Victoria Gornopolskaya: Class Summary

Today in class we discussed the meaning of history. History is a recollection of ones’ past. It is a story we tell, picking out only important information and events. People used to believe there would be a dominant history and something to counter it. We now know that with history there are many versions of a particular event. The past alone does not define history. The class went on to discuss literary history in particular which accounts for history of literature or narrative. Narrative history is an aspect of history that is always animated by being written down. Historical Contextualism is an organizing principle or theory of narrative history. The Theory of Immanent Change involves automation and defamiliarization of literature. It implies the standardization of a form of art. Artists create art and art seems to change by itself through time according to this theory. Standardization puts limits on art and literature. This is why we read limitless books such as “House of Leaves”, that go against standardization and against tradition. Italo Calvino’s book also brings about an atypical format for a novel. It is important to explore the possibilities and depths to which literature can go when unrestrained as well as its’ uniqueness in telling history.

Ideology is a very significant principle that we learned about in class. It is a set of beliefs that define the world for an individual. These beliefs are endorsed by that individual throughout life. People enjoy being part of a large group that consists of others who share their beliefs. This can be extrapolated to the government level with China and Communism as an example. We also introduced the term horizon of expectation which states that you expect to achieve resources based on your worth.

We went on to listen to a few songs that were relevant to the days’ lesson. “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel was about a poor young man living in New York City. He says “I am just a poor boy and my storys seldom told”. This line expresses how ones’ story goes untold if the individual is classified under a certain group, leaving a feeling of insignificance. Those who are seemingly unimportant to society are not included in history. We then listened to a song that was in great contrast with this one called “Where do you go to my Lovely” by Peter Sarstedt. This song is about a rich woman in France who the singer grew up in poverty with. This woman came to be rich and honorable on her own despite starting out with nothing. He hopes she will remember who she once was and who she truly is despite the fact that she has probably forgotten him.

In a general sense, we learned that history is not just the past. History can be a song, a novel, or just a recollection of an event. History is simply a story; it may be my story, your story, an author’s story, or an artists’ story. History can entail millions of stories but no matter how many are out there they all somehow intertwine. History is what we choose it to be just as literature is what the reader chooses it to be. We are all characters in a story that is our history.