Solipsism - All encompassing. No other aspect matters or "exists" in a sense. It is overwhelming.
According to wikipedia, it is a philosophy where only the things in one's mind truly exists and everything else is unjustifiable.
As we read in the packet of poetry by Faiz, love is all encompassing, it is solipsism. Nothing but those emotions and all aspects concerning love matter.
Friday, April 30, 2010
HEGEMONY/POWER
The definition of hegemony is the political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over other groups, regardless of the explicit consent of the latter. This is not to get confused with brute power or dominance, but is better defined as emphasizing how control is achieved through consensus or force.
The theme of hegemony/power was seen in Moretti's essay "Conjectures on World Literature." He would state that world literature, even though is one global system, is an unequal one. He wants to show that there is in fact a hierarchy of literature which brings about power and domination. Power is seen to be symbolic capital. Automatically when one thinks world literature one would think world domination.
In Said's essay "Secular Interpretation, the Geographical Element, and the Methodology of Imperialism" he takes Moretti's argument a step further by claiming literature to be eurocentric. "to speak of comparative literature therefore was to speak of the interaction of world literatures with one another, but the field was epistemologically organized as a sort of hierarchy, with Europe and its Latin Christian literatures at its center top." he is clearly stating that western styles of wring has become the pinnacle of world literature, with all the other styles of literature circling around it. English has begun to gobble up more and more languages globally.
Edward Said
[ These are basically my lecture notes on Said... feel free to ask or add anything. :) ]
Edward Said defines the relationship between a world culture and the history of modern Imperialism. He discusses a few of the mutual relationships between the two seemingly different concepts.
+ Said defines literature as a planetary system that is profoundly European-centric.
+ "the ability to view the world in this way remains a Western privilege."
--> This line creates structure and equality in the world, in cultural terms.
A) Notions of Resistance and how he thinks about resistance
~ where there is dominance, there is also resistance. (This is not directly political or violent; It is some orientation of the mind or body that pushes back against power at the same time.) They are mutually inseparable elements.
B) Notion of Social Identity
~identities - understanding of our most personal selves- are a part of external social forces. (People have been deeply formed in ways we do not understand) Identity is historically produced. Social Identity, something we belong to by birth, cannot be a basis of our resistance against the imperial government.
*Imperialism is an asymmetrical system that, in cultural terms, is Euro-centric. [It contains a center and a periphery, with implications of the Empowered and the Subordinate.]
` In what ways are the empowered and the subordinate shown in literature? *They are shown in the difference between the older, colonial generation, and a younger, post-colonial generation.
Edward Said defines the relationship between a world culture and the history of modern Imperialism. He discusses a few of the mutual relationships between the two seemingly different concepts.
+ Said defines literature as a planetary system that is profoundly European-centric.
+ "the ability to view the world in this way remains a Western privilege."
--> This line creates structure and equality in the world, in cultural terms.
A) Notions of Resistance and how he thinks about resistance
~ where there is dominance, there is also resistance. (This is not directly political or violent; It is some orientation of the mind or body that pushes back against power at the same time.) They are mutually inseparable elements.
B) Notion of Social Identity
~identities - understanding of our most personal selves- are a part of external social forces. (People have been deeply formed in ways we do not understand) Identity is historically produced. Social Identity, something we belong to by birth, cannot be a basis of our resistance against the imperial government.
*Imperialism is an asymmetrical system that, in cultural terms, is Euro-centric. [It contains a center and a periphery, with implications of the Empowered and the Subordinate.]
` In what ways are the empowered and the subordinate shown in literature? *They are shown in the difference between the older, colonial generation, and a younger, post-colonial generation.
Flaneur
FLANEUR-French term derived from the Masculine noun with basic meanings of "stroller", "lounger", or "loafer". According to Wikipedia this term describes "a person who walks the city in order to experience it." Professor Mufti referenced this term in lecture (Week 2, 4/6) to describe Bakha from Untouchable. Like a flaneur, Bakha wandered throughout a modern city and found a great interest in this free urban space. Professor Mufti compared Untouchable to the novel Mrs. Dalloway to further illustrate the significance of this term.
Symbolic Capital
A countries power and domination can be viewed through symbolic capital. Symbolic capital can be language, clothes, stores and ideology. When one country's culture can be seen in another culture their power is also visible. An example of this can be seen when a powerful country speaks one language and eventually this language becomes dominate around the world. The dominant language displays the country's large amount of symbolic capital. A countries cultural "reach" is another way to view symbolic capital. American businesses like McDonalds are all over the globe. This displays the United States large symbolic capital reach. This is present in the one and unequal ideology of World Literature by Franco Moretti.
These are my notes on Lyric Poetry
· Lyric Poetry
o Usually relatively short poems
o Related to music
o Can be said in a song
o Most likely the great majority of people encounter poetry in some form rather than a printed form
o Reaches its largest audience to people that can’t read
o Linked to music in certain ways
o Subjective poems very internal poems
o Subjective state of minds rather than history or society
o Love poetry
o Internal states
o Love of the divine
§ At various levels many different kinds of meanings can be laid out at the same time
· There is very often a speaker (devotee) (lover)
o Is very distant
o Aching for union as the beloved
o Distant even cruel in some ways
o Unresponsive
o Strange in the emotional universe
o Morality and orthodox morality is spoken
o Force in society seeks to kill imagination on love
National Allegory
Let me define allegory first.
An allegory is a story or visual image with a second distinct meaning that is partially hidden behind its literal meaning. In a written narrative, allegory involves a continuous parallel between two (or more) levels of meaning in a story, so that its people and events correspond to their equivalents in a system of ideas or a chain of events external to the tale.
Okay, now an example of allegory: I didn't have that many notes from lecture of what national allegory was but I do remember that Professor Mufti said that there was an allegorical moment in "Untouchable." He said that the fact that Bakha wants and tries to emulate the British soldiers represents (the literal meaning) him wanting to separate himself from his peers. And it also expresses the larger concern of India as a nation and how parts of it express a desire for westernization.
National allegory: Since we have been discussing in class how western ways of writing literature have and continue to be a dominating force in eastern countries, it follows that almost every piece of nonwestern literature has an underlying "national" allegory, no matter what the topic of the story is, because the style in which the piece is being written is in a form of western literature writing techniques. So since these nations are producing there own works of national literature, they are writing or structuring their pieces in western literary techniques, like the novel, and thereby (whether intentionally or not) are producing a work of national allegory.
If you have any other notes on this, feel free to correct me or add on to this post :)
An allegory is a story or visual image with a second distinct meaning that is partially hidden behind its literal meaning. In a written narrative, allegory involves a continuous parallel between two (or more) levels of meaning in a story, so that its people and events correspond to their equivalents in a system of ideas or a chain of events external to the tale.
Okay, now an example of allegory: I didn't have that many notes from lecture of what national allegory was but I do remember that Professor Mufti said that there was an allegorical moment in "Untouchable." He said that the fact that Bakha wants and tries to emulate the British soldiers represents (the literal meaning) him wanting to separate himself from his peers. And it also expresses the larger concern of India as a nation and how parts of it express a desire for westernization.
National allegory: Since we have been discussing in class how western ways of writing literature have and continue to be a dominating force in eastern countries, it follows that almost every piece of nonwestern literature has an underlying "national" allegory, no matter what the topic of the story is, because the style in which the piece is being written is in a form of western literature writing techniques. So since these nations are producing there own works of national literature, they are writing or structuring their pieces in western literary techniques, like the novel, and thereby (whether intentionally or not) are producing a work of national allegory.
If you have any other notes on this, feel free to correct me or add on to this post :)
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