1. Tekstanalyse og –historie F06 Session Six: Poetry I

2. Agenda Repair work What is Poetry? (According to Sylvia Plath) American Poetry After 1945 Group Work: Sylvia Plath, ”Lady Lazarus” Group Discussion The essay assignment

3. 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)

4. Romanticism, Modernism and American Poetry After 1945 The poem in relation to the moment of feeling: Temporal relations: emotion and composition (Wordsworth, Eliot) The poem in relation to the nature of feeling: Relations of significance: public – private, universal – personal (Eliot) The poem as an object: (in)completeness and (im)permanence (the New Criticism)

5. Romanticism, Modernism and American Poetry After 1945 Frank O’Hara and the diary poem: ”A Step Away from Them” –Who is a step away from whom in the poem? Who is O’Hara, the poet, a step away from –Why? –What does it mean to be a step away? –How is the poem a diary? –How is the poem a poem?

6. Group Work: Sylvia Plath, ”Lady Lazarus” What did Plath mean by the remark, ”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) Find examples of her ability ”to control and manipulate experiences”

7. Group presentation and Discussion

8. The Essay Assignment (BA- students, 2005) Genres: –Travel writing –Drama –Film –Poetry

9. The Essay Assignment (BA- students, 2005): Examples Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweeden, Norway, and Denmark. Analyse the text as a piece of travel writing. Your essay must also comment on the aspect of gender.

10. The Essay Assignment (BA- students, 2005): Examples Susan Glaspell, Trifles. Analyse the play, focussing especially on staging.

11. The Essay Assignment (BA- students, 2005): Examples Thomas Hardy, ”The Man He Killed”. Analyse the poem, focussing on its stanzaic and syntactical organisation. Your essay must also include a discussion of the poem’s tone.