Joan Baez: Poetry, Music and Activism
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Corso di Laurea magistrale (ordinamento ex D.M. 270/2004) in Lingue e Letterature europee, americane e postcoloniali Tesi di Laurea Joan Baez: Poetry, Music and Activism Relatore Marco Fazzini Correlatore Shaul Bassi Laureando/a Alessia Maltese Matricola 844448 Anno Accademico 2013 / 2014 Joan Baez: Poetry, Music and Activism 1 Index Introduction .......................................................................................................... 6 Chapter I ............................................................................................................... 8 1960s Folk Music and the sense of community .................................................. 8 1.1 Folk Music during the 1960s ........................................................................ 8 1.2 Joan Baez and Music: We Shall Overcome .................................................. 14 1.3 What does Folk mean in Literature: Francis James Child and William Wordsworth .................................................................................................... 16 Bibliography I .................................................................................................. 19 Chapter II ............................................................................................................ 21 A long Struggle for Freedom and Human Rights............................................... 21 2.1 Joan Baez and Martin Luther King: a long friendship .................................. 22 2.2 Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement .................................... 24 2.3 Martin Luther King in Birmingham, Alabama ............................................. 27 2.4 Martin Luther King and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom .. 29 2.5 White Poetry and the topic of Race ........................................................... 31 2.6 Black poet Dudley Randall and the Quaker John G. Whittier ...................... 33 2.7 Joan Baez and the issue of Civil Disobedience ............................................ 36 2.8 Henry David Thoreau’s On the duty of Civil Disobedience .......................... 39 13.9 Barbara Deming’s Prison Notes ................................................................ 40 Bibliography II ................................................................................................. 43 Chapter III ........................................................................................................... 46 Joan Baez: a folksinger and poetess ................................................................. 46 3.1 Her life and her attitude toward existence ................................................. 47 3.2 Her mother and her Father ........................................................................ 50 3.3 Joan Baez’s vision of America .................................................................... 53 3.4 Her Music and Her Political Activism .......................................................... 55 3.5 Joan Baez, not only a folksinger ................................................................. 60 Bibliography III ................................................................................................ 62 Baptism: A Journey Through our Time ............................................................. 63 2 4.1 Music through Poetry and Poetry Through Music ...................................... 64 Bibliography IV ................................................................................................ 69 Chapter V ............................................................................................................ 71 How War influences the lives of human beings ................................................ 71 5.1 War through Poetry ................................................................................... 72 5.2 Joan Baez and The Vietnam War: Where are you now, my son? ................. 75 Joan Baez the activist ...................................................................................... 75 Joan Baez the folksinger and poetess ............................................................... 78 5.3 Henry Treece: Elegy ................................................................................... 83 5.4 Septimus Smith: a victim of War in Mrs Dalloway ...................................... 85 5.5 Joan Baez’s Baptism and the issue of War .................................................. 88 5.6 Once, a dance against War......................................................................... 93 Bibliography V ................................................................................................. 95 Chapter VI ........................................................................................................... 99 Mothers and Children: What does it mean to be a Mother and a Woman ........ 99 6.1 Lullabies, Mothers and their Children ...................................................... 100 6.2 Mothers and Children in Literature .......................................................... 103 6.3 Joan Baez, Francis James Child and the topic of Motherhood................... 105 6.4 Women and Feminism: a window into Marilyn French’s The Women’s Room ..................................................................................................................... 107 Bibliography VI .............................................................................................. 112 Chapter VII ........................................................................................................ 114 Fathers and sons, a close relationship ............................................................ 114 7.1 Fatherhood in James Joyce’s Of the Dark Past and other early poems ..... 115 7.2 Fatherhood in Henry Treece’s Old Welsh Song and The Magic Wood ....... 116 7.3 Ballads and the topic of fatherhood: further literary voices ..................... 118 Bibliography VII ............................................................................................. 121 Mankind, Death and Sorrow .......................................................................... 122 8.1 Joan Baez’s vision of Death and Sorrow ................................................... 123 8.2 Federico Garcia Lorca: Gacela of the dark death and Casida of the Lament ..................................................................................................................... 124 8.3 William Blake: London ............................................................................. 127 Bibliography VIII ............................................................................................ 129 3 Chapter IX ......................................................................................................... 131 Men fell on the centre of the Universe: in between Meditation and lyrical moments ....................................................................................................... 131 9.1 No Man is an Island: John Donne’s Devotions upon Emergent Occasions . 132 9.2 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: young Stephen Dedalus’ meditations ................................................................................................... 135 9.3 Meditation and Loneliness in Arthur Rimbaud’s Illuminations .................. 138 Bibliography IX .............................................................................................. 139 Chapter X .......................................................................................................... 141 Love and Poetry: oh sad, sad Love! ................................................................ 141 10.1 Joan Baez and Love ................................................................................ 141 10.2 Wholeness and Order in E. E. Cummings’ Tulips and Chimneys .............. 146 10.3 All in Green Went My Love Riding: E. E. Cummings’ love poems ............. 147 10.4 When the Shy Star Goes Forth in Heaven: James Joyce’s love poems ..... 150 Chapter XI ......................................................................................................... 153 Humankind and God ...................................................................................... 153 11.1 Joan Baez and Quakerism ...................................................................... 153 11.2 Quakerism in Literature ......................................................................... 155 The Quaker Influence in American Literature ................................................. 157 11.3 Sinners and God .................................................................................... 159 11.4 Black Gospel and Religion: some notions ............................................... 163 Bibliography XI .............................................................................................. 165 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 168 4 To CONCETTA, who loved books and died so soon. 5 Introduction This dissertation attempts to give an overview on the half American and half Mexican folksinger Joan Baez during the 1960s and 1970s in America. In particular, I have decided to highlight her life through three main aspects: Poetry, Music and Activism. Moreover, her 1968 album of poetry and music entitled Baptism: A Journey Through Our Time will be the focus of my study. As a result, I have decided to explore those poems which have been selected, chosen and edited by Joan Baez in the