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[AzN_F15h]

hey peoples, i need help, i have this big term paper for my english class thats due next week and its worth half of my final grade. my paper's topic is how the literature of Langston Hughes is a reaction to the opression of african americans. can anyone help in any way? i.e. give me poems by the man that discusses opression w/ analysis?

 

[border]

How long is it supposed to be? Does it have to be about his poetry?

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

see, this is why I stopped being an english major. if I'm reading a story I don't want to stop and figure out what the hidden message is. Truely, is there a hidden message or is it just english professors masturbating over their favorite writer?

 

[fart]

i don't know about any other people, but there's a hidden message in everything i write. for example, the hidden message in this post is "have fun failing!"

 

[goodcow]

see, this is why I stopped being an english major. if I'm reading a story I don't want to stop and figure out what the hidden message is. Truely, is there a hidden message or is it just english professors masturbating over their favorite writer?

This is exactly why I hate film analysis classes.

 

[border]

If you don't want to analyze literature or film, don't take classes on them. Do people really expect that all they are going to be doing is writing book reports and movie reviews or something?

 

[KingGondo]

see, this is why I stopped being an english major. if I'm reading a story I don't want to stop and figure out what the hidden message is. Truely, is there a hidden message or is it just english professors masturbating over their favorite writer?

Most books/poems/films aren't like that--film and lit analysis classes have proven extremely useful--I can appreciate great literature and films with a much deeper understanding now. It's not about some kind of "hidden message"--most (good) books and films act on a much more primal, reactionary level.

 

[KingGondo]

hey peoples, i need help, i have this big term paper for my english class thats due next week and its worth half of my final grade. my paper's topic is how the literature of Langston Hughes is a reaction to the opression of african americans. can anyone help in any way? i.e. give me poems by the man that discusses opression w/ analysis?

Sorry to ignore the original post--

As far as I can remember, almost all of Hughes' poems are racially-tinged...Google him and I'm sure you'll find plenty of material to analyze. Most of it should be fairly obvious (as far as literally talking about race within the poem, etc.).

 

[explodet]

"To steal from one is plagiarism. To steal from many is research."

 

[goodcow]

If you don't want to analyze literature or film, don't take classes on them.

You have to as part of the major.

 

[APerfectCircle]

don't you have to like footnote everything? it would be funny to footnote GA OT forum

 

[border]

You have to as part of the major.

So you're a film major and you don't see much merit in film analysis?

 

[fart]

So you're a film major and you don't see much merit in film analysis?

sounds like we've got a budding jerry bruckheimer here guys

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

personally I did not know that I would have to be analyzing literature as part of my major. I had just graduated from high school and didn't know any better. meh.

Actually I do better analyzing movies than books. dunno why, really.

 

[xsarien]

So you're a film major and you don't see much merit in film analysis?

Well, there's analysis and overkill. No one's going to argue that you should take something away from a movie like "Wild Strawberries" that amounts to more than "Yeah, it's about a guy who's depressed." But focusing on things like why a filmmaker may have used a specific color shirt for his character, or what the raindrops in a scene are symbolic of is sheer nonsense; it's something you give to high school kids to pass the time, and deviates from a proper discussion of the movie as a whole. Getting into such minutiae can kill a movie for the viewer; I haven't been able to sit through "Being There" since my freshman year of college thanks to one art professor in particular.

The more technical analysis of film is less grueling, and probably more interesting if you pick the right examples. We watched "Rope" (inexplicably) in my screenwriting class one year, simply because the professor was completely enamored with the fact that it was all one, continuous shot (minus stock changing). And she was dead (Ha!) on: It's a suspense movie that holds up close to 60 years later, some can barely hold up for 20.

 

[border]

But focusing on things like why a filmmaker may have used a specific color shirt for his character, or what the raindrops in a scene are symbolic of is sheer nonsense;

Just because you don't want to focus on them doesn't really make them nonsense. Wardrobe, use of color and symbols are pretty common components of analysis.

 

[xsarien]

Just because you don't want to focus on them doesn't really make them nonsense. Wardrobe, use of color and symbols are pretty common components of analysis.

It's like focusing on the Mona Lisa's lips. And no, it's not about what I want. It's about having a legitimate discussion about the movie's themes, messages, and overall meaning as opposed to spending half an hour on the meaning of Diane Keaton's tie in "Annie Hall."

Relevant, yes. Worth more than a 5 minute discussion on how the characters' wardrobe reflected their personalities? No.

 

[border]

Isn't that what everybody focuses on? Her smile?

As long as you're relating the details back to the whole and examining effects on the audience, I don't really see what the problem is.

 

[xsarien]

Isn't that what everybody focuses on? Her smile?

As long as you're relating the details back to the whole and examining effects on the audience, I don't really see what the problem is.

You know damn well what I mean.