#littheoryhu

[theeprodigalson-blog]

John G. has this belief that the literary canon is “imaginary." This belief ensues the notion that because there is not a general body of texts that have been agreed upon, there is no canon. However, I disagree. Shakespearien texts have flooded our education systems for many years. It's almost as if every critical literary course requires a reading by Shakespeare; Shakespeare is the canon.

[litcrittheory]

Related to our conversation about dandyism today, here’s Solange’s 2012 video Losing You. Director Melina Matsoukas features “sapeurs,” aka the Societe des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elegantes (the Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People). How do you see this subculture related to colonial roots (specifically the French imperial ones Barthes notes in “Myth Today”)? What does it mean for a music video to set a U.S. singer in Cape Town, South Africa surrounded by members of a Congolese fashion subculture?

If we think about Barthes’ point about intertextuality, how is this text (i.e. the video) interacting with other texts in the culture(s) that produced it?

If you are interested in reading more on Dandyism and race, I highly recommend Dr. Monica Miller's Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity (Duke University Press, 2009).

FMI on la sape:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/26/fashion/papa-wembas-influential-fashion-style.html?mcubz=1&_r=0

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/fop-art-gentleman-of-the-bacongo/?mcubz=1

FMI on the RISD exhibit: 

http://risdmuseum.org/art_design/exhibitions/23_artist_rebel_dandy_men_of_fashion

Also possibly of interest, the menswear consulting website Street Etiquette (which was featured in the exhibit, Rebel/Artist/Dandy): http://streetetiquette.com/about/

[litcrittheory]

A quick note

Two reminders for the posts so far: remember to 

Remember to use a hashtag so we can all find your posts,

Aim to tie the response explicitly to a text or discussion from the class. 

[litcrittheory]

I am thinking about our discussions of how much do we think of authors (their historical context, biographies, possible intentions) when we look at a piece of art. As much as I am wary of Eliot’s ideology (expressed in the essay we read, other non-fiction pieces, as well as in much of his work), I do take pleasure as a reader in poems like “Prufrock” and as a scholar, I find his work rewarding in its formal complexities. Here is audio of him reading his own poem. Does his voice (and the personality it evokes) shape influence your reaction to the poem (as opposed to the other reading we heard on Tuesday or reading the poem to yourself)?