Desire4 2012

Monday 28 May 2012

Romanticism:

1. How is the Romantic construction of the Sublime reflected in the ideological, conceptual and linguistic construction of the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader? Discuss one or two examples...

Post-/modernism

1. What are the key features of High Modernism and what was the ‘movements’ agenda with regards language use?

2. How can you identify Modernist texts?

3. Is post-modernism an extension or refutation of Modernism?

4. What is ‘Beat’ poetry ?

5. What is the link between Beat poetry and blues, Beat poetry and rap?

6. What is it about both Beat poetry and rap that has provoked censorship?

15 comments:

Sora Baek14 June 2012 at 11:14
Hello. I want to answer to the question 4. ‘What is “Beat” poetry?’ in Post-/modernism.
After World War II, beat poetry was developed in the 1940s in America. That is the poet that asks the questions about politics and culture. The beat poems are as in the following, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso. These poets are called the Beat Generation, which is a group for writers who think about the change of consciousness with the interest and do not accept the previous writing style. The term of ‘Beat Generation’ was created by Jack Kerouac after a conversation with John Clellon Holmes in 1948. John Clellon Holmes wrote the article about’ This Is The Beat Generation’ in a New York Times. The main work of the Beats is the struggle in opposition to literary tradition and social conformity. The example of Beat poetry is

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical
naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry
dynamo in the machinery of night . . .
--Allen Ginsberg, "Howl"
(Poets.org, n.d.).

Poets.org, (n.d). A brief Guide to the Beat poets Retrieved from http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5646
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Sora Baek14 June 2012 at 12:04
This is my answer about question 2. How can you identify Modernist texts?

Modernism indicates the mode that emerged from the literature and art after World-War I. Modernist literature was written about the breakdown with tradition, the unordered life and the concern of sub-conscious. Modernism is divided into British and Irish modernism and American modernism.
In British and Irish modernism, the authors suffered World War I (1914-1919) and doubted the schools where they learned. They regarded these schools as the unreliable educational establishments for life. That is the reason why they believed that these instruments had brought the bloody war. As a result, they decided to find the answers themselves. Popular British modernists are James Joyce, Ford Madox Ford, Virginia Woolf, Stevie Smith, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence and T.S. Eliot (Lorcher, T, 2012).
In case of American modernism, Modernism was by American writers of “The Lost Generation” in the 1920s. The writers were disenchanted after World-War I (Doopedia, n.d.). Modernists of America are Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Hart Grane, and Sherwood Anderson (Lorcher, T, 2012).

Reference
Doopedia. (n.d.). Lost generation. Retrieved June 13, 2012 from http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=55706
Lorcher, T.(2012). Modernism in literature. Retrieved June 13, 2012 from http://www.brighthubeducation.com/high-school-english-lessons/29453-modernism-in-literature/
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Rubana Hasan14 June 2012 at 13:44
3.Is post-modernism an extension or refutation of Modernism?
Postmodernism is a modern addition to the subject of Philosophy. Postmodernism is difficult to understand and its principles are at times opposing. Postmodernism rejects most of the basic creative pillars of present-day Western civilization. Particularly, it considers as illegal and no longer in use certain significant principles, concepts and process representing Western culture. In brief, postmodernism express a rejection of the philosophy that has represented Western belief since its beginning (Uduigwomen, 2005).

It is beleived that the concept of postmodernism have begun in the 1960s among artists and critics in New york and it was deeply involved with European theorists in the 1970s. The major postmodern intellectuals include Jean-Francois Lyotard, Jacques Derrida, Michael Foucalt, Richard Rorty, Paul Feyerbend, Roland Barthes etc. Particularly, Jean Francois Lyotard is beleived to have critisized on the truthfulness of the modern age inventions ('the grand narratives'), the developing liberation of humanity through science, and the concept that philosophy is able to reinstating unity to learning and establishing worldwide genuine knowledge for humanity. In this way postmodernism became connected with the criticisms on worldwide knowledge and foundationalism (Uduigwomen,2005).

"Lyotard beleives that it is no longer possible to talk about a totalizing idea of reason for there is no reason, only reasons" (Sarup,p.131-132 as cited in Uduigwomen,2005). It rejects the idea that there is a streotype, a standard, a foundation or any particular way of deciding rationality (Ozumba, p.60 as cited in Uduigwomen,2005).
"Thus it rejects such modernist ideas or notions as presence, centrality, foundationalism, structuralism, universalism or any theory that goes beyond the manifest to the latent ."(Sarup,p.132). The reason is that these impressive totalizing ideas try to describe various meanings of reality (Uduigwomen,2005).

Reference
Uduigwomen, A. (2005). Philosophical objections to the knowability of truth:Answering Postmodernism .Quodlibet Journal, 7 (2), Retrieved from http://www.quodlibet.net/articles/uduigwomen-postmodernism.shtml
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Rubana Hasan14 June 2012 at 14:59
4. What is 'Beat' poetry?
The term "Beat generation" was created by Jack kerouvac sometimes around 1948 to explain his group of intellectual friends. The popular Beat writings included Jack Kerouvac's On the Road, Allen Ginsberg's Howl, and William Burrough's Naked Lunch. Both Howl and Naked Lunch experienced the center of indecency trials in the United States that supported to make it liberal what could be published in accordance with the law (Beat generation,n.d.).

The Beat Generation, also introduced as the beat movement, consisted of some American writers who appeared in the 1950s. Gary Snyder, the radical poet Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Jack Ginsberg, were some of the well-known Beat writers (Beat generation, n.d.).

Most of the Beats, related to Western poetry were based on the British Romantic poets, for example, William Blake (Ginsberg) or Percy Bysshe Shelley (Gregory Corso). Despite their loud criticisms, some of the beats were extremely liberal. Moreover, the Beats accurately researched Eastern influences on Snyder and Whalen (and afterwards Ginsberg). lawrence Ferlinghetti (obtained ph.D. from the Sorbonne and owned city Lights Books) gained skills from various French writers, many of whom he translated in English and nearly all whom were little known to American critics of the 1950s (Beat poetry, 2001).

It is necessary to beleive that, in spite of appearing in front of people, Beat poetry did not become well-known naturally from the published pages of Madison Avenue Lifestyle magazines. instead the poetry of Ginsberg, Kerouvac, Corso, Snyder, Kyger, di Prima, and Ferlinghetti appeared where and when it did because all of these poets were very well prepared. This preparedness helped each of the poets to begin innovatively based on the foundations established by the former poets. As literary San Fransisco was very far from the remaining parts of the country, America and the general people was trying to cope with the Cold War. The Beats were first introduced as an anomaly, an insignificant obstacle in daily life. In contrast, an analysis on their works signifies that in reality it is based on a comprehensive range of traditions (Beat poetry, 2001).

By the 1960s, the Beats became very famous worldwide. In San Francisco, Snyder, Kyger, Ferlinghetti, and di Prama were frequently requested for to write poems to gatherings in support of environmental and spiritual causes. At a time when American poetry were connected with the classroom, the writers connected with the Beat generation would frequently present themselves and their poetry literally at the barricades. For this reason they received criticisms and their poetry sometimes (although not often) suffered. However, through the decades the Beat writers courageously confronted disrespect from the well-known poets but they did not stop writing poetry to make it a general art once more (Beat poetry, 2001).

Reference
Beat generation (n.d.). Retrieved June 2, 2012, from http://www.heureka.clara.net/art/beat-generation.htm

Beat poetry (2001). Retrieved June 2, 2012, from http://www.credoreference.com.ezyproxy.aut.ac.nz/entry/routampoetry/beat_poetry
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Rubana Hasan14 June 2012 at 16:18
2. How can you identify Modernist texts?

Modernist works filled with a particularly various characters who are doctors. Recall, for instance, Nick Adam's father in Hemingway's stories, the violently domineering Sir william Bradshow in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, the doctor exist through his prescription of unhealthy abortion pills for a female character in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and Dr. Mathew O' connor in Djuna Barne's Nightwood. Medical practioners, as introduced to a broad collection of modernist texts, express a difficult cultural pressure of the post-victorian period. The attempt to control of the innovative abilities inherent in language and women's medicine influenced both the literary and medical history of the period. "At stake in both fields was the power to define standards for the emerging professions to create distinctions, to establish differences." As the very clear evidence of difference, structurally characterized gender became the place of fight for power. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar critisized that male writers in the beginning of the 20th century were disturbed by "women's usurpation of the market place,'' or competition to explain the profession through the demand for their work. As an influence between the male and female realms, fictitious and existing, the male gynecologist character represents the complex gender issues of the post-Victorian period and helps authors to research on serious problems of men and women (Kauz,1995).

The term modernism indicates to the radical shifting in aesthetic and cultural awareness found in the art and literature of the post-WorldWar One period. The orderly, fixed and naturally expressive world view of the nineteenth century could not, wrote T.S. Eliot, accord with "the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history." In this way modernism presents a different style with Victorian middle class ethics; opposing to 19th century optimism, they introduced a completely pessimistic description of a culture in disorder. This ordeal generally creates an unclear disinterest and ethical relativism (Modernism and the modern novel,n.d.).

In literature, the activity is connected with the writngs of Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, W.B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, H.D,, Franz Kafka and Knut Hamsun. In their effort to reject of the aesthetic difficulties of the realist novel, these writers presented a collection of literary strategies and symbols (Modernism and the modern novel,n.d.).

Modernist formality also damaged its political arena. A lot of the most influential modernist's either misused fascism or obviously supported it (Eliot, Yeats, Hamsun and Pound). This should not be considered as astonishing. Modernism is clearly non-egalitarian and Its disrespect for the commonly used conventions of meaning create many of its greatest achievements (e.g.Eliot's "The Waste land," Pound's "Cantos," Joyce's Finnegans Wake, Woolf's The Waves) mostly not understandable to the general reader. For Eliot, such reaction was essential for interrupting the deterioration of art in the period of merchandise distribution and a literature associated with the most inferior common factor (Modernism and the modern novel, n.d.).

References

Modernism and modern novel (n.d.).Retrieved June 2, 2012, from http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0255.html

Kautz,E.d.(1995). Gynecologists, power and sexuality in modernist texts.Journal of Popular Culture, 28(4), 81-91. Retrieved from http:search.proquest.com.ezyproxy.aut.ac.nz/docview/195359684
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Saebom Kim14 June 2012 at 17:25
5. What is the link between Beat poetry and blues, Beat poetry and rap?

I think Beat poetry and rap are about using beat and rhyme to clearly communicate what you wish to say. In the end, both poetry and rap have meaning within them, and they deliver the thoughts of individuals according to their own individual way. Repeating of similar sounds and words make the poem or rap interesting and easier for the listener. It effectively conveys the meaning and message in the poetry. Both poetry and rap contain stories individuals wish to share. Both beat poetry and rap have similar structures, but are different in shape.

In my opinion, the musical structure of rap allows the best expression of poetry. The way imagery and metaphors in poetry are expressed in rap is through the linguistic rhythmic structure of rap, rather than through musical rhythm and melody. “Rhyme” is what is conceived by the way the poetry’s cadence is formed, while “flow” is the rhythmic reading of the listed language. Rhyme and flow are two things that have systematically developed in the development of rap.

Reference.
Sunghoon, A. (2009, May 7). poetry and rap. In Ichiliablog. Retrieved June 13, 2012, from http://blog.naver.com/ashbead?Redirect=Log&logNo=120068035554
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Benjamin kim15 June 2012 at 01:28
The beat generation went great guns in the 1950s and was mainly a group of American writers who were actively writing the poets during the World War II. Its motives to write a beat poetry were based on drugs and alternative forms of sexuality, Eastern religion, a rejection of materialism and perfect ways of expressing one’s feelings. “The actual meaning of the term “Beat” is in fact ambiguous enough to cover a range of implications favored by the various writers associated with the movement” (Beat Poetry, 2001). Jack Kerouac had strong association with the Roman Catholic Church as he was brought up having an influence of the religion since he had been born. He realized that the word “beat” is enrooted in the words “beatitude” and “beatific.”
Many readers of the poetry are fascinated to read as it has unexpected and diverse stories in itself.
The beat generation continues to appeal to many readers in the 21st century, considering the leading practitioners have passed away. However, the rest of practitioners continuously publish innovative volumes of poetry.
Most of the beat poetries were originated from British Romantic poets, in western culture, such as William Blake or Percy Bysshe Shelly.
Although there are well-known beat generation writers, they are still not treated that they deserve in terms of their capabilities of writing such poetries (Beat Poetry, 2001).

Reference
Beat Poetry. (2001). In Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century: Routledge. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/login?qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.credoreference.com/entry/routampoetry/beat_poetry
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Saebom Kim15 June 2012 at 03:50
2. How can you identify Modernist texts?

The movement that played an important role in artistic area happened between 1900 and 1940. Reexamination of existence was the main characteristic. Modernist writers want to get rid of the traditional written form with the realization of a new age characterized with machines, buildings and technology had come into the rural life once for all. A negative point that what people may come across in the future occurred at the same time. Loneliness and isolation are the most common themes in modernist works even in city. There are a great number of writers want to get that kind of feeling by involve themselves in stream-consciousness writhing. Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald , Virginia Woolf and James Joyce are also part of that.
Modernist poetry is characterized by open form and free verse. It is a great breakthrough at nineteenth-century compared with normal rule of meter and thyme, though it is common now. The lost generation was a title named by Gertrude Stein as represents of those artists of the 1920s who has lost their confidence about America and find the way of their life out in Europe, mainly in France. T. S. Eliot is one of the most known poets and has a great influence on the modernist area. His works during that certain time like The Waste Land described well about the despair and worry of the whole country. Modernist literature was highlighted in “The Jazz Age” (1918-1929) represented by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby, it mainly describes the degenerate and the freedom of sex.

Reference
Jinwoo, S. (2007). Modenism. In Navev knwledge dictonary. Retrieved June 14, 2012, from http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=921528&mobile&categoryId=170

Yoonjae, L. (2008, June 24). Modernism literaure. In Blog daum. Retrieved June 14, 2012, from http://blog.daum.net/cjscjsgl/15028954
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Saebom Kim15 June 2012 at 03:54
4. What is ‘Beat’ poetry ?

Beat poetry means, it is expression rhythm of poetry that using the beat. Beat poetry was developed during the 1940s in New York City and on the west coast, with San Francisco as the center in the early 1950s.Some poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso who were questioning about the main current of politics and culture because of the end of World War II were interested in changing awareness and opposed to the traditional writing style. They were known as the Beat generation and also combined with poets involved in the Francisco Renaissance movement, such as Kenneth Rexroth and Robert Duncan. The Beats concentrate on the battle against social conformity and literary tradition in their works. Hallucinogenic drugs were used to get a greater idea by the poets as well as meditation and Eastern religion. Buddhism as a very important religion can be seen from much of the work by Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg. Howl and Other Poems is commonly taken as a represent of Beats poets. It is the first book of Allen Ginsberg. But it was considered as obscene and publisher of the book Lawrence Ferlinghetti's press City Lights was put into jail in 1956. The judge formulate Howl was not immortal and obscene at a large scale of this kind of case and make the public concentrate in Ginsberg and the Beat poets. Ferlinghetti not only published the Pocket Poets Series but also established the San Francisco bookstore City Lights which is taken as the legendary and an important milestone of Beat generation history. It is operated till now and some of the streets around it have been changed into Beat poets as a memory of their great contribution to the culture area of San Francisco. William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac are best known for their works in fiction area such as Naked Lunch and On the Road, but just like some Beats such as poets Diane di Prima, Neal Cassady, Anne Waldman and Michael McClure, they also played a very important role in Beats with their poets. It is said that Kerouac is the one who first come up with the terminology “Beats generation” as a description of his poor life and his observation during the years after war.

Reference
Sukjae, L. (2008, March 17). Architeture an art meet. In Naverbook. Retrieved June 14, 2012, from http://book.naver.com/bookdb/text_view.nhn?bid=4481353&dencrt=fnKEBHtv5SrfrU5y%253%39dXy8JI5A5srFrp2yeiIXEC%253%39PMg%253D&term=beat+poetry&query=%E2%80%98Beat%E2%80%99+poetry
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Benjamin kim15 June 2012 at 04:07
How can you identify modernist texts?

The Modernist Period in English Literature began to emerge and shape in the twentieth century around 1965. “In broad terms, the period was marked by sudden and unexpected breaks with traditional ways of viewing and interacting with the world” (Rahn, 2011). A series of cultural shocks is the main cause that triggered Modernism.
The first of the shocks was the Great War, which devastated Europe during the World War I (1914-1918). At that time, this “War to End All Wars” was considered terrible horror to the extent that many people could not imagine what the world would look like but facing hardship of their life.
Modernism manifests a quite strong sense of cohesion and similarity across genres and places (Rahn, 2011).

Favouritism of narcissistic interest in language and its process, which resulted abandoning the social world, is seen as mockery of Modernism. Because Modernists have not contributed and influenced the practices of reading and writing, there is an argument of their achievements as only those terms and activities could be comprehended (Keep, McLaughlin, & Parmar).

Reference

Keep, C., McLaughlin, T., & Parmar, R. Modernism and the modern novel. Retrieved June 14th, 2012, from http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0255.html

Rahn, J. (2011). Modernism. Retrieved June 14th, 2012, from http://www.online-literature.com/periods/modernism.php
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Lian16 June 2012 at 04:07
4. What is ‘Beat’ poetry ?

After World War II, American youth have a general disillusionment of human civilization. Lethal and devastating of the war exceeds the human ability to control. The Cold War and McCarthyism of the 1950s destroyed the human mutual understanding, trust and the living environment, people feel fear and loneliness. Some of young people could not escape the impact of this era of disease, the formation of the "Beat Generation". It was a group which consists of young poets and writers and it have a profound impact on future western culture, some of scholars regarded it as the first true sense of the post-modern “Asian culture” (Beat Generation, n.d.).

Like the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s, the American "Beat Generation" of the 1950s names both a literary current and a broader cultural phenomenon or mood. They hold a positive awareness of social participation and literary ideals and they have rebuilt American society and culture as their own responsibility. They launched a protest to traditional values and academic literature, however, they take the negative approach escapism. Because of this, the fifties of United States also are regarded as “cowardly fifties”.

The origins of the word 'beat' are obscure, but the meaning is only too clear to most Americans. Kerouac, who coined the expression, beat, insisted that it meant not simply "beat down" or exhausted, but also "beatific." In his works, he explained that the primary meaning of beat was poor, frustrated, penniless, beating down, roaming and sleeping in the subway, but at last it became the revolutionary slogan and label of American society behavior.

Beat generation were crazy, undisciplined, desperate and self-indulgent, however, they were also active, ambitious and sincere. They certainly did not have an ability to change life which is indeed conservative and old-fashioned. Thus they want to escape from it, they gave up money, status, social responsibility and family obligation, and they got pleasure from taking addictive drugs, sexual love and jazz. In pursuit of sensational experience, they tried to free themselves from old ideas, and look for a new life style, faith, values and relations others. They weren’t “beat” down, as the term apparently suggested. Their life and art practice both demonstrate their active attitude towards the life. They took risk, brought forth new ideas, and explored true essence of life bravely.
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Lian16 June 2012 at 04:08
The concept of literary creation of beat generation was spontaneous, even very confusing. These works were usually failed to comply with regular, the structure and form chaotic and the language rough and even vulgar. William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac were the central beat writers at that time. Kerouac’s On the Road, Burroughs’s Naked Lunch became the representative work of the Beat Generation (Beat Generation, n.d.). Their work stressed spontaneous and uncensored writing, often based on their own experiences among small-time criminals. They influenced a whole generation of American youth by their crazy living style, they said: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked” "There is no line between the 'real world' and 'world of myth and symbol.' Objects, sensations, hit with the impact of hallucination." "I'm running out of everything now. Out of veins, out of money."

Beat generation were the important force of questioning and negation of traditional cultural values and they were the most intense challenger of the authority of intellectual class and mainstream culture in the American.

Beat generation. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 14, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Generation

Jonathan Baumbach. (1965). The landscape of night-mares: Studies in the contemporary American novel. New York, America: New York University Press.

Xiao, M. H. (2000). The rebellion and exploration of beat generation. Retrieved from http://2010.cqvip.com/qk/80589X/200002/4300029.html

Zhou, L. F. (2005). The spiritual source beat generation. Retrieved from http://wenku.baidu.com/view/17c4220bf78a6529647d533a.html
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