Mary Louise Pratt: "Arts of the Contact Zone"

          Mary Louise Pratt explains what a contract zone is, and tells about her personal experiences with this zone. It is people from different cultures interacting, and going past the boundary that has been placed between them. She says that it is “the space in which transculturation takes place – where two different cultures meet and inform each other, often in highly asymmetrical ways.” When transculturation takes place, one is able to learn new things, and gain new perspectives on the foreign culture. She explains her own experience with this in a class that she taught that was made up of many different cultures. In this class they discussed their different cultures, learning about different things; this is what she calls a contract zone. 

          I think that the contract zone is most definitely a good thing. It allows people from all different races, religions and cultures to learn about people different than them. This boundary is an important boundary to break especially here in the United States because of its diversity as Thomas Paine says in "Common Sense". He talks about how America is very diverse, therefore cannot have a single mother country. Furthermore, I think that the contract zone is an excellent thing in general, but especially here in America.

Question: Why would someone argue that the contract zone is a bad thing?

T.S. Eliot: "Tradition and the Individual Talent"

          Eliot starts off by explaining that "traditional" literacy should be definitely discouraged if it is simply following the ways of generations before us. However, he says that it has a much greater significance that must be worked hard for by really digging in deep to the authors before hand wrote, in a temporal and timeless fashion. He goes on to say that essentially, no author has his complete meaning alone, but when reading him, one must compare and contrast him with dead authors. He says that either you will find a conformed individual, or an individual who conforms, but it is not likely to find one and not the other because authors look at the more important mind of his country than his own personal mind. Eliot also claims that great poetry is made without the direct use of emotions, but composed of feelings because in poetry on is not trying to express a personality, but a particular medium of impressions and experiences to combine in unexpected way.
          Eliot connects with William Wordsworth. Eliot says that poetry should not include personality in contrast to William Wordsworth who says that "poetry is emotion recollected in tranquility" The two disagree because Eliot thinks that poetry should be consisted of feelings and experience, while Wordsworth believes that poetry should consist of ones emotions.

Question: Do most people say it is feelings or emotions that make poetry good?