ENG 254 Final – Flashcards

Robert Lowell. Theme: Confessional poetry, converism, post-modern. Form: Villanelle • Becomes less formal, takes off his mask • Robert Lowell speaks this poem, not a persona. • Him remembering going to an aquarium • Measure of authenticity becomes how much of your soul do you bare • Culture of consumerism that renders everything silly • Effectively commercialized Hiroshima- to sell a safe • Everything in this culture has been commercialized • Disposable culture Most important poem about underground garage.

Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth Bishop Looking at magazine of national geographic while aunt is at the dentist. Question humanity and matruity

Elizabeth Bishop o Theme: Suicide of lover- confronting self. o Form: Villanelle because the repetition signifies the need to tell to make sense. • Last paragraph = pivot point • Guilty/regret. • Grief when pros get choppy

Allen Gingsberg [Summary: Searching for Whitman in supermarket, making fun of things in the market, leave market and talk about the old America.] o Theme: Lost America/ Consumerism • No profound moments happen in Supermarkets. • Looking for Walt Whitman • Joking/absurd until... • Tonal shift of I to We. (found Walt Whitman) • Economic Wealth = base of measuring. o The emergency culture was forgotten. War could destroy all.

Allen Gingsberg Stanza 1: who, with. Stanza 2: Moloch Stanza 3: I'm o Theme: Consumer Culture o Form: Chant (single breath) • Most experiences exist outside of capitalist. • Students reject training from University. • Single breath makes it not structured, privilege of irrational. • Part 1: Greatest minds driven insane by culture. • Part 2: What about the culture that causes this... America is a god and kills the youth. • Mental mollock = imprisoned mentally. Drive to hate self.

Gary Synder o Theme: Consumer culture, nuclear age o Form: Breadth • Influenced by William Carlos Willams • Contrast between two images- deeply political • Poem turns from 3rd person omission to speaker perspective last paragraph • Up in the sky vs. the speaker on the ground. • Contrast between Stanza 1 and 2 more descriptive highlighting the military precision and specter. Connected by twin trails = 2 leaf pines.

Gary Snyder

Flannery O'Connor • O'Connor "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (2775) [Family moving and gets into a car crash. Discovered by the Misfit who kills all 6 of them.] o Theme: Clichés • Going east to Tennessee • Smack the Misfits face in comes in counter. • I know you come from good people • Threatened by grandmother so kills her. • Misfit turned grandmother into a cliché. o Breaks character = shot.

John Cheever [Summary: Westcotts get a radio that allows them to hear other people's conversations. Learn secrets and wife becomes obsessed.] o Theme: Ironizing • Post bulletin = showing off • Intentionally naive (2 diff realities) o Surface of success, horribleness underneath • Radio gives glimpse to people's real life. • Underneath = the real American.

Thomas Pynchon

Foster Wallace

Tim O'Brien [Summary: Solider shot and crew is searching for body, blaming selves]. o Theme: New journalism- Vietnam War. Post Modernism o Form: Point of view, juxtaposition. • Longest war 1950-1970 • America fighting noble cause, started war to prevent communism. • Post Modern because skeptical toward the master narrative (official purpose of story). • Master Narrative, Symbolism of Kiowa • Blaming self for death of solider no one else to blame it on. • Lt Jimmy Cross blames self • Young solider who showed picture takes blame. • The one who was making jokes... o Turns post modern when LT Cross forms new opinion on the death and blames something else.

Norman Mailer [Summary: Leading protest of armies of people dressed in costume to oppose the war]. o Theme: New Journalism • Covers world events from 1st person perspective • Malier keeps getting in the way of the story. • More realist to insert self because eliminates the allusion that biased doesn't exist. • Obscene language brings out the real gets rid of the fake. o Indivudaliusm!

Anne Sexton [undermines the norm of female roles.] o Theme: Skepticism towards patriarchal narratives o Form: Confessionalism poetry o 2nd wave of Feminism 1960's • Equality • In university Title IX • Workplace o Changing ways of society as well as ways of thinking o Embodying a witch - claiming that she is a witch rather than trying to hide it o Women are viewed to have a specific role

Anne Sexton [showing roles for what they are = grotesque.] o Theme: Skepticism towards patriarchal narratives o Form: Confessionalism poetry o 2nd wave of Feminism 1960's • Equality • In university Title IX • Workplace o Changing ways of society as well as ways of thinking o Claiming a different persona

Sylvia Plath o Kills her father to move beyond him o How are you supposed to think of your lost parent at a young age? • Lost parent is larger than life • Plath turns him into evil, monster, hyper authoritative • She reanimates him in order to kill him to move on. o Doesn't want to be defined by the death, so she divorces it.

Sylvia Path

Adrienne Rich [difficult to preform identity when models given are amiss.] o Vehicle= wreck • Forgotten o Tenor= history o Absurd flippers-ludicrous to cover up the "real you". o Post-modern because viewing society as a "wreck" is shocking o Must embrace the masculine outlook to move forward with femininity.

Joyce Carol Oats. o Form: Free indirect discourse • Very critical-skewed perspective • Why she was after her old snapshots • She was pretty and that was everything • June saved money..mind filled with trashy daydreams • Beauty is the gold standard, hyper critical o Theme: media, gender-construction o Bob Dylan- represents music industry o Gender is natural/biological but a social thing • Struggling with identity: • Two different sides of connie • Performance changes based upon setting • Looking for approval from others o Nervous, wouldn't be if biological o Nervousness: gender is not uncovered • My genes tell me to = biological (not real) o Can't ask why if not real o Music 1950's/1960's • Depicts women's role from man's perspective • How a woman should act • Arnold Friend speaks in fragments—like song lyrics • Sleepy and hanging out = dreaming/fantasizing said "like she woke up", if she really did wake up would not have used the word "like" • Her subconscious is constructing this horrible figure • What does this mean for maturity of young woman • Old men were in the bands singing to young women. • Message from Rock 'N' Roll to young women • Your value is based on what you give up to a man. o The New Land is metaphoric= maturity • Well false sense of maturity • Crossing over from childhood to adulthood • A person that can be lusted after

Toni Morrison o Theme: social construction of Race o Form: Interpreted value o 1955- Brown Vs. Board of Education o Plessy Vs. Ferguson -separate but equal o 1960- civil rights movement • Malcom X, MLK, Black Pride Movement-Black is beautiful • 1976-Roots o Master Narrative about America • melting pot • start over/ reinvent oneself • salad, pluralism, rainbow • fragmented collection • from grand narrative to micro narrative • Toni Morrison "Recitatif" (3541) o Twyla and Roberta - white and black o Racial stereotypes have nothing to do with the girls o Variables that exist outside of race: • Racial stereotypes • Education/educational level • Taste in music • Economies • Relationship to religion • Language • Food • Hair • Smells • Marry outside of your race • Politics o Racial identity is constructed by history o Post modernism- impossible to figure out the central truth- undermines grand narrative • Blackness creates whiteness and vice versa • Illuminating the power race has • Maggiestand in for mothers o Raw food/cooked society • Cooked comes before raw because cooked food produces raw food • Need cooked food to create distinquish between raw food o Abuse Maggie= get sense of power • Stand in for their mothers o Learned behavior from older girls

• Gish Jen o Second generation POV o Yunior Callie o Interpersonal way of organizing ones life o Independent way of organizing ones life • Bildungsroman- breaking away from past/ traditional dependence upon way world see itself. • Breaking from family/tradition • From past, tradition, dependent from authority, or mostly parents o Exploration of difficulties of making a break= interdependent self, independent self • Interdependent • Self doesn't matter as much ; whole is more important than self • Redirect attention away from self • Focus on traditions • Anti-modern o At party, father mistaken as a waitor—throws coat into pool • Mother's fault because it can't be the father's fault (Gender) • Father god like figure • Wives commonly blamed o Why end here: • All agreed: everyone has a say in it • Use of personal pronouns • Collective shame • "you girls are good swimmers, not like me" o Acknowledges guilt and responsibility or o You die into pool-you deal with situation so I don't have to humiliate myself o "Someone" has to go • Negative.critical portrayl of Asian culture o Critical negotiation of selves

Junot DIaz o "man-up" = stupid thing to do unfair to expect to "man-up" o Can't confront father because he doesn't want to ruin his family or be beaten • Dad makes it "our" secret so children can't tell • Child abuse= stuck, doesn't get anywhere

Boobie Ann Mason o Working class isn't a clas because it's hard to rally around an economic structure o Media: claimed to speak for working class • Some types of music (to distract people/escapists) • Rock'n'roll • Country • TV Shows • Donahue o Oprah/jerry springer • Ways of thinking about the world • Magazines • Epiphany o Everything corresponds with a movie or TV show o Post-modern: skepticism towards master narrative • Jane wants to join army/talks to Coy • Doesn't know how radio waves work • Mason's critique of mass media o don't know what is really being transmitted (subconscious level) o Why end with last line: • Optimistic vs. pessimistic • Discovers being alone (not influenced by media) • Pessimistic: both join huge aspect of societies that control media • Her essential self isn't even there

Bobbie Ann Mason o Norma and Leroy don't really know what to do with each other after stereotypical relationship dies • Child dies of SIDS • Leroy gets in a bad accident • Creates a circumstance that forces out of mass narrative • Not conventional that norma is lifting weights • Leroy does needle point because he saw it on TV • Leroy wants to build a log-house and watches Donahue • Doesn't realize marriage is destroyed

Richard Ford o Myth of separation /reinventing self o By presenting story as car trip • Ironizes myth of wesward reinvention • Cheryl/ children undermines myth of reinvention because adult can't reinvent self with children • Children are constant reminders of who you are o Can abandon children to fulfill myth o Or keep children and be reminded of being unable to fulfill the myth

Dorothy Allision o Form: relaiable narrative, little novelas narratives o Theme: working class literature • Related to class: economics • Set of behaviors/ideas associated with a ruling class or an under class • Dreams/aspirations • Myth=social mobility o Central themes: 2 identities • Identity acquired (shaped by self) • Inherited Identity (do not choose) o Left home because she was raped by stepfather, gets a disease and mother wants to do nothing • Make new life, new family o Conclusion: significant • Starts with her independent to dependency • Reconciliation • Anti-bildungsroman • Initially mythologizes aunt and mother o Aunts and mother failed her o Built them up as heroes o They have an unclean love • Empathizes the aunt for no real reason • Full maturity is to embrace family • Re-establish connection that was lost

Art Spiegleman o Form: graphic narrative, narrating time, narrative tone o Theme: History and Depression o Narrative time: his fathers experience in Auschwitz o Narrating Time: Art struggles to write the story o Iterative narration : 3777 o False representation • Shows that he struggles with writing it since he can't truly represent the experiences • Focuses more on his struggles than writing • Undermining Master Narrative • Message? • Supposed to have a juvenile moral • Looking for master narrative but doesn't have one • Present: mask persona • Past: they are their masks o Standard reading: animalization of humans • Depicts simplified version of central conflict o DM: ^ this reading doesn't take into account the difference between present and past tense, one is a mask and the other is not. o (The need to say/single message of why holocaust is bad=Master Narrative) * • No central truth

Lynda Barry • Standard reading: there is no correlation between the older sisters dear abby letter and the little sister • DM: they both want attention • Power dynamic • Anxiety to make people happy by doing anything o Exploit people who want your attention

Lynda Barry • Standard reading: there is no correlation between the older sisters dear abby letter and the little sister • DM: they both want attention • Power dynamic • Anxiety to make people happy by doing anything o Exploit people who want your attention o "It's Cool"/ "She Wanted It" • Thematic relationship: the rapist is to Marla as Marla is to the sister • How she sees herself • Rape culture transmitted • Text=before • Picture = aftermath • Not supposed to talk about it • Boy rapist puts Marly in position of silencer • Society does victim blaming • Women and men participate in a culture of silence

Lynda Barry • She wants her sister to love her

Alison Bechdel

Chris Ware o Standard Reading: No relationship between pictures and text o DM: Step father is the bad guy and the kid is the superhero • How the child feels explains the pictures • Free indirect discourse o Not reality o the kids warped idea to gain control and simplify reality • turns narrative into comic to make sense of the world o attempt to improve order in a disordered environment o dealing with adult things

Ezra Pound o Canto-Odyssey - Homer, odysseus voyages home book II, odysseus leaves • Goes to Hades to talk to Tyreseus o Starts in the middle • Brought sheep and wine tosacrafice o Line 20: Zombies eating sheep. Zombies=dead people • A lot of freshly dead because of Trojen war. o Line 35: Total chaos • Using a language to show chaos o Line 40: Elpenor died Odysseus didn't notice he died that's why he is surprised to see him. • Elpenor wants to be honored and is ignored o Line 60: Anticlea (mom) shows up next • Next faces Tiresias • Gets prediction that he will make it home but all companions will die o Line 70: Lie quiet Divas... • Homer's Latin translator shows up o Theme: consult dead in order to make it home o By having the cantos begin with something old It creates an expectation for the reader o Pound is doing what Odysseus is doing by going back to the old translation in order to find his way home.

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries o The connection to Ezra Pound Cantos #1 is: • Car=shop • Mom shows up • Elli= Elpenor (didn't go to funeral) • Elvis=Tiresias • Consulting the dead • Jokers can't help you • Beer and ham sandwich=sacrifice o Formally represents chaos • the format of video makes it hard to focus/follow • making it confusing - drunken dialogue • new literary group chose Pound to make work new and legitimize new art form • Everything on internet isn't high art • Need to establish legitimacy o Anxiety about dying young and lost world