[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Lurker

"Privileges" is the key word there, with it's negative connotations of elitism. He's basically saying there are no good and bad books. I suppose that ties in with his Marxism with it's depressing levelling or society.

no he didnt use that word exactly-- i'm just condensing my understanding of it which might do a great disservice.

"what is literature" is the corollary of his whole book on literary theory; the book begins with "the rise of english" which is a sociological look at the appearance of "english literature" courses at university level replacing classical (greek & latin) literature-- this had to to with educating the workers and blah blah blah. which is fine, and interesting, and so forth.

what irks me is when he takes the extreme narrow conclusions of formalism (literature as an "estranged" language) and refutes the whole argument because their extrapolations ("content is irrelevant") were wrong. so he suffers from the same kind of reductionism, but from the opposite end.

basically he's saying that what we call literature does not exist for itself but is based on value judgments that stem from ideology, and we often fail to see that. he says that literature does not exist in the same way as insects do--- it exists only insofar as a certain group of people decide it's literature.

i'd argue against that bullshit. i do believe that literature exists as insects do, but that it's value judgments that determine if we look at them as "pests" or we say "whoa, look at that cool shit!" or if we cook them in a nice meal, or if we adopt them as pets.

so yes, there is value judgment, there is ideology, there is shit that one day is "trash" and another day is "sublime", but there is shit and the brain can tell but just because it's culturally modified it's not a social fiction. sort of like food-- we all eat, we cook, but it varies from culture to culture, it's influenced by social class, by ideology, etc.

so my position is actuall that literature is biological-- as is language. all cultures tell stories, all have music and poetry, all have myth and legend, and no it's not cuz we learned it from another, it's cuz our brains make them with or without outside influence.