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| Gwendolyn Brooks (description) |
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- militant black writer
- works primarily belong to AA community
-followed the example of older writers of Harlem Renaissance |
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Kitchenette Building (1945)
from A Street in Bronzeville |
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| "'Dream' makes a giddy sound, not strong / Like 'rent,' 'feeding a wife,' 'satisfying a man.'" |
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| Brooks, "Kitchenette Building," (1945) |
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| "'Dream' makes a giddy sound, not strong / Like 'rent,' 'feeding a wife,' 'satisfying a man.'" |
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| - The word "dream" is unfamiliar to the people living in bronzeville. There is no time and no payoff for keeping a frivolous dream. A dream is an obligation, and those living tough lives on this street find their other obligations more important, such as "rent, feeding a wife, satisfying a man." I would have expected to see you talk about the different vowel and consonant sounds in the words. dream -soft sound vs. renT and wiFe = hard sounds |
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Kitchenette Building notes:
- why are dreams unfamiliar? |
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| Dreams unfamiliar? - impractical, frivolous, doesn't help, but creates a distraction |
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| More kitchenette building notes: |
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| extreme odors, share bathroom, psychological conditions |
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"We Real Cool" (1960) Brooks
DESCRIPTION: |
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Definition
-utilizes black dialect of Chicago
- presents problems facing AAs
- syncopation- jazzy feel
-alliteration: repetition of consonants
- internal rhyme (2nd word of each line)
- *Counterculture: willing to enjoy life as is |
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Definition
| leaving school is only bad if you believe you should be in school |
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| - either describing a fun time in June or have sex with June (jass: work strenuously in sexual situation) |
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"The Weed Puller" (1950)
:Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt, and Frau Schwartze" (1950) |
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(Roethke, 1950)
- greenhouse = heaven + hell
- he and father didn't have best relationship, but saw his father as a nuturer |
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| he is indignant about his work because it places him in a slippery grave while the flowers are living above him. As I said in class, the flowers (which are linked to his father) are valued more than he is himself. (Displeased about working with his dad) |
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| "Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt, Frau Schwartze" |
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Definition
- Ancient ladies, yet active
-women have power to make things happen, teased the seed out even though it is cold environment
Second stanza- ladies work on poet himself: pinching, pickiing & poking at him
women order & straighten the plants,
poet orders and straightens the words
-although the women are gone, he keeps them alive through the poetry |
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| The Beats' style of writing, most clearly demonstrated in Jack Kerouac’s stream of conscious novel On the Road, portrays the rejection of the Eisenhower era through depictions of drug use and travel. |
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Term
| The Beats and the Confessionals |
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Definition
| These movements rejected standards of dominant American society and promoted lifestyles which clashed with middle class American ideals. |
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| Ginsberg (description) (1956)- Howl and "A Supermarket in California" |
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Definition
- influenced by Whitman, seen in his use of long, sprawling lines that focus on democracy
-poetry utilizes 3 main concepts: madness, performance, body
- madness is portrayed through references to drug uses accentuated w/ punctuation and repetition |
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| "What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes! -- and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?" |
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Definition
"A Supermarket in California" (1956)
- - This excerpt from Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California" explores how both people and food have become commodified. By setting the poem in a grocery store, an average symbol of American life, and playing with the items and location people know so well, Ginsberg forces the reader to look at these items and oneself from a different perspective, questioning the identities society has come to accept. This also demonstrates the extreme consumerism which was increasing during this time in America. |
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| "I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys." |
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"A Supermarket in California" (1956)- Ginsberg
-This portion not only clearly demonstrates the influence Whitman has had on Ginsberg, as he is physically in the poem, but also illustrates the focus on alternative sexuality which the beats were trying to make acceptable. Whitman was gay and his presence in the poem serves as an example for other homosexuals, such as Ginsberg himself. |
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| "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix" |
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Howl - Ginsberg (1956)
-This opening line of Howl incorporates all three key aspects of Ginsberg's writing, madness, the body, and performativity. The emphasis on drugs and actually mentioning that people went "mad" signifies the emphasis that is placed on this theme throughout the poem. Further, the fact that the people are "naked" sets up the focus on body parts, as it seems that the people are stripped down and already attention is drawn to the body. Finally, the aspect of performattivity is present in the sense that there is repetition in the pattern of the poem and an emphasis on the verb. This creates disembodied actions, as if the descriptions and actions could be carried out by any individual. |
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- drugs, repetition, punctuation
- dedication |
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| Performativity- (Ginsberg) (1956) |
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| repetition, punctuation, who+verb, event |
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| - explicit, emphasize words, persona.. something different |
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"You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo." |
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"Daddy" - Plath (1966)
* Through this poem Plath reveals the love/hate relationship she (and many other girls) had with her father. These are the opening lines to the poem, which would initially lead the reader to believe that the poem is actually about the black shoe. However, the "black shoe," which constrains the foot, symbolizes the father, who we come to find was very oppressive and restraining, even abusive, toward his daughter. |
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"One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square
Whitens and swallows its dull stars [...]" |
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"Morning Song" (1966)-- Plath
* It's debatable whether or not the mother loves the baby, ** focus on the positive ** |
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| Confessionals: (Plath- 1966/Ginsberg 1956) |
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Definition
| they are revealing inner details about their lives. The nature of these details are shocking in some sense, since they are about sex and/or mental illness. But the revelation of these private details is also a critical component of what makes the confessionals shocking. |
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