Black Arts Movement

1960s-1970s

The Black Arts Movement (BAM) is the artistic branch of the Black Power Movement. It started in Harlem by Amiri Baraka. It was one of the most controversial moments in the history of African American literature. The movement was triggered by the assassination of Malcolm X (an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist). Artists within the movement looked to create politically engaging work that considered the African American culture and historical events.

Characteristics:

Poems built around:

-       Anthems

-       Chants

-       Political slogans

Used in organizing work

Intent:

-       Awaken black people to the meaning of their lives

 Major Themes:

Black Power
Liberation

Styles:

Vernacular dialogues

Employment of Lit Devices:

Authors:

Amiri Baraka

Gwendolyn Brooks

Nikki Giovanni

Gill-Scott Heron

Etheridge Knight

Poem:

Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note by Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka

Lately, I've become accustomed to the way


The ground opens up and envelopes me


Each time I go out to walk the dog.


Or the broad edged silly music the wind


Makes when I run for a bus...



Things have come to that.



And now, each night I count the stars.


And each night I get the same number.


And when they will not come to be counted,


I count the holes they leave.



Nobody sings anymore.



And then last night I tiptoed up


To my daughter's room and heard her


Talking to someone, and when I opened


The door, there was no one there...


Only she on her knees, peeking into



Her own clasped hands

Black Mountain Poets

A group of poets from the Black Mountain College (BMC). The college was started in 1933 and lasted until 1956. It was one of the first schools to stress the importance of teaching creative arts. The college was started by John A. Rice, a scholar who left Rollins College.


Characteristics:
"Projective verse", a term coined by Olson, was the type of "open field" poetry composition that was centered at BMC. Projective verse centered around process rather than product. The "composition by field" urges poets to at the same time remove their personal emotions from their works and cast the energy of the poems to the reader directly. Spontaneity and "the act of the poem" then take the place of reason and description.

Distinctive style of poetic diction - 'yr' for 'your'

 Major Themes:
Human Experiences
Love
Nature
War
The Environment
Mysticism


Styles:
Open long-forms

Projective verse - based on the line and each line was to be a unit of breath and utterance. The content was to consist of one perception and lead directly to a further perception. It created a distinctive style of poetic diction ("yr" for "your").

Employment of Lit Devices:


Authors:
Charles Olson - taught at BMC from 1948-1956 and was its last Rector
Robert Creeley - student; teacher for two years at BMC; editor of the Black Mountain Review, became a link between the Black Mountain poets and the outside poets

Robert Duncan 

Denise Levertov 

Jonathan Williams 

Poem:
A Form of Women by Robert Creeley

Robert Creeley

I have come far enough
from where I was not before
to have seen the things
looking in at me from through the open door

and have walked tonight
by myself
to see the moonlight
and see it as trees

and shapes more fearful
because I feared
what I did not know
but have wanted to know.

My facd is my own, I thought.
But you have seen it
turn into a thousand years.
I watched you cry.

I could not touch you.
I wanted very much to
touch you
but could not.

If it is dark
when this is given to you,
have care for its content
when the moon shines.

My face is my own.
My hands are my own.
My mouth is my own
but I am not.

Moon, moon,
whn you leave me alone
all the darkness is
an utter blackness,

a pit of fear,
a stench,
hands unreasonable
never to touch.

But I love you.
Do you love me.
What to say
when you see me. 

Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance was a literary and cultural movement that began right after the end of WWI. Large numbers of African Americans moved North in search of jobs and of new opportunities.




Characteristics:
Intent
   - to improve and uplift African Americans through historical awareness 
   - "The New Negro"
         - term introduced by Alain LeRoy
         - described a new wave of African-American intellectuals who used poetry and other forms of artistic and cultural expression to subvert racism


Influenced by African American folk poetry and oral traditions 


Reflected new found pride in black culture 


Major Themes:
Migration
American Identity
AMerican Dream




Styles:
Varied from each poet
Repetitive Structure
Recurring themes of blues music
Jazz songs impacted the structure of poems
Free Verse




Employment of Lit Devices:
References to black American past and the experiences of slavery 




Authors:
Langston Hughes 1902-1967 ~ The Weary Blues (1926)
Countee Cullen 1903-1946 ~ I Have a Rendezvous With Life (1920s)
Claude McKay 1889-1948 ~ Birds of Prey
Effie Lee Newsome 1885-1979 ~ The Bronze Legacy (To a Brown Boy)
Jean Toomer 1894-1967 ~ Blue Meridian



Example:

My People by Langston Hughes




The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.

Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

The Odyssey

Major themes:
Loyalty - Telemachos searching for his father who has been gone for 20 years.
             - Penelope waits 20 years for her husband to return
Disloyalty - Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter
Pride/Arrogance - When Odysseus blinds the Cyclops he yells out something like "You have just been blinded by Odysseus, prince of Ithaca!"
Coming of Age - Telemachos starts out with good intentions and a naïve spirit but faces many barriers and eventually prevails 
                         - Odysseus grows in wisdom and judgement, making him a better king
Forgetting (or the evils of drugs and women) - The lotus eaters
               - Circe made the men forget 


What type of questions would this be good to answer?
Questions dealing with loyalty
Questions dealing with storytellers
Questions dealing with family dynamics


List of Major Lit Devices:
Motifs -
Storytelling ~ Telemachos and Meadelails are very good at this


Symbols - 
Birds ~ owls, falcons, sea ravens, eagle - Zeus watches in the form of an eagle. Eagle symbolizes the gods




Important Scenes or Favorite Scenes:
Favorite: When Odysseus wants to hear the sound of the siren's voices, he is told that he can hear them only if he shoves wax in his men's ears and if he is tied up tightly to the mast.




Important: Telemachos beginning his journey. (Backs up the Coming of Age theme)











List of Characters:

Odysseus
Telemachos
Agammenon- sacrifices his only daughter. He is murdered by his wife and her new boyfriend

Achilles – only weak in is his ankle. We see him in the Underworld, and he says he would rather be a slave in the living rather than a hero in the Underworld.

Helen – she was considered the most beautiful girl alive- reason the trojin war happen

Menelaus- Goatherd who insults Odysseus and taunts the swineherd and the beggar.

Aias (Ajax): The greater Ajax of the Iliad. He dies an early death after the war and is mentioned when Menelaus asks Proteus about his companions and when Odysseus goes to the land of the dead.

Orestes- Agamemnon’s son who killed his mother and her lover to get revenge

Nestor: Old king of Pylos who entertains Telemachus and advises him to go seek news for his father from Menelaus.

Mentor: the servant left in charge of Odysseus things 

Nausicaa: Daughter of Alcinous who finds Odysseus in the thicket near the river where he washed up on the island. She was prompted to go to the river by Athena.

Alcinoos: King of the Phaiakians who welcomes Odysseus and hears his long tale. He presents Odysseus with great treasures and gives him secure passage to Ithaca.

Arete: Wife of Alcinoos. Odysseus had to approach her to get to

Eumaios: swineherd

Theoclymenos: Seer who Telemachus brings with him from mainland Greece.

Melanthios: Goatherd who insults Odysseus and taunts the swineherd and the beggar.

Arnaios: (Iros) The beggar who comes into the house and taunts Odysseus and they fight and Odysseus kicks his butt

Eurycleia – Housekeeper and Telemachos's nanny

Tityo:

Sisyphus: rolls rock up

Amphinomos: One of the suitors who is opposed to killing Telemachus.

Telemachos- Odesseus son

Laertes: Odysseus' father. He appears only at the end of the poem and prepares to stand with his son against the Ithacan mob.

Penelope- Odyssies wife, mother of Telemachos

Antinoos: he head suitor, son of a man Odysseus saved from death. He is the first of the suitors to speak at all times and plans to kill Telemachus. He is also the first of the suitors to be killed by Odysseus.

Eurymachos : The second suitor, Eurymachus always speaks after Antinous or in place of him. He is the second suitor to die.

Lotus Eaters

Ciconians: Cyclops son of Poseidon who is blinded by Odysseus. Polyphemus is a shepherd who refuses to be a host to Odysseus and eats some of his men. He curses Odysseus and asks his father for revenge.

Polyphemos: Cyclops son of Poseidon who is blinded by Odysseus. Polyphemus is a shepherd who refuses to be a host to Odysseus and eats some of his men. He curses Odysseus and asks his father for revenge.

Scylla: Six-headed beast who inhabits the cave parallel to the whirlpool Charybdis. Scylla eats six of Odysseus' men.

Charybdis: swallows water to create a whirlpool and then spits the water back out

Aiolos: King of the winds who entertained Odysseus at an early part of his journey. He presents Odysseus with a bag of the winds so that he may get home safely. When Odysseus' men release the winds and the ship is blown back, Aeolus has no pity.

Elpenor: Young sailor who dies on the island of Circe from falling from her roof. He appears to Odysseus in the land of the dead and asks him to come bury him.

Teiresias: dead seer in hades that tells Odysseus how to get home

Eurylochos: Blind prophet who Odysseus goes to find in the land of the dead. He tells Odysseus how to get home and that he must appease Poseidon once he gets there.

Cassandra: raped and murdered by Little Ajax on Athena’s alter.

Tantalus: from hades. 

Structure: 
24 books (like chapters)
Chapters 1-4 ~ Telemachos and his journey to find his father to Phaiacia
Chapter 5-8 ~ Odysseus and his escape fromCalypo's island and his travels/adventures
Chapters 9-12 ~ Odysseus telling his back story of how he ended up on Calypso's island and how he got to Phaiacia to King Alcinoös.
Chapter 13-16 ~ Odysseus and Telemachor return to Ithaca
Chapters 17-20 ~ Odysseus returns home
Chapters 21-24 ~ Odysseus and Telemachos get revenge against the suitors and disloyal servants


Brief Summary:


Odysseus is trying to get home after being gone for 20 years (10 fighting the Trojan War, 10 trying to get home). His son Telemachos goes out looking for him because he is afraid that one of the suitors that is trying to woo his mother will actually woo her. And he misses his father. The entire book is the story of how Odysseus fought his way home and how Telemachos becomes a man.


Lots of monsters!


http://www.shmoop.com/odyssey/summary.html

Odysseus’s tragic flaw is his PRIDE

Brave New World

·      Major Themes:
d  Freedom - or lack thereof 
        From the beginning everyone is conditioned to be the same. They all think they are free to do what they want, but they really aren't. 
    

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·      What type of questions would this be good to answer?
    Questions about isolation
    Questions about denial

·      List of major literary devices:  
    Allusions:
    Lots of allusions to Shakespeare's works because the only book that John has ever read contained Shakespeare's completed works.
   Title comes from The Tempest
   Lenina - Vladimir Lenin
   Polly Trotsky - Leon Trotsky
   Mustapha Mond- Alfred Mond,
   Bernard Marx - George Bernard Shaw, Karl Marx
   Benito Hoover - Benito Mussolini
   Helmholtz Watson - Hermann von Helmholtz
   
   

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·      Important scenes OR favorite scenes:
   Important: 
   The description of social classes
   The introduction of John and Linda
   


   

·      List of characters:

   Bernard Marx
   Benito Hoover
   Polly Trotsky
   Lenina Crowne
   Henry Foster
   Helmholtz Watson
   Mustapha Mond
   Director (Thomas/ D.H.C.)
   John the Savage
   Linda - John's mother
 
   

·      Structure:
   3-part structure

·      Brief summary:
          From the time they are newborns, until they are adults, they are conditioned to be successful in society according to their caste. Everyone is put into a category. The people in the highest cultural level are Alphas, and then Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons are the bottom. Alphas are strong, tall, smart, and extremely attractive. Epsilons are short, stupid, and most of them are deformed.

     As they get older, another way the citizens are controlled is with soma. Soma is a pill that makes people happy. People are supposed to take the drug whenever something goes wrong and they start to feel depressed.
     As the story progresses we meet two characters that are very different. The first is Bernard, an Alpha, who is abnormally short and hates soma. He refuses to take it. He would rather be unhappy than have a false bliss.
     Another character that is encountered is Lenina. Lenina loves soma. She takes soma all the time. In our society she would be considered an addict, but in their society, it is completely normal. 

      There is one similarity between these characters; they like each other. They go on an awkward date, which ends in them having sex, which is also normal for the society. They move past the gawkiness and decide to go to the Savage Reservation together.
      Once they are there, they meet a man named John. John's mother is from the outside world, but he was born in the reservation. Bernard and Lenina meet his mother, Linda. Linda came to the reservation 20 years ago and was accidentally left at the Reservation. Since Linda has been in the reservation she has gotten old, fat and ugly. Bernard finds this all every interesting and calls the World Controller. Bernard and Lenina bring John and Linda back to the New World with them.
     Once they are brought to the New World, Bernard takes Linda and John to see the Director, John’s father.  Linda throws herself at him but he doesn’t remember or doesn’t allow himself to remember who she is. John comes in, drops to his knees, and yells, “My Father!” The Director ends up quitting his job.
     Bernard is put in charge of John, and shows him around the city. John was very excited to see the new world because his mother had told him wonderful things. He begins to hate the New World very quickly.
     So, ever since John laid eyes on Lenina, he has liked her. Lenina also starts to develop feelings for John. In one part of the novel, Lenina goes to see John to confess her feeling for him. She takes off all her clothes and throws herself at him. He pushes her away and threatens to kill her if she doesn’t go away. Lenina runs and hides in the bathroom and John receives a phone call and rushes out of the apartment.
      The call is from the Hospital for the Dying. Linda was taken there to die. She was so old, fat and ugly that the society wanted nothing to do with her. So, when Linda was brought back to the New World she was put on a twenty-four hour soma intake. The soma was slowly taking away her lung capacity until she could no longer breathe and ended up dying right in front of John.
      John is so upset that when he sees a group of Deltas getting their soma rations, he flips out. He starts quoting Shakespeare and lecturing them about how soma is not only poisoning their bodies, but their souls as well. When the Deltas look at him puzzled, he begins throwing their soma pills out the window.
     Then, John, Bernard and their friend, Helmholtz, get in trouble with the law and are going to be exiled to an island. John has to go to a different island than Bernard and Helmholtz. So, John chooses to live in a lighthouse.
      John needs to feel like he is worthy of something. This is because of his upbringing and having the only book he has ever read be The Complete Works of Shakespeare. He was raised in the Savage reservation, where when a man wanted to marry a woman he had to prove himself commendable.
     To prove that he is worthy; the first night John is in the lighthouse he stretches out his arms in a mock crucifixion style.  After doing that all night, he is still unsatisfied, but he tries to get over it and goes to start a garden. He also decides that he needs bows and arrows. He falls down a tree and starts carving out a six-foot bow and some arrows. He realizes that he is actually having a good time and immediately starts thinking about his dead mother.
      John continues the masochistic routine of brutalizing himself on a daily basis. One afternoon, John starts to think about a naked Lenina and starts whipping himself. A reporter catches this on film and makes a movie out of it. People from all over London, flock to see John whip himself like an animal. John grabs his whip and starts advancing at people as if he were going to beat them. Lenina shows up and sends John over the edge. He runs at her and whips her. The crowd loves the ‘show’, and starts imitating John’s actions and chanting ‘Orgy-Porgy’.
      After he regains consciousness from the soma-induced orgy, John remembers everything. Some reporters go to see him that afternoon and find him hanging from the rafters of the lighthouse. 

Really Important Info:

World State's Motto: Community, Identity, Stability

The government has the power to create a community of like-minded people. In a community of like-minded people who would all have the same beliefs and same identity, there would be no fighting and therefor create a stable environment.


"History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition, we want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history that we make today" - Henry Ford