Pleasantly Surprised

This semester in our Entry to English Studies course -- an entry course like no other -- we used digital platforms to enhance our study of literature. I'll say it right now: this course proved me wrong in a myriad of ways. Kind of a negative overarching theme, right? I actually don't think so. In this blog post, I want to illustrate the ways that my personal literary identity changed, or rather, expanded in order to let the digital age (and other things that used to bore me) in. I will explore my progress in terms of traditional ways to understand literature and in terms of the future of literary studies. 

Traditional Literature Studies

The main change I see in myself in reference to traditional literary study is being more open to subject matter and genres that I used to think didn't hold much relevance in my personal life. A great example of this is my personal study of the novel Heart of Darkness. I was not initially thrilled to learn that we would be studying Heart of Darkness, because the first time I read that novel, I just wasn't impressed. I was a senior in AP Literature, I was stressed about college applications, and I absolutely loathed the movie Apocalypse Now. However, this semester, as we studied the novel while also studying different literary theories, and reading other students' interpretations of the novel based on Marxism, reader response theory, cultural studies, etc. spiked my interest, and I began to see the novel as more of a vehicle for Joseph Conrad to make many different statements about society, etc. It was fascinating for me to see all of the different lenses by which we could interpret Heart of Darkness, and I realized that the novel was quite interesting to me when I read it through the lens of feminist literary criticism. Reading about different literary theories opened my eyes to the critical conversations that are already going on about novels, epic poems, and more. Critics are constantly finding more things to be said about books and poems that were written years ago, and they, along with their theories, help me to see how these things are relevant in my own life. Just because I don't personally enjoy a certain author's style doesn't mean that his or her work doesn't deserve my attention. More examples of this kind of enlightenment occurred when we analyzed the York Mystery Plays, wrote our own sonnets, and more. 

The Future of Literary Studies 

The big change I see in myself after using the Kindle, Amazon, Goodreads, and the internet as a whole is that I now accept digital platforms as not only a legitimate medium by which we can study literature, but also a necessary one. At the beginning of this course, I saw reading as a sacred experience that should be sheltered and protected from the digital age and digital platforms like the Kindle. I think that this is because I enjoyed reading as a very isolated experience, and used it to escape annoying things like the internet or sometimes even other people. Furthermore, I also just didn't realize how much discussion was taking place online -- on blogs, on YouTube, on Goodreads, and more. This course changed my mind about all of that. 

The first experience that comes to mind is when we were assigned to watch poetry performed online. I had no idea how many amazing people were writing poetry and posting videos of themselves reciting it online. It was so cool to me. I watched different recitations for hours and realized that there were people my age all over the world who were using poetry to express their innermost thoughts and posting it for the world. I felt an increase of empathy and much deeper appreciation for the medium of poetry to express thoughts. The internet did that for me. (Click here to read my post about that experience.) 

Additionally, while researching for my own chapters in our class e-book project about literature in the digital age, I proved a lot of my preconceived notions about digital reading wrong. Namely: I discovered that the ability to buy books from the Kindle at any location isn't only helping those who cannot physically go to a bookstore, but it's also convenient and cheap for me. I now own more titles that I'm excited to read because of my Kindle's connection to my Goodreads "Want to Read" shelf and the insanely low prices I can buy books for. I also learned that Amazon gives readers a lot more choices and access to a wide variety of books, and actually works pretty hard to help you navigate the overwhelming number of books. I think I was just naive to these things. 

As literary study moves forward, I think it would be silly to ignore online platforms and the benefits of the Kindle, Goodreads, and Amazon. Reading has been, and always should be, a way to understand other people better, and online platforms provide an opportunity to do that in a way that coincides with the digital age. As I personally move forward, I am using my Kindle for everything. I'm also going to continue to update my Goodreads account, and use online platforms to learn what other people think and feel about literature. What a beneficial semester!