Kurtz revisited

TheStar.com - Probe here over aired Arab slurs

Remember that brief post-scriptum ("Exterminate the brutes!") at the end of the manuscript that Kurtz writes for The Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs in Heart of Darkness? Well, in this article he's being plagiarized. Or cited. Not in fiction, this time, but on a "news" show.

Lincoln

Your essay assignment

Dear all,

Most of you are working on your essays this weekend. I encourage you to send me an email message or to come see me in office hours if you'd like additional help or guidance. Many students have already consulted with me about their essays, and from what they've told me it seems to have helped. Because the essay is only 5-7 pages, you'll need to be fairly brief. So keep it simple. Settle on a single topic, and argue for why your approach to the topic helps us to understand the two texts you've chosen, the ideas they convey, and the specific ways that they convey these ideas. Don't be too concerned if you find writing your essay to be a challenge. Writing may not always be easy, but its reward is that it helps you to think more deeply. As always, I'm available for consultation as you go along.

Politically engaged lit. class

Regarding the politics of our course: I don't take sides, in a partisan sense, where class is concerned. Do I have my own opinions? Sure. But I studiously avoid partisan politics in the classroom, and I would never dream of telling a student to support one party or another, one candidate or another. On the other hand, I certainly have my own ideas about what is right and wrong in our society and in the world, and how literature helps us to understand and rethink our most pressing political and ethical dilemmas. If I didn't have such ideas, I doubt you would want me as your world literature professor. You are always free, of course, to disagree with me. In fact, I very much enjoy political and ethical dialogue and debate, as long as we respect each other's different viewpoints and remain civil with one another.

Bloggers drive controversy

Well, we bloggers are on the cutting edge, according to this CNET news story about blogs that have entered into the presidential race's political fray. This kind of amateur sleuthing, despite its dubious methods and conclusions, is afterall just a different kind of literary analysis....

Don't forget to register to vote!

Hi, folks,

I want to let you know that I've added a link at the top of Overleaf.org to voter registration materials. That link brings you to the registration materials page of a site called Rock the Vote, whose aim is to provide easy access to voter registration materials for everyone. Please register to vote, if you haven't already done so, or if you've recently moved (for example, to attend college). Time is running out -- Alabamians have only until early next month (October) to register! We can hardly call ourselves a democratic nation unless we educate ourselves about the issues and exercise our constitutional rights as voters.

This message is not directly related to our course -- my apologies -- but, in a larger sense, creating informed and educated citizens (who vote!) is among highest duties of the university. Please let your friends know that they, too, can go to Overleaf.org or Rock the Vote for registration forms. Simply print the form out and send it off!

Check out Gras...

Aphra: An Intriguing Name

A student in the other section of this class did a little research into Aphra Behn's first name. Click the link above to see her posting....

Claims of authenticity

For anyone who is fascinated by Aphra Behn's resort to the convention of truth-claims -- that is, her claims about the authenticity of her text -- here is another example of such a claim from the later fictionalized travel narrative "Persian Letters" (1721) by the great Enlightenment philosophe Montesquieu. See especially the fourth paragraph. In this narrative, it is the Persians who visit Europe (Paris), and not the other way around. (A "seraglio," by the way, is a harem.) --Lincoln

For everyone: about posting to the Blog

Hi, folks,

For those who are new to this, what I'd like you to do is to post to the main blog itself (i.e., just like this posting), and not as much to the "comments" section (which is reserved for responding to another person's original blog posting).

Once you've responded to your invitation, you can post to Mardi by signing in at Blogger.com and then clicking on "Mardi." Now click on the tab called "Posting" and then on "Create." You should now see a form where you can enter a subject line and a post message.

For someone who asked, my intention is that you'll write about anything related to the course -- keeping in mind the importance of respectfulness towards other posters, of course. I named our blog "Mardi" just to have a hint of local Mobile culture.

Let me know if you have any difficulty.

Greetings.

This is the blog for EH236-101. Post away.