Final Bibliography

ardner, Janet E. Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Print.

Pope, Rob. Studying English Literature and Language: An Introduction and Companion. N.P.: Routledge, n.d. Print.

Lettow, Susanne. “Turning the turn.” Thesis Eleven, vol. 140, no. 1, 2016, pp. 106–121.

Unsworth, Charlotte. "A Fractured Understanding: Piecing Together Christina Rossetti." Use of English, 2016, Volume 68, Issue 1.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “New Criticism.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 4 Jan. 2017, www.britannica.com/art/New-Criticism.

“Welcome to the Purdue OWL.” Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/07/.

“Welcome to the Purdue OWL.” Purdue OWL: Poetry: Close Reading, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/751/01/.

Rossetti, Christina, and R. W. Crump. Christina Rossetti: the complete poems. Penguin Books, 2007.

“Literary Terms.” Literary Devices, literary-devices.com/.

Ashley Zizich

November 6, 2017

Bibliography and Update

            I had a meeting with Dr. White to go over the content of my project. I presented her with my essay on the poem, After Death by Christina Rosetti, and the essay I did on the analysis of how to use New Critical Theory to do a close reading of the poem. We went over the structure of the essay and figured out how to rework the essay in terms of rearranging the content to make more sense of structure. With the organization of the essay, we talked about how to take poetic elements and arrange them from least important to most important. I orgionaly broke the essay down in terms of flowing the poem in order, so my poetic elements were kind of all over the place.  So, I will be breaking the essay down by rhythm of the poem, and imagery of the poem, and using the elements instead of the flow of the poem.

 We decided that an explanation of New Critical Theory and a history of the theory would be vital to show the how and why behind why New Critical Theory is so important to do a close reading of a piece. Also, the fact that the poem is a Petrarchan Sonnet, I will need some information about that type of sonnet and its form, and how it works.

            I showed her the pieces I had breaking down the poetic elements and explained how I want to utilize these to show how to do a close reading of the text. We talked about incorporating a slide or picture of how to show breaking the poem down in finding the meter, the rhyme, the end rhymes, the ceasuras, and so on. We also used the guidelines for “Understanding the Text”, a handout she had given me in her Intro to English Studies course. Using this form will help in breaking down the text to show how to do a close reading of the poem.

Bibliography

Gardner, Janet E. Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins,   

 2009. Print

Pope, Rob. Studying English Literature and Language: An Introduction and Companion. New

            York: Routledge, 2012. Print.

Purdue OWL: Literal Theory

(www.write.armstrong.edu/handouts/Formalism.pdf)

https://www.britannica.com/art/New-Criticism

Technology is everywhere. I do not think there is not an aspect of my everyday life that does not involve technology of some sort. Even in my education; research and writing involves the help of technology. While reading a text that I do not necessarily understand, I look to the internet for articles to allow for deeper meaning. The computer and use of the internet, though is merely a tool I use to allow for the deeper understanding. In the article Accessing Humanities Research in a Digital Environment, the focus stems from authors publishing their scholarly research to make impact and give knowledge to others. I believe that attention needs to be brought forward that allows people to understand what Digital Humanities is, but there also needs to be equal discussion for people to understand that digital means are merely a tool. It takes human interpretation to arrive at a sound decision. I am not saying Digital Humanities is not important, because I know technology will be ever-growing and relevant. While there is a decline of the importance of literature, I feel it is of importance to rely on written text first and foremost. Digital means should merely be tools by which students and scholars use to find the deeper meaning of the written text. The lack of funding in the article about UCLA struck me as to why a prestigious university would not understand the importance of humanities. I understand funding to be an issue, and a major issue at that, but by taking away core courses and forcing students to spend more money to take them over the summer is ridiculous. What college student will be willing to spend more money to take required courses outside of their normal semesters? That alone would be a cause of students not being totally invested in these “extra” courses. While I understand budget issues come into play, I do not understand why more extensions of lecture courses are not available. I just wonder where cost comes in above proper education in taking away courses in humanities and making them not easily accessible. 

Ashley Zizich

Senior Seminar

Drucker Response

September 16, 2017

            While reading Johanna Drucker’s article, Graphic Devices: Narration and Navigation, I was struck by how she relates electronic devices in helping structure and contribute to the narrative in literature. While I would agree that graphic devices are a dimension of narrative texts, I do not believe they help or hinder their analysis and interpretation. Drucker uses examples of how writers in the 19^th century had experimented with using images in their fiction and how it helped to ground readers to the story. This example reminded me of graphic novels. While there is a certain form and specificity in the crafting of graphic novels, I understand it is a very deliberate process. I looked up several Krazy Kat comics that Drucker references so I could relate to her point. The comics that George Herriman created are very deliberate and not like any other comic. Several scenes are depicted into one, but in different panels. The way the comic was presented really helped the reader grasp the story.

            Having written this article in 2008, I can assume Drucker was speaking of graphic devices such as illustrations, and form of narrative. At first, I thought she might have been speaking of graphic devises as computers, or e-readers. I sort of thought while reading this article that the graphics in some novels, stories, comics, magazines, etc., are often misrepresented in electronic form, taking away from the overall connection and structure of the piece. For example, I am an avid reader on my kindle. I seem to read more on my kindle at times than I do in print form. I remember downloading a book by Ransom Riggs called Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I had read earlier that unlikely, creepy, vintage pictures inspired this novel the author had found and collected over the years. These pictures had little or no explanation behind them. For example, one picture was of a young girl with a huge gaping hole right in the middle of her stomach that you could see straight through. Riggs had incorporated these photos into his novel to tell the story. The photos were placed at strategic places throughout the novel and they helped the reader gain a picture for what the author was trying to describe. On my kindle, though, the photos would not download, and often if they did, they were cut off and depicted half on one page and the other half on the next page. This negated the entire purpose of reading the novel for me. I went out and bought the book in print form, and I was glad I did so. While this example may be off subject, it just reminded me that graphics is certainly important if they are done with purpose.

            William Gibson’s, Agrippa: A Book of the Dead was a literary form and experiment I was not even aware existed. It was certainly interesting to read about how he made formed this poem on a floppy disk and then treated the pages with photo sensitive chemicals so the words would disappear once they were read. The fact that this electronic poem was conceived and published in 1992 is phenomenal. The entire form of this poem was so advanced, and continues to be so advanced that I can see where some authors and artists can draw inspiration from Gibson. This work reminded me that literary works are often conceived of in written, paper form, and not any electronic form.

            Joseph Tabbi’s article speaks of the thought that scholars should devote close attention to what is continuous in computing that we give to the formation of cannons in the literary and cultural fields. I agree there is an always changing, rapid growing push in technology, and it often means that works become canonized before their time. It seems we are so quick to take a rapid approach to the changing technology, that the older works do not get the attention they deserve. Works do seem always doomed to catch up with technology. The medias in which the works are produced deserve to be celebrated as the works are. The connection that Tabbi makes about the author not being the only creative process is something I have never thought of. There is an editor, typesetter, designer, sales people, distribution people all involved in making a literary piece accessible. Another thing I never thought of was the fact that technological courses typecast these skills into tech support and nothing more. Most of these students will not partake in any advanced courses in literature, thus never moving into humanities jobs. Isn’t the technology in the field of humanities becoming increasingly important in our field? Why aren’t more humanities majors made to take more technology courses? It seems the courses in that aspect are far and few between. I always say that I feel I am at disadvantage when it comes to the fact of the advancements. There are often programs I do not know how to use and technology I feel is foreign to me.

            I could go on and on about Tabbi’s article. One more thing I wanted to touch upon was when he raises the question of contemporary criticism. Does it trace to literary cultural development written into the changing technological environment, or has literary history been superseded by technological progress? Does the literary meaning lose something along the way as it is passed through technology? I do believe this is the case in most aspects. As I see my children go forward in school, and technology become more advanced, I find myself sad that eventually they will be reading books on the computer rather than in print. While I feel there are positive and negative aspects to this, I know I will always instill a firm knowledge of literary works in print for my family. 

Ashley Zizich

Senior Seminar

Rommell’s Literary Studies gives an outline of the beginnings of literary text production. The potential for electronic media was first used in the 60s and 70s to compile an assisted study of literature. I believe this author is saying that while speaking of literary theory, the computer does not hold any analytical power of its own, but it merely enhances the critic’s powers of memory by electronic means. The computer gives a complete database of findings that meet all the patterns set by the search criteria, but it takes human insight to really put the findings to use. I like this because while I know computers and their use are important, I believe at times we become too reliant upon their information. We often see something, for example, on social media and take it for face value. There are sources that may be reputable and some that may not be. It is hard to rely on the computer and one search engines findings when there is so much information to reach and some of it may be false.

Smith’s “What’s American Literary Studies Got to do with IT” was interesting because she gives a (long) example of how she was working on archiving manuscripts of Emily Dickinson and developing a scholarly website and a CD ROM to go along with her findings. I find it astounding that one of her colleagues reprimanded her for taking time to do this and was told that she was in the English department, not a computer science department. While this was in 1994, and people were ignorant to how important something like this could be for future use, I feel that that is easily seen in society today. By making images and works available for all to see that have been kept away in museum archives only for exclusive view, I believe should absolutely be done. It is like the old values that helped set up our nation, that everyone should at least get the opportunity to do well for themselves. It is just up to them how they choose to use them. Technology does have the opportunity to intervene positively while offering access to material that others would not be able to access. While this research and this data takes on a whole new set of encoding standards, and will need editors to be more responsible and accountable, this is still the direction I feel our literature needs to move in. She goes onto explain a work that uses Flash to tell a story with image and sound. To me, this sounds like any website. If you are doing research and go onto a site, there are always images for you to see as a connection to the research you are trying to gather.

Kirschenbaum’s article again, hammered it in that English studies are all about computers. Digital humanities are not going away. They are discussed in journals, books, conferences, institutes, centers. I like how social media sites were tied into her article and argument. Facebook, twitter, and blogs are all a social undertaking. It is networks of people working together and sharing research, compiling, and collaborating just as the works for digital humanities is. Blogs and twitter are linked to new technologies, but it is important. 

Ashley Zizich

Senior Seminar

Drucker Response

September 16, 2017

            While reading Johanna Drucker’s article, Graphic Devices: Narration and Navigation, I was struck by how she relates electronic devices in helping structure and contribute to the narrative in literature. While I would agree that graphic devices are a dimension of narrative texts, I do not believe they help or hinder their analysis and interpretation. Drucker uses examples of how writers in the 19^th century had experimented with using images in their fiction and how it helped to ground readers to the story. This example reminded me of graphic novels. While there is a certain form and specificity in the crafting of graphic novels, I understand it is a very deliberate process. I looked up several Krazy Kat comics that Drucker references so I could relate to her point. The comics that George Herriman created are very deliberate and not like any other comic. Several scenes are depicted into one, but in different panels. The way the comic was presented really helped the reader grasp the story.

            Having written this article in 2008, I can assume Drucker was speaking of graphic devices such as illustrations, and form of narrative. At first, I thought she might have been speaking of graphic devises as computers, or e-readers. I sort of thought while reading this article that the graphics in some novels, stories, comics, magazines, etc., are often misrepresented in electronic form, taking away from the overall connection and structure of the piece. For example, I am an avid reader on my kindle. I seem to read more on my kindle at times than I do in print form. I remember downloading a book by Ransom Riggs called Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I had read earlier that unlikely, creepy, vintage pictures inspired this novel the author had found and collected over the years. These pictures had little or no explanation behind them. For example, one picture was of a young girl with a huge gaping hole right in the middle of her stomach that you could see straight through. Riggs had incorporated these photos into his novel to tell the story. The photos were placed at strategic places throughout the novel and they helped the reader gain a picture for what the author was trying to describe. On my kindle, though, the photos would not download, and often if they did, they were cut off and depicted half on one page and the other half on the next page. This negated the entire purpose of reading the novel for me. I went out and bought the book in print form, and I was glad I did so. While this example may be off subject, it just reminded me that graphics is certainly important if they are done with purpose.

            William Gibson’s, Agrippa: A Book of the Dead was a literary form and experiment I was not even aware existed. It was certainly interesting to read about how he made formed this poem on a floppy disk and then treated the pages with photo sensitive chemicals so the words would disappear once they were read. The fact that this electronic poem was conceived and published in 1992 is phenomenal. The entire form of this poem was so advanced, and continues to be so advanced that I can see where some authors and artists can draw inspiration from Gibson. This work reminded me that literary works are often conceived of in written, paper form, and not any electronic form.

            Joseph Tabbi’s article speaks of the thought that scholars should devote close attention to what is continuous in computing that we give to the formation of cannons in the literary and cultural fields. I agree there is an always changing, rapid growing push in technology, and it often means that works become canonized before their time. It seems we are so quick to take a rapid approach to the changing technology, that the older works do not get the attention they deserve. Works do seem always doomed to catch up with technology. The medias in which the works are produced deserve to be celebrated as the works are. The connection that Tabbi makes about the author not being the only creative process is something I have never thought of. There is an editor, typesetter, designer, sales people, distribution people all involved in making a literary piece accessible. Another thing I never thought of was the fact that technological courses typecast these skills into tech support and nothing more. Most of these students will not partake in any advanced courses in literature, thus never moving into humanities jobs. Isn’t the technology in the field of humanities becoming increasingly important in our field? Why aren’t more humanities majors made to take more technology courses? It seems the courses in that aspect are far and few between. I always say that I feel I am at disadvantage when it comes to the fact of the advancements. There are often programs I do not know how to use and technology I feel is foreign to me.

            I could go on and on about Tabbi’s article. One more thing I wanted to touch upon was when he raises the question of contemporary criticism. Does it trace to literary cultural development written into the changing technological environment, or has literary history been superseded by technological progress? Does the literary meaning lose something along the way as it is passed through technology? I do believe this is the case in most aspects. As I see my children go forward in school, and technology become more advanced, I find myself sad that eventually they will be reading books on the computer rather than in print. While I feel there are positive and negative aspects to this, I know I will always instill a firm knowledge of literary works in print for my family. 

Ashley Zizich

Senior Seminar

Thurlow and Bell Article

September 18, 2017

            I found the article by Thurlow and Bell interesting in the aspect that I agreed and equally disagreed an equal amount with that was written. While the article starts out by targeting “young users” of social media and what they face not only in the educational system but also while preparing for the work force. At times, I found myself thinking that old users could relate the same as well. Not only are the youth plagued with advertisers and marketers telling you want you want and what to do in media, and telephone, but the older users are as well. My point is, there are a good majority of old and young users of social media that get the same results. The article then spoke of how young people are “endangering the very fabric of civilization” with their use and reliance upon social media. I felt this to be rather the opposite. Isn’t the youth of today taking to social media in order to enable themselves and their peers, and to engineer change? At least this is what I see. I do understand that youth can be wasted on social media in the respect that all they may do is look at memes all day, or take to social media platforms to complain and not do anything to change things. There is a mix of both negative and positive. Different discourse can be negative, but that is a sweeping generalization that it is all negative.

            The examples of the essays written in text shorthand were used as a way to point out not only that there is a somewhat creative aspect to that type of lingo, but also that youth need to be taught the difference between being professional and social. It made me wonder if all school systems are teaching this. Are kids really being taught in a way that makes them think that writing an essay in text lingo is an acceptable form of writing in an educational atmosphere. If these essays were in fact done without the creative prompting to do so, then I call fault on the school system rather than the overwhelming media youth is subject to. It is also a negative to social media and media in general. It has trained not only youth but older people as well to take things at face value. While it was explained in the article that we know no information as to whether these students were prompted to write in this way, the social media took to these articles with outrage claiming that students were being ruined by technology.

            As human communication becomes more “technologized” does this in fact make people more employable? I often think about this. Can I really get looked past for a job because I have not blogged? Is this generalization just a tool for employers to use to be selective in who they hire? I am not trying to take away from the fact that yes, technology helps, and blogging is a means to showcase your ability to communicate. I do know people have been hired purely on the basis they can blog. Does this skill really make them more marketable? What if they can blog but they do not possess other marketable skills? I see both angles on this subject, but it is hard for me to be swayed one way or the other. I feel that I may be at a disadvantage on this because I am an older student, in my mid-30s, and I have not been as exposed to technologies as my classmates have, thus making it more difficult for me to grasp certain technology. I often think that maybe there does need to be a shift from the emphasis of technology. I don’t believe there will be though.

            The point in the article that talks about youth being able to communicate “properly” because they are so embedded in technology, in my opinion is irrelevant, and brings me back to my argument that if this were true, then the school system is partly to blame. Again, I am aware that technology has and will continue to play an important role, but if a student cannot learn how to write a proper paper or answer questions on a test in full sentences but rather text lingo, then there is something more going on in the system, and at home, that needs looking at.

            I understand youth will always look to social networks whether it be for support, help, or homework. I’m not sure that because of this, we need to shape educational policies around the need for digital access and social inclusion. I feel pretty “old school” for stating that, and perhaps I am. Perhaps I don’t want to think that my children must be reliant on social networks to feel included or supported. I’m having a hard time coming to grips with this one.