Here is my tentative, revised thesis statement:Poetry was originally part of an oral tradition which put value and emphasis on the performance of the poem. With the emergence of modern performance poetry, the art of oral performance from the original poetic tradition is evoked once again. Though many view modern performance poetry as inferior to what they see as "traditional" poetry, the modern style is actually superior because the performance element ties modern poetry back to the poetic oral tradition and makes the medium more engaging.
After receiving feedback from many of you as well as some random people, I have concocted the above statement that I think will engage my reader and will also engage me during my writing process (I want to be excited about what I write if I can help it!). So how did I make it to this point and what did I change? I mentioned in one of my previous posts how a random acquaintance from highschool ended up being quite the expert on my topic, which was pleasantly serendipitous! He showed me some other forms of performance poetry that I liked just as much as slam poetry, which tends to be just what the title of the form suggests: an expression of injustice and personal struggle in an intensely emotional style-- slamming down emotions in a powerful way. So this led me to want to include all performance poetry in my thesis. Another point of development came about when Dr. Burton suggested that I compare slam poetry with traditional poetry, and I realized that slam poems aren't usually based off of traditional poems, so a comparison wouldn't be so easy. But if I expanded the genre out to all performance poetry, I could find plenty of examples where the traditional poem is performed in a modern way, for example where a shakespearean sonnet is performed. So in order to demonstrate how modern performance poetry is more engaging than merely reading"traditional" poetry, I am going to expand from just slam poetry to all modern performance poetry in order to have more persuasive examples.
I am still revising and am open to more suggestions though, so if anything needs clarification, let me know!
It's a very well thought out thesis and it presents a good argument. It raises questions like: Why has performance poetry lost some of its credibility? At any rate, I think that slam poetry is just as beautiful as "traditional" poetry and I have found that it often evokes more feeling due to the performance aspect and its relatability.
ReplyDeleteI really like this thesis statement and cannot wait to read more about it. I agree with your claim and I think it would be interesting if in your paper you went into the evolution of poetry and how we have to adapt not only poetry itself but also how the poetry is performed with the era that we live in. Just like fiction and drama have changed significantly over time, poetry has too.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Olivia. This is a perfect thesis statement and sets you up well to proceed. As you go forward, you probably do need to keep that distinction between slam poetry and performance poetry. I don't know, maybe a very brief history of contemporary performance poetry is in order? Also, you might need to qualify your argument as you go along to account for some of the new factors that have come in (such as multimedia, social media) that were not present in the traditional uses of poetry. That doesn't mean I don't think you can prove your thesis. I think you are right and I look forward to how you lay it all out. Go for it!
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