weeks 10-12: Post-/modernism
Modernism
What does The Wasteland mean (Lol)?
OK, well, let's unpack that:
1. How has it been interpreted? Use citations.
2. What are some of its key features?
3. In what ways has it been influential??
PoMo
5. What kinda protest song/rap/other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?
What does The Wasteland mean (Lol)?
OK, well, let's unpack that:
1. How has it been interpreted? Use citations.
2. What are some of its key features?
3. In what ways has it been influential??
PoMo
1. What common qualities do the "Beats" share? Why were they so-named?
2. On what grounds was Ginsberg's HOWL accused of being obscene, and on what grounds was it defended?
3. In what ways are Beat poetry and rap linked?
4. How was Bob Dylan's song Master of War involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
1. How has it been interpreted? Use citations.
ReplyDeleteThe Waste Land by T.S. Eliot is the masterpiece of modernism literature. Eliot involved the comtempoary, popular culture images to the tradictional, classical and ancient literature and myths. “The title is indicative of Eloy’s attitude toward his comtemporary society, as he uses the idea of a dry and sterile wasteland as a metaphor for Europe devastated by war and desperate for spiritual replenishment but depleted of the cultural tolls necessary of renewal.” (Peck, 2018). As Peck statement shown that The Waste Land is interpreted by the psychological and cultural crisis that came with the loss of moral and cultural identity after World War I.
2. What are some of its key features?
As a modernism literature, Eliot’s style and the content of The Waste Land are both refer to the effect of literary movement of modernism. The key features that I find are fragmentary, allusions and the tone.
Fragmented forms is involved in all modernist litearature. Different from the tradictional forms of writing, fragmentary is more common and freedom in modernism pieces. The Waste Land have five titled sections, “there are no consistent rhyme scheme or meter.” . The style is more free and have no set form.
Allusions in modernism is an interesting features, it is defined as the literature refer to the older pieces work and “make it new”. The Waste Land actually reference to amouts of classic literature, for example the classical Greek myth and tragedy in Tiresias in Part III, the Shakespeare, Carthage and Phoenica.
After War World I, the loss of Europeans world fekk apart in a sense. So that Eliot created the famous line in the Waste Land “April is the cruellest month…”, the tone of the poem provide reader the darkness and sadness of the war.
3. In what ways has it been influential??
“The Waste Land has been interpreted as a meditation on the decline of society and culture” (Joshi,2013). The poem is deeply reflect on personal crisis on society and the horror and cruel of war, in addition the poem reflected the cultural and spritual decline.
Another reason that why The Waste Land could be the greatest modernist literature is the poem reference amouts of myths ,renew the tradictional, classical forms to the society.
"Describe The Wasteland by T.S Eliot as a modern poem." eNotes, 4 July 2012,https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/describe-wasteland-by-t-s-eliot-modern-poetry-347146. Accessed 1 June 2018.
"The Waste Land - Summary" Society and Self, Critical Representations in Literature Ed. David Peck. eNotes.com, Inc. 1997 eNotes.com 1 Jun, 2018
Joshi, A (2013). What is so great and influential about T.S. Eliot's poem “The Waste Land”? Retrieved December 7th,2013 from https://www.quora.com/What-is-so-great-and-influential-about-T-S-Eliots-poem-%E2%80%9CThe-Waste-Land%E2%80%9D
The Wasteland
ReplyDelete1. The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot is widely regarded as the most important poem of the 20th century and is the central work of modernist literature. His poem includes a whole lot of references to classical literature from cultures all around the world. Critics and scholars would say that this poem is obscure. Made up of four pieces, each from a different perspective and speaker. Throughout the poem there is a constant shift between different speakers, without warning, so the reader is being pulled in different directions when reading. The poem is also a representation of the time, the society and historical events. The Wasteland was written after World War 1.
“The poem's structure is divided into five sections. The first section, "The Burial of the Dead," introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair. The second, "A Game of Chess," employs vignettes of several characters—alternating narrations—that address those themes experientially. "The Fire Sermon," the third section, offers a philosophical meditation in relation to the imagery of death and views of self-denial in juxtaposition influenced by Augustine of Hippo and eastern religions. After a fourth section, "Death by Water," which includes a brief lyrical petition, the culminating fifth section, "What the Thunder Said," concludes with an image of judgment” (“The Wasteland”, n.d.).
2. The key features that I found in The Wasteland are fragmentary, allusions and tone.
Fragmentary became a typical form of poetry in the medieval and renaissance eras and some poems were intentionally fragmented, perhaps suggesting symbolism of some kind. The fragmentary type of poetry is open and free. The Wasteland is in five sections, there is no flow to the poem but broken off in pieces. “The modernist poets reinvented the fragment as an acutely self-conscious mode of writing that breaks the flow of time, leaving gaps and tears, lacunae. They created discontinuous texts, collages and mosaics, fragmentary epics such as Ezra Pound’s the Cantos (1915–1969), Louis Zukofsky’s “A” (1927–1978), and T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” (1922)” (Hirsch, 2014).
Allusions is “a brief, intentional reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person, place, event, or movement” (Poetry Foundation, 2018). The Wasteland is packed with allusions. The poem refers to various amounts of classical literature such as Tiresias and Shakespeare.
As for tone of The Wasteland, Eliot begins the poem off in a dark and sad tone possibly an indication to the devastation of the war; “April is the cruellest month…”
3. Many consider Eliot’s work “The Wasteland” as one of the most influential work in modern literature. “First published in 1922, it captures the feelings and sentiments of modern culture after World War I. Line thirty of "The Waste Land," "I will show you fear in a handful of dust," is often viewed as a symbol of mankind’s fear of death and resulting love of life” (Bartleby, 2016).
Eliot’s work inspired many writers in his time and continues to even today.
Bartleby.com. (2016). T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland - The most influential work in modern literature. Retrieved June 18, 2018, from https://www.bartleby.com/essay/T-S-Eliots-The-Waste-Land-The-F3ZX9WZTJ
Hirsch, E. (2014). Fragment: From a poet's glossary. Retrieved from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/fragment-poets-glossary
Poetry Foundation. (2018). Glossary of poetic terms. Retrieved June 19, 2018, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/allusion
Shmoop. (n.d.). The wasteland allusions. Retrieved June 19, 2018, from https://www.shmoop.com/the-waste-land/allusions.html
Shmoop. (n.d.). The wasteland summary. Retrieved June 20, 2018, from https://www.shmoop.com/the-waste-land/summary.html
"The Wasteland", (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land