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ENG45C - Coggle Diagram
ENG45C
Individual Identity as a Influencing Axis of Narration
Class Divisons
Sexual Repression
"The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James
The appearance of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are taken as sexual threats, especially in regards to Miles and Flora. The governess' horror is intensified by her own sexual repression.
The governess' fixation on class differences in one that cannot be ignored. Peter Quint is described as being lower class which makes him a figure of transgression in her eyes
The governess is willing to do anything to secure her position at Bly Manor. Her own financial insecurity makes her susceptible to anxiety and the supernatural fantasy within the novel
Misinterpreted Class Identifications
narrative identity dissolves as he pursues the old man, the fear of losing the self in a modern city where individual identity blurs. The narrative voice becomes more frantic and hectic as the story develops
"The Man of the Crowd" By Edgar Allan Poe
The speaker's obsession with categorizing the people in urban London leads to his narrative blindness
The Compsons Downfall
The Southern Gothic
Familiar Expectations of Women and Men
"The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
The novel's obsession with Caddy's virginity is one that mirrors the culture of honor in the south. Her value as a respectable woman lies in her purity, one that her brothers will do anything to uphold
Jason's failure of traditional manhood leads to his cruelty and misogyny towards Mss Quentin
Quentin's identity as the eldest Compson son within a decaying aristocratic family shapes his obsession with time and purity. Southern expectations of honor distort his sense of self
Benjy's disability shapes his entire section. When he repeats "Caddy smelled like trees" the reader is able to further immerse in the novel by activating all senses., Despite being exempt from traditional familiar roles, Benjy continues the toxic habits of his family's past
Dilsey's identity as an elderly Black woman allows her a clarity that the Compsons do not possess. Dilsey represents moral authority in the new South
Loss of Wealth/Status
Moral Corruption
Broad Categories
Race
Economic standing
Gender
Relationship status (married vs unmarried)
Nationality
Sexuality
The Collective "I"
Racial pride is like the "gold" river
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes
The speaker's "I" is linked to ancient and modern rivers (Euphrates, Congo, Nile, Mississippi) creates a subject that includes not only one individual but a collective. One that defies the exists beyond the limitations of time or space.
"My soul has grown deep like the rivers"
Situating Black identity within a lineage older than oppressive American history. African diasporic history is displayed as foundational to great civilizations.
"I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young"
Gabriel's insecurity about his Irish heritage shapes his interactions with the other guests at the party
Misreading Gretta
intellectual superiority
"The Dead" by James Joyce
Gabriel's speech asserts his intellectural standing over the other guests
he becomes alienated by his own elitism
sillence as affection
"He died for her"
Gabriel centering himself within the story, but this view is destroyed once he learns about Michael Furey
"West Briton"
Miss Ivors vs Gabriel
Stepping away from idealized femininity
"Sea Rose" by H.D.
The sea rose resists patriarchal ideals of gentle ornamental womanhood
"flung by the gale"
femininity becomes shaped by conflict rather than submission. H.D aims to shift the focus of womanhood away from perfection and into a more realistic view. The sea rose is beautiful because it has been battered by the elements.
In contrast to the "fragrant" and "splendid" traditional rose, H.D. critiques how male-centered culture decides which female bodies have value and which do not. The speaker's admiration for the sea rose shifts this status quo.
"They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!'"
Alienation in Urban society
"Do I dare?"
"I am not Prince Hamlet"
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" By T.S. Eliot
fear of vulnerability
failure of a traditional man
Irish nationlist uprising
By listing those fallen by name, Yeats turns them into symbols of national identity
Martyrs
"Easter, 1916" by W.B. Yeats
new Irish identity rooted in sacrifice
Division within Black community
Role of Men and Women
Marriage and its Meaning
Class Divisions
The Pear Tree
'Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
Janie's First Kiss
Nanny's reaction to Janie's first sexual experience is one driven by fear. Nanny wants to protect Janie from the sexual violence she and Janie's mother have experienced
Meeting Jody for the first time
Meeting Tea Cake for the firs time
Jodie vs Tea Cake
Mayor (upperclass) and Lower/working class
The High Chair vs The Muck
Nanny vs Janie
security vs love
Logan vs Jody vs Teacake
labor vs staus vs love
Who is allowed to participate in conversation and who is not?
Janie is not allowed to join the community on the porch, but Jodie is
Women are status/success markers for men
A Desire for Proximity to Whiteness
Mrs. Turner, Janie and Tea Cake's neighbor in the Muck, glorifies whiteness. Her dislike of Tea Cake is based on the fact that he is a dark-skinned man. Mrs. Turner's desire to befriend Janie is based on superficial reasons. Janie is mixed race due to the sexual violence her mother and grandmother experienced, and is a lighter complexion with European features. The efforts to set-up Janie with Mrs. Turner's brother is a desperate attempt to gain social favor. This internalized bigotry leads characters in the novel to believe that proximity to whiteness is a marker of success.
"Tain't de poorness, it's de color and de features"
"lighten up de race"
Nanny's desire for Janie to marry for wealth/status over love is one rooted in idealization of wealthy, white women. As a former slave, forced into labor, Nanny views the role of a traditional housewife as a measure of freedom. Because this lifestyle was never accessible to Nanny or her daughter, Janie is the beacon of hope.
"Ah wanted yuh to school out and pick from a higher bush and a sweeter berry"
Janie realizes she is Black
"Where is me? Ah don't see me"
Race as a realization rather than an internal knowledge. Janie does not see a separation between herself and the white children she grew up with. This moment lays the foundation for Janie's idealized versions of love, marriage, and race.
Class separations
Repressed Desires
Marriage
"Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf
Clarissa vs Mrs. Dalloway
Marriage becomes a confinement of identity
Septimus Warren Smith and Lucrezia
Sally Seton and Clarissa's relationship
Unable to fully suppress queer desire, but because it is not socially accepted the narrative (a mirror of the characters' inner minds) is the only place this relationship can exist
Peter Walsh
Richard Dalloway
Dalloway vs Elizabeth's teacher
the dancer's nudity sumbolizes freedom and social vulnerability
"brown body swinging"
the subject of the poem's identiy as a Black woman saphes how she is seen by the reader
"Nude Young Dancer" by Langston Hughes
Black women's bodies are subjected to a sexualization that white women do not experinece
"He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool"
the poems performer embodies the emotional landscape of the Black American struggle
Emphasis on labor (physical, emotional, cultural)
"The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes
"slept like a rock or a man that's dead"
there is a cost to this collective expression
“Ain’t got nobody in all this world,
Ain’t got nobody but ma self"
"What happens to a dream deferred?"
dreams decay because material conditions restrict them
"Harlem (2)" by Langston Hughes
collective frustration
the dream does not belong to just the speaker
"Or does it explode?"
Longing for Ireland
The narrative voice comes from a place of longing and displacement
"I hear it in the deep heart's core"
This existence is internal AND external
“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Yeats
"I will arise and go now"
Reframing Women
This poem frames Orpheus' backward glance as an assertion of control rather than love
There is a shift in object vs subject within the poem
Eurydice becomes the subject of her suffering rather than the object of Orpheus' grief
"Eurydice" by H.D.
Inherited Struggles and Beliefs
"Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett
the search for meaning within the human experinece is futile
Vladimir: represents the mind
cannot stop focusing on hat
breath stinks
tries to place moments in time and searches for reassurance that others remember what he does
Estragon: represents of the body
cannot stop focusing on his boots
feet stink
cannot remember events from previous scenes
Pozzo and Lucky
Defined by servitude, Lucky cannot stop serving Pozzo even when he is blind. The two men rely heavily upon one and other despite their violent, exploitative relationship
"Bartleby, The Scrivener" by Herman Melville
"I would prefer not to"
Bartleby's view of labor and the lawyers view of labor follow different hierarchies
The lawyer believes in his unquestionable authority
Bartleby rejects the inherited belief
"The Man of the Crowd" by Edgar Allan Poe
modern crowd conflicts with inherited societal belliefs
"this man cannot be read"
interpretation fails leading to the narrators breakdown
the emergence of the crowd = replacement of the individual
"The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes
the music of the Blues allows collective memory to be recovered
"he did a lazy sway"
communal suffering becomes a beautiful experinece
generational racial pain
"The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
The Compsons inherit aristoocratic Southern values that are no longer applicable to their world
meaning has decayed leaving the characters with little to hold onto
obsession with Southern honor
a broken lineage
Only Dilsey is able to sustain meaning through faith
Church scene with Benjy
"The Second Coming" by William Yeats
Inherited belief systems cannot be upheld
"the falcon cannot hear the falconer"
Modernity inherits the world after WWI
violence and chaos
"The center cannot hold"
“Sailing to Byzantium” by William Yeats
Materialism of the modern world
"hammered gold"
cannot be destroyed
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes
cultural meaning survives through its lineage
"My soul has grown deep like the rivers"
Black identity is not lost but misrepresented in a bigoted society; Hughes must reclaim it and remind his reader
A representation of enduring Black culture and identity, one that has been ignored throughout history
"Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes
American ideals were inherited but have not been fulfilled by marginalized communities and must be reclaimed
"America never was America to me"
enslavement, Jim Crow laws, exploitation
Hughes seems to have faith in a greater nation that disperses its promised liberties to every person regardless of identity
"A Few Don't by an Imagiste" by Ezra Pound
Pound's attempt to recover concise literature when language has become diluted
"Use no superfluous word"
implying previous poetic works deny the reader of true meaning
modernity = linguistic clutter
Good authors restrain themselves
Ancient vs Modern Worlds
"Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe
Father Figures
Okwonko and Nwoye
Okwonko and Ikemefuna
Unoka and Okwonko
Okwonko and Ezinma
Okwonko wishes she were a boy
the novel is unable to continue its story of inheritance because Ezinma cannot surpass her father socially
Unoka as a gentle, untitled man. Okwonko builds his entire identity in opposition to his faher
Okwonko does not posses the gift of language, like his father did
This relationship of the son hating his father is inherited
Okwonko sacrifices human connection and betrays his emotions to declare his unwavering masculinity
forced into a rigid model of masculinity, Nwoye finds refuge in the Christian missionary
The death of Ikemefuna ruins any chance of a healthy lineage
Christian Colonization vs African Religious Practices
"Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
Ancient
oral culture
storytelling, porch talks
Modern
Eatonville as a governed city
Everglades economy based on mass labor
Nanny's history as a former slave
Janie is in a some ways a bridge between these two worlds
Janie is able to find peace in the novel's ending through understanding her past/the merge between others expectations for her life (Nanny, Logan, Jodie) and her own
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes
Ancient
lineage of civilizations
identity grounded in pre-colonial history
shifting Black identity outside the slave trade
Modern
Mississippi river as a large part of American Slave trade
forgotten historical importance
narrowed version of history
“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound
Ancient
organic imagergy
"Petals on a wet black bough"
Modern
subway platform, crowded anonymity
Reconnecting a modern reader with this history of simple writing
images of nature are moved into an industrialized space
“A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste” by Ezra Pound
Ancient
stable language
Modern
interpretive language
clarity is impossible to grasp because the world have become too big to grasp
mass production cheapens the final result
this mindset of mass replication applies to all creative pursuits
"Oread" by H.D.
Ancient
connection between human and nature
Modern
the natural world is shirnking
"Eurydice" by H.D.
Ancient
mythology through a modern register
Modern
reclaim myth's silence, gives woman a voice