Imagine that, 250 years in the future, UIUC offers a 400-level English course, "Earlier Twenty-First Century Literature."
What should be on the syllabus?
What will count as "literature" when the future looks back on our time? Are there novels, poems, and plays that the knowledgeable student of the future should know about? If so, which ones? Will the syllabus consist entirely other kinds of media? If so, what kinds and what specific titles?
Respond to this post by identifying one text (which can mean film, video, or game, as well as print) that upper-level English students in 2258 ought to be familiar with, and tell us why. You can also respond to this post by disagreeing (kindly and collegially, please!) with another person's response, so long as you offer well-thought-out reasons for your disagreement.
Deadline: Monday (1/26), 9am.
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16 comments:
Your instructor here. This opening blog post has a three-fold agenda: (a) to get everyone familiar with the blog without the anxiety of writing about unfamiliar material;
(b) to give us all an opportunity to learn about one anothers tastes and interests without a getting-to-know-you exercise that's unrelated to the course content; and
(c) to lay the groundwork for a follow-up question that's directly related to the work we'll be doing in this course. But I'll wait until some responses have been posted before I ask it.
My own thoughts? I suspect students in 2258 will be watching some of the early "reality TV" shows like MTV's "Real World," not because they are intrinsically worthy, but because they will be seen as some of the first awkward baby steps in the evolution of first-person digital video narrative as an art form.
I think novels and other art forms like "The Shack", by William P. Young, should be studied in the future to show the shift in the modern conception of God from a fearsome, wrathful being as He is depicted in older texts to a more loving, companion-like being. This may teach the students of the future how as our impression of God and religion changed, so did our society and ways of life.
I took an American Lit survey and the professor included speeches of Abraham Lincoln on the syllabus. I'm not comparing the two presidents, but I think students of the future would have to look at the literary merit of President Obama's, particularly in his speeches prior to the 2008 Presidency. (Democratic National Convention '04, or New Hampshire '08 perhaps.)
Here's a link to an annotated inaugural speech from Slate.
http://www.slate.com/id/2208751/
Apparently the Prez referenced literature, the Bible, the constitution, popular music, and even Shakespeare!
I agree with ckurjan and I also think that the rising popularity of fantasy novels should also be studied. For example texts such as Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings that focus on this eternal theme of good versus evil. I think it would be interesting to explore why children's literature seems to be a popular vehicle for exploring this theme through literature. Especially the phenomenon of Harry Potter and what made this text so universal. As well as how many people felt that the series revitalized children's literature. They could explore the fan websites that exploded and how the Internet has really been a breeding ground to creating global communities and allowing readers to connect with authors as never before.
All of the ideas above are very interesting and plausible and I enjoy reading what people think about our time is memorable. As for myself I think one of the more intriguing literary facets of our culture that we even as English majors often fail to address is that of graphic novels and the movie adaptations that follow. It is a unique development of computer ingenuity and human creativity come together to entertain as well as enlighten. I myself never took to reading graphic novels until I was in a graphic novel course that touched on novels beyond the super heros everyone instinctually associates with graphic novels, but on to human experience novels about racism, sexuality, and coming of age.
I suggest if you are interested, Palestine or Funny Home.
Both in my American Lit and British Lit surveys, we have have read letters or journal entries. Today, people (especially our generation) are endlessly blogging or communicating with one another in some public form on the internet. For example, sometimes you can map out the shifts in people's relationships by just looking at their facebook wall-to-wall. As silly and simple as something like a wall post may seem, it is one way that new technology has become a replacement for the letters that the writers we study today produced. Who knows how young people will communicate in 2258, but I'm sure new modes of communication may come to replace the way we contact eachother today, just the internet has made letter writing less and less frequent. Of course, a problem lies in the difficulty of sorting through a massive sea of online blogging and communicating. However, I think that looking at samples of such blogs and posts would be very revealing of our time for students of the future.
I agree with Isaac and etolish. This is such a historic time with President Obama that it would be hard not to include his speeches as part of the syllabus. Yet, as etolish pointed out, there is so much blogging and information in internet forums that it seems irresponsible not to include that either. Today, it may not seem like a legitimate form of "literature" but it is definitely part of our generation's history and voice.
The rise of online social networking or, more broadly, the general connectedness of people within our culture seems to be the facet of the early twenty-first century that would most interest someone looking to differentiate it from the late twentieth century. When applied to literature, these lifestyle changes seem to jeopardize the future existence of the printed page. With everything quickly and easily accessible, is there a future for a demanding and time-consuming form such as the novel? When blogs, message boards, networking sites, etc provide enormous amounts of compelling content for free, how does one go about making a living as a writer? The first nine years of the 21st century, in terms of literature, I feel are best characterized by a general anxiety as to what comes next. If I had to nominate a novel for placement into the canon for capturing this sentiment, I would choose 2666 by Roberto Bolano. It provides a great perspective on why literature exists, and how it continues to do so.
This has nothing to do with my opinion on the genre, but I think that certain hip/hop and rap artists will be seen as today's poets 250 years from now. I don't know of any specific, defining example of a song that will be viewed as literature, but I think that people in the future will observe that a shift took place between a time when poems were on the page and when they were on the airwaves.
I would include literature that we consider to be related to gender issues, so things we study in queer theory and feminism. This has always been a subject in literature but never before have the lines of gender and sexuality been blurred as they are today. I would include Jeanette Winterson's "Written on the Body" which is a fantastic novel where the gender and sexuality of the narrator is never really defined. The gender is definitely a complete mystery. It describes the narrator's relationship with a woman, Louise. Even discussing the novel, it is hard to use pronouns because 'he' and 'she' are irrelevant. I've never encountered a novel quite like this and thought it exemplified the difficulties we face in defining such intangible terms like sexuality and gender. Novels that challenge our assumptions like this should be included.
I definitely agree with etolish. In the past couple of years blogs have become some what of a phenomena. Simple online blogs, like "Waiter Rant" have turned into multi-book deals for some authors. Not only do blogs turn into book deals, but it also gives the younger generation a place to write out their own ideas and feelings.
Another thing that I'd like to see students in 2258 studying would be sketch comedy skits or shows, such as SNL, The Daily Show, and Colbert Report. All of these are more often then not a running commentary on our society. These shows present to viewers news and culture while adding humor. I myself would much rather watch an episode of the Daily Show to get news information than say Anderson Cooper. More and more people are staying on top of current world news because of shows like these
Both Lauren and aperri2 are dead on in noticing the recent boom in both fantasy and graphic novels. These genres have taken such a stronghold on our society, in part, because of the many technological advances of our time. Now instead of simply imagining the many intricacies and oddities of Hogwarts, children can see the magic on the big screen. The same goes for graphic novels, i.e. "Sin City", "300", "Watchmen". Technology that enables these novels to be made into movies helps draw in audiences that may have previously been uninterested. Other forms of literature, such as; magazines and tabloids should also be studied. Examining a narrative-like article on an athlete in Sports Illustrated can show that simple interviewing and reporting can blended with actually literary techniques, as this is a more recent trend in sports writing. Furthermore, mediums like tabloids and gossip mags should be studied simply to see the general form of expression towards popular culture at the time.
Politics aside, Obama's rhetoric and oration have attracted a lot of attention from many people from a vast cross-section of the political spectrum. While his speeches and books garner a lot of attention, several of my friends were avid readers of his regular (weekly?) emails, and at some point signed up to get text messages on their phones regarding breaking news. I think it would be interesting to take a look at how these new forms of communication have found an audience in today's culture.
I thought I posted this before, but it never seems to have appeared. If I'm mistaken, sorry for the double-post.
I think some people have made very valid points regarding a look at some of Obama's work. His oration and rhetoric have attracted a lot of attention from a wide cross-section of the political spectrum. Several of my friends subscribed to his regular (weekly) email listserv type dispatches, and even got certain information and breaking news texted to their phone. I think it would be interesting to study how these forms of communication found an audience with our generation.
As an English Lit. major, something that I often wonder about is how popular the works we study were, when they were published. For this reason, I fear that books like The DaVinci Code and most of the NYT Top 10 list would inevitably make their way onto reading lists. Yet, an author like David Sedaris speaks more directly to the elitist group that the English Building houses.
I, like Lauren, would hope that books like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and perhaps even the Batman phenomenon were tracked. I'd also be hopeful that someone like Anthony Bourdain, whose travel narratives and autobiography Kitchen Confidential could be paired with his travel shows to teach future generations about how we were able to learn about other cultures. Of course, I agree with everyone who mentioned blogs, speeches, and the like.
I'd also strongly recommend listening to comedians. Tiny Fey, Jim Gaffigan, Demetri Martin, Lewis Black, and many others offer great insight into many aspects of our interesting lives.
Finally, documentaries like NPR's "This American Life" would be a prime example of an extremely intellectual and unique perspective on life.
The change in media might be studied. I can see literature shifting into both tv dramas and blog pages. the idea of who is allowed to write and who is cannonised is hugely important to the study of literature. Because of digital media we will have records of so much personal narrative.
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