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English 301: Themes and Topics - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Leslie Jamison, “The Empathy Exams” -
        Jamison writes about playing a character and having to act a certain or pretend to be someone else, refuting who you are to be a character and how well you do it can reflect on your understanding and empathy
      - Franz Kafka, “Before the Law” - this is an interesting take on "you're your own enemy" and how our own perspective and mindset bring us the challenges we face but also the frustrating power dynamic those in power have against ordinary people; the power dynamic is real but I think it is more on how we perceive this dynamic and if we will let it determine who we are
    - - Marie de Gournay, “Ladies’ Complaint” - going against with what you want and what is accepted as a woman and what you are willing to give up to present yourself in a certain way without too much backlash; the difficulties of choosing the lesser evil
      - Michel de Montaigne, “To the Reader” - the abrupt and blunt statement towards the reader or whoever reads it, challenging the audience of their abilities and their person because it wasn't meant for them to read, rather those he personally knows; almost like doing things for yourself rather than others
      - Michel de Montaigne, “Of the Art of Discussion” and “Of Liars” - I put them together because they both seem to take a judgmental stance and observing how people are in comparison to yourself, those they have relationships to and friendships with as well as those strangers and outside people they do not fully understand and will take more time to see them for them; I put it in the rebuttal section because it felt more as not accepting someone yet and having to observe first
      - Shakespeare, Othello, Kim F. Hall, “Othello and the Problem of Blackness," Chris Ofili, Othello (etchings) - the play that presents the hardships of being an accused woman and how it represents the idea that "boys will be boys" as they continue to protect and believe each other, leaving women to either fend for themselves or have to endure the judgment and pain that most of the time is not justified; it also shows this ideal during this time of being a woman and being any person of color as Othello is a black man and even with power and a title, still belittled; it was interesting to see Desdemona be shunned for being an accused woman but Othello praised in public for being a man but also shunned in private for being black
    - - John Donne, excerpt from Devotions - the reality of man causing you to dislike yourself and everyone else as those around you share the same miserable fate and mindset; the complexities of many clashing with society and everyones' uniqueness
      - Susan Sontag, excerpt from AIDS and Its Metaphors - I think this is more of the rebuttal against what society has places certain things to be and what is allowed to be called certain labels; Sontag seems to be going against that norm or learn custom
      - Toni Morrison, “Recitatif” - the frustration behind the reality of the young girl and, in a way, she seems to be hating the lifestyle she has and it pushes out anger and fights with her friend that follow her afterwards; how obstacles and things we cannot control affect us
      - Toni Morrison, Morrison, “Preface” and “Romancing the Shadow,” in Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and
        the Literary Imagination - Morrison took the life of a racialized black person and used the preface and the second essay to help with how these people are being racialized how it clashes with the already standard of whiteness and what it represents to go against "what is"
      - Toni Morrison, Desdemona - a look into Desdemonas life to which she challenges her fate and lives multiple times due to her not accepting the reality o0f what is destined to happen to her; we finally see her side of the story where she stands up for herself
      - Francis Bacon, “Of Truth” - a fascinating take on why people rebuttal against the "truth" or what they believe society thinks the truth is wrong, as well as what their perspective means to represent them
      - Marianne Constable, “How to Do Things with Law,” in Our Word is Our Bond - this was more of telling people how to handle certain situations relating to Obama's inaugural oath and why the things we say and present will come back to us; a literal commentary on how to handle certain things in the eyes of the law
      - Gayle Salamon, “Introduction,” “Comportment,” and “Movement” in The Life and Death of
        Latisha King: A Critical Phenomenology of Transphobia - this was a very informative story that makes it clear what happens to those that identify as transgender and the hardships they constantly suffer during their life and after they die; it was meant to make the reader understand how King was presented to those around her, those in power, and those that loved her; a story that is meant to show the flaws in the justice, especially anyone that falls in a minority group
      - Williams, “Medium,” “Mediation” - together, they are meant to represent the different forms one could present their argument, opinion, or stance on something in the media and how presenting it to the world reflects on how we are as a whole and as individual people, as well as how we choose to perceive these stances as people on the outside; it is meant to mash together our words, experiences, and thoughts to set them up for debate if people will agree or disagree and add on
      - Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, excerpt from Remediation: Understanding New Media - they take the stance of taking technology and the advancement to be perceived as part of our history and make it known that it has been a big reason why we have evolved to the human beings we are today and how throughout the history of art and expression, we have already tried construing these advancements as part of historical facts that show the transparency of our evolution; I put it in rebuttal because I saw this text as trying to go against current history and rewrite it to what we deem important
      - Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility” - with Benjamin's experiences useful for comparison, he rebuttals the current government of capitalism and other types of governments may be beneficial due to our current advancements and how much our technology has evolved, deeming current ways and systems of living replaceable or necessary for change
  - - - James Merrill, “Christmas Tree” - as people, we accept the reality of our lives being the beginning and end; to make it more subtle, Merrill uses the "life and death" of a Christmas tree being fulfilling as it "lives" for what it is supposed to be and then finish peacefully
      - Erasmus, excerpt from “On Copia” - I saw this more as understanding the various parts of our being and how complex we are individually and as a whole with other people; it sets to have people understand the different levels we reach as human beings and why that may be
    - - James Merrill, “Key West Aquarium: The Sawfish" - the idea of Merrill connecting with a bored sawfish can be taken as people coming together and getting each other out of their own struggles; the sawfish was bored swimming around, only reaching a light beam when it sees Merrill's character, who seems bored as well as he thinks about the sawfish' life-- come together for company
      - François Rabelais, prologue to Gargantua - I took this to be how one may try to talk and relate to other people and why we might have conversations on various topics as we are connecting individuals and how we might we dramatic or exaggerate the truth, almost like telling little white lies to each other for the sake of connection
      - Kenneth Burke, “Persuasion,” “Identification,” “Other Variants of the Rhetorical Motive,”
        “Formal Appeal,” “Rhetorical Form in the Large,” and “Imagination” in A Rhetoric of Motives - combined, they seem to showcase how people have certain desires and needs that group them together but still make them individual people, why people may feel this way and how different experiences and perspectives still lead them to the same idea, how our ideas are still our own based on the various thought processes and experiences we have, and relating it to the rhetoric of our own emotions and the way we express our art, judgment, and feelings; how our differences matter in the bigger picture of things
    - - James Merrill, “b o d y” -
        this can resemble the sense of uncertainty at first but in the end, accepting that each piece and each "person" can work together you make something function-- although different, it could come together to make something great, accepting differences
      - James Merrill, “Farewell Performance” - I think this is more of the realization that accepting people's flaws and who they are regardless of our perspective is what will unite us
      - Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress” - an interesting take of a man's perspective of a woman and I would say he is aligning himself with what the standards were as men were superior to women and the way it was accepted
        --->
        Aphra Behn, “The Willing Mistriss” - how women too accepted these rolls but can see some form of distat\ste for them, but there was nothing women could do
      - Lili Loofbourow, “The Male Glance” - the disruptive nature of men and how they target certain women to be something every woman must live through and not understand as a child until they are older; an unfortunate acceptance
      - Lisa Delpit, “No Kinda Sense” - the straightforward rebuttal against societal norms and stereotypes of different races and how being black in America comes with one too many difficulties that set people up for failure if they express their culture and nationality or go against their customs and traditions; also how it starts at young ages and only worsen as they get older
      - Stuart Hall, “Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse” - I took this to be more of how challenges and difficulties in our communication with ourselves and each other with society may be the reason why coming together is the only way these issues can be solved; with strategic terms and keywords that are still used today, it can show the positions certain people paly and how everyone is important in communicating
      - Raymond Williams, “Advertising: The Magic System” - this essay was meant to signify the various positions that are important to the "magic" of advertising and how much power we have as consumers towards the products and necessities we purchase; it can also be how much we have developed as a society and how it compares to the advertising and consumer world through the years and decades