>Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:51:21 -0500
>From: "J. A. Madrigal" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: { SPAM 1 }:Fwd Isaac Benabu: Re: Fwd: Jose Antonio Madrigal to Frank
>  Dominguez : Re: Literatura y l
>To: [log in to unmask], "A. Robert Lauer" <[log in to unmask]>
>
>Issac, I totally agree with you. if you look at our Masters program at
>Auburn and, specifically at the reading list and comprehensive exams (no
>choice), you will know that we do it the old way without ignoring the
>new. Let's continue the conversation...Tony
>
>***********************************************
>                     J. A. Madrigal
>                 Castanoli Professor
>         Dpt. of Foreign Languages
>                   and Literatures
>     Auburn University, AL 36849-5204
>                Fax: 334-844-6378
>             Phone: 334-844-5183
>***********************************************
>
>
> >>> "A. Robert Lauer" <[log in to unmask]> 13/04/2007 15:56 >>>
>
> >Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:09:25 +0200
> >From: Isaac Benabu <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: Re: Fwd: José Antonio Madrigal to Frank
> >  Domínguez : Re: Literatura y los
> >  programas académicos
> >To: "A. Robert Lauer" <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask]
> >
> >Tony:Â I agree with the flow of your thoughts
> >about the changes that have taken place in our
> >chosen field of study , yet when you express
> >relief at the idea of retirement from the
> >aridness (my word) which has come to
> >characterize the teaching of literature, IÂ wish
> >to disagree with you, and say that the
> >responsibility for what has happened during our
> >term of academic service is ours and,
> >consequently, it is up to us to pass on our
> >understanding of what happened to the next
> >generation. Whatever it was that turned the
> >study of literature into something "other"Â is
> >still within our memorial reach: for those
> >entering the profession today it is a past to be recovered.
> >
> >Two values (however unfashionable!) which the
> >creation of great literature and the teaching
> >of the humanities  have in common are clarity
> >of thought and precision in written expression:
> >they both strive to communicate. Together with
> >the "author", these values have gone out of the
> >window. Instead, they have been replaced by
> >jargon (which undoubtedly conceals thought), and
> >by approximation rather than precision when it
> >comes to meaning. It is our generation that saw
> >a non-sense article (so described by its
> >imaginative author) submitted to a pretigious
> >literary review, passed by two readers and
> >published. And we may have even enjoyed that
> >author's subsequent confession in Time magazine
> >that what he had submitted was "macaronic" non-sense.Â
> >
> >If we, who stimulated the growth of that
> >jargon,  proved incapable of explaining in
> >major conferences such as the MLA why we had to
> >resort to jargon rather than clear, scientific
> >prose, what can we expect from the students we
> >educated? Those very Ph.d.'s applying for jobs
> >today to whom you refer and whom, you say,
> >display an ignorance of the very texts which
> >make up the subject they purportedly have
> >applied to teach, grew up in classrooms where
> >thinking was abandoned in favour of ideological
> >posturing, and where repetition was more
> >important than the formulation of original
> >thinking. The fashionable industry of the study
> >of literaure took over from the more modestÂ
> >explication of literature. A lack of
> >self-confidence in what we were doing, don't you think?Â
> >
> >Late it may be, but never too late! That is why
> >in our retirement, we may address these issues
> >for the next generation rather than having them discover them for
>themselves.
> >
> >Finally, I apologize if I have repeated ideas
> >already expressed by others before me, without
> >attribution, but I have just keyed into this discussion this
>morning.Â
> >
> >An inflamatory afterthought on re-reading your
> >piece: Your "Golden Age" breaks down into the
> >study of literature (i.e. prose, and includes
> >written poetry), oral literature and theatre.
> >Theatre is distinguishable from literature , as
> >Aristotle cared to point out early on, yet for
> >the most part, we continue to approach it as
> >literature, with tools devised for the analysis
> >of literature. And even when we show
> >willingness to refer to "performance", it may be
> >because the word has been given a new coinage
> >in contemporary scholarly jargon:
> >traditionally (primarily, perhaps) the wordÂ
> >was applied to theatre and theatrical
> >representations, when it was not used in the
> >more general sense of "to do, carry out".
> >
> >But that is a matter for another discussion...Â
> >
> >Isaac  Â
> >
> >Professor I. Benabu,
> >Dept. of Theatre Studies,
> >The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
> >Mt. Scopus,
> >Jerusalem
> >Tel.:(+972-2)5883940
> >------
> >WebMail: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >

Prof. A. Robert Lauer
The University of Oklahoma
Dept. of Modern Langs.,  Lits., & Ling.
780 Van Vleet Oval, Kaufman Hall, Room 206
Norman, Oklahoma 73019-2032, USA
Tel.: 405-325-5845 (office); 405/325-6181 (OU 
dept.); Fax: 1-866-602-2679 (private)
Vision: Harmonious collaboration in an international world.
Mission: "Visualize clearly and communicate promptly"
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