Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Fifth Lecture

The major concepts presented in this lecture were:
- understanding through process of classical dialectic
- didacticism
- paradox

On paradox & didicticism, I've added to the "Trap door" post. Classical dialectic, which we trace back to the Athenian Greeks, Soctrates-Plato and Aristotle, approaches understanding by difference. Classical dialectic is not the (more popularly familiar) Hegelian dialectic of thesis-antithesis-synthesis. Instead, the dialectic here identifies two concepts that have apparent similarity case, connects them by stating their basic similarity, and then identifies significant points of difference which, then, are part of the unique identity of the concept under study.

In our case, blogs and fiction are both published forms of written expression containing elements of creative description, a cohesive voice, and a narrative shape. Your knowledge of the differences beween the two will, by the completion of the course, be part of your understanding of what fiction uniquely is.

In lecture, Munro's "Forgiveness in Familes" and Malcolm Lowry's "Gin and Goldenrod" were connected dialectically and the differences on the point of the confessional mode in fiction were detailed.

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