Essay #2 Pitch

For the final essay, I have chosen to go with prompt number one, the Real Skinny Textbook Debate. I will attempt to convince the editors of the Norton Anthology that Walt Whitman, T.S. Elliot, and Hilda Doolittle should be the three authors included in the shorter version of the anthology textbook.

I have chosen Walt Whitman to represent the Romantic Period because he is a true Romanticist. In every one of his works, he gets very intimate, and often times sexual, with his surroundings. He takes in all of the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings that surround him, and reflects this in his writing. Whitman really draws the reader into his emotions. One can truly feel as though one is living the experiences that he portrays. Whitman describes his fascination with the simple things in life and turns our attention to their perfection.

For the Modernist Period, I have chosen T.S. Elliot. If there was any Modernist who did not cater to the reader, it was T.S. Elliot. His pieces do not give the reader time to dwell on any one image, as he quickly moves from one thing to another and yet another in his writing. His fragmented poems force the reader to work hard and seek outside references in order to interpret them. Furthermore, his writings, like other Modernist writings, are difficult to understand because there isn’t a unifying idea, connection, or consistency, between the fragments.

For the final author, I chose to include Imagist Hilda Doolittle. H.D. should make it into the shorter version of the Norton Anthology because not only does she successfully accomplish Ezra Pound’s principles of Imagism, but she creates complexity in the images she writes about. Her writing is simple and clear. In fact, she does not explain the intellectual or emotional meaning of the image or images she presents in her poems, but rather leaves it up to the reader to decipher that for himself.

These writers not only help us understand the time periods which they represent, but tell us more about the society in which they lived in or the society they were trying to escape. Romanticists painted emotions with their words, as they tried to illustrate the perfection they were so fond of and which they tried to get others to experience. Imagists, on the other hand, added no emotion, therefore removing subjectivity from their works. They, unlike the Romanticists, left it up to the reader to emotionally connect with the object on their own terms. Modernists, much like Imagists, leave their work open for interpretation. However, Modernist writing is more complex than that of Imagists, exemplifying the difficult times they lived in. It takes a lot of questioning and investigation on the reader’s part to make sense of what someone such as T.S. Elliot created, sometimes making no progress.

These three authors will help students develop critical reading and writing skills as they attempt to analyze their works. As students struggle in their analysis of these difficult pieces, they will develop the ability to deeply question the writers’ purpose and the bigger ideas that connect to culture and history. They will be able to engage in the exchange of ideas to gain further insight of these literary masterpieces. Finally, students will leave the class with an enjoyable experience of their creative journeys.