Read: Brooks (biography & "kitchenette building," "we real cool," "The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till"), Baldwin (biography & "Going to Meet the Man"), Baraka (biography & "A Poem for Willie Best")
Homework: The following students should post a question about the text(s) by the indicated author... Ting (Brooks), Tracy (Brooks), Teresa (Baldwin), Esther (Baldwin), Joy (Baraka), Sherry (Baraka)
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Hi, this is Ting Ju.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about what differences might there be between the poetry for white audience and for black audience? How do the poets decide their audience? So far I can only think up some features: dialect words, anti-classic poetic form, and as the headnote of Brooks mentions, improvision and spoken language.
This is ESther's question about Baldwin:
ReplyDeleteIn both the beginning and the end of the story, we can see the description of having sex, although the outcome of these two seems different. But I wonder what's the function of this scene in the story? Does it represent Jesse's racist stance?
And I've noticed that the scene of the sound made by the car on the gravel road appears twice. One is at the time when Jesse starts his memory; the other is at the end of the story, when he tells his wife that he wants to have sex with her as if she were a black woman. Is this a symble of something?
This is Sherry posting her question on Baraka.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading “A Poem for Willie Best,” I become interested and bewildered by the ways he divide his stanzas. Baraka separates these stanzas and categorizes them, numbering them from I, II to VIII. However, he adds other numbers to them also, as one can see at the bottom of page 2698. Before “a cross,” he adds a number “2,” making the stanza subordinate to the former stanza while refusing to use linking phrases such as “at this point” (22; 2698). Why does he start a new stanza with words related to the former stanza while putting unrelated words like “a cross” at the beginning of a subordinate stanza? Is this the particular form he chooses to present his idea and poem? If so, why does he chooses this form, and what is he trying to convey to us?
This is Teresa's question about Baldwin.
ReplyDeleteIn “Going to Meet the Man”, Baldwin seemed to maintain sexual organs purposely. What does he wants to tell us by using these sensitive words. I feel embarrassed when these particular words show up between lines. Why does he try to stimulate his audience by this way?
Good questions so far... remember, if you didn't post your question last week, you still have the opportunity.
ReplyDelete- The all-night professor.
This is Tracy to post her question.
ReplyDeleteI wonder the meaning of the term "dream" in the poem kitchenette building. It seems like that Brooks had chosen this topic particularly to express some ideas related to feminism.