Genre and Other Distractions

Call me slow-witted, but I (like some others, from what I hear) am having a hard time with the leap from Augustine to Dante. I don't want to repeat all the difficulties that were discussed in class, but suffice it to say that I find poetry much harder to deal with for some reason. I was drawn to Augustine's style, and Dante has been harder to struggle through for me.

I think one reason I am struggling with Dante is because I can't so readily/easily identify with what he is saying. Although we have established that his work is autobiographical, I think it would still be safe to say that Dante is not OBVIOUSLY autobiographical. It's harder for me to say "yes, I agree with that," or, "That proposition doesn't make sense to me," when I read Dante. But I will have hope - because Dante is really making me struggle through, and that may end up endearing me more to him. (Is that a legitimate use of the word "endearing"? I'm not sure).

And since I am on the topic of things that I am not understanding, I've got another one. We've reiterated again and again that Dante is an autobiographical writer, and it's probably unnecessary for me to go into the reasons why. But one reason we've mentioned (among others) is that when we write, whether the genre is labeled fiction or non-fiction, we all write autobiographically to some degree. It is impossible to entirely alienate our own emotions and experiences from what we write.

So why Dante? It seems like we're making the argument that everyone is autobiographical, so wouldn't C. S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" fit just as well in a class like this? Wouldn't my paper on Jame's Joyce's "Ulysses" work? So what is it specifically about Augustine, Dante. Montaigne, and Wordsworth that make them valuable to this course. Wouldn't any selection of books work?

I feel like I'm asking an obnoxious question, but I don't mean it to be. Of course I recognize the value of what we're reading, but I wonder what made Anderson choose these books, and not others... Maybe his book selections reflect something autobiographical on his own part... I will start thinking about what books I would choose if I were teaching this course. (But in the meantime, I am just going to be thankful that I don't have to teach this course, because that would be potential disaster.)