DOCSLIB.ORG

By Supervisor

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
By Supervisor Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Al-Qadisiya University College of Education Department of English The Poetics of Loss and Consolation in Afro-American Elegiac Poetry: A Study of Robert Hayden's Poetry ّ A THESIS ّ SUBMITTED TO THE COUNCIL OF THE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION-UNIVERSITY OF AL-QADISIYA, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE By Noor Abdul-Kadhim Al-Rikabi Supervisor Associate Prof. Dr. Saad Najim Al-Kafaji ّ 2017 1438 ّ بسم اه الرمن الرحيم [ ] صدق ه العظيم ال عمران )931 ( ( I was asleep while she was dying Oh, in vain, under the dust that beautiful face. A big wound, a big hole in thy heart Not harsh you are but this is the life. We miss you, and nothing remains Only an image and faint deep sound. Withered, and not knowing How fast she withered A person not yet mere dream or imagination, disappeared and gone Forever. Under the earth, cold earth Freezing eternity, cold, forever. The practices of life are mere shadows, covers, just covers we are. Pain, bare souls, tears and sobs, loss is always there. In dark nights, in bitter solitude, I mourn you, and among The mourners, I mourn. Farewell ……. my sister. For you this gift I dedicate. iv Acknowledgements It is difficult for me to imagine finishing this thesis without the remarkable generosity of the many people to whom I owe debts of gratitude that I cannot fully repay simply by naming them here. I am grateful to my supervisor Associate Prof. Dr. Saad Najim Al-Kafaji for guiding me in my research and supporting me in every detail. I had the great fortune of having him responsible about this thesis. He makes me aware of what it means to be a generous teacher. Many virtues and morals I have found in his attractive, wise personality. Words could not express my indebtedness to my virtuous supervisor, for his unique patience, tenderness, and wisdom. Throughout the study period, a consistent spiritual comfort and miraculous release I have got from his words, advice, and general discussions. All what can I say might be lacking. Thank you my dear teacher and I ask God to save you everywhere in this life and in the hereafter. I am especially thankful to my virtuous teacher Prof. Dr. Qassim Salman for allowing me to trust my own instincts in this creative field when I was only sixteen. I was tremendously fortunate to have him modifies the title of this thesis during the seminar period. After being indulged in reading the related sources, I have discovered his brilliant choices and intelligent remarks on the title formation. For me, he is a long history of support, help, and tenderness. With the whole of my heart thank you my wise teacher – the supporter, the helper, and even the comforter. I also thank the following teachers, who also pave the way for me and give me the great confidence during my bachelor study and even the M.A. study: Prof. Dr. Areej Muhammad, Associate Prof. Dr. Maha Taher, Associate Prof. Sahar Abdul-Ameer, Prof. Dr. Riadh Tarek Kadhim, Prof. Bassim Nashmi, Associate Prof. Dr. Maysaa' Kadhim, Associate Prof. Saleema Abdul-Zahra, Associate Prof. Raja'a, Associate Prof. Mithal Madlul, Assistant Prof. Muhtaram, and Assistant Prof. Dr. Sami Basheer. v I must also thank my colleagues in M.A. study: Arkan Naser Hussain, Huda, Dalal, Haider, and Rana. I am particularly indebted to my sister Ala'a, who opened up her home and helped me find the perfect atmosphere during the hectic times of reading and the pressures of study. Ala'a, thank you for everything including the best cooking your hands have done. I am also indebted to my lovely sister and teacher Angham, who has bought me more than 50 books from the Amazon library. Frankly, this work would not have such deep insights and precious details without her supplying of such invaluable books and sources. Angham's generosity has been beyond measure. Thank you for your encouragement and support. Also, I very much appreciate the help and support of Associate Prof. Dr. Imad Abraham for letting me aware of his private code at questia library. I have got about 20 books and 20 articles from this site on the behalf of his respectful name. Thank you teacher for such generosity. Really, such sources have enlightened and added much to the ideas of this research. What follows in these pages is a reflection of the love and labor of my family. I am forever grateful to everyone who doted on me while I worked on this research. Starting with the family buds and the beautiful, innocent smile, which gave me certain unique pleasure and comfort, I 'd like to thank all of: Munatadhar, Abraham, Ali, Safa, and Yousif. Special thanks to my brothers: Alla', Ahmed, Maithem, Zaid, and Taha. Special thanks to my sisters: Afaf, Iman, Ban, Saja, and Farah. I am also grateful to my sisters-in-law: Sarab, Rana, and Huda. And my brother-in-law Haider. Till now I have kept away from thanking two persons. I feel hesitant. Words could not express. What shall I say, what shall I say of their generosity, labor, love, patience and passions. They are the past, present, and future. They are the eyesight. They are the life. They are the diastole and systole of the heart. They are my parents. Shall I say thank you? Please, accept it; I have said it with all the senses. Thank you my father, the virtuous man. Thank you my mother, the unique woman. Thank you, thank you. vi Abstract The two psychological paradigms – mourning and melancholy – form the organic theoretical and conceptual groundwork for the study of the poetic form of elegy. Traditionally, elegy deals with the more general topic of death. Elegy exhibits a poetics of loss that fashions the logic of consolatory acceptance and substitution of the original lost object of love. Therefore, elegy in its conventional sense creates a successful (normal) work of mourning. Modern elegy, by contrast, creates a pathological work. Orthodox consolations – as the world of pastoral and its pathetic fallacies, religion, or the consolatory creation of art – are rejected in the twentieth century. So, elegy in the modern era becomes anti-consolatory. Against such conceptual and psychosocial considerations, Robert Hayden significantly wrote his own version of elegy. Importantly, he coloured it with his own black consciousness. Depending on the form of loss Hayden's work of mourning is viewed as complex and intractable. Loss, here, encompasses greater issues than merely the death of a person dear or near: for example, the loss of history, the loss of the heritage, the loss of country (land), the loss of language, the loss of culture, the loss of the ideal of whiteness and, most importantly, the loss of identity. These forms of loss have greater negative effects: the sense of shame, guilt, hatred, estrangement, humiliation, “natal alienation,” social death, disenfranchisement, and general dishonor. To examine Hayden's unique work of mourning, the thesis is significantly divided into three chapters and a conclusion. Chapter One is divided into eight sections: the first four sections would examine the roots and historical background of elegy starting with the Greek form, the Roman form, the old English elegy, and later medieval elegy. The fifth section would examine the major principle in the elegy study which is pastoral. The subsequent section on the work of mourning – the most important and the longest one – would attempt at studying and theoretically analyzing the meaning of the poetics of loss. This section is to be vii regarded as the raw material and the general basis for analyzing and interpreting any work of mourning: traditional, Renaissance, Romantic, Victorian, pre-modern, modern, postmodern or contemporary. The seventh section is a general examination of the theoretical workings of the modern elegy, which would be to a great extent a contrast to that of the traditional elegy examined in the preceding section. The last section looks at the general issues, tendencies, practices, topics and themes of the American elegy. The Second Chapter is divided into two sections: the first one is devoted to Hayden's life and his general views of the world, religion, and the mankind. Importantly, this section also searches Robert Hayden's views on poetry and the theory of poetry, which, beyond doubt has a strong bearing on theorizing and interpreting his elegies and elegiac texts. The second section would be limited to an interpreting discussion of five of Hayden's symbolic elegies and elegiac poems. The Third Chapter is also divided into two sections: the first section is restricted to the analysis of five historically-based elegies. The other section searches Hayden's blues elegies, which would contain, firstly, a general theoretical issues and meanings of the blues genre, and how they are manipulated by the poet in order to create specific African-American elegy. The conclusion ties up the loose ends of the discussion and sums up the findings of the study. viii Contents Page From To Dedication iv Acknowledgements v vi Abstract vii viii Chapter one: introduction 1 2 1.1. Ancient Greek Elegy 2 4 1.2. Latin Love Elegy 4 7 1.3. Old English Elegy 7 10 1.4. Later Medieval Elegy 10 13 1.5. The Meaning of Literary Pastoral 13 17 1.6. The Work of Mourning 17 34 1.7. Modern Elegy 34 37 1.8. American Elegy 37 46 Notes 47 54 Chapter Two : Hayden's Life, Theory, and Symbolic Poetry 55 55 2.1.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Laura Chrisman - 9781526137579 Downloaded from Manchesterhive.Com at 10/02/2021 01:51:05PM Via Free Access Prelims 21/12/04 9:25 Am Page I
    Laura Chrisman - 9781526137579 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/02/2021 01:51:05PM via free access prelims 21/12/04 9:25 am Page i Postcolonial contraventions Laura Chrisman - 9781526137579 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/02/2021 01:51:05PM via free access prelims 21/12/04 9:25 am Page ii For my parents, Gale and Robert Chrisman Laura Chrisman - 9781526137579 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/02/2021 01:51:05PM via free access prelims 21/12/04 9:25 am Page iii Postcolonial contraventions Cultural readings of race, imperialism and transnationalism LAURA CHRISMAN Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Laura Chrisman - 9781526137579 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/02/2021 01:51:05PM via free access prelims 21/12/04 9:25 am Page iv Copyright © Laura Chrisman 2003 The right of Laura Chrisman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Distributed exclusively in Canada by UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
    [Show full text]
  • Blues Tribute Poems in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century American Poetry Emily Rutter
    Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2014 Constructions of the Muse: Blues Tribute Poems in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century American Poetry Emily Rutter Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Rutter, E. (2014). Constructions of the Muse: Blues Tribute Poems in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century American Poetry (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1136 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE MUSE: BLUES TRIBUTE POEMS IN TWENTIETH- AND TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY AMERICAN POETRY A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Emily Ruth Rutter March 2014 Copyright by Emily Ruth Rutter 2014 ii CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE MUSE: BLUES TRIBUTE POEMS IN TWENTIETH- AND TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY AMERICAN POETRY By Emily Ruth Rutter Approved March 12, 2014 ________________________________ ________________________________ Linda A. Kinnahan Kathy L. Glass Professor of English Associate Professor of English (Committee Chair) (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ Laura Engel Thomas P. Kinnahan Associate Professor of English Assistant Professor of English (Committee Member) (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ James Swindal Greg Barnhisel Dean, McAnulty College of Liberal Arts Chair, English Department Professor of Philosophy Associate Professor of English iii ABSTRACT CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE MUSE: BLUES TRIBUTE POEMS IN TWENTIETH- AND TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY AMERICAN POETRY By Emily Ruth Rutter March 2014 Dissertation supervised by Professor Linda A.
    [Show full text]
  • The Demographics and Production of Black Poetry
    Syllabus Week 1: The Demographics and Production of Black Poetry Resident Faculty: Howard Rambsy Visiting Faculty: James Smethurst, Kathy Lou Schultz, Tyehimba Jess, Brenda Marie Osbey Led by Rambsy, the Week 1 readings, activities and lectures will address significant recurring topics in the discourse on African American poetry—black aesthetics, history, cultural pride, critiques of anti-black racism, music and performance—and concentrate on major trends, popular poets and canonical poems and genres. We will identify and discuss several major poets, including Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Nikki Giovanni, Carolyn Rodgers, and Dudley Randall whose works began circulating widely during the late 1960s and early 1970s. We will consider how the BAM intersects with and distinguishes itself from other related poetry movements like the Beat Generation. We look at the configuration of contemporary black poetry, as poets become identified by subject matter, region, movement and/or collective like Cave Canem Poets, the Affrilachian Poets, and the National Poetry Slam Movement that began in 1990. Rambsy, Kathy Lou Schultz, Smethurst and Graham will give lectures that provide NEH Summer Scholars with an overarching sense of poets in the field as well as major events and circumstances that have shaped African American poetry. As specialists who have written about poetry and literary history, Rambsy, Schultz, and Smethurst will collectively provide foundational concepts and material for understanding and teaching black poetry. The week will also include discussions and readings by poets Tyehimba Jess and Brenda Marie Osbey, which will give NEH Summer Scholars chances to consider persona poetry and the presence of history in contemporary poems.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Allen: from Segregated Atlanta to UC Berkeley, a Life of Activism and African American Scholarship
    Oral History Center University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Robert L. Allen Robert Allen: From Segregated Atlanta to UC Berkeley, A Life of Activism and African American Scholarship Interviews conducted by Todd Holmes in 2019 Special acknowledgment to the National Park Service for funding for this oral history, as well as preservation and digitization of Dr. Allen's Port Chicago oral history interviews, and Allen's Port Chicago and Civil Rights collections in partnership with The Bancroft Library. Copyright © 2020 by The Regents of the University of California Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley ii Since 1954 the Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library, formerly the Regional Oral History Office, has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable.
    [Show full text]
  • Laura Chrisman Nancy K Ketcham Endowed Chair Education
    Laura Chrisman Nancy K Ketcham Endowed Chair Department of English Email: [email protected] University of Washington Office Phone: 206-543-6045 Box 354330, Seattle, WA 98195-4330 Office Number: PDL B-401 Education Ph.D., English, University of Oxford, 1992. B.A., Hons, English, University of Oxford, 1984. First Class. Employment History University of Washington, 2005—: Professor, Dept of English; Affiliated to Depts of American Ethnic Studies; Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies University of York, 2002-2005 Professor, Dept of English and Related Literature, 2004-5 Lecturer (Associate Professor), 2002-4 The Ohio State University, 2000-2002: Associate Professor, Dept of African American and African Studies Brown University, 1999-2000: Visiting Associate Professor, Depts of English and Modern Culture/Media University of Sussex, 1988-2000: Lecturer (Assist/Associate Professor – US), English Subject Group, School of African and Asian Studies Honors, Fellowships, Grants and Awards Humanities Seed Grant, UW, 2019-20 ACLS Research Fellowship in the Humanities. 2011-2012. Society of Scholars Research Fellowship, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington. 2011-2012. [declined] Research Fellowship, Royalties Research Fund Award, University of Washington. 2008. Nominee, Marsha L. Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award, UW. 2008. Research Grant, British Academy. 2004. Research Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center. 2001-2002. Research Fellowship, Carter G Woodson Institute. 2001-2002. [declined] Teaching and Learning Grant, University of Sussex. 1997-1999. Research Fellowship, Nuffield Foundation. 1994-1995. Research Fellowship, University of Cape Town Centre for African Studies. 1993. Research Grant, British Academy. 1993. Conference Grants from British Council; Arts Council of Great Britain; British Academy; South East Arts; Sainsbury Charitable Trust; University of Oxford English Faculty; University of Sussex School of African and Asian Studies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Transformation of the Dramatic Monologue Across the Works Of
    Modifying the Mask: The Transformation of the Dramatic Monologue Across the Works of Robert Browning, Norman Dubie, and Frank Bidart Kristin Gulotta A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts University of Washington 2016 Committee: Andrew Feld Linda Bierds Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Creative Writing Gulotta 1 ©Copyright 2016 Kristin Gulotta Gulotta 2 University of Washington Abstract Modifying the Mask: the Transformation of the Dramatic Monologue Across the Works of Robert Browning, Norman Dubie, and Frank Bidart Kristin L Gulotta Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Director Andrew Feld Creative Writing A look at how the dramatic monologue as a poetic form has transformed since the 19th century by examining representative works from poets Robert Browning, Norman Dubie, and Frank Bidart. Gulotta 3 In the mid-twentieth century, the New Critics championed a novel way of examining and critiquing literature: instead of considering the artist’s life a necessary component for understanding and appreciating his or her writing, the New Critics believed in examining a work’s strengths as a “self-contained, self-referential object” (Abrams). Although the movement itself was fairly short-lived, to me there still seems merit in the ideas, especially when I consider how I create my own poetry. I am most often drawn to writing in voices that are not my own, and instead of highlighting myself, I prefer to write from the perspectives of others, in dramatic monologues. Consequently, my personal biography would not seem to give any insights into my work or to determine whether or not a reader should like or dislike it.
    [Show full text]
  • Hayden, Robert
    Hayden, Robert Hayden, Robert Christopher Buck and Derik Smith Subject: North American Literatures Online Publication Date: Sep 2017 DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.485 Keywords added; sections expanded; notes added. Updated on 26 April 2019. The previous version of this content can be found here. Summary and Keywords Robert Hayden was made poet laureate of Senegal in 1966 and ten years later became America’s first black poet laureate. He was acclaimed as “People’s Poet” early in his ca­ reer, but he was largely ignored by the American literary establishment until late in life. In his poetics of history and his nuanced representations of black life, Hayden’s art showed that the African American experience was quintessentially American, and that blackness was an essential aspect of relentlessly heterogeneous America. As he figured it in his late-in-life poem, “[American Journal],” national identity was best metaphorized in “bankers grey afro and dashiki long hair and jeans / hard hat yarmulka mini skirt.” Hayden’s archetypal efforts to demonstrate the kaleidoscopic quality of both black and American identity produced an art that transcended propagandistic categories of race and nation, and pathed the way for a large cadre of late 20th and early 21st century poets who, like Hayden, understand themselves to be simultaneously black and American, but ultimately human. Keywords: Robert Hayden, poetry, poet laureate, Black Arts Movement, national identity, African American, Bicen­ tennial, Baha’i Life and Work Legally, Robert Earl Hayden was never born. He had no birth certificate to show that Asa and Ruth Sheffey (born Gladys Finn), who separated before his birth, were his natural parents.
    [Show full text]
  • Graduate Poetry Workshop: Narrative Poetry, Dramatic Monologue, and Verse-Drama Spring 2016
    San José State University Department of English and Comparative Literature ENGLISH 240: Graduate Poetry Workshop: Narrative Poetry, Dramatic Monologue, and Verse-Drama Spring 2016 Instructor: Prof. Alan Soldofsky Office Location: FO 106 Office hours: M T W 2:30 – 4:00 pm; and Th, pm by appointment Telephone: 408-924-4432 Email: [email protected] Class Days/Time: M 7:00 – 9:45 PM Classroom: Clark 111 (Incubator Classroom) Course Description Why be yourself when you can be somebody interesting. – Philip Levine It is impossible to say what I mean! – T. S. Eliot Dramatic monologue is in disequilibrium with what the speaker reveals and understands. – Robert Langbaum In this MFA-level poetry workshop, we will explore varieties of narrative poetry and dramatic monologues. We will write and read poems that are based on narrative and dramatic conventions, often written in the voices of a persona or even multiple personas. To stimulate your writing new poems in this course, we will sample narrative poems that we can read as models for our work from the Victorian era (Browning and Tennyson) to the modern (T.S. Eliot, Robinson Jeffers, Edward Arlington Robinson, Elizabeth Bishop, Randall Jarrell, Robert Lowell, John Berryman) to the postmodern (Ai, John Ashbery, Carol Ann Duffy, Terrance Hayes, Juan Felipe Herrera, Denis Johnson, James Tate, and others). Course Goals and Student Learning Objectives Course Goals: • Complete a portfolio consisting of (depending on length) of six to eight finished (revised) original poems, at least three of which should be spoken by a persona, one of which is at least three pages long (could be in the form of a verse drama).
    [Show full text]
  • Edmund Spenser, George Turberville, and Isabella Whitney Read Ovid's
    Edmund Spenser, George Turberville, and Isabella Whitney Read Ovid’s Heroides by M. L. Stapleton N the Heroides, perhaps the ancient world’s most prominent ex- ample of literary transvestism, Ovid adopts the personae of legend- Iary women who lament the amatory crimes of the men they love. It may have been some of the first poetry in Latin that Spenser encoun- tered, as it was for many schoolboys from the twelfth century onward, in accordance with its traditional pedagogical status, admirably docu- mented by Ralph Hexter. Since it was part of Eton’s Erasmian curricu- lum as early as 1528, its familiarity and centrality to Spenser, whom Richard Mulcaster inculcated with a similar humanism at the Merchant Taylors’ School, should not surprise. It served as a primary text for beginning Latin students in England through the nineteenth century. For early modern readers, it also served as a celebrated exemplum of the potential for inventive excellence by an ancient author in his juve- nile endeavors, another reason why the burgeoning New Poet would probably have read it. To Spenser and his innumerable poetical prede- cessors who sought to work meaningful improvisations on the tradi- tions they wished to embody in their work, Ovid’s cadre of mythical heroines (Lat. herois, - ides) exemplified doubly literate women—those See Hexter, Ovid and Medieval Schooling: Studies in Medieval School Commentaries on Ovid’s “Ars amatoria,” “Epistulae ex Ponto,” and “Epistulum heroidum” (Munich: Arbeo Ge- sellschaft, 1986), 137–204. Even after six decades, the most thorough standard account of Elizabethan education remains T. W.
    [Show full text]
  • Observations on Race and Class at San Francisco State
    222 The Spokesmen Observations on Race and Class at San Francisco State Robert Chrisman The BSU launched its strike against the Administration of San Francisco State College on November 6, 1968. Exactly two months later, AFT local 1352 at that college began its strike, with full labor sanction . Now San Francisco State College is confronted with two strikes, both strong, both effective, that have moved into statewide and national prominence. They are twin strikes and they are of historical significance, for they are the first time students and teachers have coordinated their strikes against an institution, with maximum effect. They further represent a strike of both labor and race against racism and labor oppression . Though technically open, the campus is in no condition to operate under anything resembling "normal" circumstances. Since the AFT struck, all union services have stopped at the college : the delivery of food, books and other supplies, the collection of garbage. Many staff personnel are also on strike honoring the picket lines. In January, the college was 20% operative. The strikes have, each, an independent identity, a unique nature, with completely different methods and tactics and with quite different constituencies . But they are the same . For both students and teachers are striking against the same "boss," the Trustees who administer the State college system. To use a simile, they are like those astronomical configurations, twin stars. Each has a different orbit, both revolve around the same gravitational point, each is affected by the gravitational field of the other, but seen from a distance, they seem to be one.
    [Show full text]
  • Ovid's Romanisation of the Heroides
    Philomathes Ovid’s Romanisation of the Heroides vid’s Heroides, a series of fictitious letters written in elegiac O couplets, incorporate a variety of topoi such as love, passion arising from love, and the sea as an entity that separates lovers as well as the women themselves, who – being ventriloquised by Ovid – characterise themselves in terms of eros. In this paper I shall argue that Ovid’s heroines portray themselves as objects of male desire by showing how they fulfil some or all the criteria of an ideal Roman woman. Given that Ovid is strongly influenced by the ideals and legislations of the Augustan period, having adequate knowledge of the historical background and Roman marriage conventions is indispensable for an accurate interpretation of his Heroides. The significance of the historical context of Ovid’s time seems to have been widely neglected in various interpretations of his work, which is why the need for a new interpretation of his Heroides in light of ancient Roman marriage ideals has arisen.1 In this paper, I shall focus on the following four heroines, who indubitably are productive examples of this new interpretation: Penelope, Dido, Hypsipyle, and Medea. In the first section I shall discuss the importance of marriage in ancient Rome, duties of a husband and wife, and motives of marriage while touching on the historical context of the marriage ideal. Thereafter, I shall establish how the ideal 1 For examples of previous interpretations without mention of marriage conventions, see Howard Jacobson, Ovid’s Heroides, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974); Florence Verducci, Ovid's Toyshop of the Heart: "Epistulae Heroidum".
    [Show full text]
  • Barbara Ransby CV
    CURRICULUM VITAE Barbara Ransby [email protected] EDUCATION 1996 Ph.D., University of Michigan, Department of History, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1987 M.A., University of Michigan, Department of History, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1984 B.A. with Honors in History, Columbia University, New York, New York. ACADEMIC POSITIONS 2011 - 2012 Interim Vice Provost for Planning and Programs, University of Illinois at Chicago 2009 Professor, Departments of African American Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and History, University of Illinois at Chicago 2008 – present Director (Department Chairperson), Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago 2002 – 2009 Associate Professor, Departments of African American Studies and History, University of Illinois at Chicago 1996 – 2002 Assistant Professor, Departments of African American Studies and History, University of Illinois at Chicago 1995 – 1996 Director of the Center for African American Research and Assistant Professor of History, DePaul University, Chicago, IL 1992 – 1995 Instructor, Department of History, DePaul University, Chicago, IL 1989 – 1990 Instructor, Center for Afro-American and African Studies, University of Michigan 1986 – 1988 Instructor, Women's Studies, Women's Studies Program, University of Michigan. BOOK PUBLICATIONS 1 Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003) Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson (Yale University Press, 2012) BOOK PRIZES AND RECOGNITIONS for Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision Spring, 2005 Book selected for “One Book, One University” at Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL June, 2004 Honorable Mention, First Book Prize, Berkshire Conference of Women Historians 2004 Lillian Smith Book Award, Southern Regional Council March, 2004 Co-winner, The Liberty – Legacy Foundation Award for the best book in Civil Rights History from The Organization of American Historians March, 2004 Winner, The James A.
    [Show full text]