Good evening fellow bloggers. What a joy it is to taste the sweet end to a bitter semester. This semester has been quite a rollercoaster. We began this unit of American Literature, by being introduced to the Native American sense of importance that nature has, and how it can make our lives more whole and meaningful seems to have been lost. I really enjoyed learning about this in the first week as I feel very connected the topic of nature. It is one of my passions as I aspire to be as disconnected to the planned standard human life as possible.
This topic then swiftly moved on to the concept of Transcendentalism and Emerson and Thoreau. I did not score as highly as I hoped on the essay (I chose the Transcendentalist question), however this was my favourite concept that has been presented in literature thus far. For these eminent men to reject the stereotypical life is refreshing and inspiring. I connected to this idea the most and conducted my own further reflection and research on the concept only to be faced with a new perspective on life. As mentioned in my blog for this week, I found it humorous at first when Jess suggested we move to Byron Bay and grow vegetables. However, the more I thought about it, the more desirable it sounded.
As the weeks went on, we were introduced to Emily Dickinson and her interesting style of poetry. I was particularly inspired by her idiosyncrasies in: Im Nobody! Who are you?
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!
That week I had a stab at creating my own poem and thoroughly enjoyed it. It allowed me to be more creative (something I struggle with constantly) and even inspired me to start thinking of ideas for my other English unit, Creative Non-Fiction. So thank you Michael for allowing us creative freedom!
Huckleberry Finn followed after that week and I decided to do another critical piece. Unfortunately, I did not finish that novel which is why I believe I felt disconnected to the blog topics and the tutorials and lecture. I did what I knew I was good at- analysing- and decided to take a paragraph and show the rich language Twain uses to describe nature.
Du Bois and his reflection on Racism showed that the color – line that he spoke of is controversial as many racist White Americans do not want to consider the thought that they may have “black” descendants. This is a constant issue in society and I don’t believe it will ever be resolved sadly, however I was glad it was touched on in class.
From Du Bois, we were then introduced to the famous poems by Frost and Lowell. Again I attempted to connect more with my creative side and wrote another poem! Shocked? Me too. It again, boosted my confidence and allowed me to warm up to my creative side.
I felt as though Ezra Pound’s In a Station of the Metro, connected well with Transcendentalism as Pound elevated nature above the usual ‘going through the motions’ outlook that humans have on life. This two line poem was enjoyable as I likened it to Emerson and Thoreau’s works.
As I Lay Dying, another interesting text was quite fun to analyse in the 3pm class with Jess. I noticed many people were puzzled that someone wanted to base a book about a mother watching her son build her coffin? Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it as much as some of the other texts that we analysed although it did blend well with the other concepts we had been introduced to from other authors and artists.
We then moved on to Ginsberg and Beat! Holy, Holy, Holy! What an interesting man! There is still some confusion on the question I asked in my blog that week… No one offered their opinions! I felt as though it was a brilliant second last week of the semester and Holy! I hope I don’t come across a semester like this again.
Overall I enjoyed this unit, although I feel that Australian Literature was probably my most favoured (so far!). I connect well to the ideas presented about nature in all units we study, and I believe that this is why the Transcendental concept has been the most interesting for me in this unit!
Hopefully I will see you all next semester with more interesting ideas and concepts introduced to us in literature!
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