challenged

I woke up this morning feeling light and bright. Nothing compares to the beautiful feeling of being kissed by the sun when you go out in the open. It feels so enchanting to be under the spell of the sun. No matter how cold I feel inside, the touch of the sun’s comforting and reassuring brightness gives me the energy to be productive, more than yesterday’s.

I have been waiting for so many things to come yesterday. A special person’s message, a call from a dear friend, a package I expected to arrive a month ago (LOL), an opportunity I hope could not refuse, my sisters’ reply to my messages, and energy to head on to my research and etcetera, etcetera but none of the above did arrive. But I was still productive though…I have successfully met with my students and had lively discussions with them. I promised that this time, I will be totally different. I will be more focused and determined to achieve something in every endeavor I take. I have realized that some other things can wait…And, well, it pays to wait. I waited; have waited and will keep on waiting for things worth waiting for. Just like last night…

When you await the bliss of the moonlight spills on your head, you would fill the light sensation of the day no matter how dark it is outside… no matter how the clouds covered the beautiful skies, and the rain poured heavily on the peaceful ground, later, somehow, yes later, you would still see a glow of light somewhere and a rainbow peeping down on you from somewhere.With bated breath, I look forward for that light at the end of the tunnel as my best friend chaesa used to say..ah, uncertainties, indeed they are myriads and uncountable and…agonizing!

Summer came and ended like a flash yet the so-many things I had in mind that I wished to do weren’t done as I have anticipated. With all the busy skeds I had during the recently concluded season, I have never realized that it has already been flying, yes, flying away from me...I could only wish that it would break one of its wings so that it stays here longer. But I couldn’t do anything about reality…time flies so fast…

Though I didn't have enough time last summer and obviously I didn't quite enjoy my time off, somehow, I had wodnerful time reflecting on things, life, my future and all of the things that I want to do. Let me tell you... it is a pretty long list and I hope that I will have enough time and energy and money to do everything. Right now, I feel like I just want to travel. I want to venture out and see the world. I talked with my colleagues, Arnold and Cesar about travelling abroad perhaps to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia in one of our not so-busy days…avail of promo on plane tickets and accommodation.. These plans came about in one of our dinners at izzy’s..we discussed so many things regarding having fun outside work…a real fun, okay? I don’t know if this could ever come true..I have started processing my passport though so that when it happens, voila, I am ready…at the back of my mind though, something is telling me that I am just dreaming but somewhere in my head, a throbbing willfulness that is, strongly hopes that this will materialize after we’re settled with our post graduate program now at Mindanao State University – IIT. Again, at the mention of it, I am having goosebumps and to that effect it feels like I am swirling and twirling and spining round and round...the idea about having to finish my thesis ow in a matter of 3 months makes me super duper dizzy…ROLF!!! God help me, I am certified getting so paranoid now…
The other day, but thanks to Sir mcbins who called me to join him and sir petz. Mam ces and mam myrna followed after a while. He brought a half-gallon ice cream. I felt so low and down but a cup of ice cream made me feel like a little child who easily forgets his cares… We consumed the icecream and along with it, my burden also melted like heated ice cream. Perfect. See, I have quite learned that I should not fret in life…all I have to do is just give myself a break and feel like a child…Hmmmm…I could still taste the chocolate and mango flavored ice cream…and still hear the echoing laughter of these wonderful people! YAHOO!

What else, I actually allowed myself to have a break last weekend . I joined the rest of my high school batch and attended wawa’s birtdhay party. Everytime the batch meets is like a reunion. I am happy just how these things are falling into place…I love my batch, i love my friends and the camaraderie. Everyone is simply gracious and wonderful!

I don't know what I am going to do today. I think that I am just going to relax some more. But how can I relax with a million thoughts in my head? Even in my sleep I dream about what I am supposed to do. I woke up very early today, say 4am just to start writing but when I started to do so, all the words just slipped off and drowsiness took over. Today, I mean right now, I am thinking of all the things I could write about yet I can't seem to get hold of the right word to start writing. I always end up blogging around and and all these blah blahs…here I go again!!!

One thing I was thinking about for sure is going for a practice driving even without a car yet, and maybe have my own cheapest vehicle one day…. It probably is expensive. Whatever!!! I still think that it would be a fun thing to learn though. Notice how you like to learn something that isn't going to be forced upon you later. You enjoy the freedom of learning and the pleasure of acquiring change. I believe so much in change…Right, things can happen overnight…beyond our imagination…so in all that I do I hope to make things right and face the challenge in life squarely and boldy… According to Cesar, my colleague and friend, what challenge there is to fight the beatable foe; to dream thepossible dream; or even reach the reachable star? With that I pause and say, life that’s the case, life could be SO MUCH BORING…so thanks GOD for allowing trials; thank you God for all the challenges that I have to face; and thank you God for making my life so beautifula nd colorful. Indeed, nothing compares to the beauty of life when it is spiced with obstacles and circumstances as these make life more worth fighting and living for!

Teaching is a Lifelong Journey

To teach is to touch the lives of many
And to help us learn life’s lessons.
But to teach well is to make a difference
In all the lives you touch.

To teach is to be a parent, nurse, friend
and confidant;
To be a supporter, a leader, and the motivator.
But to teach well is to be all of these things
Yet not to lose sight of who you are.

You share a part of yourself
With all whose lives you have touched.
To teach is to be tender, loving, strog
And giving to all who rely upon you;
To encourage and praise.
But to teach well is to believe in what and
Whom you teach.

A teacher comes to master these many jobs
throughtout the years.
But those who teach well recognize that there will always
be more to learn in life’s journey,
And they never hesitate to strive
to learn it.

***Donna Bulger***

Qualities of an Outstanding Teacher

“Only the brave should teach. Only those who love the young should teach. Teaching is a vocation. It is as sacred as priesthood; as innate a desire, as inescapable as the genius which compels a great artist. If he has not the concern for humanity, the love of living creatures, the vision of the priest and the artist, he must not teach.” Such statement by Pearl S. Buck suggests that a teacher possesses certain qualities that not everyone is gifted with. Teaching is a gift and that a teacher who has such gift displays remarkable love for humanity. This kind of love is especially shown through a teacher’s generosity and kindness. He also possesses visions for a life with high and esteemed morale and untainted integrity. They are of course committed, dedicated, and diligent towards the things they are inclined to do. These qualities reflect the personal qualities of an outstanding teacher.

Moreover, another saying state, “You can take the teacher out of the classroom but never the classroom from a teacher.” This saying shows that wherever a teacher may be, there is always an opportunity for every teacher to impart knowledge and mold a student’s mind for the development of the said student. This guiding principle implies that a teacher needs to have instructional competence. Basically, instructional competence pertains to the teacher’s competence in managing and handling classroom instructions as well as the manner on how he transmits learning to his students.

Teaching Strategy is one essential tool of a teacher whenever he is practicing his profession. To be an outstanding teacher, one should be better equipped in dealing with the different levels of intelligence sported by his students. A teacher who possesses instructional competence is not only intelligent but also keen and sensitive toward his student’s capabilities and learning disabilities. That way, he becomes more efficient and effective teacher inasmuch as his learners are efficient and effective learners too in their own rights.

Being a teacher is no easy task. It requires a lot of hard work in just making yourself ready for the various kinds of students that you will be dealing in a classroom. It pays to be ready with the various kinds of teaching strategies that will make teaching an easier task. Teaching strategies when implemented in a non-threatening manner enrich the learning environment making the acquisition of knowledge as well as the application of learning more likely.

Inasmuch as considerations for teachers are being given, teachers should also look at the students and ask his self, are these students learned? Are these students actively participating in whatever activities conducted? Outstanding teacher equips himself with the right strategies to address the needs of every student in every classroom setting.

Most importantly, a teacher is someone who affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops according to Henry Books Adams. The truth of the matter is that, teacher’s roles and responsibilities are not limited within the bounds of the four - cornered classroom only. It goes beyond these four corners. It extends to his community. He is not contained only within the vicinity of his classroom. He goes out and involves himself in his community, shares his expertise to those who needs it. He trains those who do not have the chance to go to school. He participates in the civic movements and activities showing the community that he is a role model citizen of his country. In other words, a teacher lives what he teaches, he walks his talks and above all, he sets himself as a role model towards his students, an example of responsible individual, loyal citizen and someone who loves his community.

Lastly, an outstanding teacher is someone who lives an exemplary life. Amidst threats of global crisis, we could still find teachers whose lives are worthy of emulation because we don’t have crisis on model teachers.

Blogging: A New Classroom Teaching Strategy

The school is said to be the child’s second home and in that sense, classroom activities are expected to be within the students’ realm of experience. They have to feel comfortable and at home while in the class. But how could that be possible? The thrust of teachers is to make learning an enjoyable one. Every day, teacher seeks to come up with effective classroom strategy so as to foster the interaction in the class between the teacher and students. Teachers have gone out beyond their resources and try to find new ways to enhance the teaching – learning process in the class. Thus, with the advent of ICT and technology itself, one strategy that has become very known for classroom interaction is blogging.

What is Blogging? This sounds a new-fangled craze among traditional teachers in the teaching arena. For the new generation teachers however, blogging is not a new thing. When internet became very popular, blogging has also become one of the users’ forms of communicating and airing out their sides, ideas and opinions. There have been many descriptions for what blogging is and means. In its simplest form a weblog or blog is a web site where its content is authored by an individual or group of individuals. Commonly, a blog is a website where an individual writes about his topics of interest. So in its very fundamental form, blogging is a legroom where people can easily create topics on the web. Users need not know HTML code or any other code to post content on a blog. Blogging software is based on a server, but once it is set up people can create an account and then add their own content. One way to think of a blog is a two way street between the content creator, and their audience.

With Blogging, as with other technologies, the questions posed by those who found blogging a hard task and additional burden for teachers seem to be: “Why should we be doing this?” or “What makes blogging an effective way to teach students today?”
There are quite a few reasons why we may want to engage our students in using a blog or similar tools. Some teachers are using blogs to build learning communities, improve interest in their content areas and enhance learning.

The very nature of blogging lends itself to students becoming engaged in reading and writing. Blogging is not simply an online diary; it can be structured around activities that lend itself to using a blog. Personally, I have been using “blogging” in my Reading, Speech, Language and Literature classes for about two years now and I find it fascinating both for me and my students. I post readings or literary pieces, if not links, where questions are also provided. All they have to do is post their comments or answers then search for links that would justify, help and support their answers.

Browsing and surfing the net as the “in” thing in this generation plus the accessibility of Wi-Fi almost everywhere make school tasks, activities and assignments easier as these classroom stuffs can actually be done and catered online. Teachers nowadays have a better option of making their students write their assignments. These can also be done in other subjects like Science, Math, Filipino and other subjects as well. So basically, these situations allow students to begin connecting what they are doing in separate classrooms, thus allowing them to begin to see the interconnections between different disciplines.

Blogging can also be used for a reflecting purpose. Since blogs can be organized by date and subject students can see how their ways of thinking have changed over time. Looking out on the web we will see some people that use their blog strictly for this purpose. Sure some of them may be computer geeks, but our students are now becoming more and more comfortable with computers, so the sense of blogging being geeky may only be for the older crowd.

Student portfolios have been around for a long time. In fact, most teachers nowadays, if not all, require students to submit a portfolio that is, a collection of their work while in the class which is of course to their own advantage. By doing so, students are trained to make their own personalized portfolios where they would put all their accomplishments, achievements, experiences and learning process. This undertaking is very useful for their future. However, again, with the advent of technology companies no longer simply want a paper copy of a portfolio that they can look at during one’s interview. In today's world, employers want to have a website of an applicant’s work. So with blogging, this gives students an advantage of being able to show their work and progress as students, as well as giving them the ability to create a site of their own in the future is an indispensable skill. As a teacher imagine being able to see what a student, that is now sitting in your classroom on the first day of school, has done in prior classes. This could have a real impact on what it is we are truly teaching students.

Accordingly, blogs which people create for communication and journaling can be used effectively as a teaching tool to reach and react with a target audience. They are changing teaching and allowing different learning practices. Here are pointers taken from a blog site which suggests 5 ways a blog can be used as an effective teaching tool in everyday classes.

The first advantage of teaching using blog is that its location and timing of learning itself. When using a blog to post links to resources, assignments and communications to students, students will not be tied to location or a time schedule for learning. This advantage allows students who are busy with work, sports and other commitments to read and understand content that they respond to outside of the physical classroom. This is a new way of thinking for teachers who are used to time and course restraints. The learner becomes much more independent. Teachers are also not dependent on technology that might malfunction during a set time period. If a computer or audio system is down, learning or posting can be done at a different time.

Another advantage of blogging is that learners become content suppliers or input providers. Learners become participants in deciding the content. Teachers are used to being the suppliers of content. By using a blog, students can direct what they want to learn. If peers are blogging with each other and experts, they may find links or information that they are interested in learning about, that goes beyond what the curriculum defines as the requirements. Learning will be more demand-oriented.

Instead of the teacher being the only presenter of content, the teacher can use experts or people who are closer to a situation to deliver content. Since there are millions of blogs for gaining information, there can be many views provided. There may be a new or personal perspective that you can't gain from history books. Students might want to know how people feel presently about the past wars.

Thirdly, blogging increases learning motivation. Blogging allows for students to be more motivated learners. On the pyramid of effective teaching styles, lecturing or talking is the least effective method of student learning. People learn by engaging in a topic, reviewing a topic, or teaching about a topic. If teachers want to show a video, demonstrate a hands-on experiment or show a virtual field trip, they can do this on a blog that a student can view at their own time. Students can teach others. A student will have a chance to reflect on the presentation before they respond. The reflection time may produce a more complete understanding of content.

Next, blogging increases communication competencies. Students will learn to communicate clearly because of the medium for posting responses. By practicing phrasing questions and comments clearly, the students will develop effective styles of communication. Students will need to post questions such as "what keywords would I use to search about..." rather than "what does that mean?" Journal writing is one form of writing. Expressing yourself without face to face contact means you must have good grammar and punctuation to make your message clear. Students will get practice using skills they'll use regularly in our world of text communication.

Teachers who want to teach effective communication and achieve clarity can direct students to resources. They could provide links to sites such as how to write bibliographies, and sites with clear definitions or effective podcasts. Teachers will have to demonstrate effective communication themselves to be role models. Clarifying what is required, posing clear questions, and responding quickly will be necessary for teachers and students.

And fifth, blogging promotes collaborative learning. Collaboration will become more common. Teachers will rely on others to present accurate content and links. Experts such as professional artists, writers, scientists, journalists will have different perspectives on a topic and could provide a more complete lesson than the teacher alone. Peers will rely on each other for advice and information. "Where did you get that?" or "send me that link" would be common messages posted.

Teachers will be able to collaborate with other teachers in education who can provide current, better or more unique materials for teaching and learning. They can add lists of blogs that they are following to their blog. Collaborative content is exemplified in sites like Wikipedia where definitions are provided by many and updated as more information is obtained. Students will see that insights and information change over time and does not remain static.
This and other teaching strategies would foster dynamic interaction between teacher and students, as well as live up to the expectations of the new trend of teaching in the 21st century classroom, a more learner-centered, interactive and dynamic teaching – learning process.
So, let’s blog!

Source: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1644306/blogging_five_advantages_of_teaching_pg3.html?cat=4

critical analysis on essays read

Tradition and Individual Talent
By T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot in this Essay presents his conception of tradition and the meaning of both poet and poetry and the relationship between the two concepts. He contends that although we do not refer to any particular tradition or to the tradition of whatever, we have the tendency to give a remark on one’s poetry as something traditional. What he is trying to say is that, such remark should not be given to refer to the works of the writers, living or dead. The point is, every nation, race, culture so to speak has its own creativity and own way of expression of their craft but on the one hand, they too have their own critical turn of mind.
Eliot points out that we have the tendency to insist upon those aspects of his work in which he least resembles anyone else and out from this work, we tend to find his individuality as well as the man’s peculiar essence. So what we do is to enjoy the poet’s peculiarity from his predecessors especially his immediate predecessors. Furthermore, Eliot argues that we exert efforts to find, for our own pleasure and enjoyment, something that is out-of-the-way in a particular work. Whereas, if we only approach a particular poet without this prejudices and biases, we shall find not only what is “the best” out of his work but also what is considered as the "the most individual parts of his (the poet) work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously."
Eliot posits that, tradition should be discouraged if it only consists in following the ways of the predecessors in full obedience and adherence to its successes. It thus, defeats the purpose of individuality. Tradition according to Eliot is of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited. Thus if you want it, you must labor to obtain it. It requires, however, the historical sense which is indispensable to anyone who would aspire to continue to become a poet in his lifetime. Historical sense for this matter, involves a perception of both the pastness of the past but also of the essence of its presence and the presence per se. Thus he claims that this "historical sense" is not only a resemblance to traditional works, but an awareness and understanding of their relation to his poetry.
With this notion, Eliot argues that the term "tradition" in itself contains peculiar quality, that is, special and multifaceted quality. It symbolizes a definite fusion of past and present and that’s what he means by tradition, a historical timelessness, that is. Where there is fusion of the past and the present, the essence of present temporality, stands also the essence of continuum between the poets of the past, the present, and the future, so to speak. A poet must embody his and other’s works to everybody while, simultaneously, expressing his contemporary environment.
The English tradition generally maintains the principle that art advances through change that is, a separation from tradition but in the same juncture also upholds the belief that literary advancements are recognized only when they conform to the tradition. And as maintained in this statement below, Eliot posits a poet’s significance rules over his appreciation of his connection to the dead poets, his ancestors.
“No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. That means that his significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison. Among the dead, I mean this as a principle of aesthetic, not merely historical criticism.”
Eliot posits that the necessity that the poet shall conform and cohere, is not one sided because when a new work of art is created, it simultaneously applies to all the works of art which preceded it. This means, further, that when a poet at the present introduces a new art, it changes the structure of this existing order, and causes a readjustment of the old to have room for the new. Thus, the addition of the new art alters the way in which the past is perceived and everything that is attached to it. In Eliot’s own words: "What happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art that preceded it." And with this notion, the poet of the present shall be judged by the standards and bearings of the past.,
“The present poet shall be judged, not amputated by the standards of the past, not to be judged to be as good as or better or worse than, the dead but a judgment , a comparison in which two things are measured by each order….” And “to conform merely for the work is not really to conform at all; it would not be new, and would therefore be not a work of art.”
What Eliot is trying to point out is that, it doesn't mean that the new is more valuable because it fits in; but that its fitting in is a test of its value. Accordingly, the dead writers are remote from the present writers because the present know so much more than they are because, in fact, the dead writers are that which the present writers know. Eliot maintains his position by saying that what is supposed to be insisted upon is that the poet must develop or obtain the awareness of the past and that he should maintain to build up this consciousness all throughout his lifetime.
What happens when the present writers integrate the essence of the past writers is a picture of surrender of him as he is at the moment to something which is more important. That is to prove that the advancement of an artist is a constant selflessness, a “continual extinction of personality”. Since the poet engages in a "continual surrender of himself" to the vast order of tradition, artistic creation is a process of depersonalization.
“There remains to define this process of depersonalization and its relation to the sense of tradition. It is in this depersonalization that art may be aid to approach the condition of science. I shall, therefore, invite you to consider, as a suggestive analogy, the action which takes place when a bit of finely filiated platinum is introduced into a chamber containing oxygen and sulphur dioxide.”
Eliot in the last paragraph compares the poet to a medium in a chemical reaction, labeling reactants as feelings, and emotions that are fused to create an artistic image that will capture and relay these same feelings and emotions. What ascribes greatness to a work of art is not the feelings and emotions present, but the nature of the artistic process by which they are produced. It is by far, the power of fusion that attributes greatness to an artwork.
Lastly, for a comment and by-word, Eliot never actually directly mentions the word talent once. What we can observe in his essay is that he seems so focused exclusively on the "tradition" facet of it. This implies that the "Individual Talent" mentioned in the essay is not what is typically considered to be talent, but instead, in his definition, it is the ability to connect with tradition and create something which has the merit to become a part of it.

From Work to Text
By Roland Barthes

This essay talks about Barthes’ contention on the inseparability of a literary work and its text. At the onset of the essay he actually acknowledges the fact that change has taken place in our formation of language as well as of the literary work where accordingly, it is with language itself that literary work owes its phenomenal existence. This particular change is clearly connected with the current development of linguistics, anthropology, Marxism and psychoanalysis. What is new and which affects the idea of the work comes not necessarily from the internal recasting of each of these disciplines, but rather from their encounter in relation to an object which traditionally is the province of none of them.

Barthes argues that what history, our history allows us today is merely to slide, to vary, to exceed, to repudiate. Just as the theory of Albert Einstein on special relativity demands that the relativity of the farness of reference be included in the object studied, so the combined action of Marxism, Freudianism and Structuralism demands, in literature, the relativization of the relations of writer, reader and observer (critic). Against the traditional notion of the work, there is now the requirement of a new object, obtained by the sliding or overturning of former categories. That object is the TEXT.

According to Barthes, to understand TEXT further as a fashionable term word in itself, its is imperative that like him, we should be reminded of the principal propositions at the intersection of which TEXT can be seen there STANDING. Moreover, the word proposition had to be understood more in a grammatical than in a logical sense because the following propositions are not argumentations but enunciations, touches, approaches that consent to remain metaphorical. The following then is Barthes’ proposition which concern method, genre, signs, plurality, filiations, reading and pleasure.
According to Barthes, The text is not to be thought of as an object that can be computed. So for a proposition that concerns Method, thus TEXT accordingly is methodological field where the work is seen as a reality while text is the “real” one. The work is displayed, the text is demonstrated; while the work or the literary piece can bee seen in a bookshop, for the text, it shows a process of demonstration according to certain rules; the work can be concretely held in the hand while text is held in language. Furthermore, the text is not the decomposition of the work, it is the work that is the imaginary tail of the text; or again, the text is experienced only in an activity of production and that it cannot stop for its constitutive movement is that of cutting across particularly it can cur across the work or several works.

In the same way, the TEXT does not stop at good literature. It cannot be contained in a hierarchy, even in a simple division of genres. According to Barthes, what constitutes the TEXT is, on the contrary, its subversive force in respect of the old classifications. The Text, for Barthes, is that which goes to the limit of the rules of enunciation (rationality, readability, etc. A text is not even a rhetorical idea, resorted to for some “heroic effect: the TEXT tries to place itself very exactly behind the limit of the doxa. To make it clear, the text functions as a subversive paradoxical force.

TEXT can be approached, experienced, in reaction to sign. Signs are identified as having two levels of meaning which are the literal and concealed, and is best moderately symbolic. While the work itself function as the general sign, the text can be approached and experienced in relation to sign, but the text, like language is disinterred and has no closure. The work closes on a signified. There are two modes of signification which can be attributed to this signified either it si claimed to be evident and the work, is then the object of a literal science, of philology, or else it is considered to be secret , ultimate, something, to be sought out and the work then falls under the scope of hermeneutics, of an interpretation;

In other words as Barthes points out, work itself functions as a general sign and it is normal that it should represent an institutional category of the civilization of the Sign. Its field is that of the TEXT in the contrary practices the infinite deferment of the signified dilatory; its field is that of the signifier and the signifier must to be conceived of as the first stage of meaning, its material vestibule, but in complete opposition to this, as its deferred action.

The text is radically symbolic; a work conceived. Perceived, received, in its integrally symbolic nature is a text. Thus the text is respired to language; like language, it is structured but off-centered, without closure.

The text is plural. As to plurality, the text unlike the work is plural. It accomplishes the very plurality of its meaning, (an irreducible plural), rather than just have several meanings. The meanings do not coexist, but instead can be seen as passages and overcrossing that cannot be interpreted. The TEXT is composed of a web of signification and intertextuality that has no origin or destination. The reader is faced with several disconnected, half-identifiable incidents that come from codes which are known but are combined in a unique manner. Ultimately, the text cannot be repeated and exists only in its difference. Plurality is not simply to say that it lids several meanings but that it accomplishes the very plural of meaning.

Furthermore, work is caught up in a process of filiations where it is identified by its relationship to its owner, the author while the text is not restricted by its relationship to an author. Literary science instructs the reader to respect the work and the author’s intentions, while the legal system imposes a direct connection of the author to his r her work. The text, on the other hand, is not restricted by its relationship to an author. There is no vital respect demanded by the TEXT because it functions as a network that can be broken and read with no consideration of the author. It does not necessarily mean that the author does not have relationship to the text but that he / she functions as a guest rather than an owner. This time, the author becomes a paper author where his life is no longer the origi9n contributing to his work”

Another proposition posed by Barthes states that the work is normally the object of consumption; no demagogy intended here is referring to the so-called consumer culture but it has to be recognized that today it is the ‘quality’ of the work and not the operation of the rereading itself which can differentiate between books: structurally there is no difference between cultured readings and casual readings in trains. In reading, the work is considered as a commodity wherein the reader consumes the work passively while the text escapes the trappings of consumption because of its relationship to play, activity, production, and practice. However, when one tries to consume the text in a traditional sense that it becomes unreadable and boring. As long as she the reader is able to produce the text, he / she will be satisfied.

The final approach to the TEXT is known as pleasure. Barthes points out that a reader can have pleasure in both reading and re-reading certain work but such pleasure is inextricably linked to consumption. The ability to reads the author ultimately means that the reader cannot rewrite the work but in contrast, the text is linked to pleasure without separation. The text is bound to jouissance (bliss or ecstasy) that it is to a pleasure without separation. Order of the signifier, the text participates in its own way in a social utopia; before History, the teach achieves, if not the transparence social relations, that at least of language relations: the TEXT is that space whereon language has a holdover any other, where languages circulate.
According to Barthes, the growing importance of interdisciplinary in literary and cultural analysis has changed our notion of language and the traditional notion of the literary work. The work has changed and a new object, the Text, has appeared. While Barthes does not want to limit the idea of the Text by providing an absolute definition, he posits that it is “that social space which leaves no language safe, outside, nor any subject of the enunciation in a position as judge, master, analyst, confessor, decoder” (Barthes “From Work to Text,” 1475).



The Death of the Author
Roland Barthes

Barthes starts this essay with an implication that the traditional critical approach to literature raises a difficult problem: how can we perceive accurately what the writer intended? His answer is that we cannot.. When, in the passage, the character dotes over her perceived womanliness, Barthes challenges his own readers to determine who is speaking, and about what. "Is it Balzac the author professing 'literary' ideas on femininity? Is it universal wisdom? Romantic psychology? … We can never know." Writing, "the destruction of every voice," defies adherence to a single interpretation or perspective. Barthes directly says that we shall never know the answers to these questions for a good reason that writing accordingly is the destruction of every voice, of every subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing.
In this essay, he disapproves of the method of reading and criticism that is dependent on the author’s identity such as his viewpoints, political or religion, historical context, ethnicity, psychology or even his personal or biographical attributes, to condense and glean meaning from his work. It means that the experiences and biases of the author serve as a perfect "explanation" of the text. For Barthes, this method of reading may be apparently tidy and convenient but is actually sloppy and flawed: "To give a text an Author" and assign a single, corresponding interpretation to it "is to impose a limit on that text."
But such act of criticism is not a new thing according to Barthes as “no doubt it has always been that way”, says Barthes referring to the kind of interpretation the reader makes in a certain work. Well, Barthes’s strong contention is that, readers must separate a literary work from its creator in order to liberate it from interpretive tyranny . This separation or disconnection of the literary work and its author occurs , the voice loses its origin, the author enters into his own death, writing begins.
Each piece of writing contains multiple layers and meanings. In a well-known quotation, Barthes draws an analogy between text and textiles, declaring that a "text is a tissue [or fabric] of quotations," drawn from "innumerable centers of culture," rather than from one, individual experience. The essential meaning of a work depends on the impressions of the reader, rather than the "passions" or "tastes" of the writer; "a text's unity lies not in its origins," or its creator, "but in its destination," or its audience.
The removal of the author is not just a historical fact or an act of writing but it definitely transforms the modern text. The temporality is different. Unlike the tradition notion, Barthes greatly opposes that the author is sued to believe in as that it concessive of as the past of his own book. This contention is explained that no longer the focus of creative influence, the author is merely a "scriptoria" (a word Barthes uses expressly to disrupt the traditional continuity of power between the terms "author" and "authority").The author is thought of to nourish the book, meaning, he exists before it, thinks, suffers, lives for it is in equal position and relationship to his work as a father to his child. Moreover, the latter is contrasted by Barthes with the contention that the modern scriptor is born simultaneously with the text. There is no other time than that of the enunciation and every text is eternally written here and now, with each re-reading, because the "origin" of meaning lies exclusively in "language itself" and its impressions on the reader. Having buried the author, the modern scriptor can thus no longer believe s according to the pathetic view of his predecessor, that this hand is too slow for his thought and passion.
Finally, in the last paragraph, Barthes challenges everyone to answer the question posed in the first paragraph of the essay and the answer would be “ no one”, no person says it: its source, its voice, is not the true place of these writing, which is reading. And gives a concluding line that says, “we know that to give writings its future, it is necessary to overthrow the myth: the birth f other reader must be at the cost of the death of the death of the author.

On Grammatology
Jacques Derrida

This essay begins with a triple exergue (French), or epigraph (English) which serves as a heading or an inscription of what the essay is really all about. The exergue are as follow: 1) The one who will shine in the science of writing will shine like the sun; 2) these three ways of writing correspond almost exactly to three different stages according to which one can consider men gathered into action and these are: a) the depicting of objects is appropriate to a savage people; b) signs of words and of propositions, to a barbaric people and; c) the alphabet to civilized people and; 3) lastly, alphabet script in itself and for itself the most intelligent.

According to Derrida, this exergue intends to focus not only on ethnocentrism, nor on logocentricism, but in the most powerful ethnocentrism. To be able to further understand the essay, Derrida defines and describes each terminology as used in the essay. Ethnocentrism, he describes as everywhere and always had controlled the notion of writing. Logocentricism, he says, refers to the metaphysics of phonetic writing, which was fundamentally - for enigmatic reasons that are inaccessible to a simple historical relativism.

Derrida asserts that his intention for this essay is nothing but the most original and powerful ethnocentrism, where in the process of imposing itself upon the world, controlling in one and the same order. And this order had something to do with writing.

In this essay, the order that the author mentions points out the concept of writing in the human race where phoneticization of writing must hide or disguise its own history as it is formed. Another part of this order involves the history of metaphysics which accordingly in spite of all the diversity not only from different philosophers but also beyond, always assigned the foundation of truth in general to the logos such as: the history of truth, of the truth of truth, has always been, except for a metaphysical

This also means the concept of science or the scientificity of science. This has always been determined as logic- a concept that has always been a philosophical concept even if the practice of science has constantly challenged its imperialism of the logos for example by invoking non phonetic writing from the beginning.

Based on the essay, the science of grammatology simply categorizes the different ways by which writing corresponds to 3 different ways: the depicting of objects is appropriate to a savage people; signs of words and of propositions, to a barbaric people; the alphabet, to the civilized people. This means that science of grammatology has already existed a long time ago. This was intelligibly understood by people in their particular time. Derrida explained why the speech / writing hierarchy can and must be reversed. In other words, he argues for the redefining of the term writing that will allow him to assert that writing is actually a precondition for and prior to speech.


The Interpretations of Dreams
Sigmund Freud

Dream is such an unexplainable and complicated reality of man although psychology and psychoanalytic theories would try to explain the nature of it. In such manner, here, in this essay, Freud gives his notion about dreams and the interpretation of it.
In this essay he talks about dream especially at the very beginning how dreams could be very affecting to once emotion. He explains it further by showing the three (3) division of the brain where the id, ego and the superego are part of it. Each part of the brain actually plays a very significant role in the working of the human mind. These are described or attributed as the conscious, subconscious and the unconscious part of man’s brain. Now as Freud puts it, no matter how much one part of his brain suppresses his id, the ego would suppress his id by telling it that he should behave according to the convention of the society. Man’s pleasure is indeed sometimes suppressed.
So Freud based on the psychoanalytic theory tries to present his idea about Oedipus Complex, this unusual attachment of a boy or extreme love of a child to one of his / her parents. Freud here talks about how this complex came into existence. This actually comes from the story of a boy who was prophesied to bring about death to his own father and would marry his own mother. So as he left home to evade from that oracle, he met along the way King Laius, whom he didn't know he was his real father, then killed him in their fight. Then he came to the place of Thebes where the people at that time were disturbed by the trouble – causing Sphinx. Whoever gets to answer correctly the monster’s riddle, he shall be given the queen for his wife. Oedipus, being wise and cunning was indeed ale to answer the riddle and so he married Queen Jocasta, without knowing it was his real mother.
After years of marriage and bearing children with the queen, his mother, the plague came to disturb the people gain. The only way the plague would stop is to drive the king’s murderer out of the land. So this is where the tragedy begins. It was during this time that Oedipus blinded himself by plucking his eyes out for not finding out the truth.
The lesson of this according to Freud is that man being given the freedom is not actually bound to follow what is fated or prophesized about him. He can still survive if he wills. Accordingly “the deeply moved spectator should learn from the tragedy that contrasts his examples.
The story of Oedipus is the reaction of the two dreams, the dreamer’s father to be dead and sexual relation with the mother. So that when these dreams are dreamt by adults are accompanied by feelings of repulsion so that this legend will include horror and punishment.
Here in the story of Oedipus, we will see the repulsion of man, the act of the will to evade the unpleasant situations in life that are out of the convention of the society. As society dictates what a man should do and how he should behave. But in the case of Oedipus, after what he has gone through have realized he has done such despicable behavior the reason why he blinded himself. However, despite that act wasn’t an act of the will, but the unconscious part of the mind of a person lurks in him and stores data that probably trigger the unconscious mind to have hat dream which Oedipus had and eventually led him to kills his father and marry his own mother. It wasn’t deliberate but he had the part of himself that dictates him on whether he should do the act or not regardless of truth.



The Rise of English
by Terry Eagleton

Terry Eagleton in this essay suggests the interconnectedness of literature and ideology. Accordingly, they are not separated. However, when we look at the meaning of literature itself, it is described as an ideology itself. The “Rise of English” was because of the failure of religion.

Terry Eagleton’s essay on “The Rise of English” in the early 20th century posits that indeed its growth was due to the failure of religion itself. Religion is capable of operating at any social levels meaning from the elite intellectuals, to the middle-class and the liberal and theological intellectuals. Religion does not only address the need of the ordinary masses but also the elite. Religion is said to address doctrinal inflection among the elite and the intellectuals. It encompasses the different social classes during that time, from the pious peasant, the enlightened middle-class and the theological intellectual. In this sense, Eagleton was trying to point out the significance of the rise of English studies at that time because it served as no less than the channel by which literature and ideologies were being carried out. It was further pointed out that literature works not by particular concepts or doctrines but mores by images, symbols, ritualistic practices, and mythology and that while religion slowly was diminishing and starting to stop to provide social bonds and values a society needs to come together, English is constructed to carry ideologies on throughout time.

In this essay, Eagleton maintains that as religion progressively ceases to provide the social ‘cement’ or something that serves as the foundation in the society, affective values and basic mythologies by which a socially turbulent class society can be welded together. She asserts that ‘English is constructed as a subject to carry this ideological burden from the Victorian Period onwards but it took a long while before such growth was really achieved. Accordingly, English Literature rode to power on the back of wartime nationalism, but at the same time it also served as a moment of epiphany on the part of the English ruling class whose identity had been profoundly shaken.

What Is Literature?
Jean-Paul Sartre

There can be so many definitions of literature but as based on Jean Sartre’s definition, literature is something that is associated with writing. With that point, Sartre asks the question “why write?” for so many reasons, one write probably out of passion, others for artistic inclination and to some writing would mean, it is conquering. To conquer is to dominate and be above others. Writing basically allows exploration and escapade. It enables one to travel and explore the world and hi9s very ideas. Self – expression is one good reason why one writes.

This essay revolves around the existentialist notion that “man is the mean by which things are manifested.” Sartre, indicates that the individual discloses or reveals being. So by introducing relationships and order, and such imposition of unity on the vast differences amongst people in the world, he / she directs being. He further argues that the reader brings to life the literary object which can exist only in peculiar top which exists only in movement. It is the reader who completes what has been begun by the writer. Sartre views the relationship between reader and writer as sharing the collaboration of freedom. The writers like all other artists, aim to provide aesthetic satisfaction to his readers.

Meanwhile the center of the essay talks about the relationship between the writers and their readers and ends with a chapter on the role of the writer. According to Sartre, the writer, a free man addressing freemen, has only one subject and that is freedom. Of course, one does not write for slaves. It is actually a great way of releasing desire and a certain way of wanting freedom. To write will not only stop up to defending those who are enslaves through one’s pen because Sartre believes that in time, literature would trigger awakening and call for revolt and battle, thus each one can defend and fight for his own freedom. But still, whatever be one’s reason is to write, Sartre asserts that one will ask another question as to for whom does one write?

The Second Sex: MYTH AND REALITY
by Simone de Beauvoir

The myth about woman plays a considerable part in literature. However, its importance to life, its effect to individual’s customs and conducts is questioned. So according to the author, it is better to look into reality while scrutinizing the myths there are about woman.

The author mentioned that there are different kinds of myths. One of these is the myth of woman redirecting an unchangeable aspect of the human condition which the division of humanity into two classes, man and woman. It projects a reality that is directly experienced or is conceptualized which for her a static myth but indisputable. It is endowed with absolute truth.

Beauvoir contends that man is unable to penetrate her (woman) special experience of the quality of a woman’s erotic pleasure, the discomfort of menstruation and the pains of childbirth for these experiences are only but experienced by a woman. She further posits that there is mystery in both man and woman but man himself has established a universal truth based from his point of view. He has a misconception of reciprocity between man and woman.

According to Beauvoir, the mystery in woman is not on its subjective solitude of the self but it is on the level of communication; that the word has its true meaning and to assert that woman is mystery is to say, not that she is silent but that her language is not understood; she is there but hidden behind veils. That she exists beyond these uncertain appearances.

She posits that she would be embarrassed to decide what she is but not because the hidden truth is too vague to be discerned; it is ALL because in this domain there is no truth. An existent is nothing other than what he does.

She posed a challenge about many women who did nothing and eventually failed to make themselves anything. She said that for women to be asking what they should have become is simply a vain question.

Beauvoir asserts that women are as capable of choice as men, and thus can choose to elevate themselves, moving beyond the 'immanence' to which they were previously resigned and reaching 'transcendence', a position in which one takes responsibility.

According to her, if man fails to discover that secret essence of femininity, it is SIMPLY because it does not exist. Her strong contention is that woman could not be objectively defined through this world and that her mystery conceals nothing but EMPTINESS.

Beauvoir argued that women have historically been considered deviant, abnormal. She said that even Mary Wollstonecraft considered men to be the ideal toward which women should aspire.

Beauvoir said that this attitude limited women's success by maintaining the perception that they were a deviation from the normal, and were always outsiders attempting to emulate "normality". She believed that for feminism to move forward, this assumption must be set aside.

Lastly, these are the concepts that Beauvoir posits in her essay:
 The feminine mystery would be mystery in itself from the fact that it would be a Mystery for itself. It would be absolute Mystery.
 Mystery is no more than a mirage that vanishes as we draw near to look at it.
 the myth of a woman is a luxury but along with luxury there was utility. These dreams were irresistibly guided by interests.
 the myth is one of those snares of false objectivity into which the man who depends on ready-made valuations rushes headlong.
 to recognize in woman a human being is not to impoverish man’s experience; this would lose not of its diversity, its richness, or its intensity

According to Beauvoir, to discard the myths is not to destroy all dramatic RELATION BETWEEN THE SEXES. It is not to deny the significance authentically revealed to man through feminine reality. It is not to do away with poetry, love, adventure, happiness or dreaming. IT IS SIMPLY TO ASK THAT BEHAVIOR, SENTIMENT, PASSION BE FOUNDED UPON TRUTH, that truth about men which according to her, the men of today show a certain duplicity of attitude which is painfully lacerating to women.

 They are willing on the whole to accept woman as a fellow being; BUT they still require her to remain as the inessential.

 For her, these two destinies are incompatible. In this paragraph, Beauvoir compares man and woman in terms of attitude towards destiny and life itself. For woman, destinies are incompatible. With man, there is no break between public and private life whereas woman’s independent successes are in contradiction with her femininity since the true woman is required to make herself object, to be the other.

The second to the last paragraph is de Beauvoir's presentation of the feminine body: that is should be flesh, but with discretion and so fort and so on (p.189-190)

The last paragraph concludes the essay in a subtle but emphatic way about how women should regain “her place in humanity”. To quote” then she will be a full human being “ when” to quote a letter of Rimbaud, “the infinite bondage of woman is broken, when she will live in and for herself, man – hitherto detestable - HAVING LET HER GO FREE.”

Compulsory Heterosexulaity and Lesbian Existence
Adrienne Rich

At the onset of the essay Rich shared the conception of “compulsory heterosexuality” and the context, meaning, the place, the time and milieu in which people nowadays are living. He argues that heterosexuality is a violent political institution making way for the "male right of physical, economical, and emotional access" to women. She challenges women to put their focus towards other women rather than men, and shows lesbianism as an extension of feminism. Rich challenges the notion of women's dependence on men as social and economic supports, as well as for adult sexuality and psychological completion. She calls for what she describes as a greater understanding of lesbian experience, and believes all these will eventually be felt and explained through experiencing the "erotic" in female terms.
Rich claims that women may not have a preference toward heterosexuality, but may find it imposed, managed, organized, propagandized, and maintained by society. Society has historically described lesbians as deviant. Rich claims that the moment women perceives lesbian existence as more than mere sexuality, it is more likely that more forms of "primary intensity" between and among women will be embraced.
Rich argues that part of the lesbian experience is an act of resistance to patriarchal role and the male right to women. She writes that lesbians have been deprived of continuity of their personal and political history, and that when included in history, they have been simply the female versions of male homosexuals, with no individuality. Rich asserts that to treat the lesbian experience as a version of male homosexuality is to discard it, denying the female experience and the realities it brings, falsifying lesbian history.
Rich holds that compulsory heterosexuality denies women of their own sexuality and comfortability in exploring their bodies and those of others. That serves to imply that only a man can sexually satisfy a woman (by delivering a vaginal orgasm), and hence that serves to prevent women from having relationships with other women.

An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
by Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist and short story writer who contends that Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is so blatantly racist that it should not be considered art. He maintains that Conrad dehumanized Africans and portrays the Congo as an uncivilized place in contrast to his civilized England. Achebe sees little hope for improved attitudes as long as Conrad’s novel remains prescribed reading in literature curses, and the media continues to marginalize African culture.

Now, Achebe looks at how Conrad created the image of Africans. Conrad mentioned that the most interesting and revealing passages in Heart of Darkness are, about people. These people are actually the Africans; he belongs to this kinship that he calls ugly and made horrid faces. Here, the Africans were described poorly and very embarrassingly as if humiliating or belittling his own kind.

Another point that Achebe has given attention to in his essay is on Marlow’s Attitude which accordingly reflects Conrad’s attitude. Achebe points out that Conrad, in his story, has a narrator behind a narrator whose primary narrator is Marlow but his story was just also narrated by another narrator, the shadowy person. According to Achebe, Marlow enjoys the confidence of Conrad which feeling was obviously reinforced by the very close similarities between their careers. Evidently, the character of Marlow played as a witness of truth and one who kept advanced and humane views.

The general point that Achebe is driving out is that Conrad is a racist. And that his racism dehumanizes Africans but that at the end of his essay, Achebe is optimistic about “change” to come. No matter how Africans were looked down and being dehumanized by Conrad, time will come that Western culture will also look at the accomplishments of an African man. That time has actually come indeed.


On National Culture
By Frantz Fanon

In this essay, Fanon straightforwardly contends that colonial domination very soon manages to disrupt in spectacular fashion the cultural life of a cultured people and this cultural obliteration is made possible by the negation of national reality, by new legal relations introduced by the occupying power, by the banishment of the natives and their customs to outlying districts by colonial society, by expropriation, and by the systematic enslaving of men and women. He posits that in the colonial situation, dynamism is fairly quickly replaced by the force of the colonizing power. He further implies that the area of culture and national identity have been marked off by fences and signposts which suggests that once a country is colonized, it absorbs the colonizer’s power and culture thus making the latter’s own culture vanished, if not replaced by the colonizer’s culture.

He further contends that certainly after centuries of colonization a nation will suffer from emaciation of the stock of natural culture. It becomes, as he maintains, a set of automatic habits, like some traditions of dress, and a few broken-down institutions. If this happens, what can be seen is a very stagnant way of life, if not, unmoving culture. Growth among the remnants of this culture is affected. There is no real creativity and no overflowing of life. What we will actually see is both extremes. Inhibition of culture is not different from poverty of the people and national oppression. According to him, after a century of colonial domination, we find a culture which is rigid in the extreme, or the dregs of culture. This implies that after centuries of colonization, a nation’s original culture may not be totally vanished but somehow, is likened to sediments that are retrieved after years of colonization as the culture is already combined and mixed up with the colonizers’ cultures.

Fanon posits the importance of culture in man’s growth and freedom as he said that the withering away of the reality of the nation and the death pangs of the national culture are linked to each other in mutual dependence. This is where his contentions are grounded upon as he maintains that the reason why it is of capital importance to follow the evolution of these relations during a struggle or national freedom.

According to Fanon, the nation which is colonized faces struggles as exploitations aggravates and poverty cause them to drive And resort to revolution. These movements in a colonized nation which were taboos come to existence. The rise of national consciousness come to life thus encourages the masses to revolt against colonialism. Along with it rise the intelligentsias (the intellectuals) who at the beginning or during the period of repressions, belong to consuming public and, later became producers. He says that literature at first chooses to confine itself to the tragic and poetic style but later on novels, shorts stories and essays are attempted. Themes in literature were altered, in fact, as he puts it; we find it less and less of bitter and hopeless recrimination as well as of that violent, resounding and florid writing which in a way serves to reassure the occupying power.

Literary works awaken the people’s national consciousness as these contain works that talk about one’s culture, characteristics, ideals, and not to forget the oral tradition, stories, epics, and songs of the people which were filed away are now beginning to change. However, that situation can only be transitory. This transition of literary works helps the nation progresses in its national consciousness. It modifies and gives precision to the literary utterances of the native intellectual. In reality, it only functions as a springboard to the real revolution. The continued cohesion of the people constitutes for the intellectual an invitation to go further than his cry for protest. The lament first makes the indictment; and then it makes an appeal

He also mentions about the literary allusion as being widely used by then where the old formula “this all happened long ago” is substituted with that of “ what are we going to speak of what happened somewhere else, but it might well happened here today, and it might happen tomorrow.

Fanon adds that it is only from that moment of literary shift that we can speak of a national literature. Here there is the level of literary creation, the taking up and clarification of themes which are typically nationalist. This may be properly called a literature of combat in the sense that it calls on the people to stand and fight for their existence as a nation and molds the national consciousness, giving it the creativity it needs, the forms and contours and flinging open before it new and boundless perspectives; as well as assumes responsibility. It is indeed a literature of combat because it is the will to liberty expressed in terms of time and space. There is that experience of new rhythm of life and forgetting of the muscular tensions and develops the imagination. So from literature, creativity flows to other aspects of humanity even in its crafts. The repercussion of the rising revolution indeed not only influenced literature but the entire nation, its national culture and people.

Fanon is careful to point out that these attempts at recovering national continuity throughout history are often contrived and ultimately self-defeating. He explains that "national identity" only carries meaning insofar as it reflects the combined revolutionary efforts of an oppressed people aiming at collective liberation. He explains that national consciousness is not nationalism but it is the only thing that will give a nation an international dimension. It is said that national culture is not folklore, not an abstract populism that believes it can discover the people's true nature. It is not made up of the inert dregs of gratuitous actions, that is to say actions which are less and less attached to the ever-present reality of the people. A national culture is the whole body of efforts made by a people in the sphere of thought to describe, justify, and praise the action through which that people has created itself and keeps itself in existence.

Lastly, in the last paragraph, fanon emphasized the urgency to build up his nation as a challenge to man, being known for his acts. This building up of a nation is a necessity accompanied by the discovery and encouragement of universalizing values. Then he concludes that it is national liberation which lead s nation to play its part on the stage of history. It is at the heart of national consciousness that international consciousness lives and grows. National consciousness then preserves a culture and in the same way when culture sustains national consciousness. In short, they are inseparable. They are intertwined and must go together always. Fanon ends his essay which goes; this two-fold emerging is ultimately only the source of all culture.

Aspects of Literary Stylistics: Reality, Language, the Individual
Anne Cluysenaar

This essay talks about aspects of literary stylistics which focuses on reality, language and the individual. Anne Cluysenaar discusses in this essay that before going through the ordeal of discussing in details the study of language, it is very wise to ask whether language is worth of much attention. The answer is yes. In the previous essays read, literature and history should be intertwined or should go together. In the way, language should go with literature and vice versa. In the very first place, literature uses language in the expression of man’s ideas, thoughts emotion and feelings. In the same way, language enhances literature so that literature becomes more appealing and attractive to readers. It is in this point of view that Cluysenaar brings up stylistics as far as language is concerned so as to give justice to the use of language in literature and employing language in enjoying the beauty of literature. In this essay, Anne Cluysenaar mentions three aspects, reality, language and individuality. What do these aspects have to do with stylistics then?

Reality, as Anne Cluysenaar points out, speaks of that which is hidden, or that is revealed by language – thus making and assumption and where it is not only independent of our perception of it but also independently observable. In other words, it is that which we can associate with words, so that in effect we can check the degree of accuracy with which language relates to it, thus we match our perceptions or our pictures with the real thing. Language is in a fundamental sense creative and which creativity is that kind to which both the writer and the reader are sensitive, and the merely the “creation” of a world. The writer must therefore, use the conventions of his own language, the Blue guitar being, that is referring to the language.

Lastly, the individuality as mentioned by Cluysenaar has something to do with the uniqueness of the writer himself. The problem that faces the creative writer is what is commonly facing all other writers. It means that we have to use our “blue guitar”, our language, to express things exactly as they are and not copy others language. Otherwise, we become not our very selves but others.
ORALITY AND LITERACY: THE TECHNOLOGIZING OF THE WORLD
Walter Ong

The essay, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the World, a written by Walter Ong talks about the shift in verbal art from orality to literacy which involves lyric, narrative, descriptive, discourse, oratory to television, philosophical, scientific works, historiography ad biography and many more. And among these genres that is most studied according to the author, in terms of orality – literacy shift is narrative.

Ong posits that narrative is everywhere a major genre of verbal art, which is present from oral cultures into high literacy and electronic information processing. In a sense narrative is paramount among all vernal art forms because of the way it underlies so maybe other forms often even the most abstract and this is to say that knowledge and discourse come out of human experience and that the elemental way to process out verbally out of the said experience is to give an account of it more or less as it really comes into existence as imbedded in the flow of time.

Although narrative is found in all cultures, it is in certain ways more widely functional in primary oral cultures than in others. As Havelock pointed out in 1978, “Knowledge cannot be managed in elaborate, more or less scientifically abstract categories.

Generally, oral cultures generate quite substantial narrative or series of narratives such as the Trojan was of the Greek Myth because of their sixe and complexity scenes and actions, narratives of this sort are often the roomiest repositories of an oral culture’s fore.

Narrative itself has a history, says Ong and it has to do with temporal sequence of events that is why in all kinds of narratives there is a certain story line. In effect, the situation at the end is subsequent to what it was at the beginning, nevertheless memory, as it guides the oral poet, often has little to do with strict linear presentation of events in temporal sequence.

Why so bitter with teachers?

i don't quite see the point why Osang had to be bitter with her teachers and why she would give such harsh comments to teachers.whether she's referring to her teachers way back her student life, the point of the matter is that her comments put into question the credibility and integrity of teachers.

Liars? the teachers? Us? Me? well, we couldn't blame her if that's how she looks at teachers but she wasn't supposed to air that out to offend the viewers especially the concerned individuals. if she had a bad experience with her teachers then as mature individual, she should have done something about it by not hurting anyone. we'll it may have just been a farce statement, a comment to jeer and cheer the public but even then, she should have been sensitive to others' emotions. she explained and apologize alright but the damage has been done. this is a lesson for all of us to ponder on. our tongue is so powerful. our words may make or unmake lives, it may break or unbreak emotions...the very essence here is that, we have to be more tactful and responsible with the words we utter. otherwise, we will burn the whole forest.

remember, what has been said can never be unsaid and no matter how much we try to patch things up, when the wound has been nailed in our hearts, it may heal in due time but will always leave a scar...

my journey by: D

I have always wanted to become a teacher but it took me a long time to become one. Over the years i also pondered on my trails; on my journey in life. it wasn't just tough, it was really like journeying through the wilderness. i wasn' t that brave i know. i was just so determined. in some part of my life, i would have considered the medicine or any medical courses had it not been for financial constraints. my inclination and interest for medicine was so deep not because i wanted to become famous in this field but it was all because of wanting to treat my pop from his paralysis which caused him physical disability and memory loss. the drive to achieve what i wanted in life was so intense but the force which tried to pull me down was equally strong or... even stronger. honestly, getting into college during those years was like climbing Mt. Everest. i guess everybody would agree with me especially when you only have a mother to take care of her 7 children and an ailing husband. She was a freelance laundry woman and sometimes a vendor of native delicacies which she acquired in consignment basis at the super crowded carmen market or in a sidewalk at an elementary school near our house. she had to do a lot of moonlighting to be able to feed all nine mouths at least twice a day.

growing up in this kind of life had made me question God. life was not only hard, it was really miserable. questions kept flying in my head and they were left unanswered for quite sometime, the reason why i didn't get to enjoy my high school life plus the painful fact that i had been cheated by the only person whom i thought have really loved me. i was so filled with remorse and hatred that i found myself so broken and spilled out. i have never been so lost in my life as i had been during these moments. i was groping in the dark trying to get hold of myself. again, questions were innumerable, my pain so immense and my doubts extremely clouded my soul. my bitterness in life gradually ate me up and i woke up one day so sick, in fact dying, spiritually. i had to be healed. i succumbed to a challenge that has totally changed my life. it was a decision that turned my life colorful, filled with joy and purpose and above all, love and faith. my direction in life was so crystal clear. that was when i enrolled in a christian seminary. i have found my trail heading to purposeful direction.

i finished bachelor in theology after 4 years where i enrolled at a biblical seminary as full academic scholar for the entire college years. during these years, i have involved myself into missions both local and national, worked in a church as an associate minister, youth and music pastor and worked with foreign missionaries, youth and children especially in creative and performing arts. back then, life was so close to perfect and fulfilling until i met my second boyfriend, the man with whom i have entrusted my life and love. i married at the age of 24.

Life has changed. i had to give up my ministry and look for a greener pasture to survive. then one day, years after, i realized that my passion for the youth, for children, for counseling has not wavered. i decided to take another course and became a teacher. my decision was triggered by an unpleasant circumstance that i have experienced while at work. it brought me down again to my knees and sought for God's divine intervention. i saw His beautiful plans amidst the tragic events in my life. the song "God will make a way" is so real in my life. it says that"God will make a way when there seems to be no way...by the roadway in the wilderness He'll lead me...rivers in the desert will i see..." with 2 kids to raise, a working husband to take care of and a father to attend to, God arranged everything to my advantage. He ordered my steps.

I finished bachelor in secondary education with flying colors where i was absorbed as college instructor after my graduation with no hassles of applying for a job at all..i found myself incomparably happy and fulfilled with the profession i chose to tread upon after the vocation i have set aside for quite sometime.

My quest for learning did not stop. i finished M.A. in Education major in English and i keep on yearning for more, not for any selfish motives but for some wonderful plans awaiting ahead. i am now into my second masters degree. i am so blessed to have been granted a scholarship under CHED for M.A. in English Language Studies at MSU-IIT which i hope to finish this March 2010.

we may be trudging on rocky roads and rough hills along life's way; the treks may be so lonely and risky; we may be clouded with trials and obstacles; doors may be closed upon us, but rest assured that God will open the windows for us. God's grace is just sufficient and ever present for those who call on HIM.

To capsulize everything, life is a journey and he who walks with the True Guide in life will be able to find his way no matter how long, no matter how far our journey will be. AND so long as i live; so long as there is God as the center of my life, i shall continue with my journey.