Psychoanalytic Criticism.

When i was going through the different core issues of psychoanalytic criticism, i realised that one core issue can be caused or affected by another core issue and it can go and go. And when i was learning about fear of abandonment, fear of betrayal, low self-esteem, insecure or unstable sense of self. I think when learning these terms at the beginning you start to notice similarities between yourself and the core issues, but what you have to understand is that you can't self-diagnose. But it is helpful in understanding the way you have been effect by things in your life, and learn the common defenses, and anxiety issues. I think also when i first began writing this chapter i focused in on my dream and what they meant, but dreams are funny, you can't always remember all the things you need to remember to help you completely understand the problem. Once you can understand the issues, you can transform the knowledge toward the way you read text.
I will be stating more in my paper due, and i will discuss the paper with Hollingsworth on Friday at 11:20a.m.

about Yusef Komunyakaa.

In class on Friday we went over a few different poems and poets, but the one poet that stood out to me and spoke to me the most was Yusef Komunyakaa. First your overwhelmed by this man's last name, its a mouth full. But the poem that was discussed in class was the poem Blackberries. Like i say all the time i believe to truth understand what the poet is saying in his poems you have to know some information about his past history. After looking over notes of his man's life i discovered he was born in Bogalusa, LA in 1947. He is an American poet that teaches at New York University, and is a member of Fellowship of Southern Writers.

Along with his list of awards his subject matter ranges from his African American experience through rural Southern life before the civl rights and his experience as a soldier during the Vietnam War. He served a tour in the Army during the war where he acted as a journalist for a military power, covering major actions, interviewing fellow soldiers. Once he returned to the states he turned toward poetry, and became an important icon for American writers in his generation. He was also married to an Australian novelist, Mandy Sayer for ten years (1985-1995) and was engaged in a long-term relationship with poet, Reetika Vazirani, who killed herself and their child Jahan Vazirani Komunyakaa in 2003. Both of their wrist was slashed, which was thought to be suicide. Supposely, this was because their marriage was having some possible troubles.

He describes poetry as "a kind of distilled insinuation. It’s a way of expanding and talking around an idea or a question. Sometimes, more actually gets said through such a technique than a full frontal assault."

But instead of Blackberries my favorite poem was "Venus's Flytraps." After reading his poem i felt a quick connection with him. He talks about struggles during his life when he was five. My parents went through a divorce when I was young, and his mother said he was a mistake.Both a powerful things to happen to a young boy. Lines from the poem that supports his emotions are "I wonder what death tastes like" and "My mama says I'm a mistake/ that i made her a bad girl./ My playhouse is underneath/ our house, & I hear people/ telling each other secrets." These two quotes from the poem show the solitude that he was feeling when he was young and makes the reader feel uneasy. I believe another quote that symbols how the emotional scars of a young boy will stay with him when he is an adult is "I wish I knew why/ the music in my head makes me scared." The poem symbolizes as a whole the lost of innocence that he went through as a young five year old boy. A venus flytrap holds its prey and traps them inside. I believe this supports the way he feels he had no option when he was younger but to suffer, and possibly die. I also beleive that Komunyakaa wants the reader to feel almost trapped when they are reading the poem, and remember the upsetting memories of their own youth.

Continued Levine.

With no class on Monday, we began our week on Wednesday were we continued to discuss the poems that we were assigned in class. With continued research in Philip Levine I found out his sarcastic voice didn't end with his poems, but extended into his daily routine. Dr. Hollingsworth mentioned that he had a twin brother. Maybe in his poem "What Work Is" when he talked about seeing his brother, he possibly could have been looking inward to himself, instead of another person. Maybe he was making a bigger connection between his working self and his lazy self, I don't really know. This could be similar to the comparison between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide.

Or Levine could be discovering the hard working people from his hometown Detroit, Michigan compared to others in their trades from different locations. Again something to think about. Levine didn't only use enjambment, and repetition of lines, he also used anaphora, and a sarcastic voice make a particular part of the poem shine, and highlight a change of tone.

So far we have discovered New Criticism, and now we are beginning to discuss Psychoanalytic Criticism. For Monday 1/26 a short paper on a close reading of one of the poems is due. I will be choosing Philip Levine's "What Work Is."

New Criticism and Philip Levine.

We continued to talked to about the Great Gatsby. And we went around the room and discussed what people retrieved from the reading of the novel. Along with discussed about the book we also discussed New Criticism. From Chapter 5 of Critical Theory we learned that close reading, textual evidence, elements like metaphor, irony, and ambiguity were kept even after that particular movement. New Criticism came after Modernism and before the Beats.
Also we were preparing for individual poems to discuss later in class, possibly Friday. The poem was by Philip Levine "What Work Is." The poem is one big stanza that symbolize a line or waiting in a line that was highlighted in the piece. I believe that enjambment and repetition played a huge part in the understanding of "What Work Is." It made connects from the piece to "the common man" or gave it culture/universal value. But to fully understand a poet you have to know the background of the individual.
Philip Levine grew up in Detroit, Michigan whos parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. Detroit was a major subject of his life's work. He began writing poetry while he was going to night school at Wayne University, and during this time he worked days at one of that city's automobile manufacturing plants. From the University of Michigan Press, "The Bread of Time," which was a memoir where Levine celebrates his teachers, and writers whose lives and work were misunderstood and misinterpreted. In the process of writing about his life he came to the conclusion that he was also engaged in a quest, striving to discover "how I am." Then later from an interview Levine said "The American experience is to return and discover one cannot even find the way, for the streets abruptly end, replaced by freeways, the house have been removed for urban renewal that never takes place, and nothing remains." Levine brings narrative and lyric together in his poetry, and he likes to take the role as storyteller. Then from Modern American Poetry I learned that "Levine's poems music depend on a tension between his line breaks and syntax. His sentences cascade down the page, passing through skeins of modifying clauses and phrases, through enjambment after enjambment until the energy of his sentenced is exhausted.

The Great Gatsby.

Today going around the room the class discussed the book, The Great Gatsby. Others along with myself read this book for the first time. It seemed that most that expressed their feelings about it were overwhelmed or taken in by the love story in the novel. Personality, I didn't collaborate with such an opinion as those individuals. I seemed to be taken in by the way Gatsby seemed to be mysterious. For me, the true question would be why was Gatsby presented in this way? Even though i wasn't consumed by the love story i did seem to fall in the story from the mere description of the different scenes. An example of the pure nature of the description was transposed through the text when Rosy Rosenthal was shot, and Gatsby reminisced about the old Metropole.
Along with the texture of the description i felt that social class played a large role into the conflict of the story. Gatsby wasn't like most of the upper class that carried themselves around like they were the best thing in the world. He seemed to receive less respect from the "gentlemen" at his parties. Gatsby receieved his money somewhat recently compared to the other upperclassmen such as Tom, and Daisy Buchanan. I wonder if part of the conflict also have to deal with the way people change when they have money. Some stay true to themselves such as Gatsby, while others believe that life revolves around money signs, and greed.
Matthew Khalil