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.
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