Thursday, 22 June 2006

Poetry reader: Diane Palmer

Poem: Louis Simpson, “A Story about Chicken Soup,” UA 245

  Biographical Information:

·        Born in Jamaica, West Indies, in 1923

·        Father was a lawyer of Scottish descent and mother was of Russian descent

·        At the age of seventeen, he came to the U.S. to study at Columbia University

·        He served in the 101^st Airborne Division in France, Holland, Belgium, and Germany during WWII

·        After the war, he completed his studies at Columbian and the University of Paris.

·        He was a writer, and editor, and a poet

·        Honors: 1998 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, Prix de Rome, Columbia Medal of Excellence, and fellowships from the Guggerheim Foundation.

·        He is still alive and resides in Setauket, New York.

www.poets.org/lsimp/

Reading of the Poem:

Yiddish saying:  "Troubles are easier to take with soup than without."

Berchtesgaden: In Bavaria near the border of Austria, it was an outpost for the German Reichskanzlei office and was a target for the Allies.

Stanza 1: Obj. 2  3^rd Generation Immigrant Narrator

• Jewish persepective
• Grandmother’s memories of the old country: Mud, Poverty, Snow (cold)
• Chicken soup = comfort, home
• Germans kill the relatives:  What once was is gone

Stanza 2: Obj. 4 Dominant Culture

• Blonde, German girl playing by the stream (Dominant culture – Blonde woman)
• She mocks them (Dominant culture – Power)
• The last laugh is theirs because they have taken Berchtesgaden and killed her fellow Germans

Stanza 3: Obj. 2 Stage 5 of the Immigrant Narrative: Reassertion of ethnic identity

• Sun is shining
• Memories of the old country are disappearing
• They want him to become one of them/ continuation of heritage
• He prefers the sun and the future rather than the cold shadows of the past.

Questions:

1. How does Simpson use the little blonde, German girl to manipulate or question our idea of the dominant culture?

2.The first and last stanzas reflect the same ideas, but in opposition (ex. Snow/sun, tragedy/promise, poor/rich).  It shows what was is gone, but as an assimilated immigrant it is his job and duty to remember, and to pass on their heritage, so what is the role or purpose of the second stanza?