Both Better Living through Criticism and Renaissance Self-Fashioning describe how we are not as in control of our lives as we believe we are. Through a rhetorical onslaught of dialectical concepts, anticipating audience response, and constant refinement, authors, A.O. Scott and Stephen Greenblatt, reveal to the audience the importance of submitting to larger powers and the value in allowing oneself to be vulnerable. In each of these texts, a central discussion around changing one’s life is formed in an attempt to demonstrate how individuals can gain more control and agency over their life by realizing and recognizing they are being influenced by outside forces. The theme and concept of submission is integral to A.O Scott’s main argument in Better Living Through Criticism about how individuals can learn to appreciate their lives through criticism and reflection. Scott best implements this concept through the repetition of the phrase, “You must change your life”. Throughout the text, Scott explains how people are close minded in their thinking, specifically around art, and are unwilling to change due to pre-perceived notions and constructs. He describes how these “authorities” have a significant effect on our thinking and our life. Scott provides an example of these authoritative structures when depicting one’s trip to a museum, stating, “We might recognize-and resent- the element of coercion that pushes us through the teeming corridors”, and this provides an excellent segue into his discussion around the “state of being open to their expression.” Through this repetitive rhetorical strategy, Scott urges his audience to submit to authoritative structures as it will better their life making them more open and accepting of ideas and opinions that differ from theirs. Instead of focusing on art as a primary topic of discussion, Stephen Greenblatt looks at society as a whole to demonstrate the importance of vulnerability and submission in his text Renaissance Self-Fashioning. through this writing, Greenblatt prescribes his audience to examine the authoritative structures in their life and understand how they are being influenced by them. Following this, he urges the audience to dissect the positive parts of their life both past and present and find meaning and see how these parts have influenced their life. Finally, he argues that by submitting and recognizing authorities individuals gain more agency and control. Greenblatt does this by defining 10 characteristics of 16th century writers, and he organizes the defining concepts on how they played into power/authoritative structures. In summarizing these conditions, Greenblatt states that, “any achieved identity always contains within itself the signs of its own subversion or loss,” and by doing this, he describes how submission can be the remedy to this loss of identity and can increase agency and control. Both these texts are built upon a general argument about how individuals can regain control of their lives. Though expressed in slightly different manners, Greenblatt and Scott believe that by recognizing and submitting to authorities, individuals can directly increase their agency. Furthermore, the authors call for a change in living as exemplified by the phrases, “you must change in your life” (Scott) and, “you must allow yourself to be powerfully struck” (Greenblatt). These expressions are repeated throughout both of these texts, and they underline the author's argument to urge the audience to be open and vulnerable. Better Living Through Criticism and Renaissance Self-Fashioning both highlight the importance and necessity of recognizing that we are not as in control of our lives as we believe to be. This was an extremely hard writing assignment, and I struggled with it. However, I am happy with my final product as I think it provides a very strong argument into the relationship between Greenblatt and Scott. One of the hardest parts about this assignment was how difficult it was for me to find textual evidence to support my claim and looking back on this assignment, I wished I could’ve wrote more quotes down in my commonplace throughout the semester. I got a lot of inspiration about my theme through looking back at my commonplace book, and I feel like it really helped me.
0 Comments
The reading that we had for over Thanksgiving break was incredibly challenging yet rewarding. I was able to get through it easier than I would have and understand more concepts because of our work together in class and because of our prior readings. However, the selections, especially Milton, were still difficult for me. I think there were concepts from class in almost each of these selections and one of the main concepts that stuck out to me was Authority v. Alien. I believe there were many new concepts, such as gender roles and light v. dark, that were critical components and themes of the readings. Throughout the selections, I found myself struck by the authors physical descriptions of the world being formed. Most of the writers portrayed the creation as being fully responsible by God, and it amazed me at how descriptive and detailed the authors were when illustrating the physical aspects of the creation of Earth.
I found the concept of authority v. alien to be packed throughout these selections. I think this relationship is presented through God and Satan, and it was amazing to see how this played out. God and all his angels, being the authority, constantly demeaned and demonized Satan as being both “Chaotic” and “false or negative”. Satan was portrayed as being a demonic parody to God, and additionally as a distorted image of God. In Paradise Lost, there is a war between God and Satan, and I believes this is an example of the third governing condition in Stephen Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning. In this condition, the alien (Satan) is to be “attacked and destroyed”, and this demonstrates a significant connection and relation to the governing conditions and the authority v. alien model in Paradise Lost. Throughout the reading, I was surprised at the importance of gender roles in each of these selections, specifically in Genesis and Paradise Lost. I had no idea at how sexist Genesis is, and it is shocking to see the author describe Eve and how she came to be. I’m really interested in this, and I hope we can dissect this in class. I have many questions about this theme such as how did this reflect society's feelings towards women at the time? How did this influence gender roles for the future of literature? Finally, what do we make of this and what does christianity have to say about this today? Does the sexism Genesis, an integral part of the foundation of christianity, still have a role in the christianity of today? In addition to exploring this concept in class, I hope we can do a deep dive into the character of Satan in Paradise Lost. To me, Milton’s portrayal of Satan is one of the most genuine and layered versions of the character in literature. I believe that Satan has emotions in this story, and this was kind of confusing and different for me as a reader. I hope we can explore Milton’s version of the character, specifically with an eye towards looking at the paradigms and themes at play within Lucifer. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2019
Categories |