For Weds...

Hello all,

Today, we had a very lively discussion, which is exactly what we should be trying to accomplish as scholars. Kudos to you all.

First, we did a short in class reading about the Kursk tragedy, "I am Writing Blindly." This reading brought fourth some interesting observations as we thought about why and how we create texts and stories to understand ourselves and the world. This creation and exploration is exactly what we "do" when we learn; we create knowledge. We also discussed Jean-Dominique Bauby _The Diving Bell and the Butterfly_ and his intense need to communicate.



We then shifted to discussing the Caruth and Harries Readings. Professor Meredith and Professor Matt provided the foundations and observations for our generation and exploration.

Professor Meredith discussed Caruth's connection of the Freud's use of the Tancard and Clorinda story to illustrate the why trauma functions in a person and a narrative. Professor Meredith gave an overview of Caruth's "Introduction" and she focused on exploring Caruth's idea of the "gap in the mind" that occurs as trauma happens and then re-happens in the memory. Professor Meredith also connected the act of listening and witnessing to the attempt at accessing or understanding trauma. Cindy contributed the idea that this understanding is informed also by the idea that humans have a fight or flight response, and that in moments of trauma the experience is not accessed until after the fight or flight response is reviewed. Erick mentioned that different types of events have different types of effects on different individuals; therefore, Erick proposed that this results in the variety of responses to trauma. Alicia mentioned Freud's understanding of repression and how it relates to trauma and dealing with trauma, which contributed to Lexi's observations that various cures appear i.e. "looking back" to try to address issues of repression related to trauma.

Professor Matt discussed Harries notions of Lot's wife's punishment. Professor Matt presented the foundation of the story. Professor Matt asked why Lot's wife was punished? Tommy observed that the punishment actually was an afterthought, of sorts, in regards to our discussion. Tommy focused on exploring the Bible story of Lot as a metaphor for the experience, a metaphor that is informed by the lens you look through to understand it i.e. masculine perspective. Amber contributed to the converstation by focusing on the act of incest as being part of the masculine creed issued from God i.e. Go forth and prosper." Alicia and David debated the taboo from both the masculine and feminine perspectives which generated a fantastic bit of discourse. David focused on the facts of the story, as presented, and Alicia focused on the story as representing the culture at the time. Both observations are valid. Kat contributed an observation about Dante's literary theory, and the importance of looking at texts or artifacts from Dante's four-pronged method: literal, allegorical, anagogic, and metaphoric. Lexi and Danny discussed the focus and function of the witness and how this focus relates to the human temptation to "look" at the destruction, like Lot's Wife. Tommy mentioned the importance of distance between the traumatic event and understanding the event and its effects on the individual. Lexi, Amber, and Meredith concluded the discussion by focusing on the temptation to remember, the temptation to look, and the need or desire to em-body the spectator's body.

Fantastic work class!

We then shifted to discussing the I-search component which is the first stage of the research project. The link is on moodle. Remember, you need to post the complete exploration of the three areas by Friday on Moodle. You need to let your mind focus on the areas that you are interested in investigating. Think about your reflections and observations thus far in the course. What is standing out to you? What interests or angers you? What makes you "feel"? This is your exploration, so enjoy it.

For Weds.

Read-Caruth (textbook), Nemirovsky (on moodle) and Lubin (on moodle)

Write-Blog posting ( combination visual, textual, and oral component which requires text, with three to four visual representations, and an oral component of a substantive amount). Post on blog.

Reflection posting on readings. Post on Moodle at least an hour before class.

Do-Start exploring areas that you find interesting for the i-search. The three-question i-search is due on Friday.

Take care,

Kat