tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post6518416750734801693..comments2024-01-28T03:35:51.182-05:00Comments on Reassigned Time: Generous Reading in the Classroom and ElsewhereDr. Crazyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-21983466406695645472010-02-26T16:10:30.463-05:002010-02-26T16:10:30.463-05:00Ahh, yes, this is what I am trying to get my (soci...Ahh, yes, this is what I am trying to get my (social science) students to do as well. I also love the distinction Prof. Koshary makes (and will make me chuckle the next time my students act like criticons). <br /><br />A related problem I have is to not come across as defensive when I think my students are being overly critical and dismissive. It's not defensiveness, exactly, but I am kind of taken aback every time they outright dismiss something because it's not perfect (nothing is) or not what they would have written, focused on, or analyzed in that way. It's so tiresome to discuss things in that way (though I certainly hear it among colleagues sometimes, so it's not like it's just a "student" problem), and it is a very superficial, limited, and disengaged way of reading.life_of_a_foolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05427532203981697246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-7288202221340269052010-02-26T14:15:48.777-05:002010-02-26T14:15:48.777-05:00Interesting... if there's anything I learned f...Interesting... if there's anything I learned from college, it was what you call "generous" reading. We were reading Smith, Freud, Marx... and of course it's easy to say that they are not right about everything and thus not worth paying attention to.<br /><br />I'm grateful to my professors who helped us realize that we would have to go further into understanding how their arguments were built in order to critique them satisfactorily.Amyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14503479941646334202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-77400103055023476762010-02-25T20:15:19.979-05:002010-02-25T20:15:19.979-05:00It's easy to snark. It's hard to unpack pr...It's easy to snark. It's hard to unpack problems and misfires in such a way as to understand how they relate to the bigger picture.<br /><br />Everyone loves to look smart so snarking is the order of the day even when the deeper thought is only revealed by a little less self-esteem and a little bit more humility. It happens in history as much as in literature, I know all too well!Janicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14093558563358431804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-15316030539439294502010-02-25T14:31:00.617-05:002010-02-25T14:31:00.617-05:00Too busy to comment, except to say thanks for the ...Too busy to comment, except to say thanks for the thoughtful posting (and yes, tonight's lit class is the concluding discussion of a book many aren't liking: alas, poor Hemingway).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-15836887846296701962010-02-25T10:59:19.791-05:002010-02-25T10:59:19.791-05:00Well these ideas will be very helpful to me in an ...Well these ideas will be very helpful to me in an hour, when I go off to teach the last few chapters of Stendhal's *Red and the Black*--which I fully expect at least two students to find ENRAGING. (They've already dismissed Mathilde as certifiably insane; I've got my work cut out for me.)<br /><br />So thanks!heu mihihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08529298049179816825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-39004349541366424702010-02-25T10:59:11.046-05:002010-02-25T10:59:11.046-05:00one of the most profitable lessons I learned in on...one of the most profitable lessons I learned in one grad class (religious studies, fwiw) was the "moment(s) of celebration" - after discussion (inevitably, it seemed) steered toward the harsh or dismissive, the professor *made* us, for some extended period of time, talk about what the book in question did well. what we might model in our own research. what choices the author made and why. It was enlightening, and something I have taken with me as I've begin teaching and advising my own students.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-34060705408830731152010-02-25T10:48:47.710-05:002010-02-25T10:48:47.710-05:00Your footnote anticipated my comment: that all thi...Your footnote anticipated my comment: that all this talk of "choices" (though I use it in my teaching too) relies very heavily on faith in authorial intention. Whereas I just read an excerpt from Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize speech about the author's relationship to his characters: "The characters resist him, they are not easy to live with, they are impossible to define. You certainly can't dictate to them."<br /><br />What I'm interested in, then, is looking for what a passage or a scene might tell us about something the author might not even be aware of. It's not a particularly "generous" reading strategy, but one just as likely to result in productive discussion about moments in a text that students may find alienating.Shane in SLChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09009969830290878311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-74057407195192268542010-02-25T10:39:23.714-05:002010-02-25T10:39:23.714-05:00Good points, and they apply pretty well in non-lit...Good points, and they apply pretty well in non-literary theory reading, too. The courses I took for the first year of grad school, which were filled mostly with first-years like myself, were riddled with people whose only MO seemed to be finding some flaw, big or small, in each work of social theory that we read, and then declaring like they'd figured out something big: "X is wrong about this, therefore this theory isn't useful, therefore it's all GARBAGE!" Then they sat back smugly and thought they were doing well in grad school. Assholes.<br /><br />One of my professors that year knew the drill, and zi tried hir best to steer us away from that. Zi is Mexican-American and explained that the trick is to think as a <i>crítico</i> (critic) but not as a <i>criticón</i> (hyper-critical douchebag). (Those translations are, uh, mine and mine alone.)Dr. Kosharyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07777054788430587906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-23670979683922227942010-02-25T10:04:19.774-05:002010-02-25T10:04:19.774-05:00I learned this as a way of engaging scholarship, a...I learned this as a way of engaging scholarship, although the person who introduced me to the idea called it charitable instead of generous. The idea was to be charitable in a way that would foster discussion if the author were present and provide the author an opportunity to hear criticism and potentially grow. This also gives you the opportunity to learn from the author. We talked about this in relationship to texts but she really meant for it to spill over into scholarly conversation in person. <br /><br />I don't know how good I am at this but I'm getting better, I think. And I love this post.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-27933040997954620542010-02-25T08:41:57.999-05:002010-02-25T08:41:57.999-05:00Crazy, I love this post. I also love what Felski&...Crazy, I love this post. I also love what Felski's up to in that project, and want to spend more time thinking about suspicion vs. generosity. I'm swamped work wise but hope to come back here and leave a more thoughtful comment...gwinnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04840990153103781272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-17325878816775962142010-02-25T00:48:00.423-05:002010-02-25T00:48:00.423-05:00Well, that post went in places I didn't expect...Well, that post went in places I didn't expect! I like your idea of reading generously both when it comes to texts and to the internets. I do think that blogging tends to make us want to be reactionary and not so thoughtful, which is problematic.<br /><br />I myself have little tolerance for snark, honestly, especially if the topic or focus of the snarkiness is something I take seriously. Snarkiness is dismissive, and it ends the discussion--and pisses me off. <br /><br />All of that said, we do teach our students the ideal ways to be, not the ways we always are. I can't be my best self all the time--who can? That is why we have friends... so sometimes we can spout off and not be held accountable for all of it. :-)Lesboprofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09249806181782620274noreply@blogger.com