http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2008/02/21/do-i-teach-literature-for/ A working notebook Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:28:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1-alpha http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2008/02/21/do-i-teach-literature-for/#comment-2458 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:55:46 +0000 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2008/02/21/do-i-teach-literature-for/#comment-2458 dude, i don't teach, not anymore, for the instant, i guess... literature, I taught poetry in my intro to philosophy class, it was Walt Whitman's leaves of grass. What I wanted to get across was the invention on a space, of a place where one belongs or does not belong, cities, fields, country. It was in direct relation to the Ecclesiasties in the Bible where the kind wanders around looking for his place. The question was, does human nature stem out of our role and our place in the world, that is, in nature, in society, or does it stem from something else? Why I taught that? well, I don't really know, I was reading some Cavell at the time and it seemed relevant to my own reflections at the moment. The advice my advisor gave me was to teach things that one is interested in reading, so that's what I did, it gave me a chance to take good notes on Whitman and also the bible. With the bible I guess at the time I was trying to find a text that I could use in a metaphoric sense like Badiou did with St. Paul, I don't think I found anything to be honest, it was a good exercise though, and a good way to introduce students to philosophical questions by means of literature. a bridge if you will, between the familiar and the foreign. I think I will do some chinese poetry next time, something on time by Li Po or maybe a few Haikus. imagine asking students to submit a 5 pages essay on three haikus, would love to see what that looks like. well, in anycase, literature, I really wasn't thinking that hard about it, just seemed appropriate at the time. dude,
i don’t teach, not anymore, for the instant, i guess…
literature, I taught poetry in my intro to philosophy class, it was Walt Whitman’s leaves of grass. What I wanted to get across was the invention on a space, of a place where one belongs or does not belong, cities, fields, country. It was in direct relation to the Ecclesiasties in the Bible where the kind wanders around looking for his place. The question was, does human nature stem out of our role and our place in the world, that is, in nature, in society, or does it stem from something else?
Why I taught that? well, I don’t really know, I was reading some Cavell at the time and it seemed relevant to my own reflections at the moment. The advice my advisor gave me was to teach things that one is interested in reading, so that’s what I did, it gave me a chance to take good notes on Whitman and also the bible.
With the bible I guess at the time I was trying to find a text that I could use in a metaphoric sense like Badiou did with St. Paul, I don’t think I found anything to be honest, it was a good exercise though, and a good way to introduce students to philosophical questions by means of literature. a bridge if you will, between the familiar and the foreign. I think I will do some chinese poetry next time, something on time by Li Po or maybe a few Haikus.
imagine asking students to submit a 5 pages essay on three haikus, would love to see what that looks like.
well, in anycase, literature, I really wasn’t thinking that hard about it, just seemed appropriate at the time.

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