Masquerade is the most comprehensive anthology yet published of poetry by American gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered persons. It includes representative poems from more than 100 writers from pre-colonial times to the end of the Second World War. The anthology begins with selections of anonymous texts from the oral traditions of Hawaii and Native America, followed by voodoo chants and cowboy songs (with a few limericks thrown in for good measure). The selections are arranged by the year of the poet's birth and include samplings of poetry by a racially and ethnically diverse group of men and women. Contemporary readers will know the work of some of these poets, such as Gertrude Stein and Walt Whitman. Other poets, such as George Santayana and Adah Isaacs Menken, will be strangers to most. In all, these poets created a rich heritage of verse that has been for the most part masked throughout the history of American literature.
Animals play an important role in the communication of wisdom. In songs, proverbs, aphorisms, riddles and other oral modes of communication, animals sometimes play the roles of human beings. Homeric similes, Hesiodic and Aesopic fables, and numerous oral figures of speech in Greek lyric poetry often incorporate animals in their figurative language. Likewise, Kalanga folktales, proverbs, and other didactic modes attest to the importance of animals within this culture as vehicles to teach moral lessons. This tendency is visible among many cultures across the world. As such, the broad concerns of this thesis are to compare the way Archaic Greek and Kalanga wisdom literatures resort to animal imagery in the dissemination of moral lessons. The study evaluates the way animals are deployed as metaphors to signify and express human actions and human attitudes in oral thought. In a narrow sense, I study the deployment of animals insofar as they shed light upon the human attributes of cleverness and stupidity; the use of animals' characters in political commentary; as well as in the economic and erotic didactics in Archaic Greek and Kalanga oral wisdom literatures. Judging from the frequency of their appearance, it seems that animals are one of the preferred ways through which people offer insights into themselves. Commenting on the human habit of integrating animals into one's religious and moral views, Peter Lum says 'The animal world seems to the mind of primitive man to be only a very short step from the human.' This dissertation seeks to arrive at answers to a number of questions through a comparative study of selections from the two traditions. What are the premises and presuppositions behind the deployment of each animal in such literature? What are the bases for building a human character on an animal? How do we compare and contrast the human and animal natures? And, what makes an animal assume a specific role, and not another, in folklore? What ecological and ethical concerns can be observed in this type of literature? Most importantly, what similarities are there between Greek and Kalanga oral modes of expression? By revealing similarities in animal imagery between two diverse wisdom traditions, this work explores what may be described as a natural, cross-cultural basic component of didactic poetry: a common denominator that gets to the root of archaic wisdom. Furthermore, as a poetic element seemingly rooted in the realities of agrarian society, such symbolism leads us to consider whether the moral authority it represents is purely poetic or whether it actually holds cultural capital. This exercise entails using the dynamics of a living tradition to understand more about one we access through texts and commentaries.
La crítica de Platón a la poesía imitativa tiene como objetivo deslegitimar el fundamento mismo de la cultura griega oral: el politeísmo arcaico. Para ello, además del descrédito moral y político de los poetas según la nueva concepción racionalista de lo divino, Platón apunta con su crítica al elemento cognitivo que posibilita la cultura oral: la mímesis. Sin embargo, Platón es víctima de su propia crítica pues reconoce que el filósofo también imita; una imitación legítima ontológicamente pues se trata del mundo de las Ideas. ; The aim of the criticism of Plato for the imitative poetry is to discredit the basis of the oral Greek culture: the archaic polytheism. That's why, in addition to the moral and political discredit of the poets according to the new rationalist conception of the divinity, Plato points with his criticism to the cognitive element which makes possible the oral culture: the mimesis .However, Plato is victim of his own criticism since he recognizes that the philosopher also imitates: an ontologically legal imitation as it's about the world of the ideas.
Focusing on Mahmoud Darwish's poetry, this article aims to present his resistance poetry as aesthetic embodiment of oral dissemination rather than purely an art form. We can deduce three roles of Darwish's take on resistance against the backdrop of Palestinian struggle; first is the attempt to subvert patriarchal/colonial ascendency by subjecting traditional affirmations to critical, postcolonial inquiry; second is the attempt to raise the self-esteem of the people by conferring upon them a 'national sublime' that emerges from their relentless struggle and sacrifice, and; third the presentation of poetic diction that evolves into a self-reflexive domain galvanizing the people into waging the struggle for their rights.
The dissertation proposes that one of the more fruitful ways of interpreting Burke's work is to evaluate him as an oral performer rather than a literary practitioner and it argues that in his voice can be heard the modulations of the genres and conventions of oral composition of eighteenth-century Gaelic Ireland. The first chapter situates Burke in the milieu of the Gaelic landed class of eighteenth-century Ireland. The next chapter examines how the rich oral culture of the Munster Gaelic gentry, where Burke spent his childhood days, was to provide a lasting influence on the form and content of Burke's work. His speeches on the British constitution are read in the context of the historical and literary culture of the Jacobites, specifically the speculum principis, Párliament na mBán. The third chapter surveys the tradition of Anglo-Irish theoretical writings on oratory and discusses how Burke is aligned with this school. The focus is on how Burke's thought and practice, his 'idioms', might be understood as being mediated through the criterion of orality rather than literature. The remaining chapters discuss Burke's politics and performance in the light of Gaelic cultural practices such as the rituals of the courts of poetry, the Warrant Poems or Barántas; the performance of funeral laments and elegies, Caoineadh, the laments for the fallen nobility, Marbhna na daoine uaisle, the satires and the political vision allegories of Munster, Aislingí na Mumhan; to show how they provide us with a remarkable context for discussing Burke's poetical-political performance. In hearing Burke's voice through the body of Gaelic culture our understanding of Burke's position in the wider world of the eighteenth century (and hence his meaning) is profoundly affected.
When James Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and Translated from the Galic or Erse Language appeared in 1760, it was greeted with widespread approval. Macpherson's collection purported to translate the work of Ossian, a semi-mythical third-century C. E. Scottish bard in the mold of Homer, who preserved his culture's traditions in song. The claim that this collection was the "genuine remains of ancient Scottish poetry" attracted passionate adherents (Macpherson 1966:A2). For nationalistic Scots, Ossian provided a tantalizing image of an advanced culture comparable to and contemporaneous with those of classical Greece and Rome. For many English authors, Ossian served as an example of native British creativity that superseded the neoclassicism of the early eighteenth century.1 Thomas Gray declared, for example, that he was in "extasie" after reading the Ossian poems and characterized Macpherson as a thrilling "demon" of poetry (Gray 1935:ii, 680). This "extasie" partly inspired Gray to compose his own imitations of Norse and Celtic folktales. Ossian's popularity traveled widely outside of Great Britain; prominent literary and political figures, including the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Jefferson, and Napoleon Bonaparte offered enthusiastic assessments of the sentimentality and humanity that they saw in the poems. ; Issue title: Sound Effects.
Generally, learning poetry has some functions which deal with oral language development, student learning style expansion, world engagement with its content, and cultural awareness exploration. The fact is that not only does Indonesia government try to put aside learning literature from all language study programs, but also some practitioners argue that there is no link between learning poetry and developing students teaching skill in some teachers training departments. This article argues that learning poetry can be a medium to develop students teaching skill in sharing the knowledge independently and creatively. Some practices that have been conducted in two poetry classes of English Language Education Program, Sanata Dharma University in 2017 are being discussed in relation to improve students teaching skill as preliminary activities before having a micro teaching class. Additional data about students response toward the practices are also shown. It was found that 82% students agreed that those practices developed students teaching skill in sharing the knowledge that they got.DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/ijiet.2018.020203
Arabic literature is noted for its tradition-conscious consistency and sophistication. In the classical period, poetry and prose reached a high level of refinement and attained standards which are still being applied in the modern Arab world today. The literature of the modern, post-classical, period is no less sophisticated, being a vibrant and flourishing expression of the continued Arabic tradition. The series Studies in Arabic Literature, Supplements to the Journal of Arabic Litrature, founded in 1971, is concerned with all kinds of literary expression in Arabic, including the oral and vernacular traditions, of both the modern and the classical periods.Studies in the series can be literary-historical, analytical or comparative in nature, and can treat of individual works, authors and genres as well as literary traditions in a wider context. Studies dealing with the social, political and philosophical backgrounds of Arabic literature are particularly welcome in the series. The series comprises monographs, thematic collections of articles, handbooks, textual editions and annotated translations. Text editions are as a rule accompanied by a translation on facing pages; both text editions and translations should include comprehensive, critical introductions which give a full and proper appreciation of the text or texts in question
This book addresses the major critical and interpretive issues of contemporary experimental poetic texts. Critical approaches, historical contexts, and basic concepts are surveyed in two introductory essays, while the study of poetic movements in historical context and the chronological trajectory of production of experimental texts are discussed in the first major segment of the volume, Experimentation in Its Historical Moment. The principal topic addressed here is the nature of experimental poetry in revolutionary social contexts. The second major theme, focused upon in the section Experimentation in the Language Arts, is that of language as a vehicle for experiments and cognitive quests, aimed not at the production of truth or social emancipation but at experiential aspects of language and language use. Haroldo de Campos's fragmented poetic prose work Galàxias is a highlighted topic of attention, as are poetic and language experiments in Lettrism, Fluxus, sound poetry, and new technological poetries. The development of the basic tenets of Concrete poetry and current critical perspectives on its status in poetical experimentation constitute the basis of the third section of the book, Concrete and Neo-Concrete Poetry. The relationship of historical Concrete poetry to artistic genres is presented, with special emphasis on Brazil and on contemporary visual writing. The section Memoirs of Concrete, in the context of oral history, includes retrospective accounts by two of Concrete poetry's most renowned editors. The closing section of this book presents statements on the theory and practice of avant-garde poetry by 22 participants in the Yale Symphosymposium on Contemporary Poetics and Concretism
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This is the second of two volumes on the mechanisms of oral communication in ancient Greece, focused on epic poetry, which had deep roots in orality. Combining the tools of cognitive science with the historical and literary analysis of the texts, this survey considers the traces of orality in archaic epic poetry and their adaptation in the changes that the comminicative system showed both synchronously and diachronically.
The relation between history and poetry in Serbian culture is nowhere as strongly and persistently present as in the case of the 1389 Kosovo battle. Over the centuries, this medieval event acquired a mythical aura in the historiography, literary discourse, and oral tradition of the South Slavs, evolving into one of the central national symbols in Serbian culture and a burning political question. This article traces the origin of one of the central elements of the Kosovo myth, the idea of Prince Lazar's choice between the kingdom on earth and the kingdom of heaven on the eve of the Kosovo battle.
The traumatic experience of having one's home broken into, precious objects—books, records, paintings, and musical instruments—destroyed and looted, has been described in many a memoir or fictional account from the Cultural Revolution. However, these narratives, which have become well known as emblematic examples of the Cultural Revolution experience, often leave out the flipside of these intrusions: the question of what happened to the objects after they had been taken?Starting out from the experiences related in a set of interviews that were conducted with representatives from different generations and social groups, this paper offers an alternative reading of this and similar campaigns: one that emphasizes assiduous reading and listening, and learning from the cultural objects that were confiscated from some so as to be enjoyed by others. The paper argues that the experience of "smashing (and enjoying) the Four Olds" was extremely transcultural: contrary to common notions that see the Chinese Cultural Revolution as a period of political and cultural iconoclasm as well as of isolationism, and consequently a "cultural desert," the paper provides extensive evidence of a vibrant and transculturally informed experience of cultural consumption. This involved both China's traditional and foreign cultural products which, even if officially banned, were unofficially available, especially during the "smashing" campaign and similar campaigns that followed.
The essay discusses Ezenwa–Ohaeto's use of the masquerade () minstrel as a paradigm in his experimentation with language in his poetry. Such experimentation with local African oral aesthetics is common in postcolonial African literature, and has been one way that African writers have hoped to create authenticity for their writings. Ezenwa–Ohaeto in his poetry, however, does not practise this experimentation as a mere identification and use of for the minstrel (for instance in the use of proverbs, paradoxical expressions, etc. culturally associated with the persona), but reworks and re-contextualizes the local expressions. His attention to language, though not entirely successful, reveals the project on the localization of the language of African poetry as being worth-while if it treats the local sayings as raw materials from which something new must be created. The African poet who is able to take language beyond what the indigenous sources have provided is the real "shepherd" of chants.
