ENGL 2740 Lecture Notes - Intertextuality, Nonsense Verse
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November 23 2011 Lecture
Play Words
-play as a framework in which you can experiment
-thought of in this way, play offers pleasure in the unexpected, in the deviation from the
"usual" and "normal" in the breaking of rules
-alternatively play can be seen as a form of subversion, a framework within which
"anything goes" (at least temporarily)
-a way of experimenting with the mutability of rules, roles and structures
-speech play
-a way of playing with language rules
-you can expose them
-contradict them
-as soon as it is nonsense e it is speech play
-words connected to the meanings
-within nonsense we can say it is "silly"
-b/c it is silly we can say dark things, expand our thoughts even if they sound silly
Poem Example in Class
(example in class: poem with picture)
-the whole poem becomes literarily real. the children talk a certain way then the adults
start to talk the same way
-takes something familiar and render it unfamiliar
-adult and child revolting against each other
-everyone is angry and disturbed
Cat In The Hat
-from 1957
-Dr. Seuss, (Theodore Seuss)
-he worked in advertising before becoming a book writer
-this book has an interesting energy
-book was a branding image for children's book
-cat in the hat symbol
-corporate symbol for children's book
-he is a savvy writer who understands the industry well
-you can see his style immersing from his early work in advertising
-seuss was involved with children's book and was experimenting with nonsense verse
for 20 years before he published the cat in the hat
The Making of CITH