Advertisement
Riot by Gwendolyn Brooks: A Deep Dive Analysis
Introduction:
Gwendolyn Brooks' "Riot" isn't just a poem; it's a visceral snapshot of simmering rage and explosive violence, a chillingly accurate portrayal of urban unrest. This in-depth analysis will delve into the poem's intricate layers, exploring its themes of social injustice, racial tension, and the devastating consequences of unchecked anger. We’ll examine Brooks’ masterful use of imagery, symbolism, and structure to create a powerful and enduring piece of American literature. Prepare to uncover the potent message hidden within the seemingly simple verses of "Riot." This post will offer a comprehensive analysis, covering the poem's historical context, thematic exploration, stylistic choices, and lasting impact.
1. Historical Context: Understanding the Background of "Riot"
To fully appreciate "Riot," we must understand its historical backdrop. Written in the tumultuous 1960s, amidst the Civil Rights Movement and escalating racial tensions in America, the poem reflects the anxieties and realities of the time. The Watts Riots of 1965, a particularly brutal example of urban unrest, are widely believed to have directly influenced Brooks' work. The poem doesn't explicitly mention any specific event, but it captures the raw emotion and chaos inherent in such situations. Understanding the social and political climate of the era allows readers to grasp the depth and urgency of Brooks' message. The pervasive feeling of systemic injustice and the simmering frustration that ultimately boiled over into violence are central to the poem's power.
2. Thematic Exploration: Unpacking Social Injustice and Violence
"Riot" powerfully explores several interconnected themes. Central to the poem is the theme of social injustice. The poem doesn't explicitly detail the root causes of the riot, but the underlying sense of oppression and inequality is palpable. The simmering resentment, the feeling of being unheard and unseen, fuels the eruption of violence. The poem further explores the theme of racial tension; the unspoken understanding that racial prejudice is a significant contributor to the unrest is profoundly disturbing. Brooks masterfully depicts the dehumanizing effect of systemic racism, highlighting how it can lead to desperate acts of rebellion. Finally, the theme of violence and its consequences is powerfully depicted. The poem doesn't glorify the violence, but rather portrays its chaotic and destructive nature, highlighting the devastating impact on both perpetrators and victims. The cyclical nature of violence, the perpetuation of trauma, is a crucial element of Brooks' commentary.
3. Stylistic Choices: Brooks’ Mastery of Language and Imagery
Brooks' stylistic choices are integral to the poem's impact. Her use of imagery is particularly striking. The vivid descriptions of burning buildings, shattered glass, and the terrified cries of victims paint a brutal picture of the riot’s devastation. She uses stark, almost brutal imagery to convey the chaotic nature of the event. Her language is direct and unadorned, avoiding flowery language in favor of plain, powerful diction. This stylistic choice enhances the poem's realism and urgency. The structure of the poem itself contributes to its overall effect. The poem's relatively short length, coupled with its fragmented structure, reflects the fragmented and chaotic nature of the riot itself. The lack of a traditional narrative arc further emphasizes the spontaneous and unpredictable nature of the violence.
4. Symbolism and Allegory: Uncovering Hidden Meanings
The poem is rich with symbolism. The "riot" itself can be interpreted as a symbol of broader societal unrest and the consequences of unchecked anger and frustration. The fire, a recurring image, could symbolize the burning rage of the oppressed, but also the destructive nature of unchecked violence. The broken windows and shattered glass represent the destruction of social order and the fragmentation of community. Furthermore, the poem may be read allegorically as a representation of the broader struggle for civil rights and social justice in America. The riot becomes a metaphor for the explosive potential of pent-up anger and frustration stemming from systemic inequality.
5. Legacy and Lasting Impact: "Riot" in the 21st Century
"Riot" remains profoundly relevant in the 21st century. Its themes of social injustice, racial tension, and the devastating consequences of violence continue to resonate. The poem serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing struggle for racial equality and social justice, highlighting the persistent need for understanding, empathy, and systemic change. Its enduring power lies in its ability to transcend its historical context, speaking to the timeless human experience of anger, frustration, and the destructive potential of unchecked rage.
Outline of "Riot" Analysis:
Name: A Comprehensive Analysis of Gwendolyn Brooks' "Riot"
Introduction: Brief overview of the poem and the analysis's scope.
Chapter 1: Historical Context: Examination of the socio-political climate of the 1960s that influenced the poem.
Chapter 2: Thematic Exploration: In-depth analysis of the major themes: social injustice, racial tension, violence, and its consequences.
Chapter 3: Stylistic Choices: Discussion of Brooks' use of imagery, language, and structure.
Chapter 4: Symbolism and Allegory: Interpretation of symbolic elements and allegorical readings.
Chapter 5: Legacy and Impact: Assessment of the poem's lasting relevance in contemporary society.
Conclusion: Summary of key findings and final reflections on the poem's enduring power.
(The following sections would expand on each chapter outlined above, mirroring the content already present in the main body of this blog post.)
FAQs:
1. What inspired Gwendolyn Brooks to write "Riot"? The exact inspiration is unclear, but the socio-political climate of the 1960s, particularly events like the Watts Riots, heavily influenced the poem.
2. What are the main themes of "Riot"? Social injustice, racial tension, violence, and the devastating consequences of unchecked anger are central themes.
3. How does Brooks use imagery in "Riot"? Brooks employs vivid and often brutal imagery to depict the chaos and destruction of the riot.
4. What is the significance of the poem's structure? The fragmented structure mirrors the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the riot itself.
5. What are some important symbols in "Riot"? The riot itself, fire, broken windows, and shattered glass are significant symbols.
6. How does "Riot" reflect the Civil Rights Movement? The poem reflects the underlying tensions and frustrations that fueled the movement, demonstrating the explosive potential of systemic injustice.
7. Is "Riot" a political poem? Yes, it's a powerful commentary on social and racial injustice, making it a profoundly political work.
8. What is the poem's lasting impact? "Riot" remains relevant today, highlighting the enduring need for social justice and highlighting the devastating consequences of unchecked rage and inequality.
9. Where can I find "Riot"? The poem is widely available online and in anthologies of Gwendolyn Brooks' work.
Related Articles:
1. Gwendolyn Brooks' Poetic Style: An exploration of Brooks' unique poetic techniques and their impact on her work.
2. The Role of Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Examines the contributions of women to the struggle for racial equality.
3. Analysis of Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool": A comparative analysis exploring themes of rebellion and self-destruction.
4. The Impact of the Watts Riots on American Society: A historical analysis of the 1965 Watts Riots and their long-term consequences.
5. Understanding Urban Unrest: A Sociological Perspective: A sociological examination of the causes and consequences of urban riots.
6. The Use of Imagery in 20th-Century American Poetry: A study of the role of imagery in conveying powerful messages in poetry.
7. Gwendolyn Brooks and the Black Arts Movement: An exploration of Brooks' connection to the Black Arts Movement.
8. The Power of Protest Poetry: Discusses the role of poetry in social and political protest.
9. A Comparative Study of Urban Riots Throughout History: A broader historical perspective on urban unrest across different time periods and geographical locations.
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Gwendolyn Brooks Harold Bloom, 2009 Provides insight into six of Brooks' most influential works along with a short biography of the poet. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Riot Gwendolyn Brooks, 1970 |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: The Contemporary Small Press Georgina Colby, Kaja Marczewska, Leigh Wilson, 2021-01-04 The Contemporary Small Press: Making Publishing Visible addresses the contemporary literary small press in the US and UK from the perspective of a range of disciplines. Covering numerous aspects of small press publishing—poetry and fiction, children’s publishing, the importance of ethical commitments, the relation to the mainstream, the attitudes of those working for presses, the role of the state in supporting presses—scholars from literary criticism, the sociology of literature and publishing studies demonstrate how a variety of approaches and methods are needed to fully understand the contemporary small press and its significance for literary studies and for broader literary culture. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: American and British Poetry Harriet Semmes Alexander, 1984 |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: In the Mecca Gwendolyn Brooks, 1968 This was the Pulitzer Prize-winner's first new collection of poetry after a gap of nearly ten years. I was to be a Watchful Eye; a Tuned Ear; a Super-reporter, Brooks said. I began writing about whatever I thought I knew, whatever I experienced. What she knew and experienced in those years resulted in poetry charged with a new power and urgency. The book takes its title from a long narrative poem set in a huge decayed apartment house in Chicago's black ghetto, a building called the Mecca. A tragedy in the Mecca gives rise to Brooks' extraordinary poetic evocation of its dense personal miseries and sense of life. Nine shorter poems follow, and these too, in large part, have their source in contemporary figures and circumstances: Medgar Evers and Malcolm X, the Blackstone Rangers gang, the astonishing prideful mural painted on a ghetto wall one summer. The universality that transcends the immediate event, and is the mark of poetic sensibility, distinguishes all the poetry here. Gwendolyn Brooks' stature as a poet who induces almost unbearable excitement--As Phyllis McGinley described her--is here enriched by the new dimensions her work encompasses.--Adapted from book jacket. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: On Gwendolyn Brooks Stephen Caldwell Wright, 2001 A reassessment of the art and achievements of the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Report from Part One Gwendolyn Brooks, 1972 The author relates the events of her life to her ongoing struggle to freely express the ideas and emotions of an African-American poet |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Gwendolyn Brooks D.H. Melhem, 2014-07-11 Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the major American poets of this century and the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry (1950). Yet far less critical attention has focused on her work than on that of her peers. In this comprehensive biocritical study, Melhem—herself a poet and critic—traces the development of Brooks's poetry over four decades, from such early works as A Street in Bronzeville, Annie Allen, and The Bean Eaters, to the more recent In the Mecca, Riot, and To Disembark. In addition to analyzing the poetic devices used, Melhem examines the biographical, historical, and literary contexts of Brooks's poetry: her upbringing and education, her political involvement in the struggle for civil rights, her efforts on behalf of young black poets, her role as a teacher, and her influence on black letters. Among the many sources examined are such revealing documents as Brooks's correspondence with her editor of twenty years and with other writers and critics. From Melhem's illuminating study emerges a picture of the poet as prophet. Brooks's work, she shows, is consciously charged with the quest for emancipation and leadership, for black unity and pride. At the same time, Brooks is seen as one of the preeminent American poets of this century, influencing both African American letters and American literature generally. This important book is an indispensable guide to the work of a consummate poet. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Start a Riot! Casarae Lavada Abdul-Ghani, 2022-07-27 While the legacy of Black urban rebellions during the turbulent 1960s continues to permeate throughout US histories and discourses, scholars seldom explore within scholarship examining Black Cultural Production, artist-writers of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) that addressed civil unrest, specifically riots, in their artistic writings. Start a Riot! Civil Unrest in Black Arts Movement Drama, Fiction, and Poetry analyzes riot iconography and its usefulness as a political strategy of protestation. Through a mixed-methods approach of literary close-reading, historical, and sociological analysis, Casarae Lavada Abdul-Ghani considers how BAM artist-writers like Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Ben Caldwell, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sonia Sanchez, and Henry Dumas challenge misconceptions regarding Black protest through experimental explorations in their writings. Representations of riots became more pronounced in the 1960s as pivotal leaders shaping Black consciousness, such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., were assassinated. BAM artist-writers sought to override the public's interpretation in their literary exposés that a riot’s disjointed and disorderly methods led to more chaos than reparative justice. Start a Riot! uncovers how BAM artist-writers expose anti-Black racism and, by extension, the United States' inability to compromise with Black America on matters related to citizenship rights, housing (in)security, economic inequality, and education—tenets emphasized during the Black Power Movement. Abdul-Ghani argues that BAM artist-writers did not merely write literature that reflected a spirit of protest; in many cases, they understood their texts, themselves, as acts of protest. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Blacks Gwendolyn Brooks, 1987 Presents a collection of the author's poetry and prose. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Annie Allen Gwendolyn Brooks, 1949 |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: A History of the Harlem Renaissance Rachel Farebrother, Miriam Thaggert, 2021-02-04 This book presents original essays that explore the eclecticism of Harlem Renaissance literature and culture. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: A Life Distilled Maria Mootry, Gary Smith, 1989 These 18 critical essays place Brooks' work in a personal as well as social and cultural context and reflect in a chronological manner an appreciation of the entire range of Brooks' poetic vision. Beginning with a general assessment the essays analyze her poetry, her novel Maud Martha, and the unpublished Songs After Sunset. ISBN 0-252-01367-0 : $27.50. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Such Color Tracy K. Smith, 2021-10-05 “Tracy K. Smith’s poetry is an awakening itself.” —Vogue Celebrated for its extraordinary intelligence and exhilarating range, the poetry of Tracy K. Smith opens up vast questions. Such Color: New and Selected Poems, her first career-spanning volume, traces an increasingly audacious commitment to exploring the unknowable, the immense mysteries of existence. Each of Smith’s four collections moves farther outward: when one seems to reach the limits of desire and the body, the next investigates the very sweep of history; when one encounters death and the outer reaches of space, the next bears witness to violence against language and people from across time and delves into the rescuing possibilities of the everlasting. Smith’s signature voice, whether in elegy or praise or outrage, insists upon vibrancy and hope, even—and especially—in moments of inconceivable travesty and grief. Such Color collects the best poems from Smith’s award-winning books and culminates in thirty pages of brilliant, excoriating new poems. These new works confront America’s historical and contemporary racism and injustices, while they also rise toward the registers of the ecstatic, the rapturous, and the sacred—urging us toward love as a resistance to everything that impedes it. This magnificent retrospective affirms Smith’s place as one of the twenty-first century’s most treasured poets. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Critical Insights , 2009 |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: 1919 Eve L. Ewing, 2019-06-11 NPR Best Books of 2019 Chicago Tribune Best Books of 2019 Chicago Review of Books Best Poetry Book of 2019 O Magazine Best Books by Women of Summer 2019 The Millions Must-Read Poetry of June 2019 LitHub Most Anticipated Reads of Summer 2019 The Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the most intense of the riots comprising the nation’s Red Summer, has shaped the last century but is not widely discussed. In 1919, award-winning poet Eve L. Ewing explores the story of this event—which lasted eight days and resulted in thirty-eight deaths and almost 500 injuries—through poems recounting the stories of everyday people trying to survive and thrive in the city. Ewing uses speculative and Afrofuturist lenses to recast history, and illuminates the thin line between the past and the present. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Gwendolyn Brooks Harry B. Shaw, 1980 |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: A Street in Bronzeville Gwendolyn Brooks, 2014-10-07 Gwendolyn Brooks was one of the most accomplished and acclaimed poets of the last century, the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize and the first black woman to serve as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress—the forerunner of the U.S. Poet Laureate. Here, in an exclusive Library of America E-Book Classic edition, is her groundbreaking first book of poems, a searing portrait of Chicago’s South Side. “I wrote about what I saw and heard in the street,” she later said. “There was my material.” |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Electric Arches Eve L. Ewing, 2017-08-21 Electric Arches is an imaginative exploration of black girlhood and womanhood through poetry, visual art, and narrative prose. Blending stark realism with the fantastical, Ewing takes us from the streets of Chicago to an alien arrival in an unspecified future, deftly navigating boundaries of space, time, and reality with delight and flexibility. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: My Wicked Wicked Ways Sandra Cisneros, 2015-04-28 In this beautiful collection of poems, remarkable for their plainspoken radiance, the bestselling author of The House on Mango Street and winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature embraces her first passion-verse. With lines both comic and sad, Sandra Cisneros deftly-and dazzlingly-explores the human experience. For those familiar with Cisneros only from her acclaimed fiction, My Wicked Wicked Ways presents her in an entirely new light. And for readers everywhere, here is a showcase of one of our most powerful writers at her lyrical best. “Here the young voice of Esperanza of The House on Mango Street merges with that of the grown woman/poet. My Wicked Wicked Ways is a kind of international graffiti, where the poet—bold and insistent—puts her mark on those traveled places on the map and in the heart.” —Cherríe Moraga |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Blood in My Eye George Jackson, 1990 Originally published: New York: Random House, 1972. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Colour-Coded Constance Backhouse, 1999-11-20 Historically Canadians have considered themselves to be more or less free of racial prejudice. Although this conception has been challenged in recent years, it has not been completely dispelled. In Colour-Coded, Constance Backhouse illustrates the tenacious hold that white supremacy had on our legal system in the first half of this century, and underscores the damaging legacy of inequality that continues today. Backhouse presents detailed narratives of six court cases, each giving evidence of blatant racism created and enforced through law. The cases focus on Aboriginal, Inuit, Chinese-Canadian, and African-Canadian individuals, taking us from the criminal prosecution of traditional Aboriginal dance to the trial of members of the 'Ku Klux Klan of Kanada.' From thousands of possibilities, Backhouse has selected studies that constitute central moments in the legal history of race in Canada. Her selection also considers a wide range of legal forums, including administrative rulings by municipal councils, criminal trials before police magistrates, and criminal and civil cases heard by the highest courts in the provinces and by the Supreme Court of Canada. The extensive and detailed documentation presented here leaves no doubt that the Canadian legal system played a dominant role in creating and preserving racial discrimination. A central message of this book is that racism is deeply embedded in Canadian history despite Canada's reputation as a raceless society. Winner of the Joseph Brant Award, presented by the Ontario Historical Society |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Primer for Blacks Gwendolyn Brooks, 1991 Brooks talks to her Black sisters and writes a short statement about the need for Black self-awareness. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: The Bean Eaters; Gwendolyn 1917- Brooks, 2021-09-09 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Annotations John Keene, 1995 Genius--brilliant, polished and of considerable depth. --Ishmael Reed |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Nothing But the Music Thulani Davis, 2020-09-15 Thulani Davis' synesthetic documentary poems breathe impressionistic life into the sonic-social history of East Coast avant-garde jazz, soul and punk Written between 1974 and 1985, these are Davis' most anthologized works. Featured musicians and dancers include Cecil Taylor, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Bad Brains, Henry Threadgill, Thelonious Monk, the Revolutionary Ensemble, the Commodores, Ishmael Houston-Jones and many more, in performances at historic venues such as the Five Spot, the Village Vanguard and the Apollo. Nothing but the Musicis further proof of Davis' place as a crucial figure, alongside poets Jayne Cortez, Sonia Sanchez and Ntozake Shange, in the cultural landscape surrounding the Black Arts Movement. Thulani Davis(born 1949) is the author of the novels 1959and Maker of Saints, several works of poetry and the forthcoming book The Emancipation Circuit: Black Activism Forging a Culture of Freedom(Duke University Press). She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Robert Hayden Laurence Goldstein, Robert Chrisman, 2001-10-23 Vital perspectives from leading critics and scholars on one of the most distinguished African American poets of the twentieth century |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Family Pictures Gwendolyn Brooks, 1987 |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: African American Review , 2005 |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Winnie Gwendolyn Brooks, 1991 A group of poems dedicated to Winnie Mandela, the wife of Nelson Mandela who was the first indigenous leader to hold the office of President of the Republic of South Africa. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Perfect Black Crystal Wilkinson, 2021-08-03 2022 NAACP Image Award Winner Crystal Wilkinson combines a deep love for her rural roots with a passion for language and storytelling in this compelling collection of poetry and prose about girlhood, racism, and political awakening, imbued with vivid imagery of growing up in Southern Appalachia. In Perfect Black, the acclaimed writer muses on such topics as motherhood, the politics of her Black body, lost fathers, mental illness, sexual abuse, and religion. It is a captivating conversation about life, love, loss, and pain, interwoven with striking illustrations by her long-time partner, Ronald W. Davis. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Ghosts in the Schoolyard Eve L. Ewing, 2020-04-10 “Failing schools. Underprivileged schools. Just plain bad schools.” That’s how Eve L. Ewing opens Ghosts in the Schoolyard: describing Chicago Public Schools from the outside. The way politicians and pundits and parents of kids who attend other schools talk about them, with a mix of pity and contempt. But Ewing knows Chicago Public Schools from the inside: as a student, then a teacher, and now a scholar who studies them. And that perspective has shown her that public schools are not buildings full of failures—they’re an integral part of their neighborhoods, at the heart of their communities, storehouses of history and memory that bring people together. Never was that role more apparent than in 2013 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced an unprecedented wave of school closings. Pitched simultaneously as a solution to a budget problem, a response to declining enrollments, and a chance to purge bad schools that were dragging down the whole system, the plan was met with a roar of protest from parents, students, and teachers. But if these schools were so bad, why did people care so much about keeping them open, to the point that some would even go on a hunger strike? Ewing’s answer begins with a story of systemic racism, inequality, bad faith, and distrust that stretches deep into Chicago history. Rooting her exploration in the historic African American neighborhood of Bronzeville, Ewing reveals that this issue is about much more than just schools. Black communities see the closing of their schools—schools that are certainly less than perfect but that are theirs—as one more in a long line of racist policies. The fight to keep them open is yet another front in the ongoing struggle of black people in America to build successful lives and achieve true self-determination. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking Karen Brodine, 1990 Karen Brodine's award-winning feminist poetry explores themes of work, activism, sexual identity, family, language, and the author's fight against breast cancer. Published in 1990, WOMAN SITTING AT THE MACHINE, THINKING is the posthumously published, fourth collection of poems by a breakthrough writer on feminist, lesbian and workingclass themes. Brodine's work is widely published in anthologies. This collection includes a bibliography of Brodine's writing, a preface by the renowned feminist and radical poet Meridel LeSueur, and an introduction by Asian American lesbian poet Merle Woo. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Studies in Black Literature , 1977 |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Maud Martha Gwendolyn Brooks, 1993 Symbolising some of the author's most provocative writing, this novel captures the essence of Black life, and recognises the beauty and strength that lies within each of us. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: The Cybernetic Hypothesis Tiqqun, 2020-04-14 An early text from Tiqqun that views cybernetics as a fable of late capitalism, and offers tools for the resistance. The cybernetician's mission is to combat the general entropy that threatens living beings, machines, societies—that is, to create the experimental conditions for a continuous revitalization, to constantly restore the integrity of the whole. —from The Cybernetic Hypothesis This early Tiqqun text has lost none of its pertinence. The Cybernetic Hypothesis presents a genealogy of our “technical” present that doesn't point out the political and ethical dilemmas embedded in it as if they were puzzles to be solved, but rather unmasks an enemy force to be engaged and defeated. Cybernetics in this context is the teknê of threat reduction, which unfortunately has required the reduction of a disturbing humanity to packets of manageable information. Not so easily done. Not smooth. A matter of civil war, in fact. According to the authors, cybernetics is the latest master fable, welcomed at a certain crisis juncture in late capitalism. And now the interesting question is: Has the guest in the house become the master of the house? The “cybernetic hypothesis” is strategic. Readers of this little book are not likely to be naive. They may be already looking, at least in their heads, for a weapon, for a counter-strategy. Tiqqun here imagines an unbearable disturbance to a System that can take only so much: only so much desertion, only so much destituent gesture, only so much guerilla attack, only so much wickedness and joy. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: The Tradition Jericho Brown, 2019-06-18 WINNER OF THE 2020 PULITZER PRIZE FOR POETRY Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award 100 Notable Books of the Year, The New York Times Book Review One Book, One Philadelphia Citywide Reading Program Selection, 2021 By some literary magic—no, it's precision, and honesty—Brown manages to bestow upon even the most public of subjects the most intimate and personal stakes.—Craig Morgan Teicher, “'I Reject Walls': A 2019 Poetry Preview” for NPR “A relentless dismantling of identity, a difficult jewel of a poem.“—Rita Dove, in her introduction to Jericho Brown’s “Dark” (featured in the New York Times Magazine in January 2019) “Winner of a Whiting Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, Brown's hard-won lyricism finds fire (and idyll) in the intersection of politics and love for queer Black men.”—O, The Oprah Magazine Named a Lit Hub “Most Anticipated Book of 2019” One of Buzzfeed’s “66 Books Coming in 2019 You’ll Want to Keep Your Eyes On” The Rumpus poetry pick for “What to Read When 2019 is Just Around the Corner” One of BookRiot’s “50 Must-Read Poetry Collections of 2019” Jericho Brown’s daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal. Brown’s poetic concerns are both broad and intimate, and at their very core a distillation of the incredibly human: What is safety? Who is this nation? Where does freedom truly lie? Brown makes mythical pastorals to question the terrors to which we’ve become accustomed, and to celebrate how we survive. Poems of fatherhood, legacy, blackness, queerness, worship, and trauma are propelled into stunning clarity by Brown’s mastery, and his invention of the duplex—a combination of the sonnet, the ghazal, and the blues—is testament to his formal skill. The Tradition is a cutting and necessary collection, relentless in its quest for survival while reveling in a celebration of contradiction. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: The Selected Poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini, 2014-08-20 Most people outside Italy know Pier Paolo Pasolini for his films, many of which began as literary works—Arabian Nights, The Gospel According to Matthew, The Decameron, and The Canterbury Tales among them. What most people are not aware of is that he was primarily a poet, publishing nineteen books of poems during his lifetime, as well as a visual artist, novelist, playwright, and journalist. Half a dozen of these books have been excerpted and published in English over the years, but even if one were to read all of those, the wide range of poetic styles and subjects that occupied Pasolini during his lifetime would still elude the English-language reader. For the first time, Anglophones will now be able to discover the many facets of this singular poet. Avoiding the tactics of the slim, idiosyncratic, and aesthetically or politically motivated volumes currently available in English, Stephen Sartarelli has chosen poems from every period of Pasolini’s poetic oeuvre. In doing so, he gives English-language readers a more complete picture of the poet, whose verse ranged from short lyrics to longer poems and extended sequences, and whose themes ran not only to the moral, spiritual, and social spheres but also to the aesthetic and sexual, for which he is most known in the United States today. This volume shows how central poetry was to Pasolini, no matter what else he was doing in his creative life, and how poetry informed all of his work from the visual arts to his political essays to his films. Pier Paolo Pasolini was “a poet of the cinema,” as James Ivory says in the book’s foreword, who “left a trove of words on paper that can live on as the fast-deteriorating images he created on celluloid cannot.” This generous selection of poems will be welcomed by poetry lovers and film buffs alike and will be an event in American letters. |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks R. Baxter Miller, 1978 |
| riot by gwendolyn brooks analysis: The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature Jay Parini, 2004 This set treats the whole of American literature, from the European discovery of America to the present, with entries in alphabetical order. Each of the 350 substantive essays is a major interpretive contribution. Well-known critics and scholars provide clear and vividly written essays thatreflect the latest scholarship on a given topic, as well as original thinking on the part of the critic. The Encyclopedia is available in print and as an e-reference text from Oxford's Digital Reference Shelf.At the core of the encyclopedia lie 250 essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists. The most prominent figures (such as Whitman, Melville, Faulkner, Frost, Morrison, and so forth) are treated at considerable length (10,000 words) by top-flight critics. Less well known figures arediscussed in essays ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 words. Each essay examines the life of the author in the context of his or her times, looking in detail at key works and describing the arc of the writer's career. These essays include an assessment of the writer's current reputation with abibliography of major works by the writer as well as a list of major critical and biographical works about the writer under discussion.A second key element of the project is the critical assessments of major American masterworks, such as Moby-Dick, Song of Myself, Walden, The Great Gatsby, The Waste Land, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Death of a Salesmanr, or Beloved. Each of these essays offers a close reading of the given work,placing that work in its historical context and offering a range of possibilities with regard to critical approach. These fifty essays (ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 words) are simply and clearly enough written that an intelligent high school student should easily understand them, but sophisticatedenough that a college student or general reader in a public library will find the essays both informative and stimulating.The final major element of this encyclopedia consists of fifty-odd essays on literary movements, periods, or themes, pulling together a broad range of information and making interesting connections. These essays treat many of the same authors already discussed, but in a different context; they alsogather into the fold authors who do not have an entire essay on their work (so that Zane Grey, for example, is discussed in an essay on Western literature but does not have an essay to himself). In this way, the project is truly encyclopedic, in the conventional sense. These essays aim forcomprehensiveness without losing anything of the narrative force that makes them good reading in their own right.In a very real fashion, the literature of the American people reflects their deepest desires, aspirations, fears, and fantasies. The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature gathers a wide range of information that illumines the field itself and clarifies many of its particulars. |
