While making my way through the assigned readings for today, one subject in particular stood out to me: the arbitrary nature of language. I was already familiar with the idea prior to reading, as I had an anthropology class last semester that studied the relationship between language and culture. One of the first things we […]
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Towards a Better Understanding of Metaphor
I like what is mentioned in The Theory Toolbox text book, “We tend to understand interpretation or reading as a metaphoric process, which is to say, we understand interpretation as allegorical rather than literal” (30). I read this as a statement saying we are programmed to communicate in metaphor. It reminds me of the film Trainspotting. It […]
Multiplicity of Meaning
As I’m reflecting on the assigned readings for this post, my head is spinning in an attempt to detangle new threads of information into a recognizable fabric on the screen before me. I’ve always been in wonderment of change, how things transform into something new, like the color of a leaf, my grandmother’s skin, my […]
Turning our Cannons from the Canon
What stood out to me in the chapter “Author/ity” was a distinct distrust of the notion of the Western canon. Obviously the writers think much of Foucault’s hegemonic conception of discourse, as the chapter seemed to be largely founded upon its implications. While I don’t feel as though I have any right, having never read […]
The Precarious Hunt for Meaning
As a recently declared English major still adjusting to the type of out-of-class work I will be frequently drowning in from here on, I have taken to spending great amounts of time at coffee shop tables next to a tedious stack of books. Today, as I cracked the Theory Toolbox, the friend across from me […]
A Sudden Doubting of My Own Uniqueness
Chapter 4, “Subjectivity”, really affected me in a way I wasn’t necessarily expecting. I had just been reading about what divides the idea of a “writer” and an “author”, with respect to the construct of the literary canon. Really, this sudden self-deprecating chapter on uniqueness came as an utter surprise. I hadn’t previously considered these […]
Concept Map Quiz
I have collected–in the form of a word cloud–the various approaches and theoretical concepts that we discussed in our TheoryCamp modules. It’s stunning to capture visually the diversity of ideas that we’ve engaged. Now, it’s time to put these ideas to work–first, in our reading of Tropic of Orange, and, later, in our own individual […]