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LITERATURELITERATUREHU 300HU 300

The Origins of Literature

Epic: a genre of literature; a long narrative poem recounting the actions of a hero who exemplifies strength, courage, and cunning, but not necessarily moral virtue

Epic of Gilgamesh

Iliad and

Odyssey

by Homer

Characters, Conflict, and Catharsis

What are some things that cause conflict?

How might conflict be an important aspect of storytelling or literature?

catharsis: purification or purgation of the emotions (as pity and fear) primarily

through art;

a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension

elimination of a complex by bringing it to consciousness and affording it expression

Source: Merriam-Webster online, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catharsis

Which books/authors Which books/authors do you enjoy? Which do you enjoy? Which have inspired you?have inspired you?

Reading in America In 2004, the

National Endowment for the Arts put out a study called “Reading at Risk,” about the decline of reading in America. In 2007, another study showed that 1 in 4 adults read no books in 2006. (Fram, 2007)

What do you think of these findings? Do they seem accurate to what you observe?

What might a decline in reading say about a culture?

Update on Reading For the first time since the NEA began

surveying American reading habits in 1982 -- and less than five years after it issued its famously gloomy "Reading at Risk" report -- the percentage of American adults who report reading "novels, short stories, poems or plays" has risen instead of declining: from 46.7 percent in 2002 to 50.2 percent in 2008 (Thompson, 2009).

(Note: Nonfiction is excluded from the study)

What might explain the increase of reading in the last 6 years?

Poetry In our unit we

discussed poetry, which is rarely a best-seller. Why might poetry be less popular than fiction?

Where are some places that poetry does exist and thrive in our culture?

Strategies and Structures

sonnet: a fourteen-line verse form controlled by a strict rhythm and rhyme scheme

Strategies and StructuresSonnet 29

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,    I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,    And look upon myself, and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,    Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd, Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,    With what I most enjoy contented least: Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,    Haply I think on thee,--and then my state (Like to the lark at break of day arising    From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate; For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings    That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

~ William Shakespeare, (1564-1616)

Strategies and Structures

sonnet: a fourteen-line verse form controlled by a strict rhythm and rhyme scheme

lyrical poetry: rhythmic, often rhymed verse, usually dealing with the poet’s feelings, especially of love

haiku: Japanese poetic form that presents one image, usually derived from an observation of nature, with an underlying thought; usually limited to three lines totaling 17 syllables in the pattern 5, 7, 5

Strategies and Structures

Detestable crow!Today alone you please me –

Black against the snow.

~Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

Oh, don’t strike the fly! See? With knees bent and hands clasped

He prays for his life.

~Kobyashi Issa (1763-1827)

Strategies and Structures

metaphor: widely used literary device in which something abstract is described in terms of something that is more concrete

Romeo (of Romeo & Juliet)

“What light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”

The Harlem Renaissance The Great

Migration – after World War I (1914-1918), many African Americans moved from to cities in the north to find work in factories and industry.

Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series, "Panel 1 -- During World War I, there was a great migration North by Southern African Americans."

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance:

mid 1920s-mid-1930s

A time when a great number of prominent African American writers, artists, musicians and others were active in Harlem, New York

Archibald Motley, Blues, 1929

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes (1901- 1967)

Poet and writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance

One of earliest writers associated with jazz poetry

Langston Hughes, 1936

Let America be America Again

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed– Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Aaron Douglas, Song of the Towers, 1934

•What are some of the themes in this selection? •What kinds of metaphors are used? •What commentaries on freedom and happiness are made?

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek– And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one's own greed!

…

Aaron Douglas, Song of the Towers, 1934

Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay– Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again– The land that never has been yet– And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME– Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

…

Aaron Douglas, Song of the Towers, 1934

…

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain– All, all the stretch of these great green states– And make America again!

•What are some of the themes in this poem? •What kinds of metaphors are used? •What commentaries on freedom and happiness are made?

Aaron Douglas, Song of the Towers, 1934

Why Poetry? What are

some of the unique benefits poetry can offer to the reader or listener?