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"Culture"

On page 227 Greenblatt writes: "To recover the meaning of such texts, to make any sense of them at all, we need to reconstruct the situation in which they were produced."

Do we really need the entire backstory?? Or is it possible to read, understand, and even appreciate or relate to a piece of literature without knowing its cultural history/significance/etc.??

How can works sustain the situations in which they were created for? and why should we try to decipher these situations?and if we could do that can't we do it without reconstruct the situations ?

on page 226 Greenblatt writes : ''A full cultural analysis will need to push beyond the boundaries of the text" how can that be done? and why we cannot do the analysis by close reading ?

On page 230 Greenblatt writes: " But there is much to be done in the way of cultural analysis even without an integrated structure of courses, much that depends primarily on asking fresh questions about the possible social functions of works of art." First, do you believe that Greenblatt, through his use of the terms "fresh questions" and "works of art" is suggesting only readings of canonical works in the classroom? Next, At what point, if ever, do you think the works of authors such as Dickens, Shakespeare, and Spenser (Greenblatt's examples) should be moved to the back-burner in favor of the study of contemporary novels and their current presentation of culture? If only canonical works are studied is that a true representation of a society's present culture? rlf

"Ideology"

"In principle, ideological analysis is open to the full spectrum of socially significant differences within which the subject is constituted. Of course, in any real sociohistorical situation, some differences will be more socially significant than others." (page 311) Keeping this statement in mind, which area of ideological analysisdo you think is most significant currently? Which, if any, do you think have lessened in significance over the past 5 years? Do you believe that there are ideologies that are no longer socially relevant? Can the meaning of ideologies change? rlf