Capstone Project Proposal lyric address and how it creates a relation between the speaker/ reader I am using Langston Hughes and three of his poems to show the connection.

Abstract/ Rationale

The question of how lyrical address creates a relationship with the speaker/ reader has been widely debated in the rhetorical field, with scholars such as William Walters and R. Baxter Miller  argues the relationship between lyric address in Langston Hughes poetry and how it creates/ constructs communities from its audience. However, these works/articles/arguments/perspectives have not adequately addressed the issue of lyric address and how it puts people into communities. Consider the Harlem renaissance a great poetic time for the black community in expressing themselves both musically and rhetorically, during this time period in the U.S many peoples of colors were ridiculed and discriminated against. Many were attacked just for the color of their skin and were judged based on assumptions that were not true, just because of the way they looked. I am interested in this topic because I feel that in order to make the world a better place we must first make a change in ourselves, while exploring the poet in MAJ. Knopper’s class I fell in love with the idea of trying to make a better world. Langston Hughes through his poetry and delivery did just that in a way over here
Research Question

My paper addresses the issue of prejudice against minority races and how they can be labeled for things that they are not. I will focus my   attention to the poetic side of the spectrum through Langston Hughes poetry. In my project, I will examine Two of Langston Hughes poems “Mother to Son” “’Elevator boy”. These two poems I will dissect and fully interpret the meanings and symbols and imagery that the poems show. I will give my audience a full understanding of lyric address and how these two poems deal with constructing communities from its audiences. I argue that through lyric address we are able to see the communities that people are put in through poetry. I think that through the use of Langston Hughes poetry this will be very evident. Lyric address shapes the way people see different people in different communities.

Annotated Bibliography

Miller, R. Baxter. The Art and Imagination of Langston Hughes, University Press of Kentucky, 1989. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vmi/detail.action?docID=1915409 (Links to an external site.).

. “Baxter Miller explores Hughes’s life and art to enlarge our appreciation of his contribution to American letters. Arguing that readers often miss the complexity of Hughes’s work because of its seeming accessibility, Miller begins with a discussion of the writer’s autobiography, an important yet hitherto neglected key to his imagination. Moving on to consider the subtle resonances of his life in the varied genres over which his imagination “wandered,” Miller finds a constant symbiotic bond between the historical and the lyrical. Hughes’s artistic vision is revealed in his depiction of Black women, his political stance, his lyric and tragi-comic modes.”

What’s interesting about Miller is that he realizes too solely on his interpretation of Hughes. Even though he looks at critiques of other authors I can’t help but wonder how he really feels. He’s emphasis and critique of how Hughes uses women in his poetry is eccentric. The role women play is huge since the beginning of time and Miller does a good job of shedding light on their role.

WATERS, WILLIAM. Poetry’s Touch: On Lyric Address. Cornell University Press, 2003. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv1nhpzg. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

William Walters explains what lyrical address is and how it is used in poetry. He also gives you examples of how poets use lyrical address to connect to his audience. “To WHOM does a poem speak? Do poems really communicate with those they address? Is reading poems like overhearing? Like intimate conversation? Like performing a script. In this book I pursue these questions by reading closely a selection of poems that say you to a human being, and by trying to describe the reading process as it encounters these instances of address. In the diverse poems I discuss here—poems not just addressing different categories of fictive and real persons but written in several different eras and languages—the address itself always becomes an axis of the poem’s concern.”

What is very interesting about this is that he dives deeply into what the very essence of lyrical address is. He answers your questions and leaves you wondering about just how important it is. I believe he should use other authors and examples as well to better get his point across. I believe this will help develop my essay because it is the very foundation of the question I am posing.

Langston Hughes & the Harlem Renaissance: Crash Course Literature 215

This video is a very brief overview of what the Harlem renaissance is. It explains the importance of the events and why it was had. This video also explains the poets and the different forms of literature that is acceptable towards the time. It also is a background on Hughes and his explanation is some of his autobiography. It explains his life and his important role in the Harlem renaissance.

This is important to aid me in my research because it gives me a different perspective on Hughes. It also gives the outside look on his life and what eventually influenced the poet himself to become the man that he was. John Greene also shows the difference of how Hughes is different from other poets of his time.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers BY LANGSTON HUGHES

The negro speaks of rivers is one of Langston Hughes poems. Hughes wrote this poem after graduating high school. This poem is about what the river meant to the black people of the past and the history of it. The poetry is trying to capture the emotions of the reader. This gives the poem a sense of style and is a prime example of lyrical address I believe that this will help in my essay because I can use it to show evidence in how Hughes uses lyrical addresses. The poem shows the deeper meaning of how the poet feels.

“Poems of a Religious Nature.” Langston’s Salvation: American Religion and the Bard of Harlem, by Wallace D. Best, NYU Press, New York, 2017, pp. 67–107. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1pwtb06.7. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

This book is especially important because it goes over some of Hughes’ work that deals with lyric addresses. It addresses him as a bard and explains in depth the significance of his poetry. It also goes in depth and interpreters Langston Hughes as a black religious figure, who understands the African American people. The author breaks down the interpretation of the struggles of negros in America following the oppression that they have faced up until now.

This aspect is crucial and relevant to my essay because of the community aspect of it. I believe that lyric address constructs community and the understanding of how this plays a part in this will help.