Outside Reading Set #4: Book Review

2/21/11

“Moving 'Beyond Katrina' Through Poetry And Prose”

W. Ralph Eubanks

Book Review

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129378912

In his book review of Natasha Trethewey’s Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, W. Ralph Eubanks takes a New Historical approach mixed in with some elements of Formalism. In particular, he emphasizes the background of the author, which he claims impacts the quality of the novel. Eubanks says that Trethewey “faces and confronts demons from her past and the present,” resulting in “a book as moving and compelling as Trethewey's poetry.” To support this statement, Eubanks uses powerful diction to drive his point home about the “compelling” nature of Trethewey’s book. His selection of the word “demons” paints an especially vivid image of Trethewey’s struggles, portraying how captivating her book is.

“What makes Beyond Katrina stand out in the crowded landscape of post-Katrina literature is the raw, personal nature of the story Trethewey tells, as well as the poetic language she uses to tell the tale” reiterates the emotional and personal value of Tretheway’s book. Here, Eubanks adds some elements of Formalism to his analysis. He comments on the “poetic language” Trethewey uses and praises the technique for adding to the compelling nature of the book. Another technique Eubanks himself uses to illustrate his point and to sell Trethewey’s book is abundant citation of details from the latter’s book. He repeatedly quotes Trethewey, often juxtaposing the quotations in such a way to portray the subject matter in its best light. By selectively picking out passages, Eubanks emphasizes the more beautiful aspects of the book.

Eubanks takes care to employ parallel structure when citing examples from Trethewey’s book to illustrate his point. This syntactical move bolsters the fluency of Eubanks’s own writing and also mirrors the flowing, poetic style he appreciates in Trethewey’s writing. To emphasize his points, Eubanks also uses unconventional sentence structures, such as placing conjunctions at the beginning of sentences: “And Trethewey's prose captures memory with poetic precision.” The abnormal construction of this sentence as well as its strategic placement at the end of the paragraph makes it stand out.

This piece reminds me of the forewords and introductions in the beginning of books, especially in classic literature. There, readers try to match what they know about the author to the events in the book. In particular, this reminds me of one analysis I read of Shakespeare’s background and how it applies to his work. The incorporation of the author’s background and personal qualities in this analysis is one of its greatest strengths. Normally, we are used to reading very formalistic approaches to critical analyses. Thus, it is nice to read a different approach for once. Although I like the approach, a possible weakness is the author’s lack of development in the formalistic approach. He could have supported his claim more; the review was particularly biased towards the new historical aspect of his analysis.

Outside Reading Set #4: Editorial

2/20/11

“Revoking the Marriage License.”

Belinda Luscombe

Editorial

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1983883,00.html

“Revoking the Marriage License” is a deeply sarcastic, caustic piece. Using strong verbal irony, unusual sentence constructions, and repeated rhetorical questions, Belinda Luscombe crafts a voice with clear disapproval towards people who constantly marry and re-marry. Immediately, Luscombe condemns the ludicrous decisions of some couples: “Larry King is about to get unhitched for the eighth time. This despite the fact that his wife, Shawn Southwick, is 26 years younger and about a foot taller than he is. In other words, a perfect match.” In addition to biting verbal sarcasm, Luscombe reinforces her point with understatements such as “Losing a life partner or two could happen to anyone, but going through seven requires some effort.” and “She was hoping for a straight man; on the two occasions she married a gay guy, it didn’t take.” With each attack, Luscombe mocks unions which are obviously not going to succeed.

Luscombe’s clear-cut voice draws readers in and pulls them toward her opinion. Her ridiculous portrayal of the topic persuades readers and makes them see the folly of marrying too many times. In addition to manipulating language, Luscombe crafts her voice through unconventional syntax. She often starts her sentences with conjunctions, such as in “And Mr. King will be back in the dating pool” and “But other primates also practice infanticide and poop throwing, and we’re not about to sanction either of those.” Normally, placing conjunctions at the beginning of sentences would have a somewhat childish effect, but in this case, the unusual placement emphasizes these sentences and allows them to stand out. This is an essential tactic Luscombe uses in her writing, since most of her sentences that start with conjunctions are key points in her argument.

To demonstrate blatant doubt of the merit of marrying too many times, Luscombe includes important details such as repeated rhetorical questions: “So why do people who are committed vows abusers keep getting handed marriage licenses at city hall?” and “If batters and violent offenders get only three strikers, why should bad spouses get more?” She follows up later with “So why are we complicit in allowing people to make big public promises they have demonstrated a chronic inability to keep up?” Not only are the points in these questions logical and consistent with Luscombe’s argument, but they drive her point home by constantly influencing the reader to doubt the validity of the actions of people who break marriage vows too often.

This piece’s manipulation of language and syntax into unusual constructions is one of its greatest strengths. Not only does this create a strong narrative voice, it also captivates readers and convinces them of Luscombe’s opinions. Because of the deviation from conventional grammatical structures though, this piece has a rather fragmented feeling. Therefore, its weakness is a lacks of a unified structure; it feels more like a compelling list of details and facts. Thus, the speaker would not be appropriate for an AP exam. The writing is simply not organized and formal enough, although this style serves Luscombe’s original purpose quite well.

Outside Reading Set #4: Reflective Essay

2/21/11

“Make a Wish.”

Nancy Gibbs

Reflective Essay

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1957473,00.html

Nancy Gibbs’s tone in “Make a Wish” is highly nostalgic and thoughtful, flashing through some of her most memorable birthdays experiences. Gibbs expertly employs parallel structure, musical devices, and colorful imagery to draw readers into her musing mood. Listing birthdays, she says: “Sixteen was sweet; 18 was freedom” and “Turn 14 and grow five inches. Turn 17 and follow in love.” The simple parallelism in these sentences creates a definite rhythm, pulling readers back into Gibbs’s quietly wistful trip down memory lane. Throughout the piece, Gibbs consistently follows this syntactical format: “You get fire at 32 and feel 12 again, or you’re invited to teach for the first time and feel ancient standing in front of all those wide eyes. You circle back on certain ages, replaying them until you get it right.”

Musical devices such as alliteration help maintain the rhythm of reflection as well in this piece. The alliteration in “…moodiness, and mystery, when every day feels so suddenly rude and ripe with expectations and revelations” makes the “moodiness” and “mystery” mentioned feel more tangible to the reader; they become not just simple diction choices, but diction choices backed up by a communicative rhythm. Sprinkling numbers throughout her writing is another way Gibbs manipulates language. Not only do these numbers help establish the theme of dates and birthdays in the piece, they also help establish the tone. They are like nostalgic milestones; every time readers encounter one, they enter one of Gibb’s memories with her.

Imagery as demonstrated in “Ten felt very big—those two digits, one so straight and mature, the other so round and promising” and “…being able to watch the candles flicker, and marvel at how many birthday wishes past have already come true” bring life to the simple numbers and memories Gibbs recounts. Readers can nearly feel the physical warmth of the candles and the slightly more intangible warmth of the happiness emanating from all the wishes which have already come true. The vivid description of the number ten makes ten not only an abstract number, but a concrete segment of time in Gibbs’s life.

This piece’s ability to draw readers in emotionally is its biggest strength. It speaks from the heart and communicates a touching, thoughtful, and nostalgic feeling. In terms of a reflective essay, this tone is perfect. However, since AP writing is more geared towards concise, clear-cut tones, one weakness this essay may have is the slightly blurred and amorphous effect its particular tone creates. While that effect communicates clearly emotionally, the writing is not organizational enough to be well suited to an AP exam.

Class Notes: Weeks 16-17 (2/7/11-2/17/11)

Heart of Darkness Discussion:

· symbol system: Geography matters! (connection: Remember, we learned this in one of Foster’s chapters)

o various techniques Conrad uses comes together to create a map which guides us to a moral system

o by piecing together the symbols, we can obtain the map

o creates different layers of allusions: Eden versus Hell versus Purgatory

§ Is Eden actually Hell? Are they any different?

§ What’s the difference between Hell and Purgatory?

o Conrad uses language to create philosophical areas:

§ Inner Station versus Outer Station

§ syntax of descriptions of the jungle and Africans versus description of the “white sepulchre” and whites

§ river has certain color and atmosphere

· women in Heart of Darkness:

o there seems to be different types:

§ ignorant, acquiescent, the “proper” woman of the time: the Intended

· Marlow’s aunt seems to be classified within this group on the surface, but she might actually be Marlow’s intellectual equal; that’s why Marlow seems to feel threatened by her

§ woman who have more influence or powers than Marlow-make him feel very uncomfortable: the Fates, his aunt, the African woman

§ powerful women: the Fates, the African woman

· the African woman is the anima: female embodiment of the land

o like a goddess figure

o personifies Africa

o since Kurtz is involved with her, suggests that Kurtz’s true love is the Congo

· frame tale:

o formal narrator only introduces and sets up the story, but he is not the true narrator

§ Marlow is the true narrator

o Why does Conrad choose to insulate himself so much?

§ maybe wanted to insulate his own opinion

§ Is Marlow himself racist? Is his attitude different from Conrad’s?

§ layers created by frame tale shields Conrad from readers

· economic versus cultural imperialism:

o economic: extract as many resources as possible

o cultural: military or economic means to impose own culture

o Marlow is definitely against economic imperialism, but evidence suggests that he is supportive of cultural imperialism

§ always describes the Congo and Africa as “savage” and “uncivilized”

§ portrays Africa as the heart of darkness which corrupts Europeans, instead of the other way around

§ Does this mean that Conrad supports cultural imperialism as well?

· Is Heart of Darkness a romance or irony?

o We established irony for several reasons:

§ circular ending of the story: in the end, everyone is headed into the heart of darkness again-in other words, the story started at the nadir and ended at the nadir

§ Marlow was enlightened, but even he himself says that his experience is “inconclusive”

§ the prevalent theme seems to be that the heart of darkness is everywhere; it lies dormant within the heart of each human

Apocalypse Now (Heart of Darkness in Film):

· reworking of Heart of Darkness through story about the Vietnam War

· excellent example of displacement-where essential structure and meaning of the story is retained, but setting and other details change

· very clever reworking, since many Americans can relate to the Vietnam War more than they can relate to something more far away and in the past, such as imperialism and Africa

Main Ideas of Homework:

· two Heart of Darkness forums:

o “The Psychology of Heart of Darkness”

§ analysis of a character, symbol, or event from a psychoanalytic critical viewpoint

o “Techniques in Heart of Darkness”

§ analysis of the imagery, syntax, diction, figurative language, etc. that Conrad uses to craft his theme

Overall Connections:

· Our analysis of the techniques Conrad uses to shape his theme again reinforces the AP idea of “form follows function.” Essentially, we’re picking out HOW (the techniques he uses) Conrad creates MEANING (the theme).

· Cultural imperialism is a major theme of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. It is no wonder that he condemns Conrad in the article we read. Because I read Things Fall Apart, I found the article and Achebe’s reasoning very compelling.

· In Heart of Darkness, the river is the single most important geographic feature. This reminds me of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In both, it seems like the story flows with the rhythm of the river.

Class Notes: Weeks 14-15 (1/24/11-2/4/11)

*General caution: When describing something which has the qualities of works within a literary period but is not written within the literary period, don’t capitalize: romantic versus Romantic *

Medievalism and Allegory:

Medieval Literature:

• texts written during Europe’s Middle Ages: c. 500-1500 C.E.
• religious texts predominated, but there were secular texts
• famous texts:
• Beowulf
• The Canterbury Tales
• Bible-based “Mystery Plays”
• society = paramount over individual
• many texts not attributed to specific authors-thought of themselves as conduits for passing down tradition rather than innovators
• creative = insult
• heroes in text often support social order
• Dante’s works = on border of Medieval + Renaissance lit.

Allegory:

• type of extended metaphor
• objects and persons within text represent meanings that lie outside of text
• one-to-one correspondence between representer and represented
• representations must work together to create unified message
• falls down when trying to appeal to wrong audience
• example: Animal Farm
• Medieval Allegory:
• allegory became hallmark of medieval lit.
• commonly represented:
• abstract qualities-e.g. envy, truth, gluttony
• personified events-e.g. death
• social institutions (e.g. Church)
• prominent persons (e.g. monarch) were
• usually concerned with important matters-e.g. meaning of life and death and route to salvation (or damnation)
• sometimes used for satirical purposes

Famous Medieval Allegories:

• Everyman (Medieval play):
• enduring figure “Everyman”-represents all of humankind
• Everyman figure = form of allegory
• modern texts: character who is unnamed or given vague and general personal characteristics
• when settings seem “mythic” or has fairytale quality or is somehow out of the time

• More on Everyman:

o written near end of 15^th century

o probably translation from Flemish play Elckerlijk (1495)-although there is a possibility that it is the other way around

o 4 surviving copies: 2 fragmentary

o best surviving example of morality play

§ evolved side by side w/ mystery plays

§ composed individually, not in cycles

§ allegory to dramatize moral struggle Christianity envisioned in every individual

o plot development:

§ Everyman is informed by Death of his approaching end

§ play shows hero’s progression from despair and fear of death to “Christian resignation that is the prelude to redemption”

· first deserted by false friends: casual companions, kin, wealth

· falls back on Good Deeds, Strength, Beauty, Intelligence, Knowledges-assist him in making his Book of Accounts

· when he dies, everything deserts him except for his Good Deeds

o grim point = we can take with us nothing we have received, only what we have given

• Dante’s Inferno

Dante’s Divine Comedy:

• some argue that it is the epic that most perfectly codifies, articulates, and promotes the traditional Western worldview-allegorical depiction of the Western cultural mind
• three-part epic written in terza rima: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso
• entire plot takes place in a week’s time
• three beasts and their allegorical representations:
• leopard: self-indulgence
• lion: violence
• wolf: maliciousness
• ghost of Virgil appears at the request of Beatrice to guide Dante out of the wood
• pagan who is a permanent resident of Limbo-the first circle of hell
• allegorically represents both logical reasoning and the highest achievements of the pagan past-poem is warning us that “reason” can only bring us so far toward God-faith must carry us the rest of the way
• Gates of Hellàthree divisions of hell:
• “circles of hell” within each level
• lower the level, worse the sins
• at the very center = Lucifer (the Devil)
• other side of the earth = island mountain Purgatory
• Gates of Purgatoryàseven circular terraces
• each one is one of the “Seven Deadly Sins”
• once the sin is corrected, they can move upward-closer to God
• at summit = Garden of Eden
• Dante sees Beatrice here
• Beatrice guides Dante into concentric spheres of Paradise
• each of these nine spheres of heaven is populated by a separate group of souls-divided into a hierarchy based on their ability to love God
• at the end, Dante sees God himself:
• embodied by three equal circles of light: “three in color, one in circumference”
• poetic reference to the Holy Trinity
• dominance of circle
• valued as an ordered and eternal universe
• no beginning or end
• “center point” = ideal place to conceive of as “God’s realm”—hub of His power, equidistant from all other points in the circle

Archetypal and Mythological Criticism:

• study of connections among apparently disparate texts in order to understand how individual text is faithful to and how it deviates from common patterns
• common patterns = “archetypes”
• plot, character, setting, symbolic object, etc. that we see repeated over and over with its core meaning unchanged
• literary reflections of experiences widely shared by humanity
• reflect deeply embedded patterns in the human mind
• important people:
• James Frazer-noticed that myths tend to have striking similarities from culture to culture
• Carl Jung-Swiss psychiatrist who speculated that reason for recurring patterns in myth might be an underlying structure of the human mind
• “collective unconscious”
• Joseph Campbell-developed “Hero’s Journey” archetype and ”monomyth”-one myth so pervasive that it unifies almost all other mythology
• separation, road of trials, return
• Northrop Fyre-developed all these ideas into a working school of literary criticism
• essentially one story being told over and over
• vast majority of texts should be approached through Archetypal Criticism
• refer to diagram with Romance at the top, then in clockwise order: Tragedy, Irony (at bottom), Comedy

terms used by Archetypal and Mythological critics:

• narrative pattern: culturally learned expected sequence of events in storytelling; ideal form-may not match any real-world text perfectly
• romance: hero starts at high pointàhits low pointsàback at high point; reinforces value of the culture
• tragedy: hero starts at high pointàgets stuck at low point; often takes place in the realm of fate
• comedy: hero starts at low pointàrises up to high point; endorses values of society
• reward is usually materialistic and related to love
• common ending = marriage
• irony: hero starts at low pointàends at low point; parodies of romances
• condemn values of society
• tend to be latest in culture
• meaningless quest in meaningless world
• displacement: dressing up the same story to intrigue the audience

General Trends in the History of Western Literature (refer to chart):

• narrator has lost power over time; less omniscient
• Gods and Fateàmoneyàcelebration of common manàantiheroes
• breakdown of rules and rigid structure
• Renaissance: very structured, specific forms
• postmodernism: anything goes

The Novel:

• any extended fictional narrative almost always in prose
• 19^th century: flowering of the English novel as an instrument portraying middle-class society
• Jane Austen-novel of manners
• Scott-historical novel
• Victorian novelists: Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope-vast fictional worlds with abundance of social types and intricate melodramatic plots
• most critics consider anything under 50,000 words a novella
• novel is always fiction, but not always in prose-some are written in poetry

New Literary Terms (these look GOOD on the AP):

• forms of repetition (term and example):
• anaphora: “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go onto the end” (repetition of “We shall” at the beginnings of neighboring clauses
• antistrophe: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child” (repetition of “as a child” at the end of successive phrases)
• anadiplosis: “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” (repetition of the end of one sentence to the beginning of another)
• diacope: “We give thanks to Thee, O God, we give thanks…” (repetition with only a one or two-word interruption)
• epizeuxis: “Words, words, words” (repetition in immediate succession)
• polysydenton: repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses
• forms of parallelism:
• antithesis: “To err is human; to forgive, dine” (clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas)
• forms of inversion:
• anastrophe: “This is the forest primeval” (inversion of ordinary Western order of words)
• chiasmus: “He knowingly lied and we followed blindly.” (reversal of structure in two connected clauses-in this case, difference placement of adverbs)
• antimetabole: “I know what I like, and I like what I know” (repetition of words in successive clauses in transposed grammatical order

Homework:

• Read Heart of Darkness.

Overall Connections:

• The first thing I think of when I think of the beginning of the English novel is Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It’s no wonder that we’re going to be reading this soon as part of our study of the novel.
• Heart of Darkness makes so many references to Dante’s Inferno. In particular, he brings up Garden of Eden references early on with the allusion to the snake.
• It seems like Dante really employed the “power of three,” as we read in the Foster summer assignment. I wonder if rule of three started with him or existed earlier.
• “The Odyssey” is a very good example of the “Hero’s Journey” archetype.
• The many productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet we saw are reminiscent of displacement. The modern one, especially, dressed the story up in its own cultural taste, resulting in slight variations which intrigue the audience. Now that I have watched Apocalypse Now though, I think it is definitely a much better and true example of displacement.