Five Responses and Three Pigs

"Reading the Newspaper" (1980) by Fyodor Bronnikov

Tuesday's class started off with an opportunity for students to earn up to five points on their final grade by writing press releases for class over the course of the semester. Dr. Benton handed out an example of a press release and explained that these press releases will be posted on the course website (where you're reading this!). These factual, neutral summaries of class discussion should serve as a useful reminder of what material was covered in class for those who attended and an informative outline for students who were absent. It will also help the release writers because it will encourage them to pay especially close attention to material covered in class on days they are assigned to write about. Two volunteers will be assigned to cover each class day since one writer might catch something the other forgot or missed.

As a class, we discussed the characteristics of the sample press release.  It was noted that the press release should provide a reliable, objective account of the conduct of the class.  Dr. Benton advised students who previously indicated that they would be "disappointed" if they didn't get an "A" in the course to sign up for this opportunity.  Dillon and Ashley Armentrout volunteered to go first.  Other students who signed up at the end of class included:  Erin, Taylor, Crystal, Leah, Mary, Melissa, and Curtis.

The remainder of the class was dedicated to discussion of five different ways to respond to literature that will be given special attention in this class. Dr. Benton pointed out that how you respond to literature depends on how you look at the text.  We then discussed how any text can be responded to in each of the five different ways.  When Christian sneezed, for example, Dr. Benton pointed out that even a sneeze can be responded to as a "source of information" (Christian's nose suggested that he is having an allergic reaction of some kind ) or a "work of art" (noting its rhythm and dynamics, for example).  We did not explore the difficult question of how Christian's sneeze might be read ideologically . . .

Scene from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

We also talked about how a classic novel like To Kill a Mockingbird can be read aesthetically when, for example, we note the way it is constructed in order to produce an emotional response of some kind in its readers (fear, admiration, suspense, amusement, anger, etc.).  It can be read ideologically when we note how these emotions are invoked in order to challenge or affirm conventional beliefs or stereotypes. It could be said of To Kill a Mockingbird, for example,as Chelsee pointed out, that it challenges stereotypes of little girls as delicate and sentimental (Scout is a tomboy) and of African-American men as sexual predators (Tom is wrongly accused of a crime).  On the other hand, it could be argued that To Kill a Mockingbird affirms the stereotype of white men (like Atticus) as heroes and African-Americans as victims in need of rescue.

We then talked about how all literary works are themselves responses to previous literary works.  The same may be said of musicians, and we talked about how pop-rock singers like Stevie Nicks and punk-rock bands like The Ramones could be analyzed both in terms of the influences that shaped them and the types of music that they rejected.  Literary works can explore themes, character-types, genres, narrative structures, settings or perspectives observed in other works and satirize, re-contextualize, expand, or commemorate them.

Dr. Benton pointed out that writers can engage in aesthetic and ideological analysis without commenting on whether or not he or she agrees with the text's ideology or was moved by its aesthetics.

At the end of the class, we watched a clip from the 1933 Disney short The Three Little Pigs and talked about how an apparently neutral summary of the film might shape reader responses to it.  For example, should the pigs who built their houses of sticks and straw be considered lazy?  Or should the pig who built his house of bricks be considered a puritanical scold?  Considering the aesthetics of the film, we observed elements that made it humorous (the framed picture of sausages on the wall labeled "Father"), artful (the bowing ladder), and suspenseful (the mention of the Wolf).  Considering the ideology of the film, Christian mentioned that the film could be seen as confirming a stereotype of artists as lazy and useless (when the first two pigs

Image from The Three Little Pigs (1933)

finish building their homes, they play musical instruments, sing, and dance). Taking into consideration the fact that the film was made during the Great Depression, we noted how the film might be seen either as blaming poor people for not planning more carefully for the future or it might be seen as encouraging them to do just that in order to avoid future catastrophe. In this reading, the wolf might be seen as "hunger" knocking on the door of those whose resources have been exhausted.  Noting the depiction of the disguised wolf as a stereotypical Jewish peddler, we also recalled Nazi propaganda of the period that trafficked in dehumanizing characterizations of Jews and characterized them as financial parasites.  Seen in this light, the Wolf might be read as Jewish bankers coming to foreclose on people's farms.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: Read the Aesthetic analysis of “On This Bus."  It will be discussed at the beginning of class Thursday.

Dillon Darnell and Ashley Armentrout contributed to this report.