For my research paper i am doing a comparison on the works of Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman, specifically “A Song of Myself” and “Theme for English B”. In one of the sources i found called Critical Essay on “Theme for English B” by Chris Samensky he analyzes the thought process of Langston Hughes literary outline of this poem. Samensky refers to it as a “lyric poem”, and says “The assumption of such poems is that by describing what is inside of them, narrators of lyrics are able to articulate the truth about themselves.” Langston Hughes used this poem as a view inside his life, his youth, the indifference he felt in his community and shared it as a sense of unity among possibly other minorities struggling to fit in. I liked this article because i felt like it really touched on the depth of Langston Hughes words. Such a simple poem but holds much weight and emotion and i think thats its purpose. The teacher mentioned in the poem gives an assignment for the students to write about themselves as if writing about yourself is an easy task. For some one with years of oppression and struggle writing a poem about yourself is personal and causes you to have to be honest and vulnerable with yourself. His courage and confidence in the poem is empowering and for that reason leaves an impact on those who read it. Semansky, Chris. “Critical Essay on ‘Theme for English B’.” Poetry for Students, edited by Mary Ruby, vol. 6, Gale, 1999. Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale-com.proxy055.nclive.org/apps/doc/H1420043011/GLS?u=durham_tccl&sid=GLS&xid=304b6e83. Accessed 17 Nov. 2019.

The short story Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros is a story narrated by a woman named Cleofilas who is a Mexican immigrant and the the things that go on in her everyday and the thoughts that go through her head. Cleofilas shows us the terrible reality of what commonly happens in foreign cultures to women. They are typically suppressed and not given a voice of their own which leads to mental if not physical abuse.
Domestic abuse is a very common trend in foreign countries. I found an article titled, “Maternal outcomes associated to psychological and physical intimate partner violence during pregnancy: A cohort study and multivariate analysis” by Stella Martin-de-las-Heras, Casilda Velasco, Juan de Dios Luna-del-Castillo, Khalid S. Khan. the authors state, “Pregnancy represents a period of particular vulnerability, with reported IPV (intimate partner violence) prevalence higher than many common obstetric conditions, varying across countries and cultural contexts.”In this article not only does it show a pattern in domestic abuse against women in different cultures but also domestic abuse being heightened during times of pregnancy. Luckily America has laws against issues of domestic violence but unfortunately for women in other countries here are not policies to protect women receiving violence in abusive relationships. Like Cleofilas in Woman Hollering Creek she assumed that the lifestyle of oppression in her household was somewhat normal, like many women Cleofilas associated drama and violence with passion and love. At the end of the short story Cleofilas becomes acquainted with some liberal women who want to rescue her from her marriage. The idea of women owning their own car, making their own money, making their own decisions! this was something Cleofilas has never dreamed of. Thankful to our nations growing influence on foreign countries i hope that in the near future less evidence of domestic violence will exist.

Martin-de-las-Heras, Stella, et al. “Maternal outcomes associated to psychological and physical intimate partner violence during pregnancy: A cohort study and multivariate analysis.” PLoS ONE, vol. 14, no. 6, 2019, p. e0218255. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link-gale-com.proxy055.nclive.org/apps/doc/A588924210/OVIC?u=durham_tccl&sid=OVIC&xid=b13e9853. Accessed 2 Nov. 2019.

The writing Passing by Nella Larsen was a different read than we have read before in class. It was a story rather than poetry, but yet still consisted of the symbolic theme that poetry takes on. What i wonder from Passing of course is how it ended. What does Nella Larsen want us to believe? What did she want the reader to take away from this. Nella Larsen herself was a complicated individual coming from a multi-racial background and having a history hinting at homosexuality she was taboo for her time period. So the question i ask in this post is what was Larsen’s intention on leaving the ending to Passing up to interpretation.

I came across this article titled ” The Veils of the Law: Race and Sexuality in Nella Larsen’s Passing” by Corinne E. Blackmer, in which she analyzes the many controversial issues Nella Larsen addresses in this novel, “Passing, in contrast, stresses the interpretive anxieties and sexual paranoias that make convention-bound people reluctant to allow others the freedom to travel freely throughout the many worlds, identities, and sexualities of American society.” She brings up a good point as to relate not only the homosexual context to Irene and Clare’s relationship but also possibly the underlying homoseuxality of Brian Redfield who sleeps in a seperate room and expresses that he does not see Clare, the ever so beautiful woman as attractive. In this article by Blackmer she suggests that Irene was indeed the one to push Clare off the balcony in the end, but that that is not the point of the novel…the point of the novel was to show the importance of conforming to societies norms at this time period and for those who didn’t there risked being complete isolation or even death.” Focussed principally on the operation of chance and accident as well as the epistemological crises of unknowability that result from self-silencing and self-repression, Larsen’s novel ostensibly passes” for a conventional narrative of racial “passing.” “

Blackmer, Corinne E. “The veils of the law: race and sexuality in Nella Larsen’s passing.” College Literature, vol. 22, no. 3, 1995, p. 50+. Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale-com.proxy055.nclive.org/apps/doc/A18110019/GLS?u=durham_tccl&sid=GLS&xid=3e711edd. Accessed 21 Oct. 2019.

This week was possibly my favorite week of poetry, as discussed at the beginning of this semester the topic I was most interested in learning about was the period of the Harlem Renaissance. The poet that stands out to me from this period is Langston Hughes. After reading his poem Theme for English B in class i learned he had spent some time in our town of Durham, North Carolina which intrigued me even more. In my opinion Langston Hughes was the founding father of art in African American culture. He helped develop a style of poetry that would influence literature, music, theater, and create a following of people young and old to become motivated by his activism on issues of racial and social justice.

       The peer reviewed article that I chose to write this blog post about is called “Advanced, Repressed, and Popular: Langston Hughes During the Cold War” By Johnathan Scott. In this article Scott addresses the issues Langston Hughes faced with the controversial theme of his poetry. Johnathan Scott viewed Langston Hughes as I did saw him as a significant trademark for the culture, “…Politically he served as a Black national advocate for international socialism, mainly through his journals and poetry, as an artists he asserted the international scale of American national struggle to abolish racial oppression…”.  Much of his art was “blacklisted” by white supremacists and therefore didn’t gain the recognition it should have. Johnathan Scott recognizes that Langston Hughes was not acknowledged during his time as he should have been, in this passage Scott compares the wealth accumulated from the works of William Faulkner to the works of Hughes, “…Hughes remained unable to support himself as a writer. Ironically it was not proceeds from his published works, but a $1000 cash grant from The Academy…” From this excerpt of the article we can see that Langston Hughes was not flourishing in his popularity during this time period, it took over 20 years for his works to be really appreciated widely in American culture.

Scott, Jonathan. “Advanced, repressed, and popular: Langston Hughes during the cold war (1).” College Literature, vol. 33, no. 2, 2006, p. 30+. Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale-com.proxy055.nclive.org/apps/doc/A145877315/GLS?u=durham_tccl&sid=GLS&xid=0ab94076. Accessed 24 Sept. 2019.

I chose to write this post based off the introduction of Amy Lowell this week. I was intrigued by her for several reasons. The first reason is that her family founded Lowell, Massachusetts and that is where I was born so i thought that was pretty interesting. The second reason is that she was considered a socialite of her time. I embarrassingly admit that my biggest guilty pleasure would have to be pop culture, gossip, and reality TV so i imagine if Amy Lowell was alive during our time that she would probably be someone i kept up with. The third reason is I really enjoyed reading her poem “September 1918”.

Looking through the Durham Tech library database i found a peer reviewed article about Amy Lowell called, ” In the Manner of Amy Lowell: Lady of The Moon” by Sihami Karami . In this particular article Karami focuses on a book written by a women named Lillian Faderman who wrote a book detailing Amy Lowell’s intimate life with partner Ada Russell, and the impression the love poems left on the culture of women’s poetry. Same sex relationships during this time were not common and probably frowned upon as i read here in Karami’s article, “Having to hide the lesbian nature of their relationship, however subtly, went against her nature as an open person and an outspoken proponent of freedom of expression.” I think its fair to say Amy Lowell’s poems may not have been fairly given credit until more recent years. as Karami ends her article she thanks Amy Lowell with this, “inspiring future generations of poets to become a feminist voice for freedom of expression.”

Karami, Sihami. “In the manner of Amy Lowell.” The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, vol. 23, no. 4, 2016, p. 39. Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale-com.proxy055.nclive.org/apps/doc/A457693694/GLS?u=durham_tccl&sid=GLS&xid=eb0be6c0. Accessed 10 Sept. 2019.

            To be completely honest I have not read a book cover to cover since I was a teenager, with that being said I am now twenty-seven years old. In my youth when I did pick up a book to read it was mostly likely a “Young Adult Fiction”. I used to love books like, the “Crank” series by Ellen Hopkins, “A Series of Unfortunate Events” by Lemony Snickett aka Daniel Handler. A great deal of my childhood was spent reading the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series. I think all these books showed my true love for real life issues, drama and uncensored rawness. Books that were an overall interesting read.

            In my more recent years I’ve turned to books to acquire information. I bought a self-help book called “The Power of Intention” by Dr. Wayne Dyer, this book helped me over come many of the obstacles I face and taught me how to react when certain situations present themselves, and I believe I’m better for having read it.

As far as knowledge of Authors goes, I definitely have heard of most the Authors on our syllabus but more likely than not I haven’t read any of their works. I am most excited to open my mind up to a variety different stories that have shaped American Literature. I think it’s a shame to be a young American citizen and not have knowledge of the greats whom have opened so many windows of opportunity for our world today.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

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