ESSAY CEMETERY

Summary Eliot begins the essay by saying that women produce a lot of silly stupid novels which she terms “mind and millinery” novels. These feature a particular type of heroin that is either rich, witty, accomplished, religious, and moral, or all of these except rich. In all these, men play the minor role of worshiping the heroine. The plots too are predictable and the heroine always ultimately comes out on top. Crappy writing is excusable if the authors are underprivileged but they are not – they are upper-class women. They are not good at representing any class of life, including their own. They misrepresent the speech of children and endow their heroines with unrealistic linguistic skills. She gives examples of novels with such failings. Also, novelists tend to have their characters exemplify unrealistic conversational skills. Other times they use complex language to express simple ideas. Often they create frivolous plots and character behavior with high morality. The other kind of ...

Short summary In his 1986 article "To Entrap the Wisest", René Girard addresses the conflict between the two critical interpretations of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Some view Shylock as a stereotypical, revenge-seeking mercenary Jew, while others regard him as a sympathetic character who has been wronged. Girard argues that both readings of Shylock are accurate and that, in fact, Shakespeare has intended this duality. Explicitly, Girard explains, Shylock is the undisputed villain. He practices usury and seeks blood revenge. Every character in the play is opposed to his actions, including the Duke, who is supposed to act as the impartial judge in the trial, and his own daughter, who shamelessly robs him and quits his household.  Throughout the play, however, there is a subtle undercurrent of rhetoric that establishes Shylock as more benevolent than is immediately apparent. In his "hath not a Jew eyes" speech, Shylock points out that he has learned revenge from...

Short summary In his 1970 article "Shylock's Humanity" John R. Cooper presents his reading of the character of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. His analysis centers on Shylock's "Hath not a Jew eyes" speech. Cooper argues that the purpose of this central passage is to capture the conflict between justice and mercy that is inherent in the play. Shylock's insistence on exacting his legal revenge represents the belief in strict justice and the sense of self-entitlement as ultimate values. The Prince of Morocco and the Prince of Arragon represent this paradigm as well, as they feel that they deserve Portia. This world view is juxtaposed with the value of mercy, as represented by the Christians who urge Shylock to abandon his revenge. This juxtaposition of paradigms, notes Cooper, is illustrated further by the differences between Belmont and Venice. In Venice law and justice reign supreme, whereas in Belmont mercy does, as represented by the favoring of mer...

Overall summary In her 1985 article "Gender, Family and the Social Order", Susan Amussen surveys the social and familial hierarchies of Early Modern England. At that time, she explains to the modern reader, there was no conception of the family as a private unit. Instead, Renaissance theorists frequently drew parallels between the socio-political monarchic and governmental structures and the familial structure of husband, wife, and children.  Amussen discusses two influential propagators of this parallel. First, political theorists who were concerned with the social state of affairs discussed the relationship between the king and his subjects in terms of the relationship between husband and wife and children. Just as the obedience of children of their parents is a divine commandment, it was considered the divine right of the king to rule over his subjects. Similarly, the agreement between kings and subjects was compared to the marriage contract, and rebellion of a royal subje...

Fredric Jameson Postmodernism -- Article Summary Postmodernism originated in the 1950's-60s. Instead of visions of the future, there is a sense of endings of various movements, specifically Modernism. The article will examine whether there is really a difference between Postmodernism and Modernism, which is characterized by stylistic innovation. Postmodernism is especially evident in architecture. High modernism in architecture is characterized by the destruction of the traditional city/neighborhood scape by building new, different sculptural structures that are jarringly different from the surroundings. PM opposes this, and supports structures that are "populist". All views of Postmodernism are similar in that the border between high culture and mass or commercial culture is disappearing. Whereas Modernist creators discuss mass culture or allude to it, Mostmodernists embrace and merge with commercial culture. Aesthetic production is now integrated into the consumer marke...

Lots of scripture and historical, particularly American, precedents to back up his rhetoric and arguments Addressed to whites - "you" refers to heads of white churches or the white moderate Echoes A Model of Christian Charity by John Winthrop “Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ.” Calling on American discourse. Interestingly, he does so on the past and not the future "We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation -and yet out of a bo...

Mukherjee calls America a myth. Mukherjee is a naturalized citizen and had to prove her worth to become one. She was born in Calcutta, India and never expected to naturalize, but to return home to marry the man her father picked for her. When she first arrived in Iowa for two years to study it was very homogeneous but now, 35 years later, it is so diverse that there's a cultural   or identity crisis regarding foreigners. In India this was unheard of, because classification matters above all and decrees precisely who each person is. Mukherjee herself was defined by her ancestry, caste and homeland. One day she spontaneously married her Canadian husband. For ten years she felt like an expatriate, and wrote a book that was an expression of this. After 14 years in Canada she decided to become an immigrant instead of an expatriate and moved to America with her family. Canada was hard because it was very racially exclusivist. America on the other hand held the appeal of its egalitari...

This post contains a summary of sections 1-5 out of 6. 1 Race has had no or very little bearing on the course of literary theory in 20 th century. The literary canon is now considered to contain works which reflect on the general human condition and not particular groups. This has not always been so: in the 19 th century literary theory was interested in historical perspectives in literature. Literature was interpreted according to the period in which and the people by whom it was written. Race was important in criticism. It was considered to be the origins of man, the truths, ideas and ideals held by the author as part of the race. These were expressed implicitly and explicitly in the work. Race spans the history of the race and subsequent connected elements resulting from this long history. Texts were considered important which elevated the historical/racial element. Blacks and whites in America, for instance were seen as irreconcilably different. Even though in...

King makes a distinction between just/moral and unjust/immoral laws and makes the claim that unjust laws do not have to be obeyed. Segregation laws are unjust and therefore must not be obeyed. Furthermore, Negroes are prevented from voting and changing the laws and so the laws are politically and undemocratically unjust. These laws must be disobeyed openly so that their breacher, by breaking the law, illustrates the unfairness of it. King cites precedents of civil disobedience that changed society for the better, and instances of unjust laws. King is disappointed with the "white moderate" who is content with keeping the peace rather than justice, and so are resistant to the necessary tension that is a product of the civil rights revolution. They agree with the principle of equality but not to the actions that must be taken to achieve it. They think that blacks should wait before claiming their rights. He is grateful for the few whites that do join the black struggle....

This is a summary of the following short excerpt from the book  -   America is overwhelmingly paradoxical. In spite of this, Americans are united by an "American Creed" held by everyone. Dominant American ideals are explicit, even though politics are not successful in abiding by these. The ideals are powerful and ingrained into every aspect of American life. They are so ingrained that American Negroes, a group against which there is very much discrimination, partly believe it themselves. This "Creed" which promotes individual rights emerged at a time when America was fighting for independence. Its set of ideals continues to be the basis and impetus for all wars. America saw itself as a unique and unprecedented phenomenon of democracy, which learned from mistakes of the past to create an egalitarian future. America was happy to support revolutions in other countries which followed the "Creed". Despite "old Americans" being favored ...

This is a lecture that Walker gave at Sarah Lawrence, her alma mater. At Sarah Lawrence, she says, she felt free to live and create for the first time. After she graduated she realized that there was a gap in her education and her identity, for she had been taught the history of the south exclusively from a white point of view. Blacks have to study black texts. She discusses the literary canon and how blacks are missing from it. Where she would teach, instruction of texts written by black people is integral and invaluable. Many blacks feel that they lack history and art to relate to. Walker has made it a private mission to investigate into black writing and make them better known. Currently, they are not well known. These poems, though not in anthologies, are in her heart. She hopes she is a black revolutionary because she is always changing, and "for the good of more black people". She suggests that artists lock themselves up and produce work. But, she qualifies, bl...

Walker describes Jean Toomer's exploration of the Reconstruction South. Toomer found women sexually abused and lost, but who he saw to hold power, spirituality and beauty of which they were not aware. They were waiting for these unknowns to be made known. In the meantime they did not appreciate any aspects of life. These black women were artists whose creative forces were abandoned to the hardships of life. Black women who were able to create such as Phillis Wheatley and Zora Hurston had divided loyalties, between black and white cultures. They were raised in both and their art is not genuinely hers but confused due to this. Many have criticized Wheatley's poetry for glorifying white people but Walker understands that art for Phyllis was a soulful practice and it sustained her. This is not the end of the story, for the next generation of black women has survived. There is now the quest for black female identity. Society is not understanding of this strife. The quest...

Paley used to only write poetry. This was done using her "ear for literature". Sometime in the mid 1950s Paley had an urge to write, but poetry was not the way to express it. The "beginning of big luck" happened: she got sick and her children had to go to all-day daycare for a few weeks. During this time she succeeded in writing several stories. She wrote them using her other "ear", her "home ear"- the faculty in her that let her be in touch with her early experiences. Early on, as a woman who was no longer a boy, Paley realized that she would be writing domestic fiction. Luck number one. A friend of Paley's made her ex-husband read Paley's work. This ex-husband was a publisher, and he published ten short stories by Paley. The "big luck" is the politics that went on around Paley as she was living her domestic life. This meant Paley, every woman writer in fact, was part of the second wave of the feminist movement. Activi...

Summary Men make war, even though it injures them terribly. Paley asks: how do they come to live this way? When Paley was a little girl, she was a boy. She wanted to continue being a boy and to go to war and do other boy things, a notion that changed only experiencing WWII. She lived in Army camps with her husband much of the time, which she liked because of the boys and the action. As she began to live her own life as a writer and otherwise, she stopped wanting to be a boy; in fact, she thought it was the worst thing that she could never identify with. And after she had children she began to notice the women around her, to really live among women, and ascribe importance to them. She began rejecting the notion that men lived exciting compelling lives. She began to be interested in women.  This is how she came to write about women. She began to explore the female terrain with which she was unfamiliar through her stories. Even though she felt what she was writing was triv...