The time has come for me to try and coerce my errant thoughts about slam poetry into some sort of working thesis. Perhaps looking at my ideas through the lenses of the different claims will help!Policy Claim: Though poetry is merely read silently, poetry has its roots in the oral tradition and should be a form of art that is performed.
Definition Claim: Poetry is an art form that was founded in the oral tradition and is still a mode of art that best lends itself to performance.
Comparison Claim: Although slam poetry may seem quite different from theatre, the poetical and performative elements of both artistic modes attest to their close similarity.
Evaluative Claim: Many try and evaluate slam poetry according to either poetic or theatrical standards. However, being a mixture of both mediums, slam poetry is best evaluated when taking into account both theatrical and poetic criticism.
Cause/Effect Claim: Many conservative critics view slam poetry as inferior to more classic/traditional poetry due to its more colloquial nature and performative aspect. However it is the very integration of performance and colloquial language into slam poetry that makes the medium more emotional and relatable. (not sure if that one is a cause/effect claim?)
These are all thoughts in process so help a sister out and let me know what you guys think! Thanks!
I liked your last claim best. It is very specific and suggests the areas you would be developing in the main paper. However, you might borrow some of the rationale from your policy claim version. That is, it's a good answer to conservatives that the performative aspect goes back to poetry's very roots. Ironically, the more modern kind of poetry experience is more like the most ancient -- that sort of thing. I think this is an important topic and claim and I'm eager to see you write about it.
ReplyDeleteOne more comment -- you are going to need to name, refer to, and analyze specific works of poetry in your paper. I'm wondering what those would be. One approach you could consider woud be to find a traditional written/printed analysis of a well known poem and compare this to a slam poetry version of the same poem. Just an idea!
ReplyDeleteYea I was trying to think which traditional poem would have a slam poetry rendition. I haven't really looked but I'm sure there is someone who has morphed a classical poem into a performance of some kind. Maybe I should expand from slam poetry into the larger umbrella of performance poetry in order to make a more effective point...
DeleteI was going to mention that I liked your last claim as well. It seems like that one is most developed and will be easiest to turn into a full fledged paper. I don't know a lot about slam poetry so I look forward to seeing how you develop this.
ReplyDeleteI like your comparison claim best! I think that there would be a lot of room for you to develop your thesis, and generally I think that it would be interesting for you to prove your claim that slam poetry is like theatre. I think that as you would use literary elements to support it, you could make a convincing point.
ReplyDelete