Modernism:
What does 'The Wasteland' mean?
1) how has it been interpreted? (cite examples)
2)what are some of the key features
3) In what way has it been influential
Post-Modernism
1) What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why 'beats'?
2) How is beat poetry linked to rap?
3) How was Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
4) On what grounds was 'Howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for the defense?
5) What kind of protest song/rap other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?
What does 'The Wasteland' mean?
1) how has it been interpreted? (cite examples)
2)what are some of the key features
3) In what way has it been influential
Post-Modernism
1) What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why 'beats'?
2) How is beat poetry linked to rap?
3) How was Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
4) On what grounds was 'Howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for the defense?
5) What kind of protest song/rap other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?
Weeks 10 – 12 blog post
ReplyDeletePost-Modernism- The Beats Generation
According to Calareso, J (n.d) the beat generation is “a group of writers that emerged in the 1950’s to reject literary formalism and the American culture built on capitalism and materialism." Questioning society and rejecting the typical American culture are the themes most beats poems have in common.
The beat generation incorporated many influences in to their work. Jazz, was one of them. For example, the term “beat” was first used after WW2 by jazz musicians and hustlers as slang terms meaning down and out, or poor and exhausted (Mike Janssen. n.d). Later which one beats author, Jack Kerouac, would borrowed the word to describe how the writers felt “beat down, defeated, and out of place in the world of businessmen and returning soldiers.” (Calareso, J. n.d). One beat author John Clellon Holmes explained in his book ‘Go’ that…
“In this modern jazz, they heard something rebel and nameless that spoke for them, and their lives knew a gospel for the first time. It was more than a music; it became an attitude toward life, a way of walking, a language and a costume; and these introverted kids... now felt somewhere at last.” (Mike Janssen. n.d)
The writing style is distinctly similar to that of jazz than tradition European styles. Jazz music is distinct in its stressing of the second and fourth beats, as in traditional African music. This technique is shown greatly in Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl (1956). Ginsberg, in a 1959 essay about his approach to Howl (1956) stated that…
“I depended on the word ‘who’ to keep the beat, a base to keep measure, return to and take off again onto another streak of invention” (Mike Janssen. n.d).
The one beat author who perhaps has the stronger racial empathy with the jazz world was Leroi Jones, who changed his name to Amiri Baraka. Baraka had African-American heritage. He also had extreme views of politics and race which he used this to fuel his beat poetry.
Mike Janssen. n.d. Jazz and the beat generation. Retrieved on 5th June 2017. From http://www.litkicks.com/Topics/Jazz.html
Calareso, J. (n.d.) The beat generation: characteristics of beat poetry. Retrieved on 5th June 2017. From http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-beat-generation-characteristics-of-beat-poetry.html
Great points! Adding to that, the beats share the same quality of being performance-oriented, in which they were written to be listened to rather than read. This shift from "eye" to the "ear" is possibly the foundation for rap music, and the unity of poetry and music.
DeleteThe thing that poetry from the beats generation and early rap music have in common is the great social controversies it had created. Allen Ginsberg’s Howl (1956) sent “shockwaves through the seemingly placid cultural landscape of mid 1950’s America.” (Yarrow, A.L. 1988). In his poem, the speaker tells us that he has witnessed destruction of the “best minds” of his generation. And these best minds were not doctors, lawyers, or scientists. Nor were they the middle-class men and women of 1950’s America. The speakers claim that the greatest minds were in fact “drug users, drop outs, world travellers, bums, musicians, political dissidents, and of course poets.” (Yarrow, A.L. 1988). That these great minds were not able to share their great ideas because of where society had placed them. The poem lead to wide spread attacks on Ginsberg and attempts were made to keep his books out of stores and libraries.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, early rap music [and rap music to this day] caused a lot of controversy in America. Media and Political groups were quick to blame rap music for the seeming trends of youth violence. They were quick to judge the violent lyrics but seems to be missing the point of the rap’s message. Rap music reflects its origins in the hip-hop culture of young, urban, working-class African-Americans. Rap functions as a voice of an otherwise underrepresented group in America. (Blanchard, B. n.d.). This can be said for Howl also. Allen Ginsberg was giving a voice to those who could not share their own. However, unlike the authors of the beats generations, many famous rappers such as Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G have been murdered for the music they were creating; for the messages they were trying to convey.
Blanchard, B. (n.d.) Edge; ethics of development in a global environment. The social significance of rap and hip-hop culture. Retrieved on May 5th 2017. from https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/socialsignificance.htm
Yarrow, A.L. (1988). The New York times. Allen Ginsberg’s ‘howl’ in a new controversy. Retrieved on May 5th 2017. From http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/06/arts/allen-ginsberg-s-howl-in-a-new-controversy.html
The Wasteland is a poem by T.S Eliot, published in 1922 after World War I. At that time, the poet was said to be recuperating from poor health and the trauma of post-war, in addition to dealing with frustrations stemming from a broken marriage (Miller, 2010). While “wasteland” is defined by Oxford Dictionaries (n.d.) as “an unused area of land that has become barren or overgrown” or “a bleak and unused or neglected urban or industrial area”, there are underlying meanings and pessimism behind the term “wasteland” in the poem.
ReplyDeleteAs observed by Brooker and Bentley (1992) in the first section, “The Burial of the Dead”, the meaning of wasteland was established as the modern city that rose after the WWI’s destruction. The destruction of museums, galleries, and inevitably, culture, and the loss of human lives constitute the wasteland.
The poet’s anguish is presented right from the beginning “April is the cruellest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain”. This cynical approach is very much in contrast with conventional attitudes towards April, as April in the Northern Hemisphere is the month of spring; it is a time of hope and renewal, regrowth and regeneration. However, Eliot considers April to be cruel, as corpse and human suffering are exposed amidst the beautiful weather, reminding him of death. Instead, winter was appreciated, as the snow hid the remnants of destruction from sight (Brooker & Bentley, 1992).
Lewis (2007) noted that the poem is saturated with allusions. For instance, the first lines of the poem alludes to Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales’ description of April, “When April with his showers so sweet / Has pierced the drought of March to the root…” echoing a popular rhyme “April showers bring May flowers”. According to Lewis (2007), Eliot utilises the technique of allusion to: add symbolic weight to the poem; encourage free association in readers’ minds; and establish a tone of pastiche that assembles bits and pieces of exhausted civilisation.
One of the key features of the poem is the fragmented style, which tends to confuse and cause discomfort to readers. This fragmented style can be interpreted as a representation of a confused and fragmented society, projecting the complexities of modern living (Nicolosi, 1980). The poem is flecked with numerous interruptions, corresponding to the fragmented style (Nicolosi, 1980). Lines 31 to 34 “Frisch weht der Wind Der Heimat zu. Mein Irisch Kind, Wo weilest du?”; lines 41 to 42 “Looking into the heart of light, the silence. Od' und leer das Meer” are examples of how the poet interrupts the poem with other languages. Other key features of the poem include “plays between bridges and chasms, repetitions and aggressive novelties, echoes and new voices” (Levenson, 1984, p. 210).
This poem is an obvious shift from romanticism, and amongst those that sparked off modern and post-modern movements. However, there is an element of nostalgia in the text. As conveyed by Wright and Kauertz (1984), “pastoral and romanticism, the myth of the golden age, lurk behind the exposition of contemporary social problems” (p.6). Perhaps the most influential aspect of the poem is the reproduction of traumatic movements, the “sense of desolation, uncertainty, futility, the groundlessness of aspiration of the vanity of endeavour and a thirst for a life giving water which seems suddenly have failed” (Venugopala, 2014, p. 11).
DeleteReferences:
Brooker, J. S., & Bentley, J. (1992). Reading" The waste land": modernism and the limits of interpretation. Univ of Massachusetts Press.
Miller, J. E. (2010). TS Eliot's personal waste land: exorcism of the demons. Penn State Press.
Nicolosi, R. J. (1980). TS Eliot and Music: An Introduction. The Musical Quarterly, 66(2), 192-204.
Oxford Dictionaries. (n.d.). Definition of wasteland in English. Retrieved June 7, 2017, from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/wasteland
Wright, A., & Kauertz, A. (1984). Literature of Crisis, 1910–22: Howards End, Heartbreak House, Women in Love and The Waste Land. Springer.
How is Beat Poetry linked to Rap?
ReplyDeleteBeat Poetry is a style of poetry that evolved in the 1940’s in New York and on the West Coast that became prominent in the 1950’s. It is characterised by its use of rhythm or ‘beat’ and flow and usually contains many messages about culture and society. Beat poetry began after the end of World War II and has become a hugely influential way of expressing opinions as well as being central to the development of rap music. Notable Beat Poets include Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso who are known as poets from the ‘beat generation’. These poets are famed for the way they pushed boundaries particularly in the way they delivered their messages. Lots of the poems contained poetry that questioned mainstream politics and culture and gave a new perspective on the world. The use of poetry and spoken word became important and influenced what is now known as rap music.
(Proverb: From A Poet's Glossary, 2016)
Rapping is defined by Wikipedia (2017) as a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular", which is performed or chanted in a variety of ways, usually over a backbeat or musical accompaniment. The components of rap include "content" (what is being said), "flow" (rhythm, rhyme), and "delivery" (cadence, tone). Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that rap is usually performed in time to an instrumental track."
When we listen to the way rappers deliver their lyrics we can hear the influence of beat poetry particularly in the flow and rhythm of the sentences. Rap lyrics are now taught with traditional poetry in schools as the writer’s uses similar techniques in expressing a point. Sorrentino (2003) states in the Yale National Initiative, a guide for teaching and engaging students, “Most of the lyrics and poems chosen will relate in theme, but will also have similar poetic elements. For example, Hughes's Mother to Son poem will be taught parallel to Tupac's Dear Mama lyrics. The theme of mother and son will be the focus, while the elements of storytelling, rhythm, and rhyme used to create the beautiful flow of both texts can be learned and appreciated.” As Rap is a popular genre of music, it is taught in schools to engage students and focus on the same elements that are contained in poetry such as beat, rhythm, rhyme and general flow of sentences in expressing a point.
References:
Proverb: From A Poet's Glossary. (2016, June 20). Retrieved June 04, 2017, from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brief-guide-beat-poets
Rapping. (2017, June 06). Retrieved June 11, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapping
Sorrentino, P. (2003, March 11). Comments (0). Retrieved June 06, 2017, from http://teachers.yale.edu/curriculum/viewer/new_haven_11.03.03_u
Thanks for sharing, James! It's interesting to note that while beat poetry evolved some 30 years before rap, it has laid the foundation for rap in its poetic technique and momentum.
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