I had a lively discussion and borderline verbal argument with someone in one of my graduate classes today. We have been talking about literary interpretation and the value of literary criticism in the classroom and I made the point that it is important and necessary to encourage students to articulate their own aesthetic interpretation about a specific text before engaging in full-out criticism.
I recently read Susan Sontag’s essay “Against Interpretation” and although I do not agree with every aspect of her argument I do really like the idea she presents about the necessity for art to be an “incantatory” and “magical experience.” This other dude in my class was basically trying to tell me that asking students to first reflect on their own experience and feelings about a text was “impossible” because they would only b.s. you, especially those kids in “lower performing schools” as he put it.
I was incredibly confused and offended by this idea that we can’t empower students to first form their own opinions about a specific work of literature before forcing the “correct” literary interpretation of it onto them—since when did forming personal opinions and expressing your feelings about a work of literature become a luxury only afforded to students from high achieving schools? I truly believe in the value of criticism, but I also believe in allowing people to initiate their own experience with a text because sometimes as Sontag puts it “the modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs “behind” the text, to find a sub-text which is a true one.”
It is interesting to consider how to encourage engagement with a text that doesn’t completely excavate and kill it, and the discussion with this grad student began to solidify my own beliefs and underlined the challenges ahead.
