Questions After 4/25 in EN 211

Above and below are some pictures of Liberia.

Good evening :)

I hope that you enjoyed Fatu's energetic and entertaining presentation on Liberian folktales.  It reminded us of the folktales we read at the beginning of the semester, but it also provided another perspective on one supposed solution to the problems of slavery.  I am looking for a video that a student showed in EN 202 one summer to provide background on modern Liberia.  In the meantime, here is an interesting documentary about American Marylanders' trip to Maryland in Liberia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enCK9E6557A

Here is Frederick Douglass' editorial on emigration to Liberia:

http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/abar03at.html

Harriet Jacobs' complete narrative is here:

http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html

After seven years, she ended up, with the help of Peter, a friend of the family, escaping on a ship.

On Monday, we will move on to the poetry of Emily Dickinson.  Please read up to p. 1488.  We will not discuss all of the poems.  

Here are some links to my reviews of books on ED:

http://en202.blogspot.com/2014/03/emily-dickinson-thomas-wentworth.html

http://en202.blogspot.com/2014/03/lives-like-loaded-guns-from-2010.html

I'll conclude with a few questions for your journals.  

-- What jumps out at you as you read Emily Dickinson's poems?  How are her poems like today's poems?  How are they different?

-- What does ED add to American literature? American identity?  How does she complicate it?

-- How does she finish up our course?

-- What does she add to your understanding of women's writing?

-- What does she add to your understanding of gender roles in the past?  How does she complicate them?

Here is a link to The Belle of Amherst, a play depicting ED as a middle-aged woman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6nw-ovaR1o

How does this play help you understand her poems?  How is it irrelevant to your understanding of her poems?

Note that one of the only known photographs of ED is one of her as a teenager, long before she wrote her poems.

How does this affect your response to her poetry?

Which themes are prevalent in ED's poetry so far?

Which poetic devices are prevalent?

What do you learn about the poet and her world from reading these poems?  Why?

Compare ED's poems to others that you have read in this class and elsewhere.  

By the way, here is a link to sonnets by T.W. Higginson, who would later edit her work:

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

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

What does it seem to mean to be "Team Emily"?

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