American Literature Week Seventeen－Modernism and Wrap-up

A. History of Literary Periods
a. The main issues in literary history are period and genre. Underneath genre, we need to explore the great authors and their masterpiece.

1+. Classicism-- including epics, tragedy, and comedy 
2－. Dark age (Medieval)-- including Curtly Love and 3M (morality play, mystery play, 
and miracle play)  
3+. Renaissance-- Main genre is drama.
4－. Neoclassicism 
5+. Romanticism-- This is where the American literature really began.
6－. Victorian Literature-- high seriousness 
7+. Modernism

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B. Modernism
a. Modernism is based on Imagism and effected by French Symbolist.
b. Marianne Moore-- She was an American Modernist poet and writer noted for her irony and wit.
* "Poetry" -- on textbook P.1998

"I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all
this fiddle.
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one
discovers in
it after all, a place for the genuine.
Hands that can grasp, eyes
that can dilate, hair that can rise
if it must, these things are important not because a

high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because
they are
useful. When they become so derivative as to become
unintelligible,
the same thing may be said for all of us, that we
do not admire what
we cannot understand: the bat
holding on upside down or in quest of something to"

"for inspection, 'imaginary gardens with real toads in them', shall
we have
it. In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand,
the raw material of poetry in
all its rawness and
that which is on the other hand
genuine, you are interested in poetry. "

* derivative-- which means different from normal ways

b. E.E. Cummings
(a) "Buffalo Bills"

"Buffalo Bill's
defunct
        who used to
        ride a watersmooth-silver
                                  stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
                                                  Jesus

he was a handsome man
                      and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death"

* onetwothreefourfive-- It shows a bit rush and non-stop feeling
(b) "somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond"-- on textbook P.2140

"somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose"

* your eyes have their silence-- The author wanted to express powerless and helpless feelings.
* Spring opens, her first rose-- There are some sexual implications within this paragraph.
>> "She blossomed for him like a flower" quote by The Great Gatsby

 The Great Gatsby

(c) "in Just"-- on textbook P.2137

"in Just-
spring          when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring"

* lame-- It is talking about Dionysus.
* balloonman, puddle-wonderful-- Love is just like the flowers blossoming.

E.E. Cummings

c. Tennessee William-- He is an American modernist writer. His bad relationship with his mother in his childhood is easily appeared in his works. Also, he always brought realism into his play.
*A Streetcar Named Desire
>> It is a story about an old beauty- Blanche Du Bois
>> It also describe the damage of the Southern US after the Civil War.
>> Southern Gothic-- Common themes in Southern Gothic literature include deeply flawed, disturbing or eccentric characters who may or may not dabble in hoodoo, ambivalent gender roles and decayed or derelict settings, grotesque situations, and other sinister events relating to or coming from poverty, alienation, crime and violence.
>>"Kindness of strangers"-- Blanche Du Bois desperateness and sadness of Southern US. 
>> Quotations--
"I don't want realism, I want magic."

 "Hey Stella"

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C. Sharing Songs-- Auld Lang Syne

 Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! 

American Literature Week Sixteen－Overview 1865-1914 and 1914-1945

A. Quiz Discussion and Overview 1865-1914
a. Edith Wharton and Henry James-- There would always be an international theme (transatlantic theme) in their works which innocent upper-class girls encounter European culture shock and it may lead to down fall or death eventually; however, the girls would regard those bad endings as their free-will because they chose their choice.
* Upper-class people (privileged) don't need to have a real work. A gentleman or a lady can be their career.
** Middle-class people always use their profession to make money.
*** Working-class as labours use their physical strength to work hard but they can only get low wages.

 social class

b. Naturalism always put emphasis on discussing dark side of the society such as heredity and social environment.
c. Literary Realism-- Authors describe the objective reality. However, although we call it "objective", they would only depict one dimension of the reality.  
d. Segregation-- It is separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, riding on a bus, or in the rental or purchase of a home.

e. The period during 1865-1914 was a Gilded Age because many things were built up already and the system were almost complete thanks to the Romantic period. (on PDF P.173 )

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B. Quiz Discussion and Overview 1914-1945
a. Modernism was effected by French Symbolist. 
b. Robert Frost-- He is the classic type of American which doesn't influence by French Symbolist.
* "The Road Not Taken" (poem)-- on textbook P.1919
** "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (poem)

"My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year."

>> The "queer" here is not gay. It means wired an strange. 

c. Wallace Stevens-- His work was meditative and philosophical, is very much a poet of ideas.

* "Anecdote of the Jar" (poem)

"I placed a jar in Tennessee,

And round it was, upon a hill.

It made the slovenly wilderness

Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,

And sprawled around, no longer wild.

The jar was round upon the ground

And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion everywhere.

The jar was gray and bare.

It did not give of bird or bush,

Like nothing else in Tennessee."

>> Anecdote is a sort of story with awareness.

>> He felt like "nothing else in Tennessee" because he got his own imagination .

>> This poem depicts the contemplation of beauty

-- John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (poem)

"In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

       What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

               What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?"

"And, happy melodist, unwearied,

         For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
         For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,

                For ever panting, and for ever young;"

"Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,

         'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

                Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'"

>> "In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?"-- free association.

>> " For ever piping songs"-- Pan and Dionysus, the two gods who can represent harvest.

>> "Beauty is truth, truth beauty"-- It's also the contemplation of beauty.

* "Sunday Morning" (poem)-- on textbook P.1954

>> "hush"-- The author heard the old and holy call-out.

>> "old catastrophe"-- Jews killed Jesus Christ.

>> "procession of the dead"

>> "wide water without sound"-- It represents the Jesus' followers cuz most of them were from working class such as fisherman.

>> "dreaming feet"-- the thriving of the stream of consciousness

>> This poem is about the modernists' viewpoints on the bankrupt (ruin) of spiritual civilization.

-- "The Journey of the Magi" (poem)
>> Bibical Magi-- a group of distinguished foreigners who visited Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold,frankincense and myrrh.
>> "worst time of the year"-- Because it is hard to travel at the moment. (All the Jews should go back to their hometown for applying their resident permit.)
>> "folly"-- It means foolish actually.
>> "at an open door dicing for pieces of silver"-- (Green one ) When the Jesus was stuck on the cross, three soldiers were rolling the dice for choosing a person who can get his nice robe. (Blue one) Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 silver coins. (Kissing is the signal of rebellion.)

>> "empty wine-skins"-- The first miracle that Jesus created was turned the water to wine.
>> "Birth or Death"-- No matter it's birth or death, we will face the death eventually anyway.
>> This poem describes the fragmentation to the religious civilization.

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C. Christmas Song for Sharing
"Let It Snow" (lyrics)

* The ending rhyme scheme here-- "ful", "ow", and "ing"

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D. Vocabulary
a. tariff-- a charge or list of charges either for services or on goods entering a country
b. treaty-- a written agreement between countries, formally approved and signed by their leaders
c. wages-- a fixed amount of money that is paid, usually every week, to an employee, especially one who does work that needs physical skills or strength
d. malpractice-- "Mal" stands for negative meaning. "Practice" would be used as the meaning of "執業" on business English. 
e. segregation-- "Se" stands for apart from such as separate.
f. amendment-- just like adjustment but used on law
g. immigrant-- "Ant" stands for human such as protestant and accountant.

American Literature Week Fifteen－Wrap-up (1820-1865) & Overview (1865-1914)

A. Wrap-Up Package Including Whitman, Allan Poe, and Dickinson (from 1820-1865)
a. Walt Whitman
(a) His Leaves of Grass was regarded as pornography when it was published initially.
(b) In his works, he always used alliteration in "O" and "A" as the expression of his emotions.
b. Edgar Allan Poe
(a) Introduction of The Masque of Red Death (text)-- The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his abbey. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. Prospero dies after confronting this stranger, whose "costume" proves to have nothing tangible inside it; the guests also die in turn.
* "Plague" is a popular theme in many literary works. It is the best motivation for people to do something due to their fear. e.g. The Decameron
** Carnival of Venice (Mask Festival) is originated from the period of Black Death. The plague would make people's face distorted so they have to wear masks for covering their faces up. 

 Carnival of Venice

c. Emily Dickinson (and Book Discussion)
(a) 479 [712] "Because I could not stop for Death" (poem) --on P.1207

"We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed Us –

The Dews drew quivering and Chill –

For only Gossamer, my Gown –

My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –

The Roof was scarcely visible –

The Cornice – in the Ground –"

* When the due day of death is coming, people will die naturally. (Christians can't suicide.)

** The red words represent four stages in a person's life.

>> School-- It means when people are in their childhood.

>> Gazing Grain-- It means when people grow up and get mature more and more.

>> Setting Sun-- It means when people are in their old ages and ready to face death.

>> Swelling of the Ground-- It means when people are having their eternal sleep under the ground. 

*** There are the meaning of playground and commitment within the Ring. 

(b) 260 [288] "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" (poem) -- on P.1197

"I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell!

They'd banish -- you know!

How dreary to be somebody!

How public like a frog

To tell one's name the livelong day

To an admiring bog! "

* It would make Odysseus comes up to reader's mind. After Odysseus wandered on the sea for twenty years, he lost all his self-confidence.    

 Odysseus gor attacked

(c) 591 [465] "I heard a Fly Buzz- when I died-" (poem) --on P.1207

"I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

The Stillness in the Room

Was like the Stillness in the Air -

Between the Heaves of Storm -

The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –

     And Breaths were gathering firm

     For that last Onset – when the King

     Be witnessed – in the Room –

I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away

What portion of me be

Assignable - and then it was

There interposed a Fly -

With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz -

Between the light - and me -

And then the Windows failed - and then

I could not see to see -"

* It's a poem which is talking about the fear to death or a virgin's first night.

** Storm-- Christians believe that they will head to a light within a whirl wind after they died.

>> This story is recorded in Book of Job. 

>> Job was the most righteous person on earth so he had to face the trial as others' scape-goat (or the concept of Chosen People). He was so brilliant that he could suffer for all of us; on the other hand, after all the suffering, he got double payback. 

*** "Firm" is used to describe the mood of surrounding.

**** "The King" represents the God.

***** "Keepsakes"-- Brother's Keeper (Cain's quotation)and Air 

>> Cain and Abel -- Cain is described as a crop farmer and his younger brother Abel as a shepherd. Cain was the first human born and Abel was the first human to die. Cain committed the first murder by killing his brother. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother, Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Am I my brother's keeper?

****** "Window failed" means closing eyes and eternal sleep.  

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B. Overview 1865-1914 (Including Mark Twain and Henry James) 
a. Mark Twain

(a) He represents the point of view of the people in the lower Socialeconomic Status.
(b) He used many "wrong" words to portray the different tones and their dialects.
* 童年是心中永遠的一首歌─導讀馬克•吐溫的《湯姆歷險記》-- Dr. T. Sara Sun
    《湯姆歷險記》的確擁有許多兒童文學經典的共通特質：諸如爭取小讀者認同的孩童主角(child protagonist)、弱勢族群的集結以挑戰權威、領導統禦與兄弟情誼、追求夢想與冒險等暢銷元素。
     馬克•吐溫用拼音(如spoil卻念成spile)、口說文字(如ain't doing)和節構破碎的語句(run-on sentences)，加上常張冠李戴的經典諺語和自以為是的真理格言，還有三不五時就捧出來的聖經名言，絮絮叨叨的波麗阿姨下里巴人的氣質於是躍然紙上。馬克•吐溫還小心刻意地在書中虛構的聖彼德堡，以口音與措辭區分出窮人與富人、黑人與白人的對話口吻。
(c) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (text)
* It is a piece which was written by Colloquial Language.
** He used the first person's (Huck) point of view to describe the story.

>> Tom persuades Huck to go back to their original life. -- on P.1464

           

                        "THE first time I catched Tom private I asked him what was his idea..."

" 'No, he hain't,' Tom says; 'it's all there yet--six thousand dollars and more; and your pap hain't ever been back since. Hadn't when I come away, anyhow.'

Jim says, kind of solemn:

'He ain't a-comin' back no mo', Huck.'

I says:

'Why, Jim?'

'Nemmine why, Huck--but he ain't comin' back no mo.' "

b. Henry James
(a) He represents the people in the upper Socialeconomic Status.
(b) He always took his nanny and tutor to travel around the UK and Europe. He naturalized as a British eventually.
(c) His female student-- Edith Wharton, the author of The Age of Innocence

 Henry and Edith

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C. Extra News- I'll Ride With You (BBC News)
As a gunman holds people hostage in a cafe in Sydney, thousands of messages of support have been posted online for Muslims in Australia who are afraid of an Islamophobic backlash. Thousands of people have now joined the spontaneous campaign, offering to meet Muslim people at their local stations and to ride with them on their journey.

American Literature Week Fourteen－Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

A. Previous on Poem 112 [67]
a. The "purple host" refers to those successor or kings.

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B. Book Discussion

Walt Whitman
a. He was born in New York. In his works, he tried to find out the meaning of life from those tiny details in nature. -- on PDF P.171
* Romanticism-- individualism, humanism, emotionalism, and transcendentalism.
** Yankee mysticism can respond to transcendentalism.
b. He always always made free verse poems such as "For You O Democracy". -- on PDF P.172

Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,

I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,

I will make divine magnetic lands,

                   With the love of comrades,

                      With the life-long love of comrades.

I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,

I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other’s necks,

                   By the love of comrades,

                      By the manly love of comrades.

For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme!

For you, for you I am trilling these songs.

* He was the "poet of democracy".
** In his poem, he expressed his put importance on manly personality.
*** "Splendid" is a common word which always shows in Romanticism literary works.
>> "Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower, we will grieve not; rather find strength in what remains behind"
* William Wordsworth's poem
** Movie, Splendour in the Grass-- This is a movie which expresses the sexual repression.

* Free verse-- It is the internal pattern of sounds, the choice of exact words, and the effect of associations give free verse its beauty. With the Imagists free verse became a discipline and acquired status as a legitimate poetic form. 

> Imagism is really close to the modernism. 

>> Blank verse-- In a blank verse poem, authors uses "iambic pentameter" and the ending rhyme scheme.

c. His famous "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" and "O Captain! My Captain!" are the mourn and elegies to President Lincoln.

* Elegy is a kind of "Funeral Blue Poem".

** Lincoln is the dark horse in civil war. 

d. "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" (poem) -- on textbook P.1088

Passing the visions, passing the night,

Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrades’ hands,

Passing the song of the hermit bird and the tallying song of my soul,

Victorious song, death’s outlet song, yet varying ever-altering song,

As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling, flooding the night,

Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again bursting with joy,

Covering the earth and filling the spread of the heaven,

As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses,

Passing, I leave thee lilac with heart-shaped leaves,

I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring.

I cease from my song for thee,

From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with thee,

O comrade lustrous with silver face in the night.

* He uses the alliteration in this poem such as P, A, and I.
e. "O Captain! My Captain!" (poem) 

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;

                         But O heart! heart! heart!

                            O the bleeding drops of red,

                               Where on the deck my Captain lies,

                                  Fallen cold and dead.

* "Fallen cold and dead"-- Lincoln died in April and April is the cruelest month. 

>> 蘇東坡 《江城子》「相顧無言，惟有淚千行。料得年年腸斷處，明月夜，短松岡。」

 

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C. Book Discussion

Emily Dickinson
a. The authors of Realism and Revolt-- Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, and Henry James.
b. 1096 [986] "A Narrow Follow in the Grass" -- on textbook P.1212

A narrow fellow in the grass

Occasionally rides;

You may have met him—did you not

His notice sudden is,

The grass divides as with a comb,

A spotted shaft is seen,

And then it closes at your feet,

And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre,  

A floor too cool for corn,

But when a boy and barefoot,

I more than once at noon

Have passed, I thought, a whip lash,

Unbraiding in the sun,

When stooping to secure it,

It wrinkled and was gone.

Several of nature’s people

I know, and they know me;

I feel for them a transport

Of cordiality.

But never met this fellow,

Attended or alone,

Without a tighter breathing,

And zero at the bone.

* There is a little bit suspicious and scary hidden in "Occasionally rides".

* She uses natural changing to describe an untrimmed boy with bare foot. >> Dionysus

* "Wrinkled" is a sort of phallic symbol such as the tower in Rapunzel 

c. 479 [712] "Because I could not Stop for Death" (poem) -- on textbook P.1206

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the Setting Sun –

* "Gazing Grain" is a kind of natural changing as well.