Freud - The Lonely Woman

She is a 67-year-old divorced woman. Her ex-husband passed away years ago. She had three children, one passed away at 34, the others don't want to have anything to do with her. Her mother recently passed away. They never had a good relationship, she was basically raised by her grandmother. She is extremely lonely and suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome. She constantly associates love with money and treats her youngest son as if he is the one that is supposed to handle all of her unhappiness even though he lives 4000 miles away and has a family of his own. She is a helpless soul and is still searching to find herself. She is manipulative, conniving, stubborn and unhappy. She constantly is switching from one mood to the next. Blaming her environment for all her unhappiness and then trying to act like she is happy. This makes her seem selfish and narcissistic. She has anxiety and claims she feels as if she's walking on pins and needles.

Freud might call this women neurotic, she "maintains the relationship to an external reality while in psychosis that relationship breaks down all together" (391). She seems to be in a constant battle with her inner self. The people she loves seem to keep abandoning her and she has never had any type of role model in her life which is causing her to live in a state of neurosis. So according to Freud the introjection which she has received all of her life, which has been nothing but negative, has caused her to project that on to her environment. "Introjection and projection are terms used to describe how the self shapes itself by adapting models from outside itself and externalizes its own feelings by assigning them to others" (391).

"Introduction: Strangers to Ourselves: Psychoanalysis. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. Julie Rivkin, Michael Ryan. Oxford, 2004 p. 391

Michael Jackson - Cultural Pheonmena

There isn't any other famous person that is more signified through cultural phenomena than Michael Jackson. He did not only idealize culture in the 19th century, but became a product of an institutionalized framework "the media." His life was completely structured by the authoritative figure of his father from the time he knew Michael had talent. Even he himself has said what it was like for him as a child, "Because parents have power over children. They feel they have to do what their parents say. But the love of money is the root of all evil. And this is a sweet child. And to see him turn like this, this isn't him. This is not him" (Celebrina.com). The structure that Michael's father brought him up in made Michael become the exact opposite of what his father probably ever wanted him to be.

What is kind of shocking and ironic is that everyone had this concept of Michael, he was the King of Pop, he had this presence about him that society connected to as a whole. There wasn't one human being in the world that didn't know who he was, not even babies. He was this way because of the symbolic systems that his life was made up of, which is something that society generated. "The cultural meaning of any particular act or object is determined by a whole system of constitutive rules: rules which do not regulate behavior so much as create the possibility of particular forms of behavior" (Culler 56). I believe that once there wasn't anyone there to tell him which structural system to go by he actually started to lose a sense of realization.

In comparing concepts and sound-images to famous people, it is apparent that the concept of Michael and the sound-images of him have always been linked. The institutionalized framework that enveloped Michael Jackson caused him to end up losing himself in the signs. He didn't even no what to identify with. He no longer could control his inner life and decided to try to control his appearance. After the molestation allegations he lost everything. Michael Jackson (signified) lost his reputation and therefore lost being "The King of Pop" (Signifier).


Works Cited
Culler, Jonathan. "Course in General Linguistics." Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. Julie Rivkin, Michael Ryan. Oxford, 2004. 56-58.
Michael Jackson Quotes & Trivia. 2007-2008
<http://www.celebrina.com/michael-jackson/quotes/>

Hieronymus Bosch - Garden of Earthly Delights

This is just one part of the full painting

Although what appears to be going on is very confusing, the people all seem to be working in a way that is controlling their society. The animalistic beings seem to have some type of control over the humans.  Some are climbing ladders while others are being tortured. There are unrealistic animals, even some half animals and all the humans are naked. There is a man that appears to be hanging from a key, which another is apparently trying to reach. Ears with a sharp blade coming out in the upper left corner and a knife laying on the bottom right. The being in the center appears to be the head of the operation as there is a flag placed on top of the body portion, overseeing what is taking place, and providing an area for what appears to be a safe haven. The table on top of the human head seems to be a judgement platform which has something that appears to be a confession indicator which the animalistic beings are lining up the humans to approach, the beings which are not human seem to be in command. It seems to represent a hellish environment. This painting represents true defamiliarizaion in every aspect.

Bosch, Hieronymus. Garden of Earthly Delights. 1504. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
<http://www.boschbruegel.com/images/boschgarden.jpg>

Yoda – The Sublime Figure

Michelle Verne
English 436
Professor Wexler
05 Feb 2009

After reading Longinus’s on the sublime, the first rhetorical figure that came to mind was Yoda, the famous character from George Lucas’s Star Wars. Yoda’s rhetoric reflects the true definition of sublimity.

Although Yoda does not appear in Star Wars until Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, his character becomes the most significant part of the whole Star Wars trilogy. He is a wise and powerful Jedi Master and this is notably shown through the powerful emotion in his rhetoric. It could be that some of Lucas’s ideas were inspired by Longinus. In his book “Star Wars: The Annotated Screen plays” Lucas says, “I wanted Yoda to be the traditional kind of character you find in fairy tales and mythology, and that character is usually a frog or a wizened old man on the side of the road” (Kleinow).
The similarities of the description of sublime and Yoda are evident. When Longinus speaks of the five sources of sublimity, the ability to form grand conceptions, stimulus of powerful and inspired emotion, the proper formation of figures of thought and speech, and elevated word arrangement, he is clearly defining the traits of Yoda. (121). When he goes on to define inversion, he states “These consist in the arrangement of words or ideas out of their normal sequence, and they carry, so to speak, the genuine stamp of powerful emotion. (141). If we have seen “Star Wars”, we are all well aware of Yoda’s unique way of speaking and his quotes resonate even with the audience. “So certain are you,” or “Size matters not, look at me, judge me by my size do you” (Lucas). Inversion is the type of rhetoric that makes Yoda such a powerful character and figure.
Also reflected in Yoda’s character is what Longinus refers to as “The Accumulation of Figures.” He states, “A combination of figures in one phrase usually has a very moving effect, when two or three unite in a kind of partnership, to add force, persuasiveness and beauty” (140). This aspect is also shown when Yoda uses the diction “luminous beams are we, not this crude matter” (Lucas). This type of word arrangement not only encourages Luke Skywalker, but also helps to captivate the audience leaving them with equal inspiration.
Many of Longinus’s rhetorical theories on the sublime apply to those that carry that natural greatness in today’s society. Yoda is just one of the many that holds that gift.

Works Cited

Kleinow, Jeff. “George Lucas.” YodaJeff.com. (1997-2004).


Longinus. Classical Literary Criticism. England: Penguin Books. 2000 (p. 113-166)

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Dir. George Lucas. Perf. Frank Oz and Mark Hamil. 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm, 1980.

On Plato

Plato's Republic definitely carried the big brother aspect. It's like removing what you think is bad as a way to keep people in control by not letting them think. First of all erasing the bad in poetry will make everything good. What would good be without bad? You can't really have one without the other. It does really remind me of the way things are now. It's easy to see how ignorance can get caught up in rhetoric. Some are at different levels than others when it comes to persuasion. Whereas it may be easy to persuade some and harder to persuade others regardless of how amazing the rhetoric is. Why not just teach the children what Homer's poetry was really about instead of changing it? Even in Republic 10 Adeimantus states "Just between ourselves, and please don't denounce me to the tragic poets and all the other imitators - all such things damage the minds of those who hear them, unless they have knowledge of what they are really like as an antidote" (40). So as philosophers couldn't they just enlighten the children with this knowledge. It's contradictory. It makes Plato seem very egotistical. They act as if the citizens are just lower people that can't think for themselves.It's amazing how much truth they instilled in poetry. What was also interesting to me was that they referred to poetry as a her.

First Post - On Analyzing Text

The experiences I have had interpreting text has always differed depending on the type of genre being examined.