All posts by MBenjamin

About MBenjamin

English Adjunct

More on Rankine & Diaz

Further Reading

Junot Diaz’s website (info on other writings, appearances, interviews, etc.): http://www.junotdiaz.com/

Claudia Rankine bio: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/claudia-rankine

“A Poetry Personal and Political,” (review of Citizen in NYTimes) http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/29/books/claudia-rankine-on-citizen-and-racial-politics.html

“Claudia Rankine’s Citizen” (New Yorker): http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/27/color-codes

On new printings of Citizen, and what changes: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/01/07/claudia_rankine_s_citizen_new_printing_mourns_michael_brown_eric_garner.html

More Adrienne Rich Resources

Further Reading, ,

If you’re interested in learning more about Rich, or reading more of her work, the Poetry Foundation’s site has a full biography and bibliography of her work, as well as a few poems we didn’t read: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/adrienne-rich#poet

More poems: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems/44755

She wrote a number of essays as well–“When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision” is on Blackboard. If you want to read more of her poems (many can’t be found online because of copyright), The Fact of a Doorframe is a good place to start, as it collects poems from throughout her career, but I’d be happy to give you more specific recommendations too! (You can find a number of her books in the Baruch library)

More on the Cover Artist: Tamara de Lempicka

Further Reading, , , ,

Tamara in the Green Bugatti, 1925 by Tamara de Lempicka (self-portrait)

In case you were curious about the painter who created the image on the cover of volume F of our anthology, here’s a little bit more about Tamara de Lempicka: http://www.delempicka.org/

“…Now known as Tamara de Lempicka, the refugee studied art and worked day and night. She became a well-known portrait painter with a distinctive Art Deco manner. Quintessentialy French, Deco was the part of an exotic, sexy, and glamorous Paris that epitomized Tamara’s living and painting style.

Between the wars, she painted portraits of writers, entertainers, artists, scientists, industrialists, and many of Eastern Europe’s exiled nobility. Her daughter, Kizette de Lempica-Foxhall wrote in her biograpy of Tamara De Lempica Passion By Design, “She painted them all, the rich, the successful, the renowned — the best.

The work brought her critical acclaim, social celebrity and considerable wealth. ”

There was also an interesting novel that came out a few years ago about her life, called The Last Nude, by Ellis Avery: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10836810-the-last-nude

Further Reading on Tagore

Further Reading

rabindranath-tagore

On Nationalism: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40766/40766-h/40766-h.htm

A sampling of his poems: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/rabindranath-tagore#about

“Tagore and His India,” Amartya Sen (gives an overview of many aspects of his life and work): http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1913/tagore-article.html

The Home and the World (novel, available in full online): http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7166

Emily Dickinson Resources (& 3/16 assignment)

Uncategorized

Emily Dickinson Archive: http://www.edickinson.org/

Includes manuscript versions of her poems, and a lexicon for definitions from her dictionary. After reading the assigned poems, choose two favorites, and look at the manuscript versions. In lieu of a quiz Monday, you should bring in a 1-2 paragraph response about looking the manuscript versions of the specific poems you chose. Did it change your impression or experience of the poems at all? How so? If not, why?

This NYTimes article sums up some of the controversy surrounding her manuscripts and their digitization: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/books/enigmatic-dickinson-revealed-online.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1&

And finally, Dickinson’s place setting from The Dinner Party (the Judy Chicago project–we looked at Wollstonecraft’s early in the semester):http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/emily_dickinson.php

 

Relevant Upcoming Workshops @ the Writing Center

Uncategorized

Below are a few upcoming Writing Center workshops that will help you with the skills needed in this course. All workshops take place 12:30-2 in the Feit Seminar Room (NVC 8-190). You can register on the Writing Center website: http://writingcenter.baruch.cuny.edu/our-services/workshops/spring-2015-workshops/

Developing Thesis Statements: Thursday 3/12

Analyzing Texts (this will help with close reading skills): Monday 3/16

Evidence, Analysis, and Claims: Wed. 3/18

Controlling an Argument with Topic Sentences: 3/19

Comparing and Contrasting: Fri. 3/20