Modernism vs. Postmodernism

I found this handy chart helpful for discussing the differences between Modernism and Postmodernism:

http://www19.homepage.villanova.edu/karyn.hollis/prof_academic/Courses/2043_pop/modernism_vs_postmodernism.htm

Please note the author’s warning that this chart reflects only tendencies within in each categories, not absolutes.

The Celebration of Student Writing

 Today at the Celebration of Student Writing I had the pleasure of meeting Ashton Priban, a senior art history major. I was drawn to her post board because it reminded me of my Victorian Literature research paper of the Pre- Raphaelites (PRs). She and I discussed her painting and I learned new art terms, like echo, isolation, and vanishing points. She explained how these were used in her paintings. I like that the paintings were based on religious subjects. Just like the Pre – Raphaelites’ paintings. Ashton didn’t know much about the Pre – Raphaelites. I explained that they wanted to restore the Victorian’s faith through their art. We found that Millet and the PRs had similar goals. French painter, Millet wanted to expose the life of peasants. There is a tone of humility and spirituality illustrated in his paintings. Aston chose The Gleaners, The Angelus, and The Harvesters Resting (Ruth and Boaz). My favorite painting out of all three is The Angelus; it is a painting of two peasants bowed praying to the angel Gabriel. They were known to pray over their land and for baby Jesus three times a day. Ashton also shared with me interesting facts about each painting. Like the painter Salvador Dali believed that the peasants were not praying to the Angel Gabriel, but praying over their own buried child. He disputed that it was a small baby coffin in the picture. I enjoyed the celebration today it only takes a few moments to learn something new. Thanks Ashton Priban!

Anne Moody: Langston Hughes’s “Salvation”

 

I have stated in class that Anne Moody’s passage about her baptism reminds me of Langston Hughes’s “Salvation.” I have finally found the passages and I would like to illustrate how they are related. I have posted most of Hughes’s essay. Please read it and tomorrow I will show how they are similar. I love this essay by Langston Hughes. He recites a childhood memory with honest penmanship. Just like Moody.  Enjoy the read!

 

 

Langston Hughes’s “Salvation”

 

 I was saved from sin when I going on thirteen. But not really saved. It happened like this. There was a big revival at my Auntie Reed’s church. Every night for weeks there had been much singing, preaching, and shouting, and some very hardened sinners had been brought to Christ, and the membership of the church had grown by leaps and bounds. Then just before the revival ended, they held a special meeting for children, “to bring the young lambs to the fold.” My aunt spoke of it for days ahead. That night I was escorted to the front row and placed on the mourners’ bench with all the other young sinners, who had not yet been brought to Jesus.

My aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside! And Jesus came into your life! And God was with you from then on! She said you can see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul. I believed her.

The preacher preached a wonderful rhythmical sermon, all moans and shouts and lonely cries and dire pictures of hell, and then he sang a song about the ninety and nine safe in the fold, but one little lamb was left out in the cold. Then he said: “Won’t you come? Won’t you come to Jesus? Young lambs, won’t you come?” And he held out his arms to all of us young sinners there on the mourners’ bench. And the little girls cried. And some of them jumped up and went to Jesus right away. But most of us just sat there. And the whole building just rock with prayer and song.

Still I kept waiting to see Jesus.

Finally all the young people had gone to the altar and were saved, but one boy and me. He was a rounder’s son named Westley. Westley and I were surrounded by sisters and deacons praying. It was very hot in the church, and getting late now. Finally Westley sad to me in a whisper: “God damn! I’m tired o’sitting here. Let’s get up and be saved.” So he got up and was saved.

Then I was left all alone on the mourners’ bench. My aunt came and knelt at my knees and cried, while prayers and songs swirled all around me in the little church. The whole congregation prayed for me alone, in a mighty wail of moans and voices. And I kept waiting serenely for Jesus, waiting, waiting – but he didn’t come. I wanted to see him, but nothing happened to me. Nothing! I wanted something to happen to me, but nothing happened.

Malcolm X: The Stranger in the Village

                        In James Baldwin’s essay, “The Stranger In The Village,” he finds himself surprised to experience the similar racism in a remote tiny Swiss village that he has faced inAmerica. AlthoughBaldwinconsiders himself first as an “American,” and then secondly a Negro; the village only considers him to be a “sight.” They do not consider him to be apart of the American culture. As an American,Baldwinreveals what his American education has instilled in him, “I reacted by trying to be pleasant – it being a great part of the American Negro’s education (long before he goes to school) that he must make people like him. This smile – and – the world – smiles – with – you routine…”  The issue that Baldwin faced inSwitzerlandresonates in Malcolm X’s autobiography. In the epilogue, Malcolm states, “ The American white man has so thoroughly brainwashed the black man to see himself as only a domestic ‘civil rights’ problem that it will probably take longer that I live before the Negro sees that the struggle of the American black man is international.” These statements are directly related to one another. What does Malcolm X means when says “brainwashed”? He means the American Negro’s education taught him that he is inferior, that he should walk throughout the world with his head bowed. This education has taught him that he is inferior throughout the whole world; hence, making the black man’s problem international. This is the reason Baldwin experienced similar racism inSwitzerland. Malcolm X expands the black man’s problem to that of an international one. He must gain the respect of all men, everywhere, in all countries.Americahas damaged the black man’s reputation, his image, and other races’ perception of him. Further along,Baldwinalso states, “One of the things that distinguish Americans from other people is that no other people has ever been so deeply involved in the lives of black men…” Since White America have been so “involved” in the Black race, racism is not just a black race problem it is a social problem, therefore, it is an American problem. I believe this to be one of the statements that theBaldwin’s essay is trying to make. The black-white experience has developed into an American dilemma which results also into an international problem. Malcolm X was a brilliant man and I do believe that he was ahead of his time. Some of the insights and details that he gave still can be found to be true in presentAmerica; perhaps, Malcolm X was the stranger in the American village.