Welcome back to class. I hope you are all doing well.
Today we pick up where we left off last week, reviewing the autobiographical narratives by Charles Bukowski and St. Augustine, and Sarah Orne Jewett's fiction "The White Heron," all writers from very different eras who yet tell stories about the travails of growing up that in certain respects are similar. We will discuss the similarities and differences in class, but here I will indicate some of the similarities in theme that I have noted:
- A narrator/protagonist who feels himself in opposition to family and others and thus feels isolated or alone and vulnerable to some degree
- A narrator/protagonist who struggles to find and assert himself and in so many ways feel strong
- A narrator/protagonist who discovers where his powers lie and exercises them
- A narrator/protagonist who behaves rather badly
- A narrator/protagonist who feels guilt and remorse for his actions, and displays sympathy for the weak, meek, and humble
- A narrator/protagonist who seeks understanding, even wisdom, through reflection, reading and writing
- A narrator/protagonist who shows awareness of the social mask and shows how he hides certain aspects of his self
- A narrator/protagonist who invites readers to see how he has grown up by relating key memories and experiences from that journey
We do not see in Bukowski's work the kind of conversation with God that St. Augustine enacts in his autobiography. We do not see elements of prayer and religious devotion. Bukowski's work is not a religious confession nor a conversion narrative; in fact, we would all have to read more of his work to understand his spiritual or religious ideas and attitudes clearly. He is, it seems to me, clearly seeking the Truth of his experience and trying to convey it in his narrative work, however unflattering the light he shines upon himself and others. This, too, the articulation of Truth, is St. Augustine's aim.
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If we have time we will look at the autobiographical excerpts by Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkala Sa), where she records her memories of Sioux life in South Dakota, including the influence of her mother, the natural world around them, the legends and rituals of her tribe, and her meeting with white missionaries. In addition, The Navaho Night Chant offers a look into the way that poetry and chanting come together in a ritual of healing and transformation intended to return its participants to a renewed sense of vitality and wholeness.
Tintern Abbey (12th Century)
I have also a selection of poems I'd like to address, time permitting. They will serve to underscore the narrative themes in the prose pieces we are reading, provide review of earlier themes and concepts, and will move us along to the next works. One is "Tintern Abbey," a romantic poem in blank verse by William Wordsworth: http://www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/reader/tabbey.html At the following link you may read background and see in photos the beauty of the abbey: http://www.castlewales.com/tintern.html
Posted below is the description of essay 3, which is due next week:
Essay #3, due week 6: Compose a 600-700 word (minimum length) essay that introduces the text(s) by title and author and proceeds to support a thesis point or claim about the text(s). You may address poetry and/or prose selections but they must be addressed under a comprehensive thesis, each serving to develop and support your main thesis. Include some description of the formal structure of the poem and prose elements, for example, stanza form, line length and rhyme pattern, use of repetition or anaphora, use of narrative structure, conspicuous sound devices, imagery, figurative elements (such as metaphor, simile, symbol, personification). Remember, narrative always involves the perspective or point of view of the narrator (first person or third person typically, as well as plot, setting, character development, tone or mood, and central thematic concerns. Lyric poems may have little in the way of narrative or story, though they always have a speaker and the speaker provides perspective, along with whatever other voices may be presented in the poem. Provide support and evidence for your claims in the form of textual summary and direct quotation, formatted in the MLA style, with line citations. Avoid using quotation unnecessarily or dropping quotations in without commentary. Integrate short quotations into the text with quotation marks and slashes to indicate line breaks. Quotations of 4 and more lines should be block formatted. Title your essay (do not use the poetry title in the essay title unless a subtitle is also present). Double‐space the lines.
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