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Thinking about my last blog post still.
I’ve seen how over emphasis of a critical lens interpretation can ruin a book. A professor of mine essentially called Native Son communist propaganda, & my classmates spent the rest of class dismissing the story bc of it.
I’ve seen how over emphasis of a critical lens interpretation can ruin a book. A professor of mine essentially called Native Son communist propaganda, & my classmates spent the rest of class dismissing the story bc of it.
When I read Their Eyes Were Watching God in my Black female writers class, all of my annotations were about class and patriarchy. I literally didn’t pay *any* attention to the construction of the narrative, the symbolism, the flow, or any of the things that make it beautiful.
When I studied Alice Munro, I wrote all of my papers (abstractly) about gender representation and glanced over the fact that Alice Munro wrote that love had “assaulted” her character (my professor pointed that out to me and I remember not even knowing what her point was).
I’m not saying stop being critical, but I am saying don’t apply something that isn’t there, or to such an extent that it turns us away from studying the story.
I had to reteach myself to read for literature instead of theory and am still working on it. I think I’m better for it.
I had to reteach myself to read for literature instead of theory and am still working on it. I think I’m better for it.
