Author: admin

For Tuesday, let’s talk about Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.” (We’ll focus on the first section.)  While you’re not required to annotate the poem, any annotations you make will count as extra credit!

Also, I’ve written up our final assignment.  Check it out and bring any questions to class.

For Tuesday, let’s spend a final zoom session talking about the Harlem Renaissance/New Negro Movement.  Before class, review the poets and poems we’ve read – – Hughes, Brown, Bennet, Dunbar-Nelson, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Helene Johnson – – and pick one poem you really like or that you think is most important.  Read your selected poem a couple of times and come to class prepared to explain why you’ve selected this poem.

Also, I have a couple of ideas about our last project/assignment – – focused on the Harlem Renaissance/New Negro Movement.  Let’s make sure to talk about this in class.

For Tuesday, let’s talk about the sheaf of women poets of the Harlem Renaissance/New Negro Movement that I’ve collected on our syllabus: Gwendolyn Bennett; Alice Dunbar-Nelson; Georgia Douglas Johnson; Helene Johnson.  Make at least one annotation for each poet.  Also, after reading and thinking about the poems, bring one favorite poem from this whole collection of poets to class.

Nota Bene: I’ve changed the due date for our final modernismo exercise (below) to Thursday, November 18, at 5 p.m. (Password to access the exercise: modernism)

For Tuesday, November 9, let’s finish talking about Langston Hughes’ manifesto – – “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.”  Then, let’s move on to Hughes’ poetry – – let’s pay special attention to “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” “The Weary Blues,” and “Harlem.”  Make three annotations total on Hughes’ poems – – these can either be original annotations or responses to other students’ annotations. Also, take a look at Sterling Brown’s poem, “Ma Rainey.”  (Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to talk about this masterpiece.)

Finally, below, you’ll find our final modernism assignment. (Password: modernism)  It’s a development/mutation of our first assignment – – reading Eliot and Hemingway together.  I’m flexible about a due date but am thinking we might want to finish this assignment up by Thursday, November 18.  Let’s talk about it in class (briefly).

Tuesday, we’ll start talking about the Harlem Renaissance/New Negro Movement.  Be sure to read Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” and Alain Locke’s “The New Negro.”  (Make three annotations on each text.”

Also, you’ve got a little more time (until class on Tuesday morning) to complete our “Tom and Ernest” exercise.  See here.

I’ve cooked up your next assignment – – it’s an attempt to move you toward reflecting on and synthesizing your understanding of literary modernism.  See below to view and begin the assignment.  (The password to access the assignment is: modernism.)

The assignment is due by noon on Friday, October 29.

For Tuesday, we’ll want to start talking about the Harlem Renaissance/New Negro Movement.  Read Langston Hughes’ manifesto – – “The Negro Artist and Racial Mountain” – – and Alain Locke’s “The New Negro.”  Make three annotations for each of these texts.

Questions? Concerns? Contact me.

 

Finish reading Hemingway’s In Our Time.  On Tuesday, October 28, we’ll talk about Eliot and Hemingway together.

For Thursday, October 14, let’s finish reading Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” In our discussion on Tuesday, we talked about some motifs in Eliot’s poem: nature, seasons, flowers, exile, romance, polyvocality (“He do the police in different voices”), zombies, wet/dry, and fragments.  As you read the rest of the poem, try to track one of these motifs throughout the poem.  I.e. choose a motif and use your annotations to note instances of the motif in the rest of the poem and reflect on how that motif seems to work in these new appearances.

For Tuesday,  October 19, you’ll want to start reading Hemingway’s short story collection/novel (?) – – In Our Time.  Read up to the end of the short story, “The Three-Day Blow.”

Check back into the motherblog on Friday for updates in re Hemingway.

For Tuesday, let’s talk about the first section of Eliot’s “The Waste Land” – – “The Burial of the Dead.”

Make three annotations – – but follow these instructions:

1. Your first annotation should be a question about a particular line(s) or phrase(s) or word(s).  Eliot is one of literature’s great plagiarists – – but don’t focus on identifying the source of lines or citations.  (A fairly conventional way of reading the poem is to conduct a kind of “easter egg hunt” – -tracking down quotes, allusions, translations, etc. You can find an already fully footnoted version of “The Waste Land” here.). If you’re confused about where a quote or line may come from, simply consult the footnoted version.  More important is to think about why Eliot quotes something at some particular point in the poem, or why he may want to bring a particular text into connection or context with his poem.
2. After asking a question about the text – – use your next two annotations to respond to another student’s question (or another student’s response to a question.).

The goal here is to try to create/sustain a conversation about “The Waste Land” through your annotations.

Just wanted to point you to the right allusion: Letter to Brezhnev (1985).  Actually, about two young women from Liverpool (not Manchester) – – “tricked out . . . in gauds” who meet two “devil-may-care men” from the USSR on a Saturday night – –  a kind of alternative reading (remix?) of “pure products” going “crazy.”