34 Practicing Marxist, Postcolonial, and Ethnic Studies Criticism

For this week’s assignment, we will be revisiting three texts that we used for our first essay. Please choose a different poem from the one you chose for your essay. In addition to choosing a poem, you’ll also need to decide on the critical approach you want to use: Marxist, postcolonial, or ethnic studies criticism. You will complete a theoretical response to a text using one of these methods. I have not included guiding questions in this chapter; instead, refer to the questions posted below “A Cup of Tea” to guide you in the critical approach you choose. Write your response as a short essay (500-750 words). You will need to come up with a thesis statement about your chosen text that reflects the critical method you chose. Post your short essay as a response to the Marxist, postcolonial, and ethnic studies theoretical response discussion board. I have included the theoretical response assignment instructions at the end of this chapter.

1. American Income

The survey says all groups can make more money
if they lose weight except black men…men of other colors
and women of all colors have more gold, but black men
are the summary of weight, a lead thick thing on the scales,
meters spinning until they ring off the end of the numbering
of accumulation, how things grow heavy, fish on the
ends of lines that become whales, then prehistoric sea life
beyond all memories, the billion days of human hands
working, doing all the labor one can imagine, hands
now the population of cactus leaves on a papyrus moon
waiting for the fire, the notes from all their singing gone
up into the salt breath of tears of children that dry, rise
up to be the crystalline canopy of promises, the infinite
gone fishing days with the apologies for not being able to love
anymore, gone down inside earth somewhere where
women make no demands, have fewer dreams of forever,
these feet that marched and ran and got cut off, these hearts
torn out of chests by nameless thieves, this thrashing
until the chaff is gone out and black men know the gold
of being the dead center of things, where pain is the gateway
to Jerusalems, Bodhi trees, places for meditation and howling,
keeping the weeping heads of gods in their eyes.

2. Object Permanence

For the time being
an ampersand is a boy
clutching his knees
to his chest as art.
On high, the god of form
wears a face on each wrist.
Only a god can take and give
time, but the one in front of

the gun lasts forever.

The boy is parenthesis,

his shoulders curved,

the huddled wings of a bird.

The boy’s arms are too short

to box with god. He breaks down-

beats of sweat in his sleep.

If life is music, the rest is noise,

this earth a museum of dead boys
walking. The god has a finger to

his lips. He wakes to the boy

taking selfies with The Scream.

The boy knows a picture

will only last longer.

Frequent warnings read

Storage Almost Full across his
screen so self-portraits he

outsources to the cloud.

As I Lay Dying sits in his book

bag. The page dog-eared that has
the line: My mother is a fish.
•
Right now
the comma

is a lobe.

From afar the god clutches

his head, in an effort

to cover missing ears.

The redbone boy was airborne.

As we speak, he bleeds in the street.

The backpack has landed as parachute.

The god yowls watercolors,

the way the sky weeps
oranges in lung-shaped
segments of grief:

quarter, half, a whole.

A bullet is a form of punctuation.

From a distance it appears
the boy is fucking up commas.

Roger that.

The god of variables — a-

bridged & for-
lorn, dribbles mercy
on the mother of

the slain.

The boy’s headphones skip

down the sidewalk in the hands

of another mother’s child.

The skeletal god’s got bars.

A rib cage full of tally marks
collection plates in memory

of chicken-scratched bones.

The writing on god’s wall

was formerly known as art.

•

The boy’s chest has become

a focal point. It rests in
his mother’s arms, a still life painting.

The god is MIA.

The boy’s mother repeats her prayers

again, & again, & again, & again, & again.

Repetition leads to the longing for a god,

for a sound as signal, for the absence of a note

or limb. Think of the bo(d)y as con artist.

The boy’s mother knows a period is

something missed. She knows objects
can disappear behind a god’s back
but that doesn’t mean they are gone forever.
|
She holds the boy’s cracked
phone in her hands, as if it were

the whole world.

A boy is what he leaves behind.

What a mother struggles to forget
her muscles store as memory.

3. Mother’s Dirge

Because our family is from the countryside,
Your father liked falling from high places.
Limber feet make expert tree climbers.

The coconut — meat for eating, fiber for the buttonmaker.

Your father liked falling from high places.

Upon landing, he smiles. I carry my share.
The coconut — meat for eating, fiber for the buttonmaker.

Where the bend in the trunk begins matters most.

Upon landing, he smiles. I carry my share.

Husband and wife walk home, avoiding rice paddies.
Where the bend in the trunk begins matters most.

Even if they are full, trees that stand straight: avoid climbing.

Husband and wife walk home, avoiding rice paddies.

Your grandmother warned me many times over.
Even if they are full, trees that stand straight: avoid climbing.

But we were young, the city called to us like a wilderness.

Your grandmother warned me many times over.

Saigon is big, too busy, lacking decency.
But we were young, the city called to us like a wilderness.

The day he died, the sun heated the cement too hot for bare feet.

Saigon is big, too busy, lacking decency.

Afterwards, home brought no comfort.
The day he died, the sun heated the cement too hot for bare feet.

The New World Hotel stands fourteen stories.

Afterwards, home brought no comfort,

Because tragedy cannot save face.
The New World Hotel stands fourteen stories.

Everyone here must remember my new dress last fall,

Because tragedy cannot save face.

Our neighbors recount our tale with great skill and detail.
Everyone here must remember my new dress last fall.

With the white of his palms alone, your father made us a living.

Our neighbors recount our tale with great skill and detail.

The palm trees out front aren’t tall enough.
With the white of his palms alone, your father made us a living.

Even when we were promised, I could see he had ability.

The palm trees out front aren’t tall enough.

Mind your father, improve yourself, head upwards.
Even when we were promised, I could see he had ability.

He climbed until he got us to the city.

Mind your father, improve yourself, head upwards.

Limber feet make expert tree climbers.
Because our family is from the countryside,
He climbed until he got us to the city.

Source: Poetry (October 2017)

Theoretical Response Assignment Instructions

For each of the critical approaches we study in Critical Worlds, you will write a short response that demonstrates your beginning understanding of the concept by applying the approach to a text. Treat these responses as short essays. The responses are intended to help you find what you do and don’t understand about the critical approach so that we can discuss the approach as a class.

Instructions

Step One: At the end of each section in Critical Worlds, you will find a chapter called “Practicing [Theoretical Approach].” (For example, “Practicing New Criticism”) Read all the works in this section and be prepared to discuss them on our class discussion board or in class.
Step Two: Choose one of the works to write about in your response. For example, you will read all four of the short works in the New Criticism section, but you will only respond to one, perhaps “Recuerdo” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Refer to our course schedule for due dates.
Step Three: Use the questions that follow the one work you’ve chosen to prompt your response. Your final response should be written as a short essay that considers the key elements of each question, 500-750 words in length (3-4 complete paragraphs). When you directly quote the text, use MLA style and include page or line numbers in parenthetical citations for later reference. Do your best, and please reach out if you need help.
Step Four: Submit your response by copying and pasting it into the discussion board forum designated for this assignment. Do not attach your response as a Word document. Refer to the course schedule for due dates. I strongly recommend that you draft your response in Word of another software program that includes a grammar and spelling checker.
Step Five: Online students are required to respond to two classmates who chose different texts from the one you chose for your response. These responses should both be 100-150 words in length (200-300 words total) and are due by Sunday. Students who attend class in person are not required to post responses to classmates because we will discuss the works in class together. 

Grading

Each short response is worth 25 points.
  • 15 points: theoretical response
  • 10 points: online discussion (5 points per response) OR class attendance.
Responses will be graded on adherence to requirements and thoroughness and thoughtfulness of work—not simply on completion. A response that meets the requirements but is perfunctory in manner may receive a “C.”
Note: I do not expect you to apply the theory perfectly to earn a high grade. These responses are about practicing an approach, not mastering it.

 

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