Post 1

Literature

Damrosch makes the argument that film is literature in “How to Read World Literature,” but he does not embellish on this subject or reference narrative films within this excerpt (Damrosch, 7), taking this information I would work backwards to say art can be a literary piece. The audience must be aware of the circumstances that created the piece of art just as in written or spoken words. Taking a piece created by Jacques-Louis David entitled “Marat Assassinated” the reader can appreciate the ideal beauty of the male Marat with his dramatic lighting, perfect seemingly sleeping face and elegant hands.

 An art historian would recognize that his face did not truly appear that angelic and in reality suffered from pock marks, and that his idealized body references Michelangelo while also appearing almost Christ-like in his acceptance of his death. The way the body lays brings attention to his defenselessness while also concentrating the viewer’s eyes on the journalists work and the knife that killed him. A historian would understand that the art was used as a political message by David during the Reign of Terror. All of this information came from a one hundred level art history class that encompassed several disciplines to explain the reasoning behind artworks and the culture that produced them. The art tells a story that does not need to be translated, but the cultural background needs to be understood in order to convey what the author truly meant.

The problem of mistranslations is easily seen when stories cross into different districts. Whether from art to physics or from one culture to another, when a viewer is only looking through only one lens they will not be able to see the complete picture. Comfort is an issue when a viewer realizes that they are looking at something their society deems below them, as can be seen in Edward William Lanes “The Thousand Nights and a Night,” where the author avoided publishing anything that was overly sexual and lost most of its poetry (Damrosch 78). This discomfort with other cultures and what is natural to these cultures sometimes makes translations useless.

Humanities is the recognition and appreciation of other cultures, and their habits that positively affect the society you are in. Humanities are a choice that a person recognizes that cultures, disciplines, and ideals affect each other. One culture’s ideals can’t always be useful to another culture but the understanding and acceptance of these ideals allow thoughts to change and ideas to expand. Definitions are always changing and their connotations are evolving. Damrosch’s explanations on the malleability of language and the conversions that are made to make people less on edge and less exploratory are disturbing. The understanding of other areas of the world, and other areas of study can be upsetting to anyone but remaining stagnate will not help you become a better person. The inter-contentedness of the world is much like our studies today and need to be expanded with first hand references and original sources.