Last Set of Questions

Thank you for a wonderful Summer II, everyone!  I hope that you enjoyed exploring literature--and that you liked tonight's goodies from the Asian Bakery Cafe in Rockville!

Here are a few last questions in case you need another entry or two for your journal:

-- How did tonight's presentations help you understand literature more fully?

-- Here is a link to the video that Oliver showed in class tonight.  It is part one of four of Simon Armitage's "9/11: Out of the Blue."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yacjArDnRbY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

What does this work add to your understanding of literature?

What does it add to your understanding of 9/11?  (It's hard to believe that that horrific event occurred over ten years ago.)

If you've seen other movies or read books about 9/11, how does this work compare to them?

-- How has your understanding of literature changed during this summer session?  Why?

-- Which has been the most interesting work that you've read or listened to or watched this summer session?  Why?

Keep up the good work!

Dr. Szlyk

Questions for 8/9 -- EN 190 Summer II 2012

After Yuehshan's presentation on manga, I wanted to show you some of the scrolls from The Tale of Genji, a novel from the 1000s.  Above is just one!

Good evening :)

It looks like we may not get a chance to see every single presentation.  Thursday I would like to hold the presentations in the first half of the class.  During the second half you will have time to work on your exam.  People who are not able to present may send me their PowerPoints.

Here are the readings we went over in class tonight:

Let's start with Petrarch:

A.S. Kline's translation of Sonnet 3 is here, together with Petrarch's original and the MP3 of Moro Silo reading it:

http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=3

Mark Musa's translation is here:

http://thepoetryplace.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/renaissance-sonnets-for-the-beloved/

Next we looked at Sonnet 140.  Again, we will start with Kline's translation and the original:

http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=140

The literal translation by Patrick Cruttwell is below:

http://www.sonnets.org/petrarch.htm

See this link for the version by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542):

http://www.sonnets.org/wyatt.htm#002

The translation by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911) is actually of Sonnet 294.  Again, we'll start with Kline's translation and the original:

http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=294

Higginson's version is here:

http://www.sonnets.org/petrarch.htm#010

We'll finish with A.M. Juster (1956-).

http://www.amjuster.com/poem14.html

http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=14

On to Li Bai's "Drinking Alone With the Moon."

We'll start with Ezra Pound's translation:

http://poetry.about.com/od/poemsbytitled/l/bllipodrinkingalone.htm

Note that he did not know Chinese although he popularized Chinese poetry and used it as a predecessor to modern poetry.

Then we'll move on to linguist Arthur Waley's version:

http://people.zeelandnet.nl/henklensen/libai-waley.htm

Stephen Owen's translation is more recent:

http://people.zeelandnet.nl/henklensen/libai-owen.htm

Vikram Seth's translation was the last we looked at:

http://people.zeelandnet.nl/henklensen/libai-seth.htm

But I would like to include another by Xu Yuanchong:

http://people.zeelandnet.nl/henklensen/libai-xu.htm

The last version will not be on the test, but I think that you may enjoy reading it, too.

Have you had a chance to look at the study guides on Multiply?

Finally, here are a few questions for your journal:

-- Compare two or more translations of the same poet's work.  Which do you prefer?  Why?  How does each work as a translation?  How does each translation work as poetry?

-- Take a look at one of the translations in our book.  How is the poem different from other poems, especially English-language ones, that we've looked at?  What is poetic about this poem?  Why?  What doesn't seem poetic to you?

-- Take a look at a translation that the poet him/herself was involved with.  Does that seem to make a difference?  Why?  Why not?

-- Compare one of La Fontaine's fables that Joel discussed to Godfather Death.  Here are the relevant links:

http://www.bonjourlafrance.com/french_literature/jean_de_la_fontaine_fables/grasshopper_ant_cigale_fourmi.htm

http://www.aestheticrealism.net/poetry/Wolf-Lamb-LaFontaine.htm

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm044.html

--  What do translated poems add to our study of poetry?  Our study of literature?  Why?

-- How do you define poetry?  Does it matter that this genre is so hard to define?  Why?  Why not?

-- How do you define literature?  Feel free to talk about what is not literature (film, graphic novels, etc.).

-- How have the presentations helped you to understand literature?

-- How does literature seem to change from culture to culture?

Watch MyMC for the PowerPoint presentations!

Dr. Szlyk

Study Guide for Final -- pt. 3 -- EN 190 -- Summer 2012

The picture above is of Walt Whitman as a younger man.  The picture is from the 1855 edition of his Leaves of Grass.

Here is a list of terminology that may be on the exam:

silent film/movie

poem/poetry

free verse

blank verse

organic form

formal verse 

sonnet -- Shakespearean and Petrarchan

villanelle

iambic pentameter

stanza

alliteration

assonance

onomatopoeia

octet

sestet

line break:  full stop, end of phrase, enjambment

Below Petrarch contemplates his muse Laura.

 Below we see Shakespeare with the Dark Lady, subject of his poems.

Study Guide for Final -- pt. 2 -- EN 190 -- Summer II 2012

 Above is Edgar Degas' "At the Races" (1877-1880).  Below are pictures of Detroit in the 1940s.

 This week's readings include the following:

Below are links we looked at in class today, starting with Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California":

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15306

Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is here:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20006

Sherman Alexie wrote "Defending Walt Whitman":

http://www.bpj.org/poems/alexie_whitman.html

Let's look at Shakespeare's Sonnet #73:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15844

We'll conclude with Philip Levine's "M. Degas..."

http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/levine/m._degas_teaches_art_and_science_at_durfee_intermediate_school--detroit1942.php

You may find this blog entry to be interesting: 

http://edwardbyrne.blogspot.com/2008/07/edgar-degas-and-philip-levine.html

But be sure to scroll down to the entry for July 19, 2008.

This links to part of a literary map of Detroit:

http://www.marygrove.edu/academics/institutes/institute-for-detroit-studies/literary-map-of-detroit/item/7-durfee-middle-school.html

The translations we looked at follow:

Let's start with Petrarch:

A.S. Kline's translation of Sonnet 3 is here, together with Petrarch's original and the MP3 of Moro Silo reading it:

http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=3

Mark Musa's translation is here:

http://thepoetryplace.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/renaissance-sonnets-for-the-beloved/

Next we looked at Sonnet 140.  Again, we will start with Kline's translation and the original:

http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=140

The literal translation by Patrick Cruttwell is below:

http://www.sonnets.org/petrarch.htm

See this link for the version by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542):

http://www.sonnets.org/wyatt.htm#002

The translation by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911) is actually of Sonnet 294.  Again, we'll start with Kline's translation and the original:

http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=294

Higginson's version is here:

http://www.sonnets.org/petrarch.htm#010

We'll finish with A.M. Juster (1956-).

http://www.amjuster.com/poem14.html

http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=14

On to Li Bai's "Drinking Alone With the Moon."

We'll start with Ezra Pound's translation:

http://poetry.about.com/od/poemsbytitled/l/bllipodrinkingalone.htm

Note that he did not know Chinese although he popularized Chinese poetry and used it as a predecessor to modern poetry.

Then we'll move on to linguist Arthur Waley's version:

http://people.zeelandnet.nl/henklensen/libai-waley.htm

Stephen Owen's translation is more recent:

http://people.zeelandnet.nl/henklensen/libai-owen.htm

Vikram Seth's translation was the last we looked at:

http://people.zeelandnet.nl/henklensen/libai-seth.htm

But I would like to include another by Xu Yuanchong:

http://people.zeelandnet.nl/henklensen/libai-xu.htm

The last version will not be on the test, but I think that you may enjoy reading it, too.

Presentations:

Sharon Ossi -- white elephants

Yuehshen Huang -- manga

Adrian Watson -- faces of the 1960s

Renee Rodriguez and Chau Nguyen -- Koji Suzuki

Melissa Mittleman and Sandrine Mbonwo -- NYC in the 1940s

Gizachew Elcho -- Tsegaye Gebre Medhin

Joel Feussi -- The Fables of LaFontaine

Questions for 8/7 -- EN 190 Summer II 2012

Above is a painting by "M. Degas" or Edgar Degas (1834-1917).

Good evening :)

Tomorrow is our last day of new reading and listening material, so I wanted to make sure that I sent you the questions in time.  

I'd like you to read the poems in translation at pages 889-904.  In addition, here are links to translations of Petrarch's sonnets over the years, starting with the sixteenth century--predating Shakespeare!

http://www.sonnets.org/wyatt.htm#002

http://www.sonnets.org/surrey.htm#102

The translation below is from the 1800s.  Thomas Wentworth Higginson fought in the Civil War and tried to mentor the poet Emily Dickinson.

http://www.sonnets.org/petrarch.htm

A.S. Kline's translations are from the late 1900s.  You may also look at and listen to the original Italian.

http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html

Here is Mark Musa's free verse:

http://thepoetryplace.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/renaissance-sonnets-for-the-beloved/

A.M. Juster's translations rhyme:

http://www.amjuster.com/poem14.html

This page contains over forty translations of Li Bai's "Drinking Alone With The Moon"

http://clatterymachinery.wordpress.com/2007/01/26/li-bai-drinking-alone-with-the-moon-his-shadow-32-translators/

Do you prefer Gary Snyder's translation of Han Shan's poems?

http://www.hermetica.info/hanshan.htm

Translator Tony Barnstone writes on translation:

http://www.cipherjournal.com/html/barnstone_han_shan.html

Below are links we looked at in class today, starting with Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California":

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15306

Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is here:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20006

Sherman Alexie wrote "Defending Walt Whitman":

http://www.bpj.org/poems/alexie_whitman.html

Let's look at Shakespeare's Sonnet #73:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15844

We'll conclude with Philip Levine's "M. Degas..."

http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/levine/m._degas_teaches_art_and_science_at_durfee_intermediate_school--detroit1942.php

And now for some questions....

-- If you write poetry, write a poem and analyze it, showing how it exemplifies what we have learned about poetry.

-- Choose a poem that we haven't looked at.  Then analyze it, showing how it exemplifies what we have learned about poetry.

-- What have our presentations added to your understanding of literature?

-- What have the poems we discussed today (8/6) added to your understanding of literature?  of poetry?

-- Why should we translate works from other literatures?

-- Why should we learn other languages to read their literary masterpieces?

-- How have the translations (Petrarch, Li Bai, and Han Shan) changed over time?  How have they remained the same?

-- If you know Italian or Chinese, discuss the accuracy and felicity of the translators' work.

-- How do other literatures approach translation?

Good night, and see you in class!

Dr. Szlyk

Study Guide for Final -- EN 190 -- pt. 1

Above is a picture from a 2010 production of The Dumb Waiter at Chicago's TUTA Theater.  Below is a link to a review of this production:   http://chicagotheaterbeat.com/2012/07/23/review-the-dumb-waiter-tuta-theatre-chicago/

Now for our readings -- and viewings.  Below are pictures from the Unexpected Stage Company's productions of The Dumb Waiter and Trifles.

Trifles 

The Dumb Waiter

See the link here for a BBC version:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYV0sbzEIJQ

Nosferatu (1922, dir. F.W. Murnau)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcyzubFvBsA

Poems:

Robert Hayden -- "Those Winter Sundays" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjosL9VpXjY

Gwendolyn Brooks -- "We Cool"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyKF2e2CiMk

Mary Ellen Solt -- "Forsythia"  http://celansalon.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/forsythia3.jpg

Maxine Kumin -- "The Sound of Night"

William Carlos Williams -- "The Red Wheelbarrow"

Allison Joseph -- "On Being Told I Don't Speak Like a Black Person"

Robert Bly -- "Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter"

George Herbert -- "The Altar"  http://www.ccel.org/h/herbert/temple/Altar.html

(Note that Mr. Herbert wrote during the 1600s!)

Howard Nemerov -- "Found Poem" http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16512

(Note that his sister was the photographer Diane Arbus.  Below is one of her photographs.)

"A Primer of the Daily Round"  http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20008

Other found poetry is available here:  http://www.foundpoetryreview.com/

Dylan Thomas' villanelle "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"  http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377

Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1TD1saNCqA

William Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 read by Alan Rickman 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3GSwrb9_NQ

Li Young Lee's "Eating Alone"

Charles Bukowski's "my old man"

Marge Piercy's "Barbie Doll"

We watched an interview with former Poet Laureate Rita Dove on the anthology that she edited:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/video/309

We also watched an interview with US Poet Laureate Philip Levine and UK Poet Laureate Carol Anne Duffy:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/video/321

We also watched Stephen and Ashley's presentation on Alfred Hitchcock's films.  The PowerPoint is at MyMC.

Questions for 8/6 -- EN 190 Summer II 2012

Good afternoon :)

Next week is our last week of class.  How quickly Summer II has gone!

For Monday, please read chapters 15, 16, and 17.  We will be finishing up poetry on Tuesday, and I would like to go over some poems in translation on that day.  Thursday will be our final, and we will have the last presentations.

Here are a few questions for your journals.

-- How have your journals helped you with the course's readings?

-- Even our editors seem a little overwhelmed by the variety of poetry.  How does poetry's openness as a form help you as a reader?  How does it get in your way?  Would you like more rules?  Why?  Why not?

-- Examine one of the poems you read but we did not discuss.  How does its poet use sound?  How does its poet use word choice?  Emotion?  How would you describe the speaker?

-- Look at poems by the same author (i.e., Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Cool" and "The Bean Eaters," sonnets by Shakespeare, Robert Frost's "Apple Picking" and "The Road Not Taken").  Alternately, here are some second poems by authors we've looked at in class:

Gwendolyn Brooks' "The Rites for Cousin Vit" http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182621

Robert Hayden's "Mourning Poem for the Queen of Sunday" http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178596

or "Frederick Douglass" http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175757

Charles Bukowski's "Bluebird" http://whisperdownthewritealley.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/2-poems-by-charles-bukowski-bluebird-the-great-escape/

Howard Nemerov's "To D--, Dead by Her Own Hand" http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/21518

Maxine Kumin's "Woodchucks"   http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15650

Li Young Lee's "The Hour and What is Dead" http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16636

Dylan Thomas' "Fern Hill"   

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15378

Theodore Roethke's "I Knew a Woman"

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172104

How are the different poems by the same author similar?  How are they different?  Feel free to find other poems as well.  Which topics seem to interest the poet?  Which techniques does he/she use?  How does he/she use line length?  How do the poems sound?  What might be the poet's voice?

-- Choose two poems where the connection is not obvious.  What is that connection?  Consider Rita Dove's juxtaposition of poems in the anthology that she edited: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/video/309

Here are the two poems she mentioned:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/237230

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15309

-- Here are links to poems by Carol Anne Duffy and Philip Levine, the poets we listened to in the video below

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/video/321

http://www.freewebs.com/carolannduffypoems/Mrs%20Midas.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/carolannduffypoems/Anne%20Hathaway.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/carolannduffypoems/Elvis%27s%20Twin%20Sister.htm

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178144

http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/levine/m._degas_teaches_art_and_science_at_durfee_intermediate_school--detroit1942.php

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182873

How are the different poems by the same author similar?  How are they different?  Feel free to find other poems as well.  Which topics seem to interest the poet?  Which techniques does he/she use?  How does he/she use line length?  How do the poems sound?  What might be the poet's voice?  How does the video shed light on his/her poems?  How do his/her poems shed light on the video?

-- Discuss Ginsberg's use of long lines in "A Supermarket in California":

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15306

-- What would you like to write about for the next paper?

-- How did the presentation by Ashley and Stephen help you understand film more?  How did it help you understand literature?

-- Have you seen any of Alfred Hitchcock's films?  What do you like best about them?  Why?

I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing what you have to say.

Dr. Szlyk

Questions and Links for 8/2

Good morning :)

What a lot of poems we looked at and listened to last night!  Here they are, starting with Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjosL9VpXjY

An alternate reading is here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fttvvJeLjRk

You may also enjoy this essay about Hayden's life in Ann Arbor, MI.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5762

We listened to Gwendolyn Brooks read "We Cool":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyKF2e2CiMk

Next is Mary Ellen Solt's "Forsythia":

http://celansalon.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/forsythia3.jpg

For more information, see this link:

http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/solt/index.html

You may see George Herbert's "The Altar":

http://www.ccel.org/h/herbert/temple/Altar.html

Howard Nemerov's found poem is here:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16512

Here is his non-found poem:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20008

For more found poetry, see this journal:

http://www.foundpoetryreview.com/

Let's move on to the more formal poetry, starting with Dylan Thomas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C9F9XCDyaw

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377

Here is Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1TD1saNCqA

Alan Rickman reads Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3GSwrb9_NQ

For reading, let's read chapters 13 and 14.

We'll conclude with a few questions:

-- What was it like for you to listen to poems that you did not read?

-- Which songwriters/rappers are really poets?  Feel free to look at one lyric in depth.

-- Look at one poem we did not discuss and consider how it uses word and image.

-- Look at one poem we discussed and consider how it uses word and image -- or how it uses voice and form.

-- Look at one poem from chapters 13 or 14 and consider how it uses word and image.

-- Is found poetry really poetry?  Why?  Why not?

-- Is concrete poetry really poetry?  Why?  Why not?

-- If you haven't already, read Denise Levertov's "Some Notes on Organic Form":

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/essay/237852

How do her ideas help you understand free verse?  or poetry in general?

-- Argue for or against free verse.

I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing what you have to say!

Dr. Szlyk