As the least literal form of creative writing, for many readers poetry is also the most cryptic. Shira Wolosky introduces the skills needed for reading poetry, working from the individual word, line and image to verse forms, voice, gender and metre
An introductory essay will identify central concerns, historical backgrounds, evolving patterns and poetic issues, as marked through the course of the century. The work of these poets provides a gripping view of the creativity of nineteenth-century American women that has been until recently almost entirely lost to literary history. Supremely relevant to today's readers, this is poetry that began the efforts at the redefinition of self, of America, and of womanhood that continues to touch the lives and thoughts of so many today.
Exploring the Bible's profound influence on American poetry, this study examines its role as a source of imagery and a reflection of the nation's civic, political, and social history. It addresses critical themes such as ethnicity, race, and gender, revealing how the Bible has both unified and divided communities throughout American culture. The analysis spans from the Puritans to contemporary poets like Amanda Gorman, highlighting significant historical events such as the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, abolition, and women's rights, while featuring both popular and major literary figures.
Feminist Community and American Women's Poetry
Exploring the evolution of American women's poetry from the seventeenth to the late twentieth century, this study examines how women's writing intersects with feminist discourse across various fields, including literary criticism and cultural studies. It emphasizes the formation of selfhood through relationships and community commitments, challenging the traditional view of women's roles. By analyzing poetic voices and self-representation, the author highlights the aesthetic power of literature as a means of engaging with the public sphere and expressing communal identities.
Focusing on interpretive quests, this book explores the deeper meanings behind the Harry Potter series, highlighting how these narratives invite readers to uncover patterns and their implications. Through analysis, it emphasizes the significance of understanding the layers of meaning woven throughout the stories, enriching the reading experience and revealing the broader consequences of the characters' journeys.
Levinas, Derrida, Scholem
Judaic cultures have a commitment to language that is exceptional. Language in many form – texts, books and scrolls; learning, interpretation, material practices that generate material practices – are central to Judaic conduct, experience, and spirituality. In this Judaic traditions differ from philosophical and theological ones that make language secondary. Traditional metaphysics has privileged the immaterial and unchanging, as unchanging truth that language can at best convey and at worst distort. Such traditional metaphysics has come under critique since Nietzsche in ways that the author explores. Shira Wolosky argues that Judaic traditions converge with contemporary metaphysical critique rather than being its target. Focusing on the work of Derrida, Levinas, Scholem and others, the author examines traditions of Judaic interpretation against backgrounds of biblical exegesis; sign-theory as it recasts language meaning in ways that concord with Judaic textuality; negative theology as it differs in Judaic tradition from those which negate language itself; and lastly outline a discourse ethics that draws on Judaic language theory. This study is directed to students and scholars of: Judaic thought, religious studies and theology; theory of interpretation; Levinas and other modern Jewish philosophical writers, placing them in broader contexts of philosophy, theology, and language theory. It is shown how Jewish discourses on language address urgent problems of value and norms in the contemporary world that has challenged traditional anchors of truth and meaning.