Dawn's blog

A discussion of the evolution of literature could not be complete without mentioning an emergent form of literature, which surprisingly to some, is not as new as it seems. The internet has done a great deal to change how texts are published and read. The first example of a revolution that has been recognized in this type of shift in text production is the emergence of blogs as the online form of journals. Blogs have the ability to make what was once considered to be private writing public. This effectively changes the stories that people choose to tell on that particular form of expression with the expectation of publicity.

The stories read and generated from literature, and the stories understood as pertaining to one’s perception of reality are separate ideas in one’s mind the majority of the time. There have been discussions in class about the blurring of the line between these stories: losing oneself in a novel, or imagining elements of a story in a book coming to life. However, even though the line may be crossed, it is still there. We are well aware of our ability to be lost in a novel – we know what is “actually happening” and that what is imagined is not real. It can also be jarring when one recognizes moments when the mind cannot just take off and “escape” reality by reading a book. This was a common observation regarding the style of Richard Powers’ Generosity.

Memes are ideas, behaviors, or styles that spread from person to person within a culture. In a way they signify the evolution of culture. Genes transmit biological information, whereas memes transmit ideas, and information about belief. The meme is a unit for carrying out cultural ideas which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other phenomena. Memes are the cultural analogues to genes because the self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.
 
Memes can be selected for over many years through religion and ritual:

             How do we educate children in order for them to be prepared to take their place in society (including higher education) in the 21st Century? Given that we can’t anticipate what the economy will look like at the end of next week, it is difficult to predict what the society they will enter will even be like. Without that knowledge, how do we educate children so they have a cultural identity; what understanding of the world do they really need?

Dawn Hathaway

December 19, 2008

Critical Feminist Studies

Professor Anne Dalke

Feminism and Fencing: Metaphor and Reality

Dawn Hathaway

December 8, 2008

Critical Feminist Studies

Professor Anne Dalke

“Objective” vs. Personal – Academic Writing for Evaluation

Dawn Hathaway

November 14, 2008

Critical Feminist Studies

Professor Anne Dalke

Architecture Reveals the Aspirations of its Creator

Dawn Hathaway

October 3, 2008

Critical Feminist Studies: An Introduction

Professor Anne Dalke

Is Middlesex an Appropriate Queer Studies Text?