Envy and Competition

In hopes of not using up everything I plan to say tomorrow when presenting Rosenfeld’s article, I’m going to try and keep my comments on here brief. First of all, once I managed to unpack this article, (it is quite dense, or at least I found it to be) I really enjoyed it and thought Rosenfeld made some very interesting points. I wouldn’t necessarily say that she changed my mind about Kempe- I still think she is a somewhat insane- but she did cause me to look at the emotion envy in a different light. In the very beginning of the article, she states that envy has usually been seen as a negative emotion, which I completely agree with, and depending on the situation, still do. But after reading the article, I was able to see envy in a different light- a more productive light. Rosenfeld explains how envy encourages emulation, but how it also goes beyond that and can encourage someone to build on that emulation by improving it in the way they see fit, which in turn “can serve as a means to signify one’s own difference” (107). I’m going to cut myself off here- I look forward to discussing this article in class tomorrow!

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