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Form / Content

Form / Content. Form / Content. all content has a form – they are inseparable and of course the form shapes the content . Form / Content. all content has a form – they are inseparable and of course the form shapes the content

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Form / Content

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  1. Form / Content

  2. Form / Content • all content has a form – they are inseparable • and of course the form shapes the content

  3. Form / Content • all content has a form – they are inseparable • and of course the form shapes the content • BUT content also shapes form: • we use pitchers or glasses for water because plates don’t work

  4. Form / Content • Love songs – the same content the world over and across time: • you are awesome, handsome, pretty, smart, funny, made for me, me for you, two halves of a whole, blah-blah-blah • I really dig you and we should be together forEVER, m’kay? • but the forms change

  5. Form / Content • from Medieval love lyrics For I love you so much, truly, that one could sooner dry up the deep sea and hold back its waves than I could constrain myself from loving you … and so on…

  6. Form / Content • to today: • I belong with you You belong with me You’re my Sweetheart… and so on…

  7. Form / Content • When form and content match, you get something good • When form and content don’t match, well …

  8. Form / Content • When form and content match, you get something good • When form and content don’t match, well … • Good Match: • AWKWARD – this word is awkward this is an auk (nothing to do with awkward)

  9. Form / Content • When form and content match, you get something good • When form and content don’t match, well … • Bad Match: • PULCHRITUDINOUS • this word is not pulchritudinous

  10. Pulchritudinous

  11. Pulchritudinous

  12. Pulchritudinous

  13. “The Platonic Blow”W. H. Auden (1965)

  14. Plato • Greek philosopher 427-347BCE • homosexuality = Greek love • Platonic as adjective = without lust or desire • Platonic Forms, ideals, perfection • Platonic brings us closer to The Good

  15. “The Platonic Blow” • content? • Formal Qualities • word choice – how do the words sound? what do they evoke? • tone – clinical, passionate, detached, breathless? • rhythm – fast, slow, variable, staccato, sustained? • sentence length – short, long, variable, …? • punctuation, syntax – lots of full-stops, or flow? • how is the reader addressed/situated? • do the form and content work effectively together or are they disjunctive?

  16. from Macho Sluts: “A Dash of Vanilla”Pat(rick) Califia (1989) • possibly the best title of all time • what is the content?

  17. from Macho Sluts: “A Dash of Vanilla”Pat(rick) Califia (1989) • mouth, eating, oral

  18. from Macho Sluts: “A Dash of Vanilla”Pat(rick) Califia (1989) • mouth, eating, oral

  19. from Macho Sluts: “A Dash of Vanilla”Pat(rick) Califia (1989) • Formal Qualities? • Point of View/Perspective • Where is the reader in all this? • voyeur • participant • subject? • object? • both? ~~~

  20. from Macho Sluts: “A Dash of Vanilla”Pat(rick) Califia (1989) • Put differently, How does this piece construct its reader?

  21. from Macho Sluts: “A Dash of Vanilla”Pat(rick) Califia (1989) • and, How does it construct its narrator?

  22. “Figs”D. H. Lawrence (1920)

  23. “Figs”D. H. Lawrence (1920) • Biblical precedent (sin, Fall, sex, lust, unnatural conduct) • Eve covers her “shame” with a fig leaf, so the fig is the fruit on the branch

  24. “Figs”D. H. Lawrence (1920) • fruit • fecundity • nature – remember Roman de la Rose? • women/fruit/vagina/womb • orality, tongue, penetration, juicy, pleasure

  25. “The Flea”John Donne (1670) Sexy, right?

  26. “The Flea”John Donne (1670) • blood, bodily fluids shared • intermingling of them brings shame, loss of honour • blood = honour, lineage, quality of person • blood = life, vitality, force, potency • also shedding of blood as deflowering • double trick: • the flea hasn’t really taken our vitality – symbolic only • same goes for honour, then – symbolic only

  27. “The Flea”John Donne (1670) • Formal Qualities • word choice – how do the words sound? do they rhyme? what do they evoke? • assonance, alliteration, sibilance, onomatopoeia, euphonia, cacophany • tone – clinical, passionate, detached, breathless? • rhythm – fast, slow, variable, staccato, sustained? • sentence length – short, long, variable, …? • punctuation, syntax – lots of full-stops, or flow? • how is the reader constructed? speaker? listener? • do the form and content work effectively together or are they disjunctive?

  28. “The Flea”John Donne (1670) IS IT EROTIC?

  29. Goblin MarketChristina Rosetti (1859) • Victorian era – 1835-1901 • strait-laced, reserved, prudish • childhood, the unconscious, imagination, dreams • What is the content?

  30. Goblin MarketChristina Rosetti (1859) • sublimation | repression | displacement • FREUD! cigar  (no, really)

  31. Goblin MarketChristina Rossetti (1859) • YOUR MISSION: • pair up and choose 5 line passage (5 mins) • individually identify THREE formal elements (5 mins) • pair up and consolidate (5 mins) • we’ll discuss and relate to content • blushing, awkward laughing, etc. to follow…

  32. Next Week: • Smooth Bits, Foldy Bits, Hairy Bits • Readings: • “Creamy Breasts” • “The Penis” • “The Female Genitals” • from Les Guerillères • from Amores • “Obscur et Froncé” • Humour – “Anglo-Saxon Riddle”

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