Journal 3 Applying Presentations

Grant Wengeler
Dr. Torgerson
Journal 3
5/25/2020
The post colonial presentation of feminism was quite an immersive one. I loved how the presenters used “Black Panther” as a basis for the presentation. What I took from it was essentially that the aristocratic ideology of the nation of Wakanda didn’t allow for a queen to rule without the attachment of a man. They depended entirely on a patriarchal system which favored the leadership of men over women and it never really pointed this out or questioned it at all but instead it seemed accepted wholesale. I admit I tend to do this myself, and it’s very prevalent in the media. People don’t ask enough questions sometimes, and we should all be aware of the effect of patriarchy.
Race theory has a lot of the same points as femenist theory in my mind. Both of these methodologies tend to both push towards the same conclusion: equality. In this way I suppose I tend to generalize arguments based on race and gender into arguments based on class. After all, they pretty much are based entirely on class. The class is just dictated by race or gender. Therein lies the problem. Fortunately, presentations like this one point out the purpose of correcting the wrongs of human suffering and how we can consciously direct our energy into creative solutions for social issues. 
Marxist theory is always very interesting and immersive. I used to immediately think of communism and socialism when confronted with Marxist theory, but through different classes and presentations such as these I realize that Marxism is really just the zenith of class structure and social criticism. There’s so much to it that I can’t reasonably sum it up in a single paragraph, but from this presentation I think I really began to grasp Marxism in its broadest sense. By connecting the dots between classism and post colonialism I was able to relate the theory to our readings in a new and interesting way where I began to ponder Marxism in a new light. 
I was one of the presenters for deconstruction and I’m honestly not sure how I did. I thought I was going to do very well but when the time came my brain felt rather scrambled and I’m worried I botched it a little. I guess the nerves got to me. In any case I love the idea that invoking one idea immediately implies the opposite. Of course, this is one of those things I’ve thought of before but could never really articulate in a meaningful way until I began reading about it and talking about it in class. 
New Historicism still eludes me a bit if I’m being honest. I still have to go back and reread my old theory book everytime I contend with New Historicism because I always seem to forget the difference between the New and Old Historicism. The presentation was interesting, but if I’m being honest I had a hard time grasping it. However, I did take away the idea that historicism is everywhere and present within all methodologies. There is definitely plenty of intersection between different methods of theory, but New Historicism seems particularly relevant in every single one. 

Cultural criticism really took me by surprise in a way. Again, it’s one of those theories that I’ve passively thought about before but never fully fleshed out in my mind until I began to study it officially. Much like the other theories, this one is very intersectional with all methodologies. It’s hard to really focus on cultural criticism alone without my mind branching off toward other schools of thought. In any case the presentation was very provoking and I always enjoy gaining another degree of clarity when it comes to these concepts.

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