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Hello there, Teamliquid! I am currently pulling a very well planned all nighter finishing the semester, and my biggest concern is the papers that I have to finish by tomorrow/today (Thursday) at about noon PST. I have to write about 5 pages of any form of literary criticism on Virginia Woolfe's "The Mark on the Wall", and I freaking hate this.
I tried a few English major classes this semester to explore different majors before I settle on one, and all I can say is that these English classes feel beyond useless. I've done decently, but I just don't know where to begin with this paper.
I feel like I want to do a pretty generic Feminist criticism of the piece, but it feels awkward as a guy doing it...but I'm going to do it anyway. I just feel like I don't quite get a grasp of Feminism's goals and ideals because I just don't care about that stuff. I'm all for women having rights and working and all that, but I just feel so separated from the 1800s/early 1900s Feminist movement because of where we are in the world.
My other options are worse yet, I could do post-colonialism or deconstruction or marxism or formalism or a few other useless reading strategies for my analysis. I don't think my teacher is looking for a right answer, just that I've put in the time or effort, but this paper blows.
That's all I've got, just blowing some steam. I think I will write my other papers first and come back to this one, as I have a take home exam also due at noon (summarizing stuff, creative writing stuff) and a paper due at 10pm (Dante's Inferno stuff, I love that story). I'm not really looking for any help, but it'd be cool if y'all left comments on how you feel about English classes in general at the University level, it'd be nice to see when I take a break to look over at TL.
Anyway...I'll make a 1000th-ish post blog in a few days when I finally finish the semester. I can't wait to go back to Florida and warm weather!
 
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I feel like I want to do a pretty generic Feminist criticism of the piece, but it feels awkward as a guy doing it...but I'm going to do it anyway. I just feel like I don't quite get a grasp of Feminism's goals and ideals because I just don't care about that stuff. I'm all for women having rights and working and all that, but I just feel so separated from the 1800s/early 1900s Feminist movement because of where we are in the world.
My other options are worse yet, I could do post-colonialism or deconstruction or marxism or formalism or a few other useless reading strategies for my analysis. I don't think my teacher is looking for a right answer, just that I've put in the time or effort, but this paper blows.
Feminism has nothing to do about being a man. As a matter of fact, that kind of mentality going right against the grain of feminism. I sense on your tone that you'd rather not do this and this is just a waste of time for you. I really wanted to help as Art and Art Criticism is my thing, but I'm off put by your attitude towards postcolonialism, deconstruction, marxism, and other useless reading strategies.
My best advice to you, read those frameworks first and see which one you can use. Even the "for beginners" version will get you started judging by your needs. You don't have to go too deep, just be familiar with the approach and the vocabulary.
Or yet, there is always Cliff Notes.
Goodluck.
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On December 15 2011 18:48 Gesamtkunstwerk wrote:Show nested quote +I feel like I want to do a pretty generic Feminist criticism of the piece, but it feels awkward as a guy doing it...but I'm going to do it anyway. I just feel like I don't quite get a grasp of Feminism's goals and ideals because I just don't care about that stuff. I'm all for women having rights and working and all that, but I just feel so separated from the 1800s/early 1900s Feminist movement because of where we are in the world.
My other options are worse yet, I could do post-colonialism or deconstruction or marxism or formalism or a few other useless reading strategies for my analysis. I don't think my teacher is looking for a right answer, just that I've put in the time or effort, but this paper blows. Feminism has nothing to do about being a man. As a matter of fact, that kind of mentality going right against the grain of feminism. I sense on your tone that you'd rather not do this and this is just a waste of time for you. I really wanted to help as Art and Art Criticism is my thing, but I'm off put by your attitude towards postcolonialism, deconstruction, marxism, and other useless reading strategies. My best advice to you, read those frameworks first and see which one you can use. Even the "for beginners" version will get you started judging by your needs. You don't have to go too deep, just be familiar with the approach and the vocabulary. Or yet, there is always Cliff Notes. Goodluck.
You brung it! lol.
This is not my expertise, so my advise is do something simple. Dont sweat the small stuff. Finish that thing coz vacation is awaiting
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as someone who teaches english classes at a university level, i'll probably just avoid the minefield of any complaints about them 
as for 'the mark on the wall' i'd definitely take the feminist theory angle for it--iirc that's woolf trying to subvert the typically male perspective of literature (see "the male gaze" and so forth) and rethinking narrative modes to provide a truer alternative perspective. seems like a feminist critique would be really doable and useful.. good luck dude!
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I guess my frustration with the content so far is that I don't see the end result yet, and so it feels like I'm pandering at the part that at this point seems to matter little. At the end of the course I have started to understand that (I think) it is meant to be more like math. The build-up of Trig and the like can seem frustrating and pointless at times, but once you go beyond it you can see just how much you needed those basics.
That being said, I feel like my teacher had us focus a bit too much on just talking about the text, and less about writing criticism or actually doing anything with the text. It's less that my frustration is directed toward the literary theories themselves, and more my frustration of just being tossed into this final assignment that I was given on Monday without much practice or any office hours to go to because my professor isn't available this week (and there aren't any TA's either, it's a small class).
It's really not THAT bad, just the time invested in it, but I just expected to get more done with the course overall instead of just reading a ton of books and talking about them in class.
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you should be writing your papers the way you talk about books in class
i'm an english major and i currently hate my life, i expect to like my life in ~21 hours when i hand in the worst bit of criticism i've ever written.
if you sit down with a text and really pick it apart, it's as satisfying as solving a math problem. if you write it last minute, it's like you're making up answers to math solutions!! not fun.
good luck  i might come back here and clean up this response when i'm properly alive
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EPT
