Tuesday, December 2

Today’s Agenda

“I cannot define ‘pornography,’ but I know it when I see it.”

Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black

What is offensive?

Last week, we began work on our Literary Argument papers. Drafts are currently being graded, and will be handed back on Thursday.

Today we are going to work on activities that will help you as you revise these papers.

This semester, we have been talking about what literature is, and how we can best approach literature. Again and again, we have revisited the idea of coming to literature with an open mind.

In particular, I have stressed how important it is to ask questions about the parts of a literary document that seem to be the most obvious.

Recently, we began to examine the literature of our everyday lives. We investigated topics such as print advertisements, paintings, the news, political speeches, and television commercials.

In our culture, we have a tendency to see too little in literature, and this is one reason why people sometimes feel that they “cannot figure out what a poem or short story is about.” When people want to know what something is “about” they want to be able to summarize it, or understand it simply.

Good literature defies this kind of understanding because it cannot be summarized as only being about one specific thing.

In this class, we have learned enough about literature to never get stymied by this issue again. We all now know that literature cannot be summed up simply, but, rather, can be addressed from a number of different perspectives.  As a result, it is now time for us to tackle the next major issue that limits people’s understanding of literature in our culture.

In our culture, people are very quick to say that something is not literature if it does not obviously support their “values.” One knee-jerk reaction to something that we find challenging to our world view is to claim that it is “bad” or, worse, “pornographic.” When we label something as bad or pornographic, we are essentially saying that it has no socially redeeming values, and, as a result, is not worth our time or attention.

Here’s a question:

Is Michelangelo’s _David_ pornographic?

Is the comedy of Larry The Cable Guy pornographic?

Why is it that we shy away from one, but not the other?

In your journal, I want you to spend the next ten to fifteen minutes commenting on products from our culture that you think are TOO OFFENSIVE TO BE CONSIDERED LITERATURE.

You can focus on kinds of LEGAL movies, books, music, or any other subject that you think does not rise to the level of literature. Remember, our standard this semester for literature has been that it represents basic concerns or experiences that are common to our culture.

Let’s get into groups and compile a list of offensive material:

I now want you to come up with a group statement in response to a difficult question: Why might it make sense for us to consider these things AS literature. That is to say, I want you to come up with a counterargument to your own belief that these things are not literature.

Class Discussion

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Now I am going to introduce a new concept to you.

So far this semester, we have been talking about literature in very general terms. However, as we get closer to the end of the semester, you need to be aware that there are national literatures. That is to say, most nations, even very young nations, have a national literature. National literatures tend to be made up of works that have traditionally been viewed as espousing views that are central, or common, to a given people.

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