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Unit VII Text I Beauty by Susan Sontag

Unit VII Text I Beauty by Susan Sontag.

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Unit VII Text I Beauty by Susan Sontag

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  1. Unit VII Text IBeautyby Susan Sontag

  2. Susan Sontag(1933- ), American writer, known for her philosophical writings on modern culture. Born in New York City, Sontag was educated at the universities of California, Chicago, and Paris and at Harvard University. During the 1960s and 1970s Sontag's essays and observations had a strong influence on the American counterculture. Biographic information about the author Her essay collections include Against Interpretation (1966), Styles of Radical Will (1969), and Under the Sign of Saturn (1980). She also wrote the novels The Benefactor (1963), Death Kit (1967), The Volcano Lover (1992), and In America (2000). Sontag's other works include the nonfiction books On Photography (1977), Illness as Metaphor (1978), and AIDS and Its Metaphors (1989); and a collection of short stories.

  3. Sontag’s View on Art On the bohemian(放荡不羁的)New York scene of the early sixties, Sontag swiftly acquired a reputation as the radical-liberal American woman, who had not only deep knowledge of ancient and modern European culture, but could also reinterpret it from the American point of view. A selection of her writings appeared in AGAINST INTERPRETATION AND OTHER ESSAYS (1968), where she stated that the understanding of art starts from intuitive response and not from analysis or intellectual considerations. "A work of art is a thing in the world, not just text or commentary on the world."Rejecting interpretation, Sontag advocated what she called 'transparency', which means "experiencing the luminousness of thing in itself, of things being what they are". The 'meaning' of art lies in the experiencing both style and content together without analysis. "Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art."

  4. Quotations from Sontag: • AidsAIDS obliges people to think of sex as having, possibly the • direst of consequences: suicide. Or murder. • (AIDS and its Metaphors) • BeautyWhat is most beautiful in virile (有男子气概的) men is • something feminine; what is most beautiful in feminine women is • something masculine. • （Against Interpretation, “Notes on Camp”） • TruthThe truth is always something that is told, not something that • is known. If there were no speaking or writing there would be no truth about anything. There would only be what is. （The Benefactor）

  5. ArtInterpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. • ArtReal art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. （Against Interpretation: people should not attempt to find the 'meaning' in a work of art but experience it as a thing in itself. ) • HumorIf tragedy is an experience of hyperinvolvement, comedy is an • experience of underinvolvement, of detachment. • (Against Interpretation, "Notes on Camp”) • Madness Sanity is a cozy lie. • (Against Interpretation, "Notes on Camp”) • PerversityPerversity is the muse of modern literature. • (Against Interpretation, “Camus”)

  6. Related sayings on Beauty • The good is the beautiful. ---Plato (428? BC - 347? BC), Greek philosopher. Lysias • Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing. • Socrates (470? BC - 399? BC), Greek philosopher, 399? BC. • “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”—that is all • Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. • John Keats (1795 - 1821), British poet. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" • Now I say: the beautiful is the symbol of the morally good. • ---Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804), German philosopher. • Critique of Judgement • It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. • ---Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910), Russian writer. The Kreutzer Sonata

  7. Beauty alone makes all the world happy, and every being forgets its limitations as long as it experiences her enchantment. --- Friedrich von Schiller (1759 - 1805), German poet, playwright and historian. On the Aesthetic Education of Man • Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them. • ---David Hume (1711 - 1776), Scottish philosopher and • historian. Essays, Moral and Political, "Of Tragedy" • Beauty is altogether in the eye of the beholder. • ---Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (1855? - 1897), Irish novelist. • Molly Bawn

  8. Analysis of the Text • 1. Central idea of the text • 2. Purpose of the text • 3. Organizational pattern of the text • 4. Tone and style of the text

  9. Organizational pattern of the text • Greek definition of “beauty” (total, integrated concept of excellence, an overall virtue) (para. 1) • Conventional attitude toward “beauty” --- “beauty” being • split off and losing prestige (paras. 2-4) • Influence of Christian tradition: taking “beauty” as “alienated, arbitrary, superficial enchantment” 2) Influence of other social prejudices in the last two centuries: attributing “beauty” to only one of the two sexes: the Fair/Second Sex, women

  10. The oppression of women derived from the degraded, split-off notion • of “beauty” and how men and women regard this concept differently • (paras. 5-7) • Social pressure: women’s identity depends largely on how she LOOKS --- encouraging narcissism, dependence, immaturity (in contrast to men, whose identity depends on what he IS or DOES ) 2) Women’s voluntary acceptance: women trapped in and willingly accepting the stereotyped obligation to aim at a “perfect” appearance (in contrast to men, whose “imperfection” in appearance is considered preferable by both male and female standards)

  11. Dilemma of the Fair Sex --- beauty as a catch-22 for women • (paras. 8-9) 1) Beauty: a power to negate itself 2) Beauty: an obligation neither to be engaged in nor to be disposed of • A call on women and the whole society to get out of the trap • created by the split-off concept of “beauty” and the resulting • oppression of women (para. 10)

  12. Difficult passages: para. 10 1. “One could hardly …. the oppression of women.” ---The story of the oppression of women, which has had a long history and seems to be going on endlessly, is both lamentable and laughable; it serves as the most powerful proof to show how harmful it can be to judge a person by refusing to put into consideration both inner beauty and outer beauty together. 2. “But to get out of the trap …. Saving beauty from women --- and for them.” ---- Women should disassociate themselves as far as possible from the conventional, biased notion of beauty which seems to flatter but in fact belittle women, and see what the full meaning of beauty is, and how its implication of overall excellence has been curtailed so as to support the traditional but false notion of what women should be like. The word “beauty” with its original meaning in Greek to denote a total , integrated concept of excellence should be saved from merely functioning as a compliment (with certain demeaning overtones) for women. Only when the reputation of this word has been restored can it be possible that women, to whom the word “beautiful ” is applied, be regarded properly.

  13. Major argumentative devices: 1) Definition: etymological connection between beauty and virtus 2) Contrast: Greek tradition vs. Christian tradition; classic concept (of “beauty”) vs. modern concept; women vs. men (different self-recognition, different social roles, different expectations on one’s own appearance) (Refer to textbook p. 104-105)

  14. Related discussion on the “Beauty Myth” • Wolf, Naomi (1962- ), American feminist writer, born in San • Francisco and educated at Yale University. She attended the • University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, best known for her • book The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against • Women (1990), perhaps the youngest literary celebrity of the • women's movement. In The Beauty Myth, Wolf argued that the pressure to be beautiful had become contemporary culture's most effective form of control over women. According to Wolf, women flooded the workforce, thereby posing an economic threat to men. Society's expectation that women cultivate personal beauty served as the latest weapon against women, Wolf asserted, because it required that women spend so much time, money, and emotional effort trying to be beautiful that they were left with no energy to compete economically.

  15. Naomi Wolf With the publication of her first two books, The Beauty Myth (1990) and Fire With Fire (1993), American feminist writer Naomi Wolf became a literary celebrity of the women’s movement in the early and mid-1990s. A frequent lecturer on college campuses, Wolf worked to make feminism relevant to a new generation. In Wolf’s view, the task facing women in the last decade of the 20th century was to capitalize on the political power that they possessed but had not yet learned to wield effectively.

  16. Quotations from Naomi Wolf’sThe Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women • BeautyThe more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us. • Feminism The affluent, educated, liberated women of the First • World...do not feel as free as they want to...This lack of freedom has • something to do with—with apparently frivolous issues. • Feminism The beauty myth of the present is more insidious(阴 • 险的)than any mystique of femininity yet: A century ago, Nora • slammed the door of the doll's house...where women are trapped • today, there is no door to slam. • Feminism We are in the midst of a violent backlash against feminism • that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against • women's advancement: the beauty myth.

  17. Robert Redford

  18. Robert Redford

  19. Robert Redford American stage and motion-picture actor and director. Robert Redford won an Academy Award for best director with his 1980 film Ordinary People. The next year he founded the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit organization that promotes independent American films.

  20. Organization of the text Section 1 (Para 1-3): Contrast the ancient notion of “beauty” with the modern concept to introduce the topic Degradation of the notion of “beauty” BEAUTY (Greek) Overall excellence ……… (physical + moral; female + male) (Christianity) Superficial enchantment …… (physical; female + male) (Contemporary) Female good looksonly …… .. (physical, female)

  21. Section II (Para 4-7) Illustrating how women and men are viewed/treated differently to support the argument: the oppression of women – Section III (Para 8-9 ) Pointing out how society’s gender stereotypes have affected adversely the development of women (e.g. encouraging narcissism, dependence, immaturity, passive acceptance …etc) Section IV (Para. 10) Calling on women and the whole society to get out of the trap created by the “myth of beauty” and the resulting oppression of women.

  22. Language points • lamely -(lit) unable to walk; • (extended) When used to describe an excuse, argument, remark as “lame”, it means “weak”, “poor” （牵强的、勉强的、站不住脚) e.g. • (I didn’t hand in the assignment). My lame excuse was that I had too much else to do. • (He didn’t say “hello” to me the other day we met.) “I didn’t recognize you,” he said • lamely. occur to----come into (someone’s mind).Examples: • It suddenly occurred to him that he had to attend an important meeting that afternoon. • It never occurred to me that the Shanghai Botanical Garden could be so spacious.

  23. paradoxical---incongruous, contradictory. Example: • It is paradoxical that the loneliest people live in the most crowded places. • It is paradoxical that an intelligent child like him should write such a poor hand. paradox(n.) ----a situation which involves two opposite facts. Examples: • There are a lot of paradoxes in real life. • It is a paradox that racial discrimination and protection of human rights should • coexist in some countries. be wary of/about ---- be cautious about possible danger or problem. Example: • People are understandably wary of the new government. • Having been taken in several times by street peddlers, he is now very wary of them. • I’m very wary about believing these stories.

  24. pedagogue --- (archaic/derogatory) school master, teacher (教书匠) pedagogy – science of teaching 教学法 deprive…of---take …away from. Examples: • Women in some places in the world today are still deprived of the right to vote. • A serious case of trachoma deprived him of his eyesight. set adrift(also turn adrift ) - (lit) to leave (someone or a boat) to float on the water without direction. Example: • The sailors, after quarreling with their captain, set him adrift on the ocean in an open boat. - (fig.) isolate the word, single out the word to mean

  25. attribute … to--- to believe sth. as the result of Examples: • Economists attributed the lack of progress to poor cooperation. （….认为…原因在 • 于） • Jim attributed his success to hard work. (归功于) lose prestige---lose significance, lose prominence prestige---general respect or admiration felt for someone or something because they have high quality, success, etc. Example: • Several universities in China enjoy international prestige. 1.demean ---If you demean yourself or sth, you do sth which makes people have less respect for you. Example: • He has demeaned his office by lying. (渎职) • They regard these jobs as demeaning and degrading.

  26. overtone ---suggesting sth, without saying openly. Example: • The play has heavy political overtones. (implications 政治色彩) accumulate---make or become greater in number or quantity. Examples: • By reading a few pages of literary works in English every day, he soon accumulated a • large and useful English vocabulary. • Our knowledge accumulates if we read widely. vestige– a very small part of it, a part that remains after all the rest has gone. Example: • There was not any vestige of freedom in this ancient kingdom.

  27. in the throes of--- in the middle of doing something very difficult.; be deeply involved in something, Examples: • The company was then in the throes of reorganization. 正处于改制的混乱和痛苦中） • The country was in the throes of political reform. • We are in the throes of drawing a blueprint for the reorganization of the Students’ Union. throesas a plural noun meaning “intense or violent pain and struggle”, e.g. , death throes. identify…with ---1）consider two things as being the same; equate with; associate with. Example: • Some people identify book learning with work efficiency. • Never identify opinions with fact. （想法不等于事实） 2）to feel sympathy for sb. Example • Reading this book, we can identify with the main character’s struggle.

  28. evaluate --- judge the value of. Example: • The teacher’s work is regularly evaluated in that school. confirm --- give support to a fact by proving more proof. Example: • He was told that his acceptance of the job must be confirmed by a formal letter. a declared Robert Redford fan--- an enthusiastic/a faithful supporter of Robert Redford declared ---openly admitted as 公开表白的. Example: • His grandfather is a declared follower of Confucius’s teachings. fan--- a keen supporter of a sport, performing art, person, etc., e.g., a football fan, a movie fan

  29. depreciation of women--- the devaluation of women; the decrease in value of women ; the lowering of women’s status Depreciationis often used to refer to the decrease in the value of a currency or of an asset. immense --- extremely large or great, especially in size or degree. Examples: • What he said about our moral duties was of immense importance. • The local Science and Technology Museum is just immense. You can hardly see all the exhibits there in one day lamentable --1) (of an event, action, or attitude) unfortunate, regrettable. Example: • His prejudice against the underachievers is lamentable. 2)(of circumstances or conditions) very bad or unsatisfactory. Example: • The service provided by the hotel was simply lamentable.

  30. conceive • A politician conceives the world as a variety of conflicts. (consider) • A Price & Incomes policy was boldly conceived.(work out) • He can never conceive of such a thing happening to himself. (imagine) • The boy had been conceived on their honeymoon. (become pregnant) censure --- harsh criticism (c.f. censor （新闻检查） census （人口普查） 19.disparage --- (rather formal) regard as being of little worth; speak about without respect Example: • to disparage someone for sth/doing sth. • Do not disparage other’s efforts in carrying out the work.

  31. saving beauty from women --- and for them - save … from …:to preserve/protect sth/sb.from danger/ruin etc. save …for …:to put sth. such as money/supply away until a certain time or for some purpose. • How can the city save these fine old buildings from destruction? • They saved the precious records from fire. • Let’s save the best wine for the party. • I’m trying to save as much of my income as I can for my old age. Note the emphatic use of the preposition, e.g. the famous usage in Gettysburg Address: … we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that this government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.

  32. Text II Sexism in English: A Feminist View Analysis of the text Thesis: (Title ) Sexism in English (end of Para 3) “how really deep-seated sexism is in our communication system” Organization: 1. Presenting the topic(Para 1-3) nstarting with the observation on the relation between CULTURE and LANGUAGE, to bring in the topic for discussion, i.e. “how our language (English) reflects the sexual discrimination in our culture.”

  33. MASCULINE FEMININE More in quantity Fewer in number Related to achievements/accomplishments Related to body (physical features) (implications)Man is successful Woman is sexy 2. Giving evidence to show sexism in English (linguistic evidence) Evidence of sexism in English 1) Words that originated from people’s names (para 4-6) 2) Geographical names (para 7-9) preoccupation with women’s breasts

  34. 3) Pairs of words / cognate terms /male-female counterparts (with different semantic features) MASCULINE FEMININE EXAMPLES serious, businesslike sexual connotation callboy vs. call girl suggesting respect, dignity sexual connotation Sir vs. Madam master vs. mistress more functional in word formation 1) forming compounds master + plan / copy /trust /charge; concert master, toast master etc. mistress infew compounds 2) taking affixes a) masculine as base, feminine subordinate usher usherette heir heiress b) masculine forming compounds feminine having dead end kingdom (not *queendom) sportsmanship c) exception (sex and marriage) prostitute male prostitute widow widower bride bridegroom

  35. 3. Conclusion (English is a male-centred language) III. Discussion and assignment: Give further examples to show sexism in English Some examples to elicit students’ contribution 1. Different associations: Masculine Feminine the man in the street a woman of the street a male pirate female pirate bachelor spinster governor governess 2. Vulgarism in feminine words e.g. movie queen, beauty queen

  36. 3. Up-gradation in masculine words marshal (马夫 to be upgraded to mean 元帅) craftsman 4. Priority given to masculine words in order 先男后女 host and hostess brother and sister husband and wife Adam and Eve Son and daughter He or she King and queen (With the only exception: “Ladies and gentlemen”!) 5. Existence of female exclusive terms Chairman, spokesman, businessman, man power (work man policeman)

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