Weeks 10-12
Modernism:
What does 'The Wasteland' mean?
1) how has it been interpreted? (cite examples)
2)what are some of the key features
3) In what way has it been influential
Post-Modernism
1) What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why 'beats'?
2) How is beat poetry linked to rap?
3) How was Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
4) On what grounds was 'Howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for the defense?
5) What kind of protest song/rap other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?
What does 'The Wasteland' mean?
1) how has it been interpreted? (cite examples)
2)what are some of the key features
3) In what way has it been influential
Post-Modernism
1) What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why 'beats'?
2) How is beat poetry linked to rap?
3) How was Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
4) On what grounds was 'Howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for the defense?
5) What kind of protest song/rap other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?
Modernism:
ReplyDeleteWhat does 'The Wasteland' mean?
1) how has it been interpreted? (cite examples)
2)what are some of the key features
3) In what way has it been influential
Generally, a wasteland is land that is “uncultivated or barren.” It is also defined as “something, as a period of history, phase of existence, or locality, that is spiritually or intellectually barren.” For me, this poem was very complicated to interpret due to the language and structure being so confounding, so I apologize in advance if I go off track etc. After reading the poem multiple times I got the sense that there was a lot going on and that there were various perspectives i.e. first person third person (different speakers) and it referred to many things. One thing that stood out for me was the way the poem constantly changes its location and setting i.e. winter then summer then mountains etc. So, for me, this poem was somewhat like a collage, which is why it was very hard to read and interpret. On occasions I found that the poem was not making any sense to me, this may because of the many sections and meanings that it has. For example, there is reference to Eliot and Haighwood’s shaky marriage which is regarded as an aspect/product of this ‘Waste Land’ then the poem discusses ‘A Game Of Chess’ which I think is a metaphore for some other reference to Eliot and Haighwood’s marriage. Again, I’m not so sure on this poem.
North (2001) states that Eliot’s intention, while writing The Waste Land, was so that nobody could re-write or interpret it. Like me, many people find the poem very hard to read and grasp. Even poets to this day have trouble breaking it down and attempting to make sense of it.
In my perspective, I think some of the key features in this poem is the narration or the way it is being told. I think this adds to the mysteriousness and complex nature of the poem, which makes it so hard to interpret. Also, according to GradeSaver (2012) the WasteLand, to this day, has been one of the most influential in literature history, providing a basis for other modernism works, and has “shaped future schools of thought and literature (GradeSaver, 2012).
References:
Dictionary.com. (2014). Wasteland. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wasteland
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-waste-land/study-guide/about/
North, M (Ed.). (2001). T.S. Eliot The Waste Land: authoritative text, contexts, criticism. Los Angeles, United States of America: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Post-Modernism, the ‘beats’.
ReplyDeleteBeats poetry is defined by Poetry Foundation (2015) as an aesthetic that rejects academic formalism and the conformity and materialism of the American middle class. Beat poetry was largely free verse, quite often somewhat surrealistic and was influenced by the melody of jazz music. It was written by those who were disillusioned with society in the 1950’s and those who believed strongly in personal freedom.
Rap music developed in the 1970’s from literary ‘street fights’ wherein rappers would try to best each other in rap poetry as an alternative to fighting. Rap music can be defined as “involving the speaking or chanting of rhyming lyrics, often set to a beat. The rhyming created by rappers is considered by many to be one of the most sophisticated styles of poetry” (Plastic Little Raps, 2015). As beat poetry relied heavily on a melody and beat throughout it, ‘rap’ poetry became closely linked to it.
Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’ is widely considered the first protest song, featuring controversial lyrics accusing America of being warmongers – “you hide in your mansion / while young people’s blood / flows out of their bodies / and into the mud”, “not even Jesus would forgive what you do.” During the first Bush administration, when George H. W. Bush was president of the United States from 1989-1992, Dylan’s song, which had not been sung for years, had a sudden return that shocked the nation. During the middle of the first Iraqi-American war, Dylan was invited to sing at the Grammy Awards to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. At first, he disguised the song so that nobody realised what it was, but soon it was clear from the words “gun”, “die” and “Jesus” what it was. He played it again in 2002 during the second Bush administration, when George W. Bush intended to launch a second Iraq war, and played it at Madison Square Garden. ‘Masters of War’ then became the poster song for protest against war through to this day (Marcus, G. 2015).
Alan Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential poems of the 20th century. The poem was first performed in October of 1955 at a poetry reading and due to its ‘obscenity’, went down in history. It was published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights Books, and increased in popularity due to its raw image, sexual content and pronouncements of a cultural revolution, and in March 1957, nearly 520 copies of the poem were seized the publisher was arrested for obscenity charges. A trial then took place where multiple literary experts were called in to testify whether the poem had any literary merit, and ultimately the book was found to not be obscene, but was banned nonetheless. Ironically, however, due to the publicity of the trial, the poem then became a cultural phenomenon, and with Jack Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’ published later in the year, the beginning of the Beat Generation was formed.
Continued from above...
ReplyDeleteMany great protest songs and raps have come out recently, one of the most notable being Michael Jackson’s ‘They Don’t Care About Us’, released in 1996, the fourth single from one of his albums. Tupac/2 Pac is well known for his protest rap ‘Soulja’s Revenge’, released in 1992, and the Black Eyed Peas’ song ‘Where Is The Love?’ was released in 2003. Killer Mike’s ‘Burn’ released in 2011 talks about Barack Obama, the school system, prisons, banks and pastors; Rage Against The Machine’s infamous song ‘Killing in the Name’ released in 1992 speaks about racism, police brutality and defiance of the authorities. Six days after the infamous Mike Brown murder in Ferguson, Missouri, rapper J. Cole released a tribute song “Be Free”, inspiring T.I.’s ‘New National Anthem’ and Will Hoge’s ‘The Ballad of Trayvon Martin’, songs that are about police brutality, rage and economic disparity that have engulfed Ferguson. The spirit of protest has certainly not died, and I would in fact argue that it has increased since Mike Brown’s murder, followed by other high-profile cases of young black men and women who are murdered and brutalized by police on a daily basis in the U.S., in Ferguson, McKinney, and other cities, with the deaths of young black children and adults such as Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, Rekia Boyd and Eric Garner; especially with social media amplifying the murders with movements such as #staywoke, #blacklivesmatter, #ican’tbreathe, #stolenlives et cetera (DeHahn, P. 2014).
References:
Bergstedt, N. (2011). With Banned Books Week, consider ‘Howl’. Retrieved from http://www.grandrapidsmn.com/with-banned-books-week-consider-howl/article_da99abd8-e634-11e0-b287-001cc4c03286.html
DeHahn, P. (2014). Anti-police brutality hashtags: your complete guide. Retrieved from http://www.dailydot.com/politics/ferguson-michael-brown-eric-garner-black-lives-matter-hashtag-activism/
Marcus, G. (2015). Stories of a Bad Song. Retrieved from http://www.threepennyreview.com/samples/marcus_w06.html
Plastic Little Wraps. (2015). History of Rap Music. Retrieved from http://www.plasticlittleraps.com/history-of-rap-music.html
Poetry Foundation. (2015). Beat Poets. Retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/glossary-term/beat%20poets
Firstly, I’d like to say that before even reading this piece, the question ‘what does the wasteland mean?’ made me roll my eyes. It is my belief that every piece of writing, as with every piece of art, means something different to every reader or viewer. Therefore as well as giving you what you want to hear, I am going to give you what this piece means to me, and bring some humanity back into this work.
ReplyDeleteThe term ‘wasteland’ is defined as:
‘noun: a land that is uncultivated or barren.’
The Waste Land was Eliot’s way of eulogizing high culture, in a time where pop culture was taking over, and when moral and cultural identities were becoming more and more blurred after WWI. That and the title of ‘Wasteland’ showing his exact thoughts on the matter is pretty much all you really need to know for a very basic understanding of this long and overly complex poem.
I suppose it could mean many things, and it has also been interpreted in many ways. My personal interpretation, is that he’s a high living snob who likes to show off his brain by confusing the average joe, but that might be because I’m from a completely different time. Pericles Lewis, who writes for The Modernist Lab on a Yale University wiki, writes an epic essay on the subject of this piece, and he states that:
‘The critic I. A. Richards influentially praised Eliot for describing the shared post-war “sense of desolation, of uncertainty, of futility, of the groundlessness of aspirations, of the vanity of endeavour, and a thirst for a life-giving water which seems suddenly to have failed.”’
We must also remember the influences this piece had on today’s writing and culture. Both Eliot and his fellow modernists were fascinated by the problem of destiny. This is clearly shown in the pieces somber tone. In a way, you could attribute this to the evolution of the ‘goth’ culture. Of course, they do take things to the extreme, but the loathing for today’s society and the wondering where we are all supposed to go is reminiscent of Eliot’s first passage, “April is the cruelest month, breeding/Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/Memory and desire, stirring/Dull roots with spring rain”
References
http://www.enotes.com/topics/waste-land
http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/The_Waste_Land
Modernism
ReplyDeleteThis is two of a few definitions as to what wasteland means,
" an ugly and often ruined area or place”
“something, as a period of history, phase of existence, or locality, that is spiritually or intellectually barren.”
“Something (as a way if life) that is spiritually and emotionally arid and unsatisfying”
The last two are definitely relevant in regards to the poem of T.S Elliot. It means in a certain time frame and or moment and area there is was a lack of understanding and being to a situation or place. He writes “ Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn” making the city seem unappealing to the reader and underwhelmed because of the winter word it creates a cold sense that bothers some. Also, “After the frosty silence in the gardens After the agony in stony places. The shouting and the crying. Prison and place and reverberation Of thunder of spring over distant mountains He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying. With a little patience” within T.S Elliot's poem he expresses a reflection of post-war stigma of disillusionment. Which has been idolized by the audience if that time. Although he voiced it was not “part of my intention”.
References
Retrieved (June 2015), http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wasteland
Retrieved (June 2015), http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wasteland
Retrieved (June, 2015).
http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/The_Waste_Land
Eliot, T.S. (1922) The Wasteland.
What does 'The Wasteland' mean?
ReplyDelete1) How has it been interpreted? (Cite examples)
2) what are some of the key features
3) In what way has it been influential?
A wasteland, means empty or ruined space. There are many more meaning to the word such as an unused area of land that has become barren or overgrown or a bleak and unused or neglected urban or industrial area. A wasteland, literally is an empty land, but it can also be a metaphor for “The end time” or a place where history happens, usually something unpleasant, until it ruined the land and turned it barren or no more. The text “The wasteland” by T.S Elliot is regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central text of Modernist poetry. This is one of the reason why many readers have troubles on interpreting the poem. I have to say even though it is shameful, my capacity of understanding could not understand a single thing from the poem. For me, it is confusing and the modernist poets are a bit too deep for me, so I had to search other sites for more knowledge. Here, is a YouTube clip the helped me understand and aided me to connect to the poem even closer, and this is because it is Elliot reading his poem himself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rpFBSO65P4 . To interpret this poem means to kill myself honestly. Some of it I understand and some of it I gave up. It is a work of a genius.
The wastelands reflect to a broken society or broken dreams of a society. Elliot (U.K Author) started writing the poem in dedication to Ezra Pound just after WWI (1919- 1922) which made sense on where the title came from. It seems that the poem is mind riddling and that there is a lot going on. For example. “APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land.” “Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm”. April is actually the breeding season for a lilac tree and yet he state the April is a cruel moth and that lilac wouldn’t grow because of the dead land. Dead lands can mean time of war because it is hard to see a land dead unless a person is in a dessert. Elliot might had have a lot of things going in his mind as well since he too is a victim of war.
There are many key features that made up the poem “The Wasteland”. Such as the interactions between speakers and the mysterious purpose on why he wrote it and also it is called one of the most important poems of the 20th century, it is indeed the poem of poems. The poem is so influential not only because it is the most important poem of the 20s and 30s or because it is written in despair and hope, but also because it reproduced, for this generation, a sense of a shell-shocked culture struggling to rebuild itself after the 1914-18 war. The poem embodies a part of the history itself and tells us modern readers of how hard life was after the war.
Sparknotescom. (2015). ELIOT’S POETRY. Retrieved 12 June, 2015, from http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot/section2.rhtml
In-text citation: (Sparknotescom, 2015)
T.S. Eliot. (1922) The Waste Land .
Youtubecom. (2015). "The Wasteland" Lecture. Retrieved 12 June, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAORfIoAXgU
In-text citation: (Youtubecom, 2015)
1) What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why 'beats'?
ReplyDeleteWorld War 2 birthed the word 'beat'. Beat was firstly a slang term used predominantly by musicians of jazz, to describe being poor or tired, as well as feeling physically and spiritually deflated [1]. It’s formation also stems from heart beats. Jazz musicians evolved this term, to mean the beat in jazz melodies. The term was also evolved and made publicly aware by author Jack Keuroc, who named the youth in Time Square the ‘Beat Generation’ in the 1950s [2]
Writers and poets who use this aesthetic typically distance themselves of conforming and of holding materialistic goals. Much like Jack Kerouac himself, who was known for stories that portrayed his unconforming lifestyle, such as in ‘the Subterraneans’ where he describes a brief love affair with a Black American woman. In addition, most of his work held no traditional structure, including the absence of speech marks, and wild contrasts of long, break-less sentences [3]. In works of this generation, qualities often expressed by 'beat' authors, poets and artists would involve an exploration and analysis of the social condition present in surviving against the post-war economic boom which re-constructed society, forming one defined as a consumerist-capitalist society which stemmed from the conservative, prude minds and values of the generation before [1]. This gave birth to a new style of American culture, with individuals who worked to fight societal norms. This involved experimentation of drugs that would induce mind-altering states and venturing into different levels of consciousness, all the while refusing social order and as a result producing a new form of literature [2]. This new form was adventurous, honest and highly expressive of emotions and human conditions [2]. It was designed to be produce surreal visuals in the reader's mind, and in the poetry side of this new form, the free verse feature itself denied the more structured and traditional formations of poem, as well as enhanced the Beat Generation’s belief in freedom of speech and protest of the politics of that time. And what better way to portray freedom of speech than through free verse poetry, and in a more modern aspect- freestyle rap, which relies solely on rappers speaking from the mind and heart, and feeling the moment they are in, as well as the words they are saying. Followers of this generation disregarded the neo-classical formalism, such as the works of T.S. Elliot, which was deemed as being too separate from real life and experience [2]. Unlike the works from the Beat following, which intended to portray the very reality of post-war living in America.
[1]http://www.umsl.edu/virtualstl/phase2/1950/events/perspectives/documents/beatsonbeat.html
[2] http://www.online-literature.com/periods/beat.php
[3] Panish, J. (1994). Kerouac's The Subterraneans: A Study of "Romantic Primitivism" MELUS, 19, 107-123.