Brooks, Gwendolyn. “We Real Cool.” The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed.
J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 92.
Cultural Poetics can be applied to "We Real Cool" because the theory states that literature should be looked at as a product of the time, place, and society from which it comes. The poem, written in the 1950's is a form of beat poetry. The poem as a whole is a product of that time and though period of the early fifities. The concept of live hard and die young, reminds you sort of the "Grease" mentality of the time. The poem "We Real Cool" is a product of the time in which it was wirtten.
CRITICAL QUESTIONS:
1. Does "We Real Cool" make a certain claim or statement about the time in the 1950's in which it was written?
2. What aspects of the 1950's culture affect your understanding of the poem?
3. How does the writing style in "We Real Cool" add to or takes away from the understanding of the poem?
-Kelly Gore
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1 comment:
I'm not sure what claim Brooks is trying to make about the fifties. Every generation adults always complain about how the new younger generation is so out of control and how society is crumbling to pieces because of it. I don't know if Brooks was of the older generation and was trying to capture the recklessness of the younger generation,or if she was of the younger generation and was trying to capture the nihilism of the time period. I'd have to say it reminds me more of "Blackboard Jungle" than "Grease."
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