Reflection Eng308J

The readings for this class have been helpful in reinvigorating my analytic approach to literature, probably more so than much of the political philosophy that I've recently read. The reason: I think most of that political philosophy I've more or less agreed with, so my focus has been on understanding rather than critiquing. On the other hand, suedo-social psychology has never been a subject I've enjoyed, so I find myself reading more critically. Consequently, I've achieved a fuller understanding of the approach and the argument technique the authors use. Moreover, it's always salutary to recognize one's own hostility to something; it's given me a chance to understand why I feel the way I do. Do I hold sexist sentiments? Does my selective perception preclude me from understanding how the disadvantaged view the current and historical distribution of power?

As far as what I've learned with dealing with the media, that is, deconstructing it...*shrug*
I think a lot of authors of the material/critique's we've read and watched have used their source material in a very focused, narrow way to serve their goal; i.e., I don't think these observations have been "discoveries" or have hit on many moral truths. I do think that queer theory and 1st and 2nd wave feminism are interesting branches of philosophy, but I think they could both be put exclusively into political science. This way they could be broken down strictly into distributions/restrictions of power and distributions/restrictions of resources, and importantly, how they developed and why--e.g. the approach that Micheal Foucault takes in analyzing origins of "homosexuality" (I'm aware that queer theory especially is becoming more recognized in Poly Sci). Of course, an advantage of the philosophical study is the ability to analyze the morality of any deprivations of power...

I believe that my grammar has improved a little since this course began. I still have a lot of work to do, but I'll get there eventually. My use of dashes and semicolons (the two punctuations I had wanted to work on the most) are still far from perfect, but I've learned how to use them a little better. My vocabulary has improved a little bit--I now understand the words "libretto" and "nouveau." Supervised practice usually improves skill, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to practice my writing with experienced instruction.