Notes Towards Day 15: Literary Interpretation

what would they say about the novel:
how it works, what's going on, what's important?
(i.e.: what does Hyde's coyote have to do w/ the coyotes in the novel?
what would Allen say about the structure of foreground/background?)

Before Thursday's class, post your initial thoughts about this:
a kind of "story starter"...

 

Two things to think about (from our two weeks of graphing-instead-of-writing):
learning to be succinct/focused/keeping to the main idea--
and giving data to support it.

Let's see how we did this on our most recent project,

testing out Pandora's algorithms on your friends
(really a "snapshot" of how a paper might work):
What did we learn? Have/how have we revised our own initial reactions?

(Also, finishing up from last week's project?
Anna reading Emily, Hoang reading Ellen?)
 

II. For today, split into six groups (sign up on board):
one to tell the Yellow Woman story

one to give the Keres interpretation
one to give the modern feminist interpretation
one to give the Indian-feminist interpretation

two to imagine what Hyde would do with it

Then we'll have a panel discussion about how these

 

Reading Notes
Lewis Hyde:
trickster derives creative intelligence from appetite
invents the fish trap, gets snared in own devices
incremental intelligence re: hunting--
can imagine trap because he's been prey
(evolutionary bio: predators brainier than prey--
engine driving creation of intelligence)
third role, beyond predator/prey: bait-thief tricksters
critique rules of eating game
trickster satiates own hunger, subverts all hunger not his own:
trickster's intelligence to feed self, outwit other eaters w/ non-oppositional strategy
"Raven Becomes Voracious": all who eat must be eaten (circularity)
law of appetite, of ecological interdependence
most trickster tales re: hunger and its consequences
two options: limited food or limited appetite
suffering from unrestrained appreties leads to
consciousness regarding them
Promethean sacrifice: as result of foolish trick,
humans stuck with endless hunger (origin of appetite)
sacrifice=ritual apportionment

trickster=hungry god

trickster intelligence arises from tension between predators and prey: desire to eat/not be eaten
intentional sacrifice as attempt to alter appetite:
to eat without compulsion or consequences

restraint only a partial solution
2) trickster travels aimlessly, has "context of no context,"
wanders blindlessly
vs. species knowledge: situated in space by nature
cf. animals with a way of being in the world ("nature") with
coyote, who can copy, but has no ability of his own:

"stupider," lacks inborn knowledge/is stripped of instinct--
but has a repertoire of ways: power of imitation, ability to adapt/
plasticity of behavior, can survive in shifting world

animals lie: but can't vary repertoire,
are vulnerable to predator wise to ruse
traps of instinct exploit inborn methods/trapped in own defense

having no way, trickster has many, is independent, more versatile
invention of creative lying
opportunity: "porta"/passage/entrance/opening
all theft opportunity theft: trickster a pore-seeker
--and trapper: blocking opportunity/
creating the impenetrable/non-porous
--blocking entrances: turning pores into barriers ("aporia"=contradiction/paradox)
trickster's mind: exploits/frustrates opportunity
trickster doubles back/reverses self: "confounded polarity"
tricksters/tracking=reading/writing=encoding/decoding (humor)

tricksters can change their skin (exs: shifty-skinned animals)

inflexibile=atopic; vs. tropic/turning

trickster is polytropic: "turning in many ways":
Hermes, Odysseus, Alcibiades,

each colored to fit his surroundings (so: who/what is true self?)