Presentation on William Faulkner's "That Evening Sun Go Down"

Hello everyone,

As you might be aware of, next Wednesday we are presenting Faulkner's short story "That Evening Sun Go Down" (later versions lost the "Go Down" in the title).

Here are some topics and questions we'd like you to think about.

- How is race depicted in the short story?

- How do the kids in the story see race?

- How does Faulkner himself see race? Is there any connection between the author and Quentin's character?

- The short story seems to explore the aspect of fear recurrently, how important is this to the overall theme of racial relations that Faulkner is presenting us?

- What's your opinion on the ending?


Agnese Fontana, Gustavo Santos, Vítor Gomes

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Good afternoon everyone,

Today we have been talking about Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes were watching God. In this post, I would like to write some information that I found interesting to take into consideration and I hope that it helps you to better understand some aspects of the novel.

First of all, here you are an interesting and dynamic video where you can find some information about the whole novel, and its context of production, along with some information about the life of the author that we know has a special meaning in the text. Also, this "crash course on literature" provides an analysis of some important excerpts of the novel.

I also would like to talk about a theme we discussed in class — the main character, Janie, is trying to connect with herself, with her own personality and feelings. Today, we compared this spiritual and mystical search of the self with a meditation called mindfulness. According to specialists, this is a technique that make people more conscious, happy, and able to use their mind's full capacity. Plus, the teacher mentioned a Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, who has been writing about how to integrate meditation in our daily lives and thus build a better world.

 

Still from Waking Life (2001), by director Richard Linklater

 Finally, talking about the consciousness, the nature of reality, free will and existentialism, I recommend you the film Waking Life. This will make you reflect on these topics. Here the main character wanders through a succession of dream-like realities.

Raquel Garcia Pérez

'Mudbound' and the race question

Hi everyone! I was at the movies recently and watched the trailer for Mudbound (2017), directed by
Dee Rees.

After reading L. Hughes's "Will V-Day be Me-Day too?" and watching this trailer I think you'd might definitely want to check it out later in the year - not sure when it comes out here (it was actually released on Netflix, but not in Portugal).

Vítor Dutta Gomes

"Get Out" and the mirage of a post-racial America

Since we've been delving into the theme of racial relations in the U.S. I thought it would be relevant to post something about this film. Get Out (2017) was directed by Jordan Peele (who you might know from the Key and Peele show).

In the last lectures we've been talking about the social and intellectual uprising of the African-American community and their constant struggle for respect and recognition, from the slavery period to the Civil Rights Movement. These are issues that still manifest in contemporary society, as we know.

Jordan Peele directed this film (which is now being taken into consideration for the Oscars) in order to present us with the mirage of this so called "post-racial" America. Since Obama was elected for Presidency, it's possible to say that an African-American has reached the highest social position in the U.S. This is the idea that Peele is trying to dismiss. What Get Out tells us is that even though black people can vote and be essentially free, there are still a lot of ideas that come from the slavery period alive today. Jordan Peele's film - which is kind of a satire to "white guilt films" - presents us with the most raw vision of white-black relations in the 21st century and the heritage of slavery that still functions as a hive-mind, even between those who consider themselves liberals and not-racist. I can't spoil the film, otherwise I'd write a full analysis of it.

Vítor Dutta Gomes

Fictional autobiography_Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hello,

 Next Friday's class will draw upon Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, a fictional autobiography about the quest for a voice.

Please consider some key topics to read this text, such as gender, language, race, and the journey towards independence/finding a voice.

After our presentation, we would like to have a brief exchange of ideas on what can we say about the title of the book. It is only referred twice, when the hurricane Okeechobee hits Florida. Take a look at the following quotes and consider these questions — What idea do these excerpts evoke? What is the meaning of the novel's title?

                                    "The time was past for asking the white folks

                                         what to look for through that door. Six

                                          eyes were questioning God." 

                                 "... their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny

                                      might against His. They seemed to be staring at the

                                       dark, but their were watching God."

Gastão Pereira dos Reis; Sofia Paulo

The Warmth of Other Suns / Literary Friction on NTS

Hello,

After last week's discussions on The Great Migration, I was reminded of a discussion about a book called The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration that was recommended on NTS's literature show Literary Friction during their special on Race in British Literature. While I haven't actually read the book yet, it's on my list of things to read and came highly recommended so if anyone has a further interest in the subject, then it may be worth looking at.

The book is non-fiction and follows the stories of various people and their migration - it has been well received critically and the suggestion comes from a really interesting radio show (also well worth checking out), so enjoy!

Eleanor Weinel

"How it Feels to Be Colored Me" and much more...

Take a look at this article discussing Hurston's essays, specially at the page dedicated to "How it Feels to Be Colored Me" (published in 1928, in the socialist journal The World Tomorrow: A journal looking toward a Christian World)

You can also find information about Hurston education at Howard University (and some funny pictures of the the author) here

American Corner at FLUL

Tomorrow the new American Corner will be inaugurated with the presence of the American Embassy of Lisbon. Though the ceremony coincides with our class, I hope you will drop by later on to check it out, since it is space that makes valuable resources available for American Studies researchers like us.

Ernest Hemingway

Dear classmates,

On the 15th of November we are going to present Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants". We would like to invite you to start by reading the short story and then focus on the following topics:

1) Abortion;

2) Female vs. male perspective;

3) Agency.

Furthermore we would like to open the debate by having you answer the following questions:

1) Do you think that the male character's behaviour is accepttable?

2) How is abortion considered in Portugal?

In addition, we invite you to take a look at Paula Rego's works on abortion, such as the triptych reproduced below.

Paula Rego (1935-), Triptych (1998)
Pastel on paper, mounted on aluminium (110 x 100cm). Image here

We also suggest you to listen to the artist talk about her stance on this topic (here). You may find some criticism on Rego's politics of sexuality here.

And, if you go to Cascais, visit Casa das Histórias, Paula Rego's museum.

Thank you for your attention!

Raquel Garcia Pérez, Fabrizio Consiglio, Enrica Spiga

William Carlos Williams

Hello everyone!

                                Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel, The Elder (c. 1525-1530-1596)

On the 8th of November we will present "Landscape With the Fall of Icarus," by William Carlos Williams. We thus invite you to think about the following topics:

- William Carlos Williams and his search for a fresh, raw American idiom and rhythm;

- Poetry and painting as "interchangeable mediums;"

- The modernist poet as a fragile, indecisive, unsure author.

To introduce you the subject, here is the Greek myth that inspired both the painter and the poet:

Icarus was the son of Daedalus (an ingenious and creative man, known by his manual labors) who constructed the labyrinth (at the behest of Minos, king of Crete) where the Minotaur was imprisoned. But since Daedalus had helped the daughter of Minos to run away with her lover, he and his son were both imprisoned in their own labyrinth as a punishment. In order to escape, Daedalus invented a pair of wings ​made by feathers of different birds and beeswax. He advised Icarus not to fly too high since the wax could melt, nor too low for the sea could wet them. But the boy got dazzled by the sun and, feeling attracted by it, he flew too high, his wings melted, he fell and died.

Félix Ribeiro
Francisco Gaspar
Inês Pereira

Open Yale Lectures

Hello!

Last week during our presentation on Marianne Moore we mentioned that we used the Open Yale lecture series on Modern Poetry as part of our research. There are over 20 lectures in the series and many are about poets on our course including Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost. You can access and download the lectures in several formats, including transcripts, audio files and videos - the audio is great for something to listen to on the metro.

Check out the course here. We hope it is useful!

Trinity Library, Dublin.

Eleanor Weinel
Francisca Portugal

Wallace Stevens

Hello everyone,

Next Friday we will be presenting “The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain”, by Wallace Stevens.

We ask that you read it and think of the following topics:

- Reflections about the poet’s life in the poem;

- The connection between God/mankind;

- What is real and what is imagined.

Have a nice weekend!

Alice Silva, Ana Almeida, Mariana Durão 

The Blind Men and the Elephant

http://wordinfo.info/words/images/elephant-blind-compo.gif

Hi everyone! Tomorrow we're going to present "Black Earth", by Marianne Moore and to help you understanding the poem we will be using the Eastern parable of the blind men and the elephant. This poem by John Godfrey Saxe summarizes the story nicely, so take a look.

Júlia Rodrigues
Francisca Portugal
Eleanor Weinel

Amy Lowell

Like Ezra Pound and H.D., Amy Lowell was into the Imagist movement. Next class (Wednesday) we will be presenting one of her poems "Madonna of the Evenings Flowers" (here) and leave some topics for discussion:

• religious symbols 
• spiritual experience
•  the majestic beloved

Y'all shall not miss class!!!

Bruna Mateus; Francisco Baranda; Marco Amado

Gertrude Stein

Portrait of Gertrude Stein, by Carl Van Vechten (1880-1864), literary executor of the artist

Quoting from Wikipedia (that you should always check, though you cannot cite as an academic source, as we have already commented in class), "Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector." Nowadays considered one of the most important artistic figures in modernism whose influence goes well beyond the literary world, Stein gathered at her home in Paris not only many seminal writers (from two generations of US Expatriates), but also painters, actors, and musicians. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), one of the artists who was an habitué of her salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus, painted Stein's portrait (which you can find at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, here), and the writer dedicated him a poem, "If I Told Him : A Completed Portrait of Picasso”(1923) that you can hear read by her here.

Probably, Stein's most famous work is The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933), which pretends to adopt the autobiographical mode in the name of her life-long companion, Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967). Her most well-known line is "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose," from the poem "Sacred Emily," that you can find here.

For more information on Stein, go the Poetry Foundation page here, where you can also find some of her more iconic poems. You can also listen to some more of the artist's readings and operas and watch her experimental films at Ubu Web (a valuable source of avant-garde art works also mentioned in our class), here.

Marianne Moore_'Black Earth'

Marianne Moore at the Bronx Zoo, 1953

© Esther Bubley/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

On Friday we'll be presenting on Marianne Moore's 'Black Earth' (1921). Closely linked to many other writers on this module, including Ezra Pound and H.D., Moore also worked as editor of the magazine The Dial (1840-1929), and proved to be an infleuntial poet of intense precision and complexity.

Here are 3 reading topics for you to think about:

The image of the elephant;
Space and environment;
The multiple voices and figures in the poem.

Moore was well-known for her use of animal imagery and her interest in Biology throughout her work: click here for more pictures of Marianne Moore at the Bronx zoo, taken by Esther Bubley for a feature in Life magazine, in 1953.

Enjoy the pictures and the poem - looking forward to hearing about what you think next week!

Júlia Rodrigues
Francisca Portugal
Eleanor Weinel

Intersectionality

Dear classmates,

On our last lesson we briefly discussed the concepet of intersectionality, while talking about how modernist writers use different points of view in their works, rather than just focusing on the "neutral" subject's (i.e. the WASP's) perspective. I invite you to see this TED talk and maybe also read one of Kimberlé Crenshaw's articles called ''Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color'', because although it's not directly related to this subject, I believe that it's very important to be aware of these issues. You can find it online here.

-Alice Silva 

Narrativa & Medicina

Welty's photographs

Eudora Welty was also a photographer and that practice has influenced her fiction and essay writing (actually, that is one of the main arguments of my PhD thesis on Welty!). Take a look at some of her works here.

A Woman of the Thirties / Hinds County / 1935

'Blueprints'

I invite you to visit Blueprints, Savia Viegas' exhibition, presenting dozens of images from her new graphic novel (to be published soon). Here's one of them!

At FLUL's Library till October 18!

Contemporary Hindi Film *

Tim Burton's fans *

H.D._"Eurydice"

Dear classmates,

H.D. had a deep interest in Ancient Greek literature, and her poetry was often inspired by Greek mythology. Next Friday, we will be discussing one of her poems, "Eurydice". If you would like to know more about the poem before we look at it, you might want to read about the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice (here, for instance: http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/orpheus.html).

  Ary Shefer, Orpheus Mourning the Death of Eurydice (1814)

 

Here are the three questions for you to think about: 

- How is Eurydice portrayed in this poem, in comparison to the traditional myth?

- What symbols does the poet use to make the contrast between life and death?

- How does the voice of the poetic subject change throughout the poem? 

This is a really interesting and powerful poem. Enjoy!

Daniela Cabrita
Inês Guedes
Rita Silva

Ezra Pound_Imagism

In the next session, we will see how Ezra Pound defined himself as an Imagist in the text "A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste". Here we have a video where it is explained this concept in a concise way:

In this fragment of Pound's text "A Retrospect", the author explains this new poetic school.

"This school [Imagism] has since been “joined” or “followed” by numerous people who, whatever their merits, do not show any signs of agreeing with the second specification. Indeed vers libre has become as prolix and as verbose as any of the flaccid varieties that preceded it. It has brought faults of its own. The actual language and phrasing is often as bad as that of our elders without even the excuse that the words are shoveled in to fill a metric pattern or to complete the noise of a rhyme-sound. Whether or no the phrases followed by the followers are musical must be left to the reader's decision. At times I can find a marked metre in vers libres, as stale and hackneyed as any pseudo-Swinburnian, at times the writers seem to follow no musical structure whatever. But it is, on the whole, good that the field should be ploughed. Perhaps a few good poems have come from the new method, and if so it is justified."

Retrieved from here

I hope this would be useful for you to better understand the author.

Raquel Garcia

Ezra Pound's “In a Station of the Metro”

Tokyo Metro by Shteuf on DevianArt

In light of next class' presentation on Ezra Pound's poem “In a Station of the Metro”, we would like to share some topics for you to reflect upon and then discuss with us:

• Firstly, What do you see in this poem? What image strikes you the most?
• How does this poem manage to capture a moment, an “apparition”?
• How can this poem connect with the dichotomy individual/collective brought up by P. Howarth in “Why Write like This?”

Until then, have a nice weekend!

(Bianca Burlacchini, Francisca Matos e Pedro Noronha)

AIESEC

Dear classmates,

I had the opportunity to quickly presenting AIESEC to you in class, but there was no visual support at the time. In this post I leave you the link to the presentation we use in our info sessions. It has all the basic information, but please feel free to talk to me if you have any doubts or curiosities.

Check the presentation here

If doing an exchange abroad is not something possible for you right now, but you'd still like to be part of this work, please know that we will be recruiting new members in December. If you are interested please send an email with your information and motivations to: youth.talent@iscte.aiesec.pt

Thank you!

- Catarina Pereira
catarina.pereira@aiesec.net

TS Eliot's - "The Waste Land" Presentation

For Friday's class, we will be presenting "The Burial of the Dead", T.S. Eliot's first section of The Waste Land. Taking in account the poem's extension -and as advised by the teacher- we will mostly consider the first two stanzas.

However, analyzing such a complex poem, even the first two stanzas do require a longer discussion; therefore, if you want to prepare for our presentation, we suggest you to focus (mostly) on these three themes that tend to occur often in The Waste Land:

• Life-Death(-Rebirth?);
• Sense of decay;
• Critical view of the modern culture.

P.S. If, for some reason, you forgot to watch or write down the title of the video mentioned in class, here you have it.  

- Ivo Rolo

  Caio Ishikawa

  Rafael Galrão

T.S.Eliot - The poetic process

Reading T.S. Eliot might be difficult, especially when he expresses himself throughout metaphors. Regarding this aspect I have investigated the metaphor he uses in the text "Tradition and the individual Talent", that is to say:

"The action which takes place when a bit of finely filiated platinum is introduced into a chamber containing oxygen and sulphur dioxide". 

 Here's a platinum nugget (Russian Federation)

What I have found is a presentation about this chemical process as a creative process and also a comment made by a retired writer living in Vancouver (Barry Shell).

The following link belongs to the website www.slideshare.net and it is a presentation about the analogy between the creative process and the chemical reaction of the aforementioned elements in the text:

Wish you a good reading!

Fabrizio Consiglio

Ana Hatherly_Exhibition

After reading Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent", I thought it would be relevant to share this FCGulbenkian's exhibition about the Portuguese artist and author Ana Hatherly (1929-2015) and the correlation between her works and the baroque era.

Indeed, the main idea of the exhibition explores exactly T.S. Eliot concept of tradition and the importance of the past. Here is the link for the museum description. Tickets cost 3€ (and possibly we have student discount!)

 Ana Hatherly, The Suspended Angels (1998)

Also, the curator organizes a series of activities surrounding the theme (including some guided tours and some workshops). There is particularly one that I think it is relevant, the open class "What sort of relationship can an artist have with a period that has passed or is now 'historical'?" (Which is part of the Master’s Aesthetics course programme at the Department of Philosophy, FCSH, UNL). Saturday, 25 November, 14:30 – Founder’s Collection. In Portuguese only

-Francisca Portugal

'Logan'

Although it's not directly related to the topic of US Literature, I found Logan to be a very interesting film that dwells on the themes of enclosure, both physical and symbolical walls, and the relationship between the individual and nature. Here is a video essay (spoiler alert) where some of these themes are analysed, that also shows us what Logan takes from older films and what it says about modern society. I find it funny that there are a lot of similarities between this film and Trump's America, almost like it was a prediction. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the film and check this analysis when you've seen it!

Vítor Dutta Gomes

You´re Probably Misreading Robert Frost´s Most Famous Poem

Here is an article on how people have been misreading Robert Frost´s "The Road Not Taken", which we studied in class. It´s very interesting and it might be of some value for our studies.

-Francisca Matos

'Captain Fantastic'

After our discussions on Wednesday, and if anyone is looking for a film to watch over the weekend, I would like to recommend Captain Fantastic.

Whilst not directly connected to the texts or writers on this course, it links well with our examination of childhood narcissism and early infant dependency on adults, as well as societal conditioning, alternative education methods and the interdependency of our society (when buying manufactured products/food, etc).

The film is based on a couple who have raised their children in the wilderness, building their own homes, hunting and foraging for their own food and living out of contact with society. After circumstances force them to abandon this lifestyle, the film follows their attempts to reintegrate into society and the consequences of having lived in such a way. I found the film really thought- provoking, as well as incredibly funny and heartwarming - I do highly recommend it!

Watch the trailer here!

- Eleanor Weinel

Free Online Course

Hello!

I'm sharing with you the free online course on Modern and Contemporary American Poetry that I had talked about. It's an amazing tool for both students and literature teachers, there are so many resources and many of the authors we are going to study are on its syllabus. I highly recommend it because it introduced me to so many great poets and it really enriched both my capacity for interpretation and my perspective on modernist poetry! You don't need to participate actively on the course, you can enroll on it only to watch the videos and to use the materials available (I actually did that the first time I enrolled and only participated on the activities the following year when I came back to earn a certificate). Each year on the first semester the course is active with a lot of live webcasts and forum discussions, but it's open all year for whoever wants to access it.

I hope it's as useful and as pleasant to you as it was to me! Check out the other free courses on Coursera, too; it's an amazing learning platform! Here goes the link.

Bianca Burlacchini

my comment on the "praxes"

How stimulating it is to be part of a mindless crowd, as the Monty Python comment in The Life of Brian (1979). You can watch the full movie, here.

Calendar and evaluation

Diana V. Almeida

modernistlit.flul@gmail.com

“Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper,  / That we may record our emptiness.”
                Khalil Gibran (1883-1931)

Calendar and evaluation

September

20

Who we are and what we’re going to do throughout the semester — syllabus, calendar, evaluation proposal, and working strategies (blog)

22

How war shapes the first half of the 20th century worldview

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967

“Grass”. Collective analysis and individual written comment

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45034/grass-56d2245e2201c

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2016/09/history20th-c-world-wars.html

Writing a text analysis

27

The role of literature and the arts in contemporary politics

Martha C. Nussbaum (1947-)

“Cultivating Imagination: Literature and the Arts”, Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010, 95-120.

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/martha-nuusbaum.html

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/martha-nussbaum-2.html

29

The emergence of the woman artist in the patriarchal context

Willa Cather (1873-1943)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/willa-cather.html

“Flavia and her Artists”

http://www.online-literature.com/willa-cather/1588/

Gilbert, Sandra M., Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. “The Queen's Looking Glass: Female Creativity, Male Images of Women, and the Metaphor of Literary Paternity."

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2016/09/the-madwoman-in-attic.html

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2016/09/topicsinfeminism.html

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2016/09/misogyny-and-racism1900-1945-and-beyond.html

October

4

Daily landscape and the search for transcendence

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/robert-frost.html

“The Pasture”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22272

“The Road Not Taken”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15717

“Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/42891

“Mending Wall”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15719

“Nothing Gold Can Stay”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19977

Intervention Maria Inês Almeida (MA student, English Dept. FLUL)

6

Modernist poetry in context

Howarth, P. “Why Write like This?” The Cambridge Introduction to Modernist Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011. 1-32.

11

Integrating the literary heritage in a meaningless world

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/tseliot.html

“Tradition and the Individual Talent”

http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw4.html

“The Waste Land”

http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

13

“The Waste Land”

18

Working towards concision in the Eastern pathway

Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/ezra-pound.html

“A Few Don’ts by an Imagist”

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/article/335

“In a Station of the Metro”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15421

“The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15425

“A Pact”

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-pact/

“Statement of Being”

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/statement-of-being/

“And the Days Are Not Full Enough”

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/and-the-days-are-not-full-enough/

 “Further Instructions”

http://www.bartleby.com/265/293.html

“A Girl”

 http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-girl/

20

Revising the Classical Myths from a female perspective

H. D. (1886-1961)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/hd.html

“Helen”

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/helen

“Leda”

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177449

“Eurydice”

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182485

“Orchard”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22581

“Oread”

 http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21295

“Song”

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/song-201/

25

From a New England debutante to a queer poet

Amy Lowell (1874-1925)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/amy-lowell.html

“The Poet’s Trade”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16037

“The Sisters”

https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/sisters-3

“A Lover”

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-lover-4/

“The Bath”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/42993

“Penumbra”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/42989

27

The craft of rewriting and recontextualization

Marianne Moore (1887-1972)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/marianne-moore.html

“Poetry”

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/poetry/

“Silence”

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/silence-2

“Soujourn in the Whale”

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/sojourn-whale

“To a Steam Roller”

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/steam-roller

“Black Earth”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/51565

“Roses Only”

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/roses-only/

November

3

The philosopher poet

Wallace Stevens

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2016/09/wallace-stevens.html

“The House Was Quiet and The World Was Calm”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/57607

“The Idea of Order at Key West”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43431

“The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/57500

“Not Ideas About the Thing but the Thing Itself”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/52143

Intervention Jeffrey Childs (Professor at Universidade Aberta)

8

Celebrating the commonplace

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/william-carlos-william.html

“This Is Just to Say”

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/just-say

“The Red Wheelbarrow”

 https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/red-wheelbarrow

“To a Poor Old Woman”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51653/to-a-poor-old-woman#poem

“A Sort of Song”

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-sort-of-a-song/

“A Love Song”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19911

“The Young Housewife”

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-young-housewife/

Turn in your essay

10

Dialogues between US modernist poetry and the visual arts

“Sea Poppies”, H.D.

 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177768

“Sea Rose”, H.D.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22957

and

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)

https://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2016/10/georgia-okeeffe.html

Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976)

https://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2016/10/imogen-cunningham-1883-1976.html

“Madonna of the Evening Flowers”, Amy Lowell

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/madonna-of-the-evening-flowers/

and

Our Lady (1999), Alma Lopez (contemporary Chicano artist)

http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-7526-shame-as-it-ever-was.html

http://www.almalopez.net/

Ekphrasis

“Venus Transiens”, Amy Lowell

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/2286

 The Birth of Venus (1482-85), Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)

http://www.uffizi.org/artworks/the-birth-of-venus-by-sandro-botticelli/

“Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”, William Carlos Williams

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15828

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps//poets/s_z/williams/icarus.htm

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (nd), Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-1569)

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/exhibit/MgIyXpmuNdcLJg

“The Great Figure”, William Carlos Williams

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19475

http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/s_z/williams/figure.htm

I Saw the Figure Five in Gold (1928), Charles Demuth (1883-1935)

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/art-between-wars/american-art-wwii/a/charles-demuth-i-saw-the-figure-5-in-gold

15

Writing the tip of the iceberg

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/ernest-hemingway.html

“Hills Like White Elephants”

http://faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/English%202500/Readings%20for%20English%202500/Hills%20Like%20White%20Elephants.pdf

17

The Harlem Renaissance

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/harlem-renaissance

Alain Locke (1886-1954)

“The New Negro”

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/migrations/text8/lockenewnegro.pdf

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/zora-neale-hurston.html

“How It Feels to Be Colored Me”

http://grammar.about.com/od/60essays/a/theireyesessay.htm

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000)

Migration Series

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2016/11/jacob-lawrencemigration-series.html

22

Democratic poetry for black liberation

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/langston-hughes.html

“I, Too”

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/i-too

“Let America Be America Again”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15609

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/negro-speaks-rivers

“Madam and her Madam”

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/madam-and-her-madam

“Po’ Boy Blues”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15608

“Life Is Fine”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15611

“Will V-Day Be Me-Day Too?”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16422

“Advertisement for the Waldorf Astoria”

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/advertisement-for-the-waldorf-astoria/

“Democracy”

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/democracy/

24

Fictional autobiography and the quest for a voice

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

Their Eyes Were Watching God

29

Their Eyes Were Watching God

December

6

White Southern writers and the race question

William Faulkner (1897-1962)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/william-faulkner.html

“That Evening Sun Go Down”

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/white/anthology/faulkner.html

13

Lyrical short story and dialogue with the male canon. Photographic practice and fiction writing

Eudora Welty (1909-2001)

http://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/eudora-welty.html

The Golden Apples, “June Recital”

15

“June Recital”

20

Creative writing inspired by verses of modernist poetry

Turn in — Your list of posts in our blog (print)

January

Test

Evaluation

Presences – 5%

Participation and written exercises – 15%

Oral presentation – 20%

Essay – 30%

Written test – 30%

1. Presences

Counted on every class. Working students will automatically have half of the presences. During classes, your PC and mobile phone should be used only for research related to our course and when I explicitly ask you to do so — don’t let a screen shut you off from your surroundings!

2. Participation

During classes, please share your reading competencies with our community, discussing the verbal and visual texts included in the corpus. Use our blog to post any material you consider useful for enlarging our perspectives on these texts; you will have personalized feedback on all your posts.

Blog ­— modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt

Access by the email — modernistlit.flul1@gmail.com, using the password faculdadeletras [log into the email and open another window on the address www.blogger.com and you will have immediate access to the blog]

In the last class, please bring a list of your posts to be considered for evaluation.

3. Oral presentation

Groups of 3 students have to choose one of the literary texts included in our calendar, research on it, post 3 topics for reflection on the blog (at least a week before your presentation date) and prepare a 10-minute oral presentation for the class.

You must select your author till September 29

Send me an email for modernistlit.flul@gmail.com [note that this is a different email from the students’ address], including in Cc all the students that belong to your group [follow this procedure for all emails] AND talk to me in class to schedule your presentation.

All groups must have (at least) one meeting with me before the presentation.

4. Essay

Choose another author (not the same you have picked for the group work) and turn in an essay on one of his texts. The essay must have at most 5 pages (using the ‘normal’ Word margins), in Times New Roman 12, 1 space and a half. You must turn it in printed no later than November 8.

Read “How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay” (available in the ‘Red Photocopies’ along with all other bibliography) and consult the Style Sheet at https://modernistlitflul.blogspot.pt/2012/09/style-sheet.html

If you decide to write your essay in English, consider going to WILL Lab (Writing, Innovation, Learning & Language Laboratory) and having a one-to-one session with one of your peer tutors. Room 1.23, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, from2 to 4 pm.

For a meeting, send an mail to — WillLab_UL@letras.ulisboa.pt

5. Written test

You may use your notes.

    January — 2h (with an extra half hour)

Please turn in / present your work at the set dates, or they won’t be accepted and will count as a zero in the above-presented formula to calculate your final mark.

* Let us enjoy and learn with each other throughout the semester *