On another note, I would like to encourage anyone who has a little extra time or an overachieving streak to read about Deconstructive Theory. If you enjoy playing with the certainties/uncertainties of language, tearing things apart, or if you have problems with absolutist interpretations of texts as mandated by the teacher, you can really have a lot of fun with this theory. I actually utilized it as part of a project for another class assignment! Check it out if you have the time; otherwise I'll be telling you all about it with my group members sometime in April!
Monday, February 1, 2010
I actually liked American Born Chinese
Fist, I would like to respond briefly to the comments some people made about American Born Chinese. I actually found this graphic novel to be engrossing, in that I set out to read just a few pages and ended up reading the entire thing in one sitting. I actually enjoyed the way the three portions of the text intertwined at the finish, especially with the common theme of the identity crisis/denial between the characters. I thought all of that was quite clever. I'm curious to see how we approach this text tomorrow. I am not very experienced with graphic novels, so this was a new experience for me. I thought it made some risky choices of displaying stereotypes while juxtaposing them with a character who is consciously setting themselves in stark contrast with those presumed traits. So did anyone really like it?
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I liked it too, because (what you said).
ReplyDeleteI think the "tearing it apart" metaphor is interesting. :-) I like to think about it more as "opening up different possible readings".
ReplyDeleteValerie, you're absolutely right; I suppose I left that metaphor a bit incomplete. A more accurate version might be to compare deconstruction to taking the pieces of a Lego set and building something besides what the standard instructions provided for. I think it is important to remember the rebuilding part of deconstruction because, as Appleman mentions in Critical Encounters in High School English, this particular theory has the potential to devastate students' view of identity, meaning, and certainty, resulting in nihilism. Thanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteP.S.: I have read Ender's Game! I took a copy to my field placement for a science fiction unit and one student couldn't pay attention to the official teacher once he saw we shared that in common : |
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