Final Paper Blog

For my final paper, I think I will imitate the style of Waslawa Szymbroska. Although her poems were translated into English, they still have a powerful and unique style that I would like to mimic. I am not sure which topic I will cover, since she chose powerful ideas such as true love and death, in the poems we analyzed in class. To write the poem, I will copy one of her poems. If I imitate the poem, "On Death, without Exaggeration," I will use the same tone she displays in the sarcastic persona of the speaker to try to show the reader a different perspective on a popular topic. However, I may chose a more light-hearted topic and mimic the poem, "True Love." I like the tone of this poem more because although it has the same sarcastic and slightly belittling tone, the author clearly shows that the image is powerful in itself, beyond examination and criticism, because of what it does for those who have it. I'd like to copy Waslawa Szymbroska because the style of her work is distinct because she has a sarcastic, critical tone in her analysis of sensitive and emotional topics. Unlike other poets, she does not exaggerate topics such as true love or death, but rather she questions them and seemingly belittles them in order to emphasize their inherent power. Szymbroska makes it clear through poetic elements that she truly does believe in the power of such topics. Hopefully I can do a similar topic justice as I mimic her style, the way she uses the elements of poetry, and the persona that she creates for her speaker to emphasize the theme she writes about.

Atnigone Blog

The violence occurring offstage, as was customary in Greek tragedy, greatly affected the audience's reactions. Since it was merely reported rather than shown, the audience had the ability to imagine in their own heads, to whichever extent they pleased, the violence that was described. If, however, the violence were to occur on the stage rather than off the stage, the violence would have affected the audience in their society differently than violence in movies and television shows affect audiences today. I think it was fitting for the Greeks to simple describe it not just because they lacked the special effects and technological abilities that we have today, but also because it created a stronger bond between the audience and the performance. For example, the direct and obvious violence shown in horror movies may be more violent actions than Antigone, but because the movie shows the audience exactly what happens as the action occurs, the audience loses the ability to imagine how such an action would take place and is therefore made into simply a spectator of another's imagination - the writer's - which weakens the bond between audience and performance. This directness also distracts the audience from the horrors of such violence. While it might seem like the opposite would happen, and that watching the violent acts would be more horrific, in fact one becomes jaded by all the violence that is displayed and graphically enhanced, so that we don't take it seriously if the graphics are not realistic enough in stead of paying attention to the actual violence that is occurring, we concentrate on the fake blood to distract ourselves from the murders occurring before our eyes. This also creates a society more accepting of violent behavior simply because it has become jaded in our eyes. While Greek culture may have been quite violent in war and in their stories, there are definitely more reported violent occurrences in today's society. Connection? Maybe.