AS AM 5 Lecture Notes - Edward Said, Dorothea Lange, Liminality
3 April 2018- Tuesday
W.E.B Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
- Historian and writer
- 1st African American to get a PhD from Harvard
- Two primary ideas
- The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line
-Double consciousness- “always looking at oneself through the eyes of others”,
identity as Black and an American
Double Consciousness→ Hybridity
- Combination, overlapping of identities; a “hybrid consciousness”
- A rethinking and reconstitution of majoritiness through minorities
Metaphors of Minoritiness
- Invisibility
- Otherness
- Hybridity
On Style
- Stylistic decisions shaping thematic arguments
- On realism, modernism and postmodernism
On Close Reading
- Meaning in texts is not always self evident
- Authorial intention is not important
- Always anchor your thoughts in the language of the work
5 April 2018
- James Baldwin
- Novelist, essayist, social critic
- Preacher in early teens, then turned away toward writing
- Dual influence of art and religion
- Particularly as an essayist, engaged w structural impediments in the culture of
African American life
- The blues is the central theme and metaphor of the story. How does Baldwin
define the blues?
- For Baldwin, the blues are borne from African American history
- Metaphor for a broader condition
- This is the philosophical question at the heart of the story
- 3 interrelated narratives
- The story of two brothers and their family
- Social context- Harlem after WWII
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- The blues as form, vision and aesthetic metaphor
- The story
- The basic plot
- Narrator reads about Sonny going to jail
- They communicate a little over letters
- Backstory of childhood, Sonny and narrator as kids, Sonny staying with
Isabel when narrator is away in the army
- Sonny comes back to Harlem, brothers go to a jazz club
- Difference btwn brothers is a main conflict
- Narrator
- Mid class respectability as a teacher
- Orders world thru math
- Good son, husband, father, social glue
- Louis Armstrong
- Sonny
- Artist, drug user, just released from jail
- ‘Private”
- Charlie “Bird” Parker
- Not so different?
- Pg. 104
- Sharing jokes, on India- pg 111
- Both brothers have pain; narrator sees limits around him- death of his
daughter; the fall of Grace
- Sonny tries to explain similarities (132-33)
- 3 generations and women
- Sonny’s father, mother, uncle
- Sonny, narrator, Isabel
- School boys and narrator’s childrem
- Assumption that things from one generation to another get better;
narrator questions this assumption over and over again (112)
- A deep fear of what will happen to his children
- Women as grounding forces
- Isabel, the mother
- Social context
- Story gains power and resonance in social context: limited life in Harlem
- Baldwin makes this immediately clear on the second pg of the story
- “These boys... all those other sounds” (104)
- Three main issues emerge in this passage: darkness, generations, whistling
- Ellison’s Invisible Man
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find more resources at oneclass.com
- Invisibility- marker of alienation, subjective meaning
- Baldwin falls into tradition at one level. Doesn’t want to be pigeon holed
as a “black writer”
- Moves between the two possibilities
- Darkness clearly steeped in racial context of pre and post WWII in USA
- What to do in the face of darkness
- See camera roll
- The brothers talk
- Baldwin’s 3 narratives- the personal,social and aesthetic- come to a head
in the last pgs of the story (128-141)
- “In order to stop shaking to pieces,” (131)
- “You got to find a way to listen” (133)
- “...as he played with it, like a knife…” (134)
- Sources of redemption and hope
- Narrator: to listen
- “All I know about music…” (137)
- “The Creole stepped forward…” (139)
- Through Sonny and his music, narrator can understand his own
pain
- Moment of connection between brothers
- Sonny
- Playing the blues
- “Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life.” (140)
- Baldwin’s vision
- Blues- grounded in African American life
- Metaphoric power→ particular and universal
- The move to the particular and universal as a method of gaining visibility,
arguing against invisibility, otherness
- Importance of others: brothers, band members, citizens of the democracy.
A different America
10 April 2018, Tuesday
- From Baldwin to Roth
- Roth’s concerns in the story are presented on the first page
- Freedman vs. Binder
- To talk or not to talk? To question or not to question? Ozzie vs Itzie
- Theology as subject of subversion
- Humor as aesthetic
- “Mary hadda get laid”
- Three Questions
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
W. e. b du bois, the souls of black folk. 1st african american to get a phd from harvard. The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line. Double consciousness - always looking at oneself through the eyes of others , identity as black and an american. Combination, overlapping of identities; a hybrid consciousness . A rethinking and reconstitution of majoritiness through minorities. Meaning in texts is not always self evident. Preacher in early teens, then turned away toward writing. Particularly as an essayist, engaged w structural impediments in the culture of. The blues is the central theme and metaphor of the story. For baldwin, the blues are borne from african american history. This is the philosophical question at the heart of the story. The story of two brothers and their family. The blues as form, vision and aesthetic metaphor. Narrator reads about sonny going to jail. Backstory of childhood, sonny and narrator as kids, sonny staying with.
