A Dream Deferred

The history of African Americans was marked by deep injustices (starting with slavery, which was abolished in 1865; followed by legal segregation, in practice until 1965; and its various manifestations which attempted against the social and civil rights, and even the identity of a whole people.



Against such a negative background, artists among other members of the African American community played an important role in defining identity in positive termns, fighting for recognition of equal rights, and contributiing to the richness, diversity and multi-voiced character of American multicultural art.

Lorraine Hansberry, a playwright commited to the African American cause, wrote her paly A Raisin in the Sun which was produced in 1959 for the first time. The play takes its title from a poem by Langston Hughes. He was one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Below you can read Hughes' text:



What happens to a dream deferred?



Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?



Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.



Or does it explode?



This poem plays with the idea of the dream (the American dream, which has been part of American life, history, ideology and society from the very beginning); only that his series of rhetorical questions turn the "dream" inside-out: what happens when people cannot reach their dream? when it is postponed?



Lorraine Hansberry's play is an attempt to answer the question. The dream may take different forms in each character's case, but they're all unified by the desire of equality.

As you read the play, take into consideration the following ideas:

* The dream(s)

* Asagai's role in helping define dreams and identity

* Realism vs. idealism

* Vanished dreams

* Death (real ans symbolic)

* Role of men. Manhood

And think deeply about the following questions:

* Is Lena a nurturing or an overbearing mother?

* How does the nature of the family account for the dreams they have?

* Which economic, social and moral pressures do the characters feel?

Cooperative learning: Poetry

In order to get a general view of the polyphonic character of twentieth- and twenty first- century poetry, we have read a brief anthology from which you chose your favorite poems. For the second mid-term test, and for the colloquy as well, you will read, atudy and analyze all poems. In order to get ready for that, now we'll do two activities.

Activity n° 1
In the "Comments" section below, include a brief note about the author you chose and his/her style or other characteristics you think are relevant (eventually I'll edit the comments, if there's anything to add). VERY IMPORTANT: this morning, many of you had already chosen a poet, so you may write about them. Those of you who had not, please choose the writers that were left out during the class, so that all poets are now discussed in the blog.

Activity n° 2
In a one-page paper (Times New Romans or Arial 11; 1.5 spaces) relate the form and content of the poem you have chosen, and add a conclusion in which you explain what you interpret the message of the poem is (remember that the message stems from the combination of form and content). Hand in your assignment on May 30th. Once I give you back the paper with the feedback, you'll write a clean second version, which you'll share with your classmates. For the colloquy, you are not supposed to repeat what you read in your classmates' papers, but to use those ideas as departing points to develop your own analysis.
In this way, you'll all contribute to each other's learning and understanding poetry.

Cooperative reading: Invisible Man

Invisible Man is Ralph Ellison's masterpiece. The first chapter was originally published as a short story; and if you rhink how it works with unity of effect, it certainly can be read as such (though of course, it is later developed in the rest of the novel).
What you'll find below are the questions which you prepared in class, plus a few I have added, to help you go over "Battle Royal" again. These questions are meant for you to study for the second mid-term test; it is not necessary that you answer and turn them in now.

1. What search was the narrator involved twenty years earlier?
2. What answer has he found? How can you explain it?
3. Why is the narrator ashamed?
4. in the 2nd paragraph, he says "our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days." What does he mean? Which "war" does he refer to? Why has he been a traiytor? Mention examples from the chapter in which we see him as a "traitor."
5. What was the gist fo the speech he delivered on his graduation day?
6. What was the battle royal? How is it relevant to the story's themes?
7. What is the white audience's attitude towards what happens in the ring?
8. What does the battle roal symbolize, in relation to the fighters' attitudes towards each other, and to the attitudes of the audience towards them?
9. Why is it so important for the narrator to deliver his speech?
10. What is meant by "social responsibility" and "social equality" in his speech? How do the white memebrs of the audience react to each of these ideas?
11. Explain the words that the M.C. tells the narrator as he hands him the prize briefcase.
12. What is the relevance of the garndfather's words on his deathbed? And of the dream the narrator has at the end of the chapter?

T. S. Eliot's Ariel Poems: a selection

T. S. Eliot was born in St Louis, MO; but decided to become a British subject. His poetry, drama, criticism and poetics are informed by the love of tradition, in which he found the roots of humanity and the solution to the devastation of the modern world. (This devastation is clearly seen in The Waste Land, especially in the last section: the image of the falling towers, for example, is particularly significant to readers who witnessed WWI, but it also speaks to 21st-century readers who recall contemporary wars or terrorist attacks).

When Eliot speaks of tradition, he refers to literary tradition, but also to the arts in general, to languages, religions, history... All these elements can be found in his poetry. He creates a new work of art with materials derived from a pre-existing tradition, which is resignified from the perspective of the modern world. This is clearly seen in his Ariel Poems, from which we have selected the first two.

(Benozzo Gozzoli's "Journey of the Magi", 15th century)


In class we read and analyzed "Journey of the Magi", in which one of the Three Wise Men recalls the hardships of the journey to find the baby Jesus. Both the popular story's and the biblical account's details are the point of departure for a text which is, in fact, a reflecion on the disappointment of modern man. If you click on the link under "Watch, listen, read and enjoy", you'll be able to listen to Eliot himself reading his poem. It's worth it!

In "A Song for Simeon" we hear another biblical character speak: Simeon was an old man who had been promised that he would not die until he saw the savior. So, when he witnessed Jesus' presentation at the temple, and after telling Mary that a sword would pierce her heart (a direct reference to the crucifixion), he let God know that now he could die, after all, since he had seen Salvation. (Just as the Magi, he had an epiphany, and was able to realize that the baby Jesus was the Saviour). Eliot, once more, recreates the hopeful account of the Bible and transforms it into a disillusioned discourse, the words of an old man who sees not salvation, but a painful future for his descendants. The peace that he asks God is not the biblical Peace, but the peace of death, where he wishes to find forgetfulness (in a way, the last line of "Journey of the Magi", which goes "I should be glad of another death", has an echo in Simeon's poem). And just like in the previous poem, here Simeon, who sees the baby Jesus, has visions of the future (the scourges, lamentations, the time of sorrow...). The "birth season of decease" recalls the similar paradox in "Journey of the Magi". Both speakers are old, tired, disillusioned, and even if their promises have been fulfilled, the results are not what they expected.

(An Armenian icon depicting the meeting of Simeon and the Holy Family in the temple)


That is why we may say these two poems can be read as companions: we may compare the poetic personae, the setting, the allusions, the tone, and several other elements. In both poems, you may see the exotic, Oriental presence (the girls bringing sherbet, or the hyacinths), the desacaralized biblical allusions, which are given a new meaning that speaks of the modern world and its disillusioned inhabitants, and the "small biography" of each poetic persona who speaks about his past, present and future.


Activity:
Write a 1-page essay in which you analyze one of the following topics on BOTH "Journey of the Magi" and "A Song for Simeon":

a. Eliot's use of biblical allusions.

b. The poems' re-writing of biblical stories from a modern perspective.

c. The tone of the poems.

d. The 2 poetic personae's "small biographies" in their dramatic monologues.

Due next Wednesday, May 23rd

“Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
..he suddenly realized the meaning of the word “dissipate” – to dissipate into thin air; to make nothing g out of something.
Being he himself an active participant in the “dissipation” that took place in the US in the 1920’s, F. Scott Fitzgerald perfectly depicts the high society antics at those times. With his short story “Babylon Revisited” he shows how Americans wasted their time and money and spoiled their families and even their own lives. He narrates how youth closed “the door of the world”, missing every possibility of plans and futures. He denounces the eternal debt, impossible to be paid, left by a whole generation of squanderers.
Waiting for a door to be opened, the writer revisits his Babylonian past only to realize the irreversible damage of his dissipation.
Activity: Write one paragraph explain the title “Babylon Revisited “ in relation to the story. Take into account the biblical allusion to “Babylon”. ( This activity is due on May 25th, and late papers will not be accepted.)

e.e.cummings

Many see e.e.cummings as opposed to Frost. Frost would represent the more traditional tendency of American poetry in the first half of the 20th century, while cummnigs would stay at the other end, the radical experimentalist. Yet, as our guest speaker Prof. Victoria Muñoz showed us yesterday, there is a traditional vein in cummings, too. As well as there is an innovation, within tradition, in Frost's poetry. If you click on the link "Poetry in film", you'll be able to listen and watch to one of the ways in which a poem by e.e.cummnigs became popular through the movies!

An Approach to Poetry

What is Poetry? What is the function of the poet? How does the poet decide to devote his life to writing? Aristotle studies that the poetic art emerges out of two natural gifts: the instinct of imitation and the instinct of harmony. And the pleasure felt in both learning and imitating is UNIVERSAL. However, devoting one’s life to poetry means confronting a solitary and difficult path. Rilke’s Letters to a young poet comments on the crucial decision the artist takes when opting for a poetical career. And Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” gives his view on the hard road chosen by the poet, and how that option makes all the difference.

Activity: Read Rilke’s “Letter One” and Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and explain in one or two paragraphs how both authors see poetry (or the life of the poet). Send your activity to elenitacuervo@hotmail.com. (Due to Friday, 18th . Late activities will not be corrected.)

A Poet's World: Robert Frost

Young Frost

The experienced Frost Still one of the most popular 20th-century poets, Robert Frost's lyrics can be read as metaphors which convey a deep meditation on life and its surroundings. He used "old-fashioned" forms, but in fact he resignified his literary heritage and, using the New England speech he knew, he created a truly American poetic voice. In many of his poems we encounter Nature, isolated individuals, or people who discover either their loneliness is somehow accompanied by invisible presences of other human beings, or their solitude befriended by Nature itself. Activity to hand in in class next Wednesday, May 16th: After you read "The Road Not Taken", "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Ev

ening", and "The tuft of Flowers", write a brief summary in which you comment on Frost's main themes and style.

A new view on women: Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin (1951-1904) was born and raised in St Louis (Missouri), married at 19 and settled in New Orleans, had six children, and after her husband's death, returned to St.Louis and began a literary career. She believed in spontaneity when writing, so many of her stories strike readers as anecdotes. Her best novel, The Awakening, was published in 1899, though it was not well received in its day. Her writing deals with women's situation in the late 19th century, and her style goes beyond the typical local color of Mid-western writrs of the time, to acieve a deep psychological insight of her characters. As you read "A Pair of Silk Stockings", consider how she portrays "Little Mrs Sommers" and her thoughts, desires, and wishes, in contrast to what is expected from her.

Border Theory

When reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn we should pay attention to the context: In the 1840s, Missouri was border land: frontier between the civilized East and the wild west, but also between North and South. Thus, some concepts from Border Theory may help understand aspects of the novel. This theoretical approach has been clearly explained by Professor Gustavo Fares, whose views are expressed in the article “Border Studies' Positionality”. In: Nueva Revista de Lenguas Extranjeras; Facultad de Filosofía y Letras UNCuyo; n 13, 2010: 19-35
* What is a border? “A line that indicates a boundary.”
* Borders can be physical, or imagined (in the sense of being ideas manifested in physical facts as barriers, police patrols, walls, etc.)
* Borders are a nation's territorial limits, while borders are “paradoxically different in location and similar in complexity and diversity, always signaling encounters and interactions between and among the areas they mark.” (21)
* “Border thinking and formations are not in any way the result of 'natural' processes, but of social and political ones and, as such, have histories which are always subject to a variety of interpretations.
* In some of the interpretations, the role of borders is dual and, oftentimes, contradictory: boundaries are there to exclude as well as to allow passing, to segregate, but also to place people beside another.
* Proximity breeds interaction, which in turn produces an hybrid or 'enriched' culture... (21)

In analyzing Huckleberry Finn, we will bear in mind some of the concepts below:
* Border
* Difference
* The Other
* Identity
* Language
* Voice – voiceless –
silence – language –
power
* Interaction
* Colonialism
* Imposed borders