tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post725508819372953342..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: The Moment of Interpretation and Those Carried in its WakeCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-3090322853337747732008-05-02T19:18:00.000-04:002008-05-02T19:18:00.000-04:00It will surprise no one who reads this blog (I thi...It will surprise no one who reads this blog (I think) for me to admit that I can neither dance nor sing. <BR/><BR/>However that does not stop me from trying either at odd moments. Yet among those odd moments -- so far -- has never been a presentation involving scholarship. The most I can imagine doing is paying Karl, Eileen and Mary Kate to dress in tight fitting black clothing and to perform some interpretive kinesthetic maneuvers in the background while I read a poem and perhaps bang random rhythms on a bongo drum. Look for that at Kalamazoo in 2009.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the commment!Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-80561882303793844262008-05-02T13:57:00.000-04:002008-05-02T13:57:00.000-04:00"it is time for our critical modes to become more ..."it is time for our critical modes to become more experimental, to attempt new voices and create new genres ("The Weight of the Past," for example, is a kind of scholarly performance piece with seventeen beautiful images that weave into a mixture of storytelling and critical analysis)"<BR/><BR/>JJC, this is so exciting to me. Not that its new to ITM, or unexpected given the interests of the contributors here, but it's exciting to have it put this way: a call to action as well as a statement of purpose, methinks. There's some very interesting work going on in contemporary poetics about rethinking how criticism takes places and how it rethinks creativity (Nathaniel Mackey, who won last year's National Book Award, is a key proponent, especially his book <I> Paracritical Hinge </I>). Why not medievalists too?<BR/><BR/>And that statement of yours also makes me re-read your opening sentence, about giving your "song and dance." I think we need independent reports to filter in: did JJC deliver his thoughts, in an early experimental/critical gesture, though the new genre of interpretive critical songdance? I hope so!ljshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12788869184713346996noreply@blogger.com