Blog Post 7

I really enjoyed listening to all of the presentations. I found it interesting how they all seemed to be tied together in one way or another. They all seem to be based on the assumption that we shouldn't take our ideas and assumptions for face value, but rather look past them to try and find underlying truths.

New Historicism and Queer Theory seemed to be the most aligned with this viewpoint. New Historicism is based on the theory that all history is subjective and based on the views of the observer, that all viewpoints must try to be accounted for in order to get at the true meaning behind a text. And it is true that history is written by the victor, they become the dominant force and get to choose what gets taught and passed on to the following generations. Entire pieces of history have been forever lost because the party in control didn't like what it taught, or thought it might undermine their control. And so it makes sense that in order to find real truths behind texts, one must look beyond biases and assumptions, and must try and put themselves in the position of the subject.

Queer Theory expands on this thought in a different area of life, instead of focusing on history, they say that words, meanings, and gender are things that are all subjective. It is the thought of history being written by the victor, but in the present. The controlling party dictates what is considered normal and right, alienating anybody that doesn't fall into the described guidelines. It is interesting to see how what is considered taboo and off limits in one culture, is completely accepted in another, the people are not biologically different from each other, but the way they have been conditioned by their respective societies effects their psychological processes. Queer Theory seeks to combat this by asking people to look beyond what they see through their biases, and try and see things for what they really are.

As far as presentations went, I enjoyed the discussions that the questions handed out by the New Historicism group brought up, and I also found it easier to follow along to power points, as the poster boards were too small to be able to see very well.