(no subject)
My first Literary Theory paper? An awesome adventure in "The Song of Beren and Luthien" discussing the square of active v. non-passive v. passive v. non-active and how Tolkien creates a mythology by doing violence to the signifier, pretending it is full and present when it is actually empty. I seriously loved that paper. If I could, I would totally marry it.
My second? A discussion of how Ovid's "Python," found in his Metamorphoses, is actually just a Freudian way of saying, "Screw you, Augustus, you can banish me for talking about how much fun sex is but I'll totally live forever in my work and you're going to be dead soon, haha, I win!"
Which is interesting and fun, sure, but is also kind of self-evident. I could bring up the "Beren and Luthien" argument in a roomful of Tolkien experts and they would say, "My, how novel! Let us explore how else Tolkien might have purposefully abused the English language, that crafty little linguist!" I could bring up the point about Ovid in a roomful of classicists and they would all laugh at me in ancient Greek and say, "Yeah, Ovid thought every word that fell from his mouth was solid gold sex, tell us something we DON'T know."
Oh well, I guess they can't all be ground-breaking arguments.
My second? A discussion of how Ovid's "Python," found in his Metamorphoses, is actually just a Freudian way of saying, "Screw you, Augustus, you can banish me for talking about how much fun sex is but I'll totally live forever in my work and you're going to be dead soon, haha, I win!"
Which is interesting and fun, sure, but is also kind of self-evident. I could bring up the "Beren and Luthien" argument in a roomful of Tolkien experts and they would say, "My, how novel! Let us explore how else Tolkien might have purposefully abused the English language, that crafty little linguist!" I could bring up the point about Ovid in a roomful of classicists and they would all laugh at me in ancient Greek and say, "Yeah, Ovid thought every word that fell from his mouth was solid gold sex, tell us something we DON'T know."
Oh well, I guess they can't all be ground-breaking arguments.