Here I am, yet again, monitoring de testimonial transfer of information. How is this format beneficial to de student? In particular, d’international students, cuz lord knows, da’s where de money is.

“C’mon, folks! If we were going any slower, we’d be going backwards! Is anyone awake out there? Texts embody and describe personal... routines...”

Alluva sudden, Derek Eidick pipes up.

“What about Aime Cesaire?”

JoseF jus gives’im a questionin look, so Derek continues.

“Yeah, in 1939 he published this searing long poem ‘Cahier d’un retour au pays natal’. He wrote of his native Martinique, colonial oppression, rediscovered African sources...”

Who is dis freaking kid?

“He even coined the term ‘Negritude’.”

Is dat a good thing?

“Oh yes, I know to whom you’re referring! Excellent example. His poetry was written in the language of Lautreamont and Rimbaud, but it was a French spattered with neologisms, punctuated by new rhythms. For Cesaire, a ‘native land’ was something complex and hybrid, salvaged from a lost origin, constructed out of a squalid present, articulated within and against a colonial tongue. Yes, we should definitely take a look at him... autobiographical... intervention of technique... cut-up from Dadaists... associative riffs... elements and moments... repetition... loops... unattributed quotes... Roland Barthes... zeroing... carnival of dislocations... attempt to break down authority... hierarchy... meaning... linear order... tease us into recognizing meaningless universe... all meaning is contingent and personal... rise and dominence of pop culture... playfulness... radical skepticism... decomposition... subversion... the word no longer the central core... image... radical tone is skepticism... Deconstructionism... structuralism: De Saussere... 1906-11... A course in general linguistics... initiated critical momentum... semiotics... structuralism... post-structuralism... deconstructionism... critique of language rests on the sign...”

Oh, gawd, I hate that stupid signifier/signified bullshit! I feel’ike I’ve never heard a stupider idea.

“language reflects ourselves... subjective constructs that cloud the world... terms are interchangeable... words drift in meaning... diachronic vs. synchronic... 1915-1980: Roland Barthes... philosophical focus to culture.. world interpretive matrix of signs... writing degree... mythology... interdisciplinary focus... Jacques Derrida... writing indifference... feminism... deconstructing authority... male-dominated theoretical structure... Pop Culture... war between content and artist... not transparent... it’s a game... Kathy Acker... Empire of the Senseless... banned... Why girls like to fuck... short story... written to theory novel of ideas European tradition... deconstructionist novel... anti-literature... conventions, language exploded... collage...”

Mr. Derek Eidick is piping up again. Kid’s got a lot on his mind today.

“Sex refers to the differences, both biological and anatomical, between males and females, while gender is thought of as a cultural phenomenon, which society has constructed around the meanings of femininity and masculinity...”

He kinda peters out der, but JoseF picks up on de thread.

“Are you saying that gender is more of a choice, while sex is something that society assigns?”

“Well, gender is more complex than sex. It is more ambiguous and changes over time.”

“I understand what you’re saying. We’ll get into that in more detail next week... violent dada... attack on authority... end of the fathers... incest... sexual abuse... responsible for an approach... outlaw genre... make novel something new... back to De Sade... outlaw... anti-literary obsessive... sexuality... body is battlefield... taboos... body artwork...”

Somehow dis been too much for one girl. She must be havin a bad time. Tears are streamin down her face. She picks up her books and leaves de room. Hmm... Who is dat? Present files indicate:

Silence by Shannan Laktin

I thought I was alone

Until I spoke my secret shame

And saw the tears

That stung my lips

In eyes that were not mine

I heard my secret fears

On other tongues

And found my power In the first touch

In the first trust

After the violence inflicted

For being

Woman

I better check-up on dat one later. JoseF is’tunned, but he carries on.

“Genet... deconstruct how one reads language subject... post-modern... (Cormac McCarthy - most significant post-war author)... language as a force... not transparent... seeing it as a construction... language as a power structure... writing on human flesh... paternity... avusive power... ruined landscape pollution for profit... restriction and anarchy... a discipline in itself... dissolving landscape... Beckett... explores obscenity... theme of apocalypse... pollution... nature of bosses... aging fathers reassuring, while selling us out... outsider... body as theatre... how one sets oneself apart... love... breaking down structures of life ”

Whoa, man, I hardly ever hear dis guy talk bout ‘love’.

“live beyond norms of society... renewal... nihilism... worship of commodities... obsession with possession... Sylvia Plath... deconstruct... take everything to zero... once acheiving the zero, rebuild, renew, reconstruct...”