What Has Struck Me

As I have looked back at the posts I have made in this blog, all the works that I have discussed and all the genres that I have explored, I have pinned down certain topics that have caught my interest (which have also appeared in posts from our English class bubble) and which I would like to further explore:

• Should nonfiction be considered literature? Where do you draw the line?- We have been talking about this a lot in English class, but it was when I went back to some of my favorite nonfiction work that began to wonder more about this. For instance, I thought that Night by Elie Wiesel was absolutely brilliant, as I remarked on this post, and I felt that part of what characterized it as such are the elements of literature (most commonly observed in the belletristic defined genres of literature, as Dr. Burton discussed.) Then again, this memoir sometimes closely resembles a novel, as it has the elements of plot, etc. (Dr. Burton' post on creative non-fiction inspired me to look into this nature of Wiesel's work.) On the other hand, we have genres of nonfiction such as speeches, which mostly lack some essential elements that characterize poetry, drama, and fiction. However, when I take a look at something like Kennedy's inaugural address, I discover that these elements are very present even in a work that seems to fall far from these categories. Should this then also be considered literature? What aspects make it specifically so?

• To what point is analyzing a poem beneficial to the understanding of the work? When does it confound what the poem is actually conveying? Are we murdering to dissect?- These are questions that have been circling my mind since we left the poetry unit and as I have been working on my personal study. Though this is an issue that perhaps presents itself in other literature genres, I believe it is more commonly observed when analyzing poetry, because there can be so much you can get out of it every time you dig a little deeper. Perhaps it is important to identify that "The World is Too Much With Us" by Wordsworth is a romantic poem because this helps us know what to expect.  Yet, is it necessary to understand all of the allusions (some which I highlighted in this post) to receive the essence of the poem? What about when you are faced with "In a Station on The Metro" by Pound and the imagism movement that Andrew describes? Is this poem lose its meaning because of its succinctness? 

What do you guys think about my reflections on these topics? I would love to hear what you have to say!