Apr
15
Corbett
Filed Under Uncategorized
I think that imitation is a nice way to learn about great writing, but, like Corbet, I think that if a student spends too much time studying and copying a certain author then the students may not develop their own voice, but a voice that sounds like the author channeled through them. They become a vessel for the “great” author. I think that Corbett wants students to know what is great so that they can be like the great works. and only through studying the greats can one learn to break the rules that confine them. Do i buy this? I think that as a student who was forced to study the great authors, it can be more confining then liberating. I have read the great authors such as Hawthorne, Melville, Dickinson, etc. and i found them to be boring and uninteresting. and to make matters worst i was assigned projects to write and talk like the novel or characters. Instead of developing my voice through projects that related to the novels, i had to write through the novels themselves.