Author Archives: rmichals

RR5-Poetry

In this class you have now read and discussed two very different poems, “she being Brand” by e.e. cummings and “Coming Home, Detroit, 1968” by Phillip Levine. Both of these poems describe a man driving through a city, and yet they are each distinct in format, tone, and in what they are trying to express to the reader.

Write a post comparing and contrasting the driving metaphors in these two poems. Using direct evidence from the poems (in the form of quotations), try to identify what each poet is trying to accomplish with his poem and how he uses metaphors of cars and driving to do that.

RR3-Vanitas

Describe in your own words the style of Dutch 17th and 18th Century still life painting. How does this painting style create a metaphor for mortality? Be specific and use as evidence things you can observe in the Rachel Ruysch painting Fruit and Insects, 1711 or the Jan van Huysum painting, Vase with Flowers, c. 1718-20.

Why and how does Hector Rene Membreno-Canales use the style of Dutch still life painting and the idea of Vanitas in his series Hegemony or Survival? Do you think the use of this style and the implied Vanitas metaphor for mortality is effective or heavy-handed? Please state clear reasons for your answer.

Mirrors and Windows

State Szarkowski’s Mirrors and Windows thesis in your own words. Compare and contrast the Crewdson and  Winogrand photographs using the vocabulary of photography. Find four points of comparison. Then use the mirrors and windows metaphor to compare and contrast the two photos. Which is a mirror and which a window? Use your observations of the photos as evidence. Each claim you make must be supported by something you can see in the photographs.