Using Biographical & Historical Strategies discuss the imagery, allusions, & figurative language in Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus”.
* Biographical Criticism: This approach “begins with the simple but central
insight that literature is written by actual people and that understanding
an author’s life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.”
Hence, it often affords a practical method by which readers can better
understand a text. However, a biographical critic must be careful not to
take the biographical facts of a writer’s life too far in criticizing the
works of that writer: the biographical critic “focuses on explicating the
literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the author’s
life…. [B]iographical data should amplify the meaning of the text, not
drown it out with irrelevant material.”
* Historical Criticism: This approach “seeks to understand a literary work
by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that
produced it-a context that necessarily includes the artist’s biography and
milieu.” A key goal for historical critics is to understand the effect of
a literary work upon its original readers.
3) Once you have selected a poem to present, read it several times, then read it again line by line, taking some notes. A brainstorming session or some other pre-writing activity should precede writing. Use the guidelines on interpretation (below) and the handouts on reading poetry on Bb>Assignments. You may choose to outline your presentation in order to keep it focused. Treat the presentation as you would any essay. It should have an introduction, which gives a brief summary of the poem, the critical approach you will use, and then offer an interpretation that is in the form of a thesis statement (see Thesis on Bb). This might not actually come about until you have written your body paragraphs, but it must be somewhere in the first paragraph of your finished product. You should also include it under the title in your class handout.
4) Your body paragraphs should consist of the results of close reading and analysis or explication (depending on the poem chosen). This means that you will use the literary elements (imagery, tone, diction, figurative language, allusions, form, etc) to discuss the poem, quoting sections as evidence. (See handouts: “Using Primary and Secondary Sources,” “Quoting and Paraphrasing”). An interpretation is only valid if it can be supported by evidence from the text and is logical. For example, a winter image or setting could symbolize death. Symbols are generally universal, but this does not mean that in every case a winter setting means death, it could just be winter! And the death might not be literal. Thus, you would need to find other evidence in the text to strengthen this claim, such as diction or figurative language. Do not discuss sound elements such as rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and meter unless you discuss how these help create meaning.
5) Library Research: Once you have an idea of what you want to know about the poem (i.e.: research questions), and have drafted out your interpretation, find out what scholars have said about the poem(s) or about the context of the poem (for example, if you are using an Historical Strategy to illuminate the poem). But don’t just pick the first article that you come across; make sure that it is relevant to your discussion. Only choose articles that are published, have an author, and are peer reviewed. The easiest way to locate them is through the CUNY+ databases (there is a handout on Bb to guide you through them). Each student must locate at least one short article or part of a longer article that has some useful content. Make sure that you understand the argument, and then run it by your partner, and finally summarize your article and send it to your partner to see if the articles are appropriate. Do not feel that your article must necessarily be about the poem directly; for instance, the poem might contain an allusion and you will use a source about the allusion to better understand the poem. If you are doing an historical or cultural reading you might consult a source that teaches us something about the historical/ sociological context of the poem.
6) You should prepare 4-6 pages of discussion, which should consist primarily of your own ideas and observations about the poem. In addition to your own close reading of the poem, within these pages you should include a brief summary of the article you read. Basically just tell us what the writer is arguing about the poem and how this article illuminated the poem for you; you can also disagree with the critic and then go on to invalidate his or her argument by using textual evidence. You should paraphrase one section of the article, and, if relevant, quote a section or two. Use your judgment as to what needs paraphrasing (for clarity and conciseness and what is best to quote. Avoid lengthy quotations. The core of your presentation is to provide one interpretation that you and your partner have come to an agreement upon. The purpose of the presentation is to provide a short lesson for the class on a particular aspect of a poem. If you are working on a longer poem, do not try to discuss every possible aspect of the poem, as this is impossible. The final draft that you will post on Bb>Assignments>SafeAssign>Presentations should look like a research essay, with MLA documentation, giving line numbers for the poem quotations and page numbers for the articles, and using signal phrases to alert us when the ideas come from an outside source. The draft that you give me should have a Works Cited page (See writing handouts on Bb and guidelines for written assignments on syllabus).
7) In some cases, the discussion of the poem will be continued after the presentation; this does not mean that the presentation was incomplete or insufficient. Your time is limited and no one expects you to say the last word on the poem. There will be a few minutes at the end of the presentation, for questions and answers. The class is expected to participate in Q & A.
The article you use must be from either a book or an article from the QC databases. Do not use Internet sites to find sources.
Evaluation: You will be evaluated according to two broad criteria:
Content: How well you interpreted the poem and used evidence to support that interpretation. (Did you have a supportable thesis? Did you use the text to support that thesis? Were your conclusions sound?) Whether or not the critical approach ( if used) was appropriate. How appropriate your secondary source was to your discussion of the poem. How effectively you incorporated the secondary source(s) into the discussion. How well you collaborated with your partner to put together the presentation. How well the interpretation and evidence were articulated in the written presentation that you provided me with. (Remember this is the graded as a paper, so documentation and format are as important.) The quality and clarity of the class handout.
Performance: How well the presentation was executed: Did you just read notes off a piece of paper or did you demonstrate that you have assimilated some of that knowledge? Was the class able to follow your presentation? Did you speak clearly? Afterwards, were you able to answer fair, content-oriented questions that did not go beyond the scope of your research? Did you manage your time effectively?
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