Fragments

Lately, I've been living with a constant state of exhaustion - often mixed with excitement, exhilaration, or abandon, and sometimes, granted, with self-pitying concern, like right now - that rises and falls, according to the time of the day and the days of the week, rushing into each moment and pulling back from the next... Spiritually, I'm doing better than ever. My days are filled with learning (stimulating ideas!), reading, and I dare say highly productive work. Always surrounded by the people I love. But the physical exhaustion tugs at me. The 8 hours a night isn't helping. Neither does 10...

(Notes from the graduate seminar: The Modern Aesthetics and Politics, professor Liou Liang-Ya) Week 2 Girl with Mandolin (1910) by Pablo Picasso Virginia Woolf, “Modern Fiction” (1925), The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Woolf breaks the assumption that modern practice of the art is an improvement upon the old. What is missing from the conventional novels - which she calls “materialist” - is the interiority of the characters. Writers like H. G. Wells, Arnold Bennet, and John Galsworthy are restricted by the conventions of plot, narrative, and description of realistic details. However, Woolf feels that their characters seem fake, lacking in vivacity. In contrast, Woolf holds James Joyce in high esteem. In Ulysses, Woolf argues, we have life itself. However, she still finds that Ulysses lacks certain rough and realistic details of life (comparing it to Tristram Shandy by Sterne). Hardy belongs to the Late-Victorian period; when she is already questioning certain concept...

(Notes from the graduate seminar: Postcolonial Studies, with Professor Guy Beauregard) Week 2 /*In the past week, the Japanese government has recognized the Ainu people as an indigenous tribe. */ Neology, “Culture in Transition”, Transition (1961) Soyinka, “Editorial”,  Transition  (1974) Transition  was a journal started in East Africa by Neology. It takes an ambitious interdisciplinary approach. Asking the question: What is East African Culture?  However, the juxtaposition of a coca cola advertisement tells the story of the transition from British colonialism to independence, which is then marked by the neo-colonialism of American capitalist markets. “Neocolonialism” is a term coined by Kwame Nkrumah, who Neology also mentions in his editorial.  Then, in 1974, Soyinka resurrected the journal. In Soyinka’s “Editorial” from Transition (1974), he tries to figure out a way from Neo-colonism to a truer form of decolonization. Amilcar Cabra was anothe...

Walking Man I (1960) by Alberto Giacometti (Notes from the graduate seminar: Existential Literature and the Ethics of Engagement, with Professor Kirill Ole Thompson) Week 1 Course Introduction We will screen Night Train to Lisbon (2013) and Mulholland Drive (2001) in class. Other recommended screenings include Woody Allen’s movies and the Before Sunset trilogy.  Textbooks:  Gordon Marino, Basic Writings of Existentialism (Modern Library Classics);  Robert Solomon, Existentialism , 2 Ed. Recommended books:  Kevin Aho, Existentialism:  An Introduction ;  Beauvoir, The Second Sex (2nd Ed);  Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist’s Café.   The Starting Point The recent situations of human beings can’t be reasonably represented by an abstract system.  Kierkegaard thinks that in the beginning, man is quite empty. When he makes his first decisions, his character starts to take shape, but this character is always changing....

(Notes from the lecture course: Twentieth-century English Literature, with Professor Duncan Chesney) Week 1 The name of the course is problematic. "England” was consolidated in 1284 (including Wales). However, what we’re talking about in this course is Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Because of the size of The British Empire, when we’re talking about 20th century British Literature, we’re talking about pretty much the entire world. When we talk about “English literature”, are we talking British, Anglophone, or English (and Wales)? The story of the 20th-century British literature is the ending of the British Empire. The Man Booker Prize: the most prestigious prize for the novel in the UK. From a rough survey of the prize recipients, we realize that not all of them consider themselves British (rather, English, Scottish, etc.). Having gone through the extensive colonialist history. No one is purely one thing anymore. By fiat, we will limit ourselves to a much smaller canonical vi...

(Notes from the graduate seminar: Comparative Methodology, with professor Patrick McGlynn) Week 1 When we study Sir Thomas Wyatt’s translation of Petrarch’s «Una candida cerva», it’s natural to compare it with Petrarch’s sonnet. We can also compare with the deer poem in Song of Songs . Because Wyatt’s has read and was influenced by the metaphors and expressions in Songs of Songs. Here, we can argue for genetic lines of commonality. But can we compare it to any poem with a deer in it?   How do we justify comparing 2 things? If we compare unlike things, is it still comparative literature? Does comparative literature assume likeness? Is contrast comparison? "Although thematics, or subject matter, is the starting point of many an investigation, it is never enough simply to discover the same themes appearing in different." (Saussy 13-14) What is the subject matter of Comparative literature? It’s more a way of thinking... What is the definition of comparative liter...

不能再像從前那樣趴咖啡廳整個下午寫信了。空閒時間破碎；我越來越忙，朋友們更忙；過日子像邊投接雜物邊高空走繩索，幸運時偶然交會，卻要更小心地平衡。 今天突然覺得好想寫信，好想讀信。手上太多件重要的事，心上太多煩惱和焦慮，想要用不負責任的文字嘔吐出來。(每次這種時候，就想起沙特和海狸) 開學首周，第一個重點是都要出席，把整學期的行事曆排好。文化人類學的老師非常有熱忱，也很喜歡學生提問。我希望自己可以多讀一些文本、多問問題，用心得作業來練習分析人類學研究和批評方法，儘量觸及不同的專業領域。還修了實驗、製造、工材、跆拳。明天想要去旁聽看看曾麗玲教授的英國現代詩，希望可以學到不同面向的詩文分析。 最近開始在蘋果打工做編譯，昨天一口接下了三天班。希望這代表編輯對我的表現還算滿意。以後可能要習慣每週至少去蘋果日報兩天，雖然很累，上班時幾乎沒有休息、精神壓力也大，但這是個下班時會心情激昂的好工作。最近也開始習慣每天聽國際新聞，遇到有趣、重要的新聞，也會自己試寫看看。 最近在打Geoffrey O'Brien教授去年夏天在柏克萊的上課音檔逐字稿。實在非常喜歡上他的課，有時會幻想將來能入他門下。 這週照理來講是備審資料的死線，非常焦慮，進度嚴重落後。最嚴重的問題，就是因為各種擔心而縛手縛腳，表達斷續、失焦。 我也想要一隻海狸啊。