Seminar A – Comments to presentations
Student: Maria Rosaria Coda
Presentation by Asdis
I appreciated that Asdis introduced both author and her background to us as Zora Neale Hurston is not a very well-known writer, even among students of English language world literature. It was also good she informed us about some cultural elements of African-American culture before describing the different ways in which Black intellectuals fostered and interpreted or re-discovered Black identity.It am not sure (I might have missed something), whether we can consider Hurston’s rediscovery of Black identity (by going back to the roots through folkloreand caricature) not only as representative of her sense of pride for their roots, but also as a conscious way of avoiding the frustration and sometimes superficiality of aimingtoo high. Could we say that if real and ideal meet in that “limbo” there will be no frustration at all? Is there any growth, though, if there is no distance between real and ideal?
Presentation by Hrafnhildur
In Hrafnhildur’s presentation I was captured by the stories concerning the relationship between editor and writer, all the phases and workings behind the publication of a literary work, particularly when publishing in a magazine. I think there are lots of ideas in what Hrafnildur presented and she will have to select which ones to include in her thesis, but since she asked for further ideas I wonder whether any other correspondence between Dickens and a male contributor to his magazine is available, so that it would be possible to compare Dickens’s attitude towards different sexes.
Presentation by Kolbrun
I share Kolbrun’slove for Toni Morrison’s novels, her style and her incredible stories. Beloved is really a masterpiece, one of the richest and most moving stories I have ever read. Just in case this should be of some interest to Kolbrun, one of Marina Carr’s plays, By The Bog of Cats has a scene of a mother killing her little daughter as an extreme tragic act of love, in order to avoid her daughter the same terrible destiny she herself had to suffer. This happens in a completely different context, but yet it is a very similar scene.I am also surprised that the word identity appears in so many of our presentations, even if always with different nuances. Kolbrun’s presentation is really a great incentive to read more by Morrison.
Presentation by Sigurlaug
Sigurlaug has the great gift of synthesis. It might be that the two works she has chosen to talk about do not have a complicated plot and so allow such synthesis.;) The presentation is also very clear and direct. If she is going to work further on the topic I believe she could try to find out whether there is also a common meaning for the time loop in the two works or a different one or no meaning at all.A brief introduction to Dick would have been nice as I have to admit I do not know anything about him whileSigurlaugproves she knows a lot about both authors when you asked her question.