The Post Civil-War Climate and an Overview of Literary Movements
The literature in the years following the Civil War was tinged with Romanticism. As we see with Dickinson and Whitman, in Romanticism there is a focus on the emotional aspect of life and the beauty of nature. It is an introspective form of literature. Romanticism in America owed much to the earlier Transcendentalists, like Emerson and Thoreau, who believed that both nature and art were expressions of the divine. These authors considered man's role in the universe and had an intense emphasis on personal identity. This quest for identity- for defining oneself- can be seen as reflective of the psychological state of the country, as America healed from the rift of the Civil War and attempted to redefine itself as a nation.
As we move forward toward the 20th century, the nation was evolving with immigration, further settlement of the West, and technological advancement that changed transportation, communication, economies, and ways of life. Our literature changed too, from a less 'Romantic'view to one much more realistic and socially aware. Women's rights, the plights of the lower class and immigrant populations, and the social evolution from traditional to modern society began to appear in the our literature and poetry. Realism attempted to portray the world as it was, without glorified happy endings or unnecessary beautification.
Both Regionalism and Naturalism took shape within this larger "Realism"movement. The Regionalists, in a way overlapping with the Realist authors in their focus on nature, began to give all of America glimpses inside their specific part of the country, from geography to dialect. On the other hand, the Naturalists pointed to one overlying fact that regardless of location, man is at the mercy of nature. One example of Regionalism is the work of Willa Cather, who is closely associated with life for European immigrants on the Nebraska plains and, later, with the city of Santa Fe. Naturalists include writers like Stephen Crane and Jack London, who wrote stories of man in conflict with nature.
World War One brought along a massive shift in our literature, art, and music. The war began in 1914, and this is about the time that we date the beginning of the Modern period. Modernists sought to break free from tradition in many ways. Wars had marred national sentiment, and there was a movement to change the old way of thinking. Writers like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald are well-known Modernists. They used a whole new writing style and had a cynicism and attitude unlike works of a generation prior.
World War Two and the dawning of the atomic age brings us to the Post-Modern era, an era that some people think we are still in. This period is marked by discontent and anxiety, especially within families. Post-Modern works often depict threats to the family and to personal happiness. Drug addiction, crime, divorce, adultery, parent-child conflict, etc. are prominent in this period. Authors such as Joyce Carol Oates and most other contemporary novelists fit into this category.
The later part of the 20th century and the start of the 21st introduced, as a subset of the Post-Modern period, a rediscovery of multi-cultural literature of earlier decades and a popularity of multi-cultural authors in contemporary writing, reflecting the myriad of cultures that make up the American population.
Whitman and Dickinson
Walt Whitman created what was to become one of the most distinctive of all American poetic forms, "free verse,"a pattern of lines and stanzas without a fixed metrical pattern or ending rhyme scheme. Such an open form complemented his ecstatic vision of American democracy and expansion, concepts that he spiritualized in "Song of Myself,"the lead work in his seminal book of poetry, Leaves of Grass.
Abandoning the conventions of regularity in form and style so popular in American poetry of the mid-nineteenth century, Whitman adopted the cadences of music, crafting the organic and fluid features of open lines, expansive catalogs, the lyrical flow of imaginary flights, and ecstatic explosions of themes--all features of his "free verse,"a style complementary to Whitman's purpose of capturing the spiritual energy of the ever evolving and unfolding American democracy.
Like the poetry of Walt Whitman, who is generally credited with the development of "free verse,"Emily Dickinson spurned the fixtures and conventions of much of the didactic and morally rearming and reaffirming poetry of her period. An enigmatic character, Emily Dickinson was deeply troubled by the conventional religious concepts that theologians were addressing in their day and to which she always remained aloof.
Emily Dickinson was often considered a recluse, but exploration of her close friendships present a far different picture. Her letters (available under "Additional Resources") show a woman reaching out to others who share her interests. In many ways, she is even a revolutionary of her time. Her works are often witty, and with no husband or children, her life is not that of the traditional woman of her day.
Emily Dickinson wrote 1,775 poems, almost all of which were published after her death. Each of her works is short, characterized by intense, penetrating, and often ironic insight, and sometimes even pained obscurity. Together, however, the volume of the work reflects her obvious genius and poignant individualism. The subjects of her poetry range across a wide spectrum of daily experiences common to all people-from delight in the vision of birds, to grief at the loss of a close family member, to joy in a winter afternoon.
Using Web Resources to Assist with Poetry Analysis
There is an expectation that, as college students, you will use online library resources to support formal papers that deal with literature and poetry analysis.
However, before you get to the 'formal paper'writing stage, you will read poetry, post to forums about the poems, and have to think about poetry as a precursor to writing formal essays. In these early stages of writing, the preliminary writing phase of the overall writing process that eventually produces an essay, it is fine to do some general reading and research on the open web ( Google, Bing, etc.).
Ideally, you will consult general websites and articles when poetry or literature you are reading is especially difficult to understand. If what you are reading seems to be written in plain language, there is less need to do 'preliminary research.'
If you must look at websites like Wikipedia, Sparknotes, Shmoop, etc. to help understand a difficult poem or story, note the following:
You should NOT use quotes from sources like these to support your forum posts or formal essays. They are not considered credible or appropriate in an academic setting.
Each week, this course includes a "Ways of Reading"section in the Lessons to help fortify you with the tools you need to read and write about poetry and literature with confidence and without having to rely on the mediocre analysis you will find on websites such as those mentioned already.
Use sources like Wikipedia only to help understand the general context of a poem or story or to help you get comfortable with your understanding of a particularly difficult, intimidating work. Don't allow sites like these to extinguish or undermine your own instincts and ideas. If, for example, Wikipedia says that the flowers in John Updike's "Chrysanthemums"represent 'x,'but you thought they might mean "y,"you might allow Wikipedia to replace your idea y with theirs: x. I would rather hear you tell me how you came to think it was Y, what in the story makes you think Y, and how Y makes sense with the overall theme or message of the story. Just because Wikipedia says that the chrysanthemums mean 'X'does not mean that this is the one and only truth!
Allow sites like those mentioned here to help you to basically understand what a poem is talking about and to give you possible interpretations or insights that you might not come up with yourself. Just know that these interpretations are not definitive. These sites should open your mind to possible ways of interpreting works, not close your mind and force you to think that there is a single interpretation.
I strongly encourage you to make use of Youtube, and the Favorite Poem Project videos in particular, when reading and writing about poetry. Videos allow you to hear a poem being read and to hear people who love a given poem interpret it in their own way, tell you why it's so meaningful to them, or visually interpret the poem with images, animation, or other visual and auditory means, which can be very helpful. People learn in different ways, and videos can be a powerful tool to enable you to gain a basic understanding of a poem and to open your mind to possible ways of interpreting a poem.
Poetry Analysis
How to Explicate Poetry * these guidelines tell you how, generally, to read and write about poetry. This is not an actual assignment for you, but you should think about these ideas as a resource.
I. Read the Poem
Read the poem silently to yourself to develop a sense of the poem as a whole.
Read the poem aloud or listen to someone reading it aloud to reinforce your experience of the poem as a whole.
II. Analyze the Text of the Poem
Develop a paraphrase of the poem, framing each complete thought in your own words.
Identify the units of thought in the poem (in stanzas or shorter units).
Identify the main ideas conveyed in each unit of thought and the shifts or breaks between each unit.
Write a preliminary summary--perhaps only a single sentence--of each thought unit
III. Analyze the Elements of the Poem
Complete a scansion of the poem, identifying the metrical patterns and the rhyme scheme (if there is one).
Identify any recurring image patterns.
Identify any symbols emerging through the image patterns and identify their meaning or references.
Identify any unique uses of language.
Identify any breaks in the scansion and explain what seems to be the reason or purpose of the changes.
IV. Introduce External Support
Identify any features of the author's life or commentary that seem relevant to the creation, the purpose, the theme, or motivation for creating the poem.
Identify any historical, social, political, or philosophical elements that may seem relevant to an interpretation of the work.
V. Interpret the Poem
Explain what the central "message"of the poem means to you and identify the elements that have prompted your interpretation.
Explain alternative interpretations that other readers might draw from the poem and identify those features responsible.
VI. Evaluate the Poem
Identify criteria (standards) on which the poem should be judged.
Identify those elements of the poem that relate to those criteria.
Describe what an effective example of the standard would be like.
Explain why you feel the poem meets or fails to meet the standard illustrated in your description.
Ways of Reading
Whenever you look at, read, or listen to art, whether it's a painting, a film, a sculpture, a poem, a novel or any other creative form, there are 'ways of reading'that are sometimes called 'critical lenses'or 'schools of criticism.'
These are just different perspectives you can bring to bear on art, different ways of looking at it and responding to it, so that you can generate productive, interesting, and fruitful discussion about that art beyond "I like it"or "I don't get it".
Each week we will look at and try a new form of criticism. This first week, we are looking at the most basic: Reader Response Criticism
You might not be aware of this, but our thoughts and insights, which seem so personal and unique to us, are essentially manifestations of trends in our culture.
In an attempt at understanding the poems, it is natural in our postmodern lives to identify with the narrator or central character. We comprehend through word analysis &intuition what the narrator is feeling, and then we empathize with the narrator. If the narrator feels lonely, we think of loneliness in our own lives, what it has looked like and felt like. In a poem such as Walt Whitman's "A Noiseless, Patient Spider", we use our own construct of loneliness and desire to connect to make sense of the metaphor of the spider casting its web out into the world, time and time again.
This is not a bad thing.
People who create poems, songs, art, etc. depend on our association with the narrator, with the setting of a story, or with the overall theme or message in the story.
It's natural for us to relate things to ourselves, and it is also representative of a higher order thinking skill to be able not just to comprehend the meaning of a poem or story, but to synthesize the message with lessons we've learned in our own lives. When we reader-respond, we interact with the work in a highly personal way. The poem means something different to me than it does to you because we bring different assumptions, experiences, bias, personalities, etc. to it. My reading of poem is not 'right'and yours is not 'wrong'. They are equally valid as long as you can articulate and support your response.
When you are doing reader -response, you might read a work and ask yourself these kinds of questions to start coming up with a 'response':
How does a piece- or just a small part of it- relate to your own life?
What is it about a work that resonates with you, personally?
How does a piece seem to comment on or matter to contemporary society as you see it?
In what ways have you experienced similar situations?
Can you connect with the setting, the conflict, the emotional situation or struggle being depicted?
Do you know someone who has experienced a situation that is actually or thematically similar to the one described?
Have you ever felt like this?
Answers to these kinds of questions can help you to generate relevant discussion in the "Reader Response"school of criticism.