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!