The Scholar in Society -- Bruce Robbins

Evolution - everything changes. Are there any absolutes? Reading Robbins essay “The Scholar in Society” I felt a tinge of sorrow and elation. Robbins asserts that the role of the scholar is to seek and exact change in the world, and at the same time accomplish this weighty goal with as much enthusiasm as possible. Furthermore the scholar is to create an atmosphere in which students find value and worth within the subject so that work being studied is significant and relevant. He states plainly “scholars seeking both to interpret and to change the wider world, also have to seek a wider social legitimation” (325). It appears the goals often circumvent the role of the scholar. In other words while scholars work toward educating students seeking higher education they face surmountable odds in which to do so. For example, Robbins discusses the downward trend of those seeking positions in universities due to the increase in adjunct positions. This I find a bit disheartening. In fact, I find that the overwhelming enthusiasm of the professors to be the locus of the university itself. Would it not that the professor engage the student in a global conversation there would be no change -- no need for reformation of any kind. For her/his part, the scholar provides the very pulse and heartbeat of the university.

Translation Studies

Interestingly, I was just having a conversation along the lines of translations and the “correctness” or “incorrectness” that often accompanies various translated texts. In the course of the conversation, a colleague mentioned that the reader would never know the actual content of the text, unless he/she knew the originating language. I, on the other hand, disagreed with this line of thinking because translators are trained in this educational field and apply their knowledge toward precise interpretation and translation methods. However, now that I have read through Lawrence Venuti’s essay “Translation Studies” my beliefs have been altered - to some degree. Certainly, there is an exactness to translation, but according to Venuti translation takes on an altogether form or approach that allows for some “alteredness” (if there is such a word.) Venuti talks about “shifts” within the text that appear to in some ways change the text. Well, for example, how many versions of the Bible do we actually have? The numerous translations alter the meanings, in my opinion. Venuti includes an example of how this works on page 297, which I found quite interesting. Sure, Christians will state that the overall message remains the same, but does it really? The example Venuti uses is the difference between the words “kiss” and “handshake” - which to me are entirely different. A kiss in no way resembles a handshake! It would seem that translation studies requires precision in a way that many of us (or maybe it’s just me) are not fully appreciative of. After reading this essay, I found that I wanted to go to a few of some old essays that I had read from Gloria Anzaldua that were written in Spanish and translated into English -- just for to get an idea of whether there had been a “shift” or “assuming” stance within the text. Interesting stuff.

“Ain’t so / Is Not” -- A Fable

Although “They Say, I Say” indicates that college students should write colloquially, I’m not so sure that is absolutely true. Sure, we are to express our opinions and present our own voice as the speaker within the essay; however, when it comes to collegiate writing there really doesn’t seem to be room for the “Ain’t so / Is Not” factor. For example, when we use first person pronouns in our writings, it seems as though our papers come back with circles and check marks that indicate these little bad boys should be left out of the paper, and in their place, we should use the old familiar “one may think” phrase. While I believe that using a more conversational way of writing is more engaging and certainly more entertaining, I’m not so convinced that in reality it actually works. Take for instance, this weeks readings from ISMLL, “Race and Ethnicity” and “Migrations, Diasporas, and Borders,” while these titles appeal to me, the actual essay fell rather flat. I was rather disappointed in the body of the work because both essays really didn’t answer the “so what” question, nor did the work use what “I Say, They Say” call for -- the use of conversational writing. The topics of both essays deal with culture, double consciousness, identity, race, gender, ethnicity, and so forth; however, I found myself rereading the same sentence -- talk about distraction!! Both essays failed to grab my attention, which has something to do with the way the authors chose to write the essay. If both Warren and Friedman had written in the “Ain’t So / Is Not” fashion, the essays would have been enjoyable as well as informative. Nonetheless, while both essays had pertinent information I just think it “ain’t so” wonderfully written - gosh darnit!!

Cultural Studies - Cause and Effect

Reading ahead is always a great way to gain further understanding of a previous text. I just finished reading Michael Holquist’s essay, “Comparative Literature” which is interesting in retrospect. Jean Franco’s essay “Cultural Studies” posits that “it is quite possible that in the future; certain projects and interests of cultural studies will scatter to be absorbed into ancillary fields” (222). That is to say, the borders of this discipline is rather broad leading to the “dumping” or “wind tunnel” effect as that of comparative literature. While cultural studies is certainly a singular discipline whereby students engage in portions of differing cultural and social interests, it is important to understand its origin. Comparative literature offers a germane foundation point. At its inception cultural studies, fundamentally formulated as a subaltern discipline from world literature or comparative literature. The ever changing focuses in which to study literature is producing variants such as “transculturation and hybridity” (239) which aids students to create meaning of individual texts where it may have been otherwise difficult. Instead of maintaining the status quo, the idea is to challenge the standard curriculum by incorporating the various disciplines such as Queer studies, Feminist, Cognitive Poetics, Marxist Criticism, Literary Pragmatics, etc. enabling the engagement of thought toward perspectives and understanding of others. Moreover, cultural studies is the branch within the field of English that provides a fundamental basis whereby systems of literature began to take shape. In other words, cultural studies provides an avenue by which to explore other worlds by sinking ones teeth into the meat of the book.