Reference no: EM133612610
Assignment:
1. Overview: Take one of the Modernist strategies described in Lecture 1 and find a place where Rekdal uses it. For example, in "Philomela," the allusion to Ovid makes us sure that the speaker of Rekdal's poem has herself been similarly assaulted, without her having to say so ["the reader of myth knows what is left out", p. 42]; in addition, the sewing machine at the end of the poem reminds us of the tapestries Philomela weaves-though in Rekdal's poem, the sewing machine is stashed in a closet rather than put to use.
Discuss: Explain what your selection contributes to the poem's overall power. In this example, you'd argue that if we didn't connect the poem's narrative to Ovid's Philomela, we would not understand the poem as well, and then talk about how the sewing machine adds to our understanding of the speaker. In every case, you'll need to quote the poem, describe the strategy, and then explain its impact.
2. Overview: When you read FRANKENSTEIN, Professor Lussier described the way the epistolary form worked like a Russian nesting doll: one story inside another inside another.
Discuss: How is the nesting phenomenon different from the collage juxtapositions and overlays of "Nightingale: A Gloss"? What do the two methods have in common, and what are some pros and cons of collage as a method of relating themes across great distances (distances of-time/era? of intimacy/objectivity? of genre? Or reality/imagination? Others? You choose!)