Humanism
Ok, I have been freaked out about what I was going to write in here, and so I have delayed quite a bit. I think that it is one of those blank page things, that the longer that you stare at it, the harder it is to write. But, time has come, so here goes.
When we came to class on Monday, I felt that I had a pretty good grasp of what Humanism was, based on the reading and some searching on the internet. Basically, it is an interest in “antiquity” (aka the Greek and Latin cultures). That seems easy enough. So, when I read the poems, I wanted to compare them to poems from the old greek poems, or the old latin poems, or perhaps to compare them to other non-humanist poems of the time period so that I could see the differences or similarities. There I ran into some trouble; I don’t know enough about either of those groups to make any good comparisons. Nor am I even a fan of more recent poetry. So, I attended class curious as to how the discussion would go.
In the end, I think that I was looking for something more concrete. (example “This is written in iambic pentameter, which was not used until this poem.) But I should have been looking at the topic, word choice, and voice. Furthermore, not all of those will reflect humanism in one work. The part of the work that reflects the humanist ideals may change, and the way in which it reflects those ideals may change.
So, when I left class, I knew more than when I came in, and yet, it clouded up the picture of humanism. However, I beleive that class was probably suppose to do that.
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It is disorienting to leave class more confused and full of questions than when you entered the room. I often need an hour or so just to wind down after a stimulating class because my mind is going every which way. I noticed that you teach up in Plano. I also teach there, but at Collin County Community College. I usually teach at the Allen campus, but sometimes Spring Creek. I heard that they are beginning to teach college courses at some of the high schools in Plano.
I totally identify with you on class discussions “clouding” up the picture sometimes. I get two opposing feelings quite often: on the one hand, many of my doubts are resolved after class discussions; on the other hand, there are necessarily many more questions that arise as our understanding of a concept increases. I think we probably have to keep in mind something that Dr. Conway has pointed out: literary genres, at the end of the day, are merely conventions for categorizing what we read on a global level. The reality of much literature is that many works fit into more than one category, and even the categories themselves tend to overlap. I think you summed up these inconsistencies quite well in your next-to-last paragraph.