For the love of god, please help me try and understand this material!

Alright, I'd like to start off by saying that I'm a biology major that decided to take an advanced literature class about literary and social criticism. This is turning out to be much more complicated then I could have ever imagined :flare:

I thought the quarter started off rough by reading Marx's material, boy was I wrong. So I was hoping if you guys could help me find sites that have a good summary of some of my reading material, because I can't find anything and this stuff just isn't making sense to me! Or even if you guys could go over what you know about the material, anything would be helpful. I have a final and a paper due on this stuff next week and I have no freakin idea what to do!

So if you guys could, please help me out with any of the following literary pieces. I would appreciate it so much!

Walter Benjamin - Theses on the Philosophy of History

Theodor Adorno - Minima Moralia (part 1)

Fredric Jameson - Metacommentary

Fredric Jameson - Beyond the Cave

Michael Focault - Discourse on Language


Thanks for whatever help you guys can provide! Google hasn't been too helpful :(

have you tried...

sparknotes.com

or

enotes.com

And may I say that was a very bold choice of yours???

I'm sorry I can't help you any further...!

sparknotes didn't have a single thing and I just checked enotes, couldn't find anything either, doesn't help you have to pay for most of the stuff :(

Hi Louminater,
Try 'Googling' the books that you mentioned, weed through and find information on them. It may take a while to find the information you want but it might be worth it. you may also find related books that would find your research much easier.

thanks for the reply, but I've been doing that and it hasn't helped for these particular ones (I was able to find other ones like that, but not these). The problem is that most of these are essays, not full length books which is making the search harder. I usually find stuff on google, but it's usually just the site having that article online.

have you tried by just keying in the authors names? you might be able to find links to waht you are looking for via others sites.

I can't help with those specific books, and I am extremely skeptical about Marxist interpretation of literature; but the postmodernists write what they feel like writing at the moment, so you shouldn't expect to see a consistent theme through any of those books. Another way to say that is that the interpretations aren't directed in any particular way, rather nihilistically.

Try Terry Eagleton. His books at least make some sense and he has a fine taste, unlike some theorists who are so caught up in the abstractions that they can't seem to enjoy a good book for what it is.

^ Only problem with that is that we are supposed to discuss how these guys feel about the subjects. The final and paper must be on these authors opinions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Louminater

^ Only problem with that is that we are supposed to discuss how these guys feel about the subjects. The final and paper must be on these authors opinions.

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Try reading some of it and notice how you react to the material while you are reading. That might be your best gauge as to how the writers feel about it.

whoever posted this...i'm in your lit 101 class. i came across this thread when i googled fredric jameson.
if you see this anytime tonight, i'll be on AIM and see if i can help you. my aim is aquaticponyfish, feel free to IM me.
good luck on the final.