LITR 5731:
Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake, spring 2003
Poetry Presentation Summary
Poetry: Linda Hogan, "November"
Poetry reader / discussion leader: [anonymous]
Discussion recorder: Ginger Hilton
Comment:
Linda
Hogan is a Native-American writer with a love of history and oral tradition; she
writes fiction, poetry, and drama. She is a political ideologist and an
environmental/philosophical theorist and often writes of loss and survival for
native Americans. Her writing has won many awards including a Guggenheim for
Fiction in 1990 and a National Endowment for the Arts in 1986; she has also been
a finalist for the Pulitzer.
She
has played a prominent role in the development of contemporary Native American
poetry. She has not written much poetry lately because she has been developing
her fiction writing, for in it she can mix story, characters, and political
issues together.
Summary
of poetry presentation
Introduction of the author, Linda Hogan, includes the following: Native American
Writer who has won many awards including the Pulitzer Prize. She writes fiction
and drama and is an environmental and philosophical theorist. She writes about
the beautiful and terrible. This author also lacked a background in writing.
What do you make of this poem?
Sergio:
Blood, sun going down scenery…there are mother images in the land and
environment
Jana:
Color red present and there are different shades of red in the poem.
Tomasina:
The outside is smoldering hot. War and the sun going down and red mountains in
Nevada.
Dr.
W: Rust and burgundy…
Jennifer:
The horse and the color of rust.
Jana:
The red mesa and the color of wine.
Jennifer:
How does this relate to loss and survival?
Jana:
God Save the Queen gives me goose bumps.
Dr.
W: Handsome Lake absorbed language into the other and I am mixed about the tone
as it is majestic yet
sarcastic.
Jana:
I thought sarcastic.
Dr.
W: Reminds me of sex pistols-so that line is ruined for me.
Jane:
Yes, I agree. It detracts from the imagery.
Toni:
Kinship with animals. White man would kill Indians and there would be no
kinship.
Dr.
W: Parent death and loss and survival. The sow does have value. There is a
slaughter scene.
[anonymous]:
Something important about November…Burning and burning passion and drive and
decisions as she is entering…
Someone:
Equates her plight with idea of sacrifice.
Toni:
She does walk away in terms of the surviving aspect. Many were killed but they
do survive.
Dr.
W: Sound of the poem and the pacing and the rhythm causes it to be ritualistic
sounding.
[anonymous]:
That would connect the beginning, middle, and end…
Dr.
W: I have taught her novel Mean Spirit. I would recommend it.
Elizabeth:
Cornfields causes me to think about Nebraska.
[anonymous]:
When I read silently, it loses a lot and is much better read aloud.