tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post7465769329826126674..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Tradition and Individual Blogging - the past is altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the pastAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-72250147780537756412012-03-25T20:03:08.967-05:002012-03-25T20:03:08.967-05:00Just to be clear, The Little Professor specializes...Just to be clear, The Little Professor specializes in books to <i>not</i> read, books no one else reads, or should read. But that's real, deep, scholarship.<br /><br />It is a shame that literary history has lost so much of its status. I suppose it is so much fun, pace Jenny and Richard, that people figure it barely counts as work.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-18272363676427354322012-03-25T13:58:13.824-05:002012-03-25T13:58:13.824-05:00No, I am unfamiliar with that blog, but I will che...No, I am unfamiliar with that blog, but I will check it out, thank you. In some ways (most) it's reassuring, actually, to know that there's so much to learn and read--we never have to worry about running out, at least.amanda @ simplerpastimeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14127945915013121105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-19010188618488225422012-03-25T10:40:32.194-05:002012-03-25T10:40:32.194-05:00My ABD spiel about what I do was "the way in ...My ABD spiel about what I do was "the way in which certain French WWII authors used medieval imagery in their work as a way of talking about the contemporary culture and political situation." I talked about two novelists, an essayist, and a poet. I still find it fascinating! <br /><br />My point is that this cross-pollination (thanks, Richard) between ages and authors takes place all the time. You have to read an awful lot before you start to realize you haven't read everything (cue Joseph Epstein on wishing to be better read than dead.) Having read only French and German during undergrad and grad school, I am spending my years now catching up on English and American (and Chinese and Japanese and Arabian and Persian and Spanish and Greek and Roman and Portuguese, alleluia, amen) works I never touched. Finding the way these talk together has been one of the great delights, perhaps the greatest, of the past few years. It's where my ABD spiel started, and now I see a glimmer of the rest.Jennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00251983804060081813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-56973545921685086192012-03-24T23:22:09.038-05:002012-03-24T23:22:09.038-05:00overwhelming (impossible?) On the one hand, yes; ...<i>overwhelming (impossible?)</i> On the one hand, yes; on the other, do you keep up with <a href="http://littleprofessor.typepad.com/the_little_professor/" rel="nofollow">The Little Professor</a>. That is how it is done.<br /><br />There is a reason a high proportion of humanities scholars write their masterworks in their old age. It can take a lifetime of study to assemble all of the little pieces.<br /><br />Richard's examples are almost typical of medieval literatures and show why the study of medieval literature is so fascinating - and so difficult. Just the language requirements are so demanding. But the results are wild.<br /><br />Japan is similarly interesting - the adoption of and resistance to Chinese influence early on, but then somehow Japanese literature falls into disrepair in the 19th century, only to be revitalized at the end of the century by a bunch of young writers all hopped up on European, especially French, novels.<br /><br />For all of the achievement of the Victorian writers, it was France that was the center of the literary universe for most of the 19th century.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-89013376827250044502012-03-24T19:36:05.523-05:002012-03-24T19:36:05.523-05:00Two of my favorite examples in support of your com...Two of my favorite examples in support of your comment that "the study of an artistic tradition has its own pleasures" have to do with the origins of Romance language vernacular poetry and the literature of medieval Spain in Castilian Spanish. In the first instance, you have a clear case of a now "minority" language (Occitan, Provençal) influencing all later Romance language poetry traditions via Dante, Petrarch and countless others--and later influencing non-Romance language giants like Pound and Eliot in the 20th century. In the second instance, you have a case of a "national" language tradition heavily influenced and cross-pollinated at the time of its creation by Arabic and Hebrew literatures at their heights and also in dialogue with medieval Latin literature and all the other languages used in the Iberian peninsula and the south of France at the time. Supremely interesting subjects--well, at least for me!Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01746599416342846897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-65421536961703137112012-03-24T18:38:05.553-05:002012-03-24T18:38:05.553-05:00I really like the idea of setting a work (whatever...I really like the idea of setting a work (whatever the form) in its tradition, at least knowing where it belongs to. The idea of knowing all about the tradition is overwhelming (impossible?), but knowing that the response of literature is bi-directional is reassuring. I imagine the importance we assign such placement is relative to our interests as a reader, but then again no work exists in a vacuum. Even an amateur musician finds value in knowing the tradition of their art form, so perhaps we short change ourselves as readers by not thinking about this more? (I think here too of general history and culture, not just the written tradition.)amanda @ simplerpastimeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14127945915013121105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-66054668524599585062012-03-24T18:23:17.868-05:002012-03-24T18:23:17.868-05:00In reading Irish Short Stories, my current project...In reading Irish Short Stories, my current project, you can see the giants of Irish lit looking down from Mount Parnassus and shaping 21th century stories. one reason I like the work of Kenzaburo Oe so much is he shows us how literary works shape and reshape the traditions in which they are read.Mel uhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08714473754458914681noreply@blogger.com