I was willing to take the risk. And ditto with my phd studies. I can't really be bothered to be too clever and come out with wonderful ideas. But I do want to try and make a difference to the way people understand the experience of reading. :unsure: As my POI told me, if you don't fight for what you believe in, who will? someone's gotta do the job :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

in the past several years, i've become much more attuned to representations of suicide in books, film, television, &c. then this past semester, one of my professors joked that literary theory & criticism is logically progressing toward death, so i say, why not specialize in suicide studies?

 

this is outside the scope of my SOP, but it's definitely something gnawing away at the back of my brain.

 

if you're really interested (& at the risk of overdisclosure), here.

Great video by the way. It's amazing how much some of those people look like Hemingway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Karl Marx (Kind of amazed I am the first person to put up Marx)

Michel Foucault

E. P. Thompson

Eva Sedgwick

Marx is almost too foundational for me. In the sense that if we were to really be honest about a Rushmore, it would be something like Plato, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud for many of us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh dear.

 

Bill Brown

WJT Mitchell

Mary Ann Doane

Miriam Hansen

 

(I purposely left out "canonical" names like Benjamin/Foucault/Deleuze because let's face it, we *all* rely on them anyway.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use