So far I am still working on reading my text. I started by figuring some of the basic items such as writing down questions, like "why did the author choose to have chapters from the perspectives of four men and four women?" as well as the significance of the length of those chapters. I made a chart of characters and how they intertwine and highlighted the characters that actually have chapters. I also figured the number of pages allotted to each chapter which let to another question of "why have the women been given more pages than the men" and "why does the longest chapter belong to the high school girl involved in an affair with one of the main characters"
Moving on from this I would really like to focus on the multiculturalism aspect as well as the pornographic/vulgar language used in the novel. I definitely need to find more sources and branch out into the weeds to find specifics on these issues as well as bringing in examples from other text. I would really like to find a way to tie this into actual pornography issues in relationships and the problems that it tends to cause but I haven't been able to pinpoint that link just yet. I also don't know if it would be a stretch to bring in romantic and erotica literature as well as possibly excerpts from explicit pornographic literature to see the different analysis on the language and effects of the language. I don't know if where I am looking at going would require too much of a statistical analysis to be plausible for an English thesis or if this is too far down an "inappropriate" rabbit hole.
I am hoping to have my book completed by the first of November so that I can see what type of information I can add into this. By that point I should have enough from the novel to validate or invalidate my possible argument. If not I am also considering the link between pornography and family violence. It is very possible with approval I may add this in anyways especially if the novel continues the way it has been going so far.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Literature Review Outline
This is a working outline of the ideas and thoughts that I am including in my literature review:
Ethnicity
Diversity
age/gender/culture
Male and female perspectives of the opposite sex
Misogyny
Definition of misogyny
:a hatred of women lyrics that promote violence and misogyny
:a hatred of women lyrics that promote violence and misogyny
Sexuality
Pornography
Definition of pornography
1 :the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement
2 :material (such as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement
3 :the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction the pornography of violence
Definition of pornography
1 :the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement
2 :material (such as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement
3 :the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction the pornography of violence
Adultry
Male vanity
Homophobia
Vulgarity
Porn sex
Class
BBQ @ Hector/Aisha’s Northcote inner city
Gary/Rosie inner east (low-rent) Richmond
Harry’s Family upper-middle class coastal suburb of Brighton
Anger
Motherhood
Literature Review Sources
I have not used all of these sources as of yet this is just my running list to keep track of what I have so far.
Literature Review
Sensitivity and understanding is so important in today's culture, not only is it important to the political advisors of this country but at all levels down to the children that are being integrated into the society of the public school system every day. Christos Tsiolkas addresses some very important social issues in his novel “The Slap” and he shows how culture and hatred are bred into our children and the major types of issues that it can cause in social situations. In order to trace back to where the issues started sometimes we have to go further back than we think. Even the elderly in the novel have their racist ideologies that cause hurt and hatred throughout.
Multiculturalism
What is diversity? Diversity is a problem, a problem that shouldn’t exist but it does. In fact it grows distinctively more vital each and every day. We as a society, as parents, as children have allowed diversity to become a festering wound that can only be devoured by maggots. Those maggots are going to hurt but we have to let them get into all the holes that the infection has gotten into. We discriminate by age, we discriminate by gender, by social class, and by ethnicity. Everyone has an opinion about someone else and the only way to fix it is to weed out all the stereotypes and hatred towards people. To turn off the “color vision” and see people for who they are inside, not the color of their skin. To be sympathetic to all cultures and ideologies and allow people to have opinions and beliefs that are different from our own without the necessity of seeing them as right vs. wrong. While cultural beliefs and identities are a huge piece of “The Slap” I think the idea of gender may play a much bigger role.
Misogyny
The fight for gender identity has led to a misogynistic society. Men feel a hatred for women because they feel threatened by the idea that for centuries they have been seen as the “dominant sex” and now that women have come out of their shell and liberated themselves then it has created a hostile environment. Fear of loss of power causes men to seek control and power in other aspects of relationships such as sexuality and pornography.
Sexuality
Pornography is shown in several different aspects in the novel but mostly are seen in the vulgarity of language, not only sexually but also in violence. This language mostly comes from the men (so far) in the novel. With extremely violent and uncontrolled outburst both towards sex and in response to confrontation. They seem to have very low tolerance and short fuses. This opens the door for adultery with these characters and it is starting to show a connection between the affairs and sex and violence. These traits seem to be tied to culture and the responses from their mistresses and spouses seem to tie back into the cultural differences and childhood.
I believe that as I read further that I will find while there may be some resolution that many issues will remain unresolved and friendships will be lost. I have found several arguments on multiculturalism and “pornographic logic” that I intend to integrate in my final product.
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