1. Tekstanalyse og –historie (Spring 2011) Session Four: Poetry I

2. Agenda American and British Literary History What is Poetry? (According to Sylvia Plath) Romanticism, Modernism, and American Poetry After 1945 Group Work: Sylvia Plath, ”Lady Lazarus” Group Discussion

3. American and British Literary History

4. American literary projects in the 19th and 20th centuries 19th century: inventing America Pre-1960: Desire for national unity and cultural homogeneity: the essence of America – the American way of life: Ernest Hemmingway: John Steinbeck: The great American novel

5. American literary projects in the 19th and 20th centuries Post-1960: Against national conformity - conflicts along the lines of ethnicity (and gender). Traditions rather than tradition: Jewish, African, Asian, Native, Latino, Italian, Irish Americans Sexual identity, gender, disability, region, religion, class

6. 20th century British fiction Modernism Anti-modernism (realism) Postmodernism Postcolonialism

7. What is Poetry? (According to Sylvia Plath) Taking ”Daddy” as your point of departure, define the genre of poetry Find contrasts and similarities with other genres (narrative, drama)

8. Plath and Poetry ”I cannot sympathise with those cries from the heart that are informed by nothing except a needle or a knife. … I believe that one should be able to control and manipulate experiences, even the most terrifying … with an informed and intelligent mind” (NAe, p. 2968)

9. ”Daddy” Examples of her ability ”to control and manipulate experiences” in ”Daddy”

10. Poetry and Emotion: Romanticism Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility (William Wordsworth, “Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800)

11. Poetry and Emotion: Romanticism Emotion: Spontaneous Powerful ”recollected in tranquility” Moment of feeling / moment of composition Experience / memory

12. Poetry and Emotion: Modernism There are many people who appreciate the expression of sincere emotion in verse […]. But very few know when there is an expression of significant emotion, emotion which has its life in the poem and not in the history of the poet. The emotion of art is impersonal. (T.S. Eliot, ”Tradition and the Individual Talent” (1921))

13. Poetry and Emotion: Modernism Emotion: Significant vs sincere Impersonal vs personal Poetry (tradition) vs individual life

14. Poetry and Emotion: Modernism Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to escape from these things. (T.S. Eliot, ”Tradition and the Individual Talent” (1921))

15. Poetry and Emotion: Modernism Escape from emotion and personality Depersonalisation Universalisation

16. Romanticism, Modernism and American Poetry After 1945 The poem in relation to the moment of feeling: Temporal relations: emotion and composition The poem in relation to the nature of feeling: Relations of significance: public – private, universal – personal

17. Romanticism, Modernism and American Poetry After 1945 Frank O’Hara and the diary poem: ”A Step Away from Them” Outline the emotion(s) the poem concerns. Consider the sincerity and significance of the emotion(s) Consider the temporal relation between feeling and poem