"Art as Device"

Post your questions below.

Susan Sontag's "Aesthetics of Silence"

You will encounter many unfamiliar names in Sontag's essay, but these shouldn't deter you from grasping the main points of her argument. Over the next few readings we will be exploring some of the issues called up in this piece, namely, the relationship between speech, silence and (re) estrangement or alienation. Particularly in _Deaf_ and in Sinyavsky's short story, "Pkhentz," we will consider how silence and broken speech butt up against the dead or tone-deaf language of the modern state and its bureaucratese.

As we figure out what exactly Sontag means by an "aesthetics of silence," we should think about both of these terms. What are the forms and purpose of art /and/ silence per Sontag? In order to put our composition exercises on clarity and concision into practice, I have assigned each of you one section for which you must provide a one-sentence distillation of the main argument. Be sure to get these up by 1 pm, since I will be making a masterlist for the class, which will form the basis of our discussion.

_Deaf_

Post your discussion question about Liang Xiaosheng's novella _Deaf_ below.

Tennessee Williams Week

Please post a discussion question for one or both of the Tennessee Williams texts we've prepared for Thursday's class.

_Heart is a Lonely Hunter_ Last Day

Post your final discussion questions on the novel below. Try to ask about something that requires you to have read the book in its entirety to answer (in other words, a possible essay question).

_Heart is a Lonely Hunter_ Day Six

Apropos of today's class, start thinking of potential prompts for paper 2, and vet those questions here with your peers!