Prior to taking this class, I was ambivalent at best towards it. It was just another hurdle to jump before I could get into more interesting courses. However, after completing this course, I have to say that it was incredibly useful, if nothing else. I have learned much more successful ways to craft essays, organize […]
Author Archive | Hannah Hartley
To Each His Own Interpretation; Or, The Death of the Author and the Rise of Fannish Critique in Fan Fiction
We all remember the end of our favorite book. Regardless of whether the novel concluded satisfactorily, an unquenchable thirst for more still burned within us. But do characters’ adventures really end at the finale of a book? Although we will never see J.K. Rowling write a story in which Harry Potter attends another year at […]
ProfTalks: Rhetoric and Poetry
Last week, I was absent and therefore missed the first ProfTalks session, so this Monday’s talks were my first foray into seeing other disciplines in the English Department. That being said, I was not disappointed. Both of the visiting professors, Dr. Rusko and Dr. Warnick, had fascinating discussions about their fields of study. Though I […]
Proposal
Hannah Hartley Dr. Anton Vander Zee ENGL 299 28 March 2016 To Each His Own Interpretation, Or How Reader Response Theory Informs Fan Fiction We all remember the end of our favorite book. Regardless of if the novel concluded satisfactorily or not, a desire for more still burned within us. But do characters’ adventures really […]
Mainstream Media and Voyerism
One running theme that seemed particularly prevalent in this section of the book is the inherently voyeuristic nature of news. Emi and Gabriel both work for media outlets, with Emi focused on televised news while Gabriel works for a newspaper. Both share a similar outlook on news, believing that, at its core, it is entertainment. […]
The Use of Point of View to Build Character
When reading Tropic of Orange by Karen Tei Yamashita, the first thing that I noticed about the book was the way she differentiated between characters’ narrations. From one section to the next, the reader can very easily tell which character’s mind we are in. In part, this is due to the shift in point of view, though Yamashita also […]
The “Universal” Theme of a White Man’s Struggle
While reading the chapter “Differences” in Nealon and Giroux’s Theory To olbox, I was struck by the passage on so-called “universal” themes, particularly the comment “the supposedly “universal” subject has a very specific gender: masculine” (179). I was immediately reminded of the 2016 Oscars controversy, which erupted after the release of the Oscars nominations. From […]
The Oft-Ignored Narrative of the “Vanquished”
As a history and English double major, I simply could not stop myself from discussing the Theory Toolbox chapter “History.” Although I recognize that the two disciplines view literature through different lenses, I tend to combine the two frames of reference somewhat. However, in the case of history being written by the victors, while “literature tends […]
The Subjectivity of Language
While making my way through the assigned readings for today, one subject in particular stood out to me: the arbitrary nature of language. I was already familiar with the idea prior to reading, as I had an anthropology class last semester that studied the relationship between language and culture. One of the first things we […]