A Few Things I Now Know,
and think about all this.
Existentialism
Oh, those poor existentialists! They went off to war and didn't know why and saw death and destruction and had to live with it, never understood or loved by society!
Ha, they actually believe humans are free to do whatever they want all the time? And all this absurdness is getting ridiculous. Writing about meaninglessness is just going to confuse me. I'm not going to like any of this "theater of the depressed and crazy".
Ah, the great big existentialism packet. While there are some things I like about the whole existentialist philosophy, (taking responsibility for your own actions) I don't agree with all of it (every single thing is meaningless, why have values when nothing matters, etc). However, I do think that it is interesting, for sure. I don't feel like I have a very good grasp of it yet, but I think that with a little deeper look into The American Dream and talking more about what The Theater of the Absurd is, I'll be able to understand it better.
Major Literary Movements
I realize this is totally re-stating not re-processing, (to some extent,) but it helps me think about all we've learned with just a few words.Classical. Greek and Roman guys. Epic heroes, oral tradition, gods, Odysseus and Oedipus. Plato, Aristotle.
Medievalism. Vikings. Religious texts. Dante's Inferno, rings of Hell. Allegories. Beowulf.
Renaissance. Rebirth. Probably the most talked about in school. Nation-states. Shakespeare.
Humanism (thing within Renaissance). Less God, more Us. Sciencey.
Romanticism. Individuals. Hero against society. Life is beautiful even when it's not.
Victorian Literature. Queen Victoria. Good guy wins. Morals.
Realism and Naturalism. American lit class! Common man, every day events. NOT ABOUT LOVING NATURE. Nature is too good for us, humans always lose to nature.
Modernism. Make it new! WWI, industrialization, new stuff. Lost generation. Irony, things are like as they seem, surrealism, impresssionalism.
Post modernism. Modernism on steroids. Nostalgia. High and Low Culture. Intertextuality. IRONY IRONY IRONY. What is truth?
The American Dream
What? What? What just happened? Is Mrs. Barker still out of her dress? Gramma took the water out of the house? What? What was the point of all this? So is the Young Man their baby? They got rid of their baby?!
That was what was going through my head after the last line of The American Dream. I'm not good at reading-between-the-lines or getting over my own perceptions/biases/beliefs, so I probably should not be surprised that there was a lot I did not really understand considering The American Dream is filled with all sorts of meanings. Already, after reading what Grandma stood for (the old American dream, in case you were wondering) my mind was blown and what we read was only on Grandma. What I'm really looking forward to is Mrs. Barker... I really do not get her!
Hi Kenzie! I like your writing style, your voice is very evident when I am reading your posts! The only thing I have to suggest is that maybe mention what you have learned as well as what you intend to improve on! However, other than that, I really enjoyed this. I like the way you have your internal thoughts and then you explain them. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you on Existentialism! The way you discussed the literary movements I found to be really helpful. I would suggest that you show how you can apply what we have learned, this way it will help you really understand the material. For example you could discuss some techniques you could use to help you improve on "reading-between-the-lines". Overall I really enjoyed reading this; it was very entertaining and helpful!
ReplyDeleteThe explanation on the literary movements was very interesting! I really liked how easy it makes them to remember though! I liked how you related certain movements to things that you learned in American Literature. I think relating things to previous things that you have learned about is great for reprocessing.
ReplyDeleteNice work!