Summer Class

I just finished up Foundations of Literary Study, an undergraduate summer class I enrolled in at Rutgers Newark, and the first time I've been back in a classroom since graduating five years ago.

The class focused on three books and accompanying criticism and literary theory. We read Frankenstein, Heart of Darkness, and Labyrinths. I wrote two papers for the class, the first a short analysis looking at Victor Frankenstein's narcissistic obsession with science as an attack on religious traditions.

The second paper considered Chinua Achebe's criticism of the text of Heart of Darkness. Achebe contends that dehumanization of Africans in Conrad's text indicates a fundamental racism that invalidates any commentary made of European imperialism. I took issue with the argument. Instead I suggested that the dehumanization of the Africans, as well as the Europeans, demonstrated an inherent evil in colonialism and without that dehumanization, there would be no critique made.