Mica Garrett - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Mica Garrett

From all indications, Latinotopia is about to become an increasingly domestic influence as well a... more From all indications, Latinotopia is about to become an increasingly domestic influence as well as an international or rather transnational phenomenon triggered by an ever-growing Latino and Spanish-speaking population worldwide. Nevertheless, domestic and global politics as well as a large section of the (inter)national and interdisciplinary research community still do not pay sufficient attention to these striking developments and transformations in this Third Millennium. This LISA e-journal number aims to contribute to closing this research gap from an international and interdisciplinary angle, bringing together a broad roster of interested critics and specialists from far corners of the globe who submitted innovative critical and interdisciplinary vistas on the burgeoning real and discursive landscape of “Latinotopia-USA”

Revista De Estudios Hispanicos, 1999

Revue Lisa Lisa E Journal Litteratures Histoire Des Idees Images Societes Du Monde Anglophone Literature History of Ideas Images and Societies of the English Speaking World, Jun 30, 2013

To define Cubanness inside and outside of Cuba is a difficult task. From Taínos to wave after wav... more To define Cubanness inside and outside of Cuba is a difficult task. From Taínos to wave after wave of immigrants, Cubans have struggled with their identity. Whether under colonial rule or under a dictatorship, Cubans have been defined by others, forcing them to conform or be punished for it. Under Castro, the island’s dream of independence from Spanish colonial rule and American imperialism finally came true, but at a price. Many argue that there are two Cubas: the one that Castro would have us see, a romantic, idealized view of the Revolution, and the other side of Cuba that he and his followers deny. In addition, there is a very large Cuban constituency in the United States, including Mini Havana in Miami. There, Cubans have retained their language and culture, in part due to their resistance to assimilation and strong need to retain their identity as Cubans. In any case, Cuba is in transition and is slowly opening up to old ways of doing business, including tourism and private en...

Symploke, 2002

Opening with Adrienne Rich's much-quoted 1971 call for women's re-visions of literary t... more Opening with Adrienne Rich's much-quoted 1971 call for women's re-visions of literary texts, Mica Howe and Sarah Appleton Aguiar define feminist re-vision as inevitably oppositional, its triple purpose being: to question and renew established male texts, to ascertain and/or ...

Revue Lisa Lisa E Journal Litteratures Histoire Des Idees Images Societes Du Monde Anglophone Literature History of Ideas Images and Societies of the English Speaking World, Jun 30, 2013

BareBack Magazine August 2012

Symploke, 2002

Drafts by Mica Garrett

In his forward Hoagland quotes his friend Paul, "Scholars look things up; poets make things up." ... more In his forward Hoagland quotes his friend Paul, "Scholars look things up; poets make things up." (xiii) Hoagland's approach to criticism is that he is neither taking the highbrow approach nor the elementary approach but somewhere in-between. His own description of his own criticism is that it is a "mostly homemade set of geographies, jerry-rigged descriptions, and taxonomies." (xiii) His chapter 'Altitudes, a Homemade Taxonomy: Image, Diction, and Rhetoric' starts out with a reference to kundalini yoga, poetic chakras, and aesthetic temperament in order to point at the subconscious levels from which the poet pulls out image in his poem. He says that image is related to the unconscious and that they are birthed by 'subterranean systems' that are elusive and conceal 'multiple resonances.' As the image becomes more self-conscious, diction comes into play and brings to focus the auditory senses and intellect of the reader as well as a chance for the poet to insert his personality. Diction also calls on the reader's memory to "perform complex cognitions, correlating image, diction, allegory, and analogy all at once." (7) Hoagland uses sharp and funny rhetoric throughout the book and when he himself defines rhetoric he says that it is the 'thorniest chakra to define' and claims that it "encompasses all speech acts that take place outside the shower." (9) Rhetoric also includes the attitude and authority of the poet. Hoagland uses an example from Robert Hayden 's 'Those Winter Sundays' to point out a rhetoric that is both detached and forceful. Hoagland concludes this chapter by saying that just as good poetry is a "fluctuating alloy of image, diction, and rhetoric," (20) so, too, the poet has to fluctuate and grow and keep working rain or shine and strive to become a better poet with each and every poem that he writes. In chapter two Hoagland defines metaphor as "a mystery hand going into a black mystery box." (21) According to Hoagland, you are either born with the ability to create metaphor or you are not. One of the best metaphor producers, he says, is Emerson and he uses the essay 'Experience' to prove his real sophistitikashun.

J.M. Synge’s ‘Riders to the Sea’, set in a cottage off the West of Ireland, is inspired by the au... more J.M. Synge’s ‘Riders to the Sea’, set in a cottage off the West of Ireland, is inspired by the author’s trips to the Aran Islands. The people he finds were “steeped in Catholicism and an elder paganism” (250). In a struggle against what seems to be insurmountable circumstances, the Aran family in the play have relied on faith to guide them, but superstition, however, has the upper-hand.

Like other literature published after the Great War, Virginia Wolf expresses the horrors of war. ... more Like other literature published after the Great War, Virginia Wolf expresses the horrors of war. According to George Panichas, Mrs. Dalloway “tells much about the postwar years, about human feelings and relationships, and about the malaise that would afflict individual and collective life in the era between the two world wars”

In this paper I will show that William Butler Yeats’s depiction of ‘Leda and the Swan’ falls some... more In this paper I will show that William Butler Yeats’s depiction of ‘Leda and the Swan’ falls somewhere between Peter Paul Reubens’1602 painting and one made by Théodore Géricault in 1780 on the same topic.

“The parable of the cave depicts the road to knowledge as culminating in a visual encounter with ... more “The parable of the cave depicts the road to knowledge as culminating in a visual encounter with the truth” (82). According to Plato, truth-finding is only possible as one climbs their way out of the cave. Plato’s use of the food metaphor captures what he describes as two necessary items in order to achieve truth: time and pain. He says the “metaphor for feeding supplies an implied motivation for the soul’s initial ascent. The souls of gods and mortals alike are hungry [… and the] Platonic text identifies hunger as a form of pain” (84). Maybe for James Joyce’s short story ‘The Dead,’ the dinner around which revolves the action in the first half of the story means more than meets the eye. Maybe it is a metaphor for the truth that Mr. Conway will discover shortly after his consumption of such meal.

Why would Michael Gillane abandon Delia Cahel on the day before their wedding and follow an old w... more Why would Michael Gillane abandon Delia Cahel on the day before their wedding and follow an old woman who nobody appears to know on an esoteric mission which comprises helping her reclaim her ‘beautiful fields’ and ‘putting the strangers’ out of her house? The reason, in part, can be explained by the magical spell under which Michael has fallen, a technique used by Yeats to revitalize Irish Nationalism through a reawakening of Celtic cultural idiosyncrasies.

Characters’ expectations and visions climax in part II of A Passage to India titled ‘The Caves.’ ... more Characters’ expectations and visions climax in part II of A Passage to India titled ‘The Caves.’ The caverns themselves seem to be of no interest: “The visitor returns from to Chandrapore uncertain whether he has had an interesting experience or a dull one or any experience at all” (110). They do, however, represent the coming together and coming apart of perspectives, as well as the muddling of voices from which these differing perceptions are shared.

Revista De Estudios Hispanicos, 1999

Revue Lisa Lisa E Journal Litteratures Histoire Des Idees Images Societes Du Monde Anglophone Literature History of Ideas Images and Societies of the English Speaking World, Jun 30, 2013

Symploke, 2002

Revue Lisa Lisa E Journal Litteratures Histoire Des Idees Images Societes Du Monde Anglophone Literature History of Ideas Images and Societies of the English Speaking World, Jun 30, 2013

BareBack Magazine August 2012

Symploke, 2002

Dr. Aziz moves easily within the boundaries and borders with which we define what it is to be Eng... more Dr. Aziz moves easily within the boundaries and borders with which we define what it is to be English and Indian. Aziz escapes being categorized by typical post-colonial binary oppositions, such as Colonizer and Colonized and remits to the realm of hybridity as described by Homi Bhabha: “My contention, elaborated in my writings on postcolonial discourse in terms of mimicry, hybridity, sly civility, is that this liminal moment of identification – eluding resemblance – produces a subversive strategy of subaltern agency that negotiates its own authority through a process of iterative ‘unpicking’ and incommensurable, insurgent rethinking” (Homi Bahabha 185). First of all, Dr. Aziz easily breaks through racial and gender boundaries.

The meditative poet attends “to the past, the present, and the conditional future as if a trinity... more The meditative poet attends “to the past, the present, and the conditional future as if a trinity embodied as one, as if a single moment, a single point on a plane.” (791). In 1900 while writing ‘The Darkling Thrush’, Thomas Hardy was meditating on a society where agriculture had given way to rapid industrialization. Though pessimistic, the poem embraces the three conditions which will amend the world. According to J.O. Bailey, the first condition is that “man must begin with a darkened view of life” (584). The antipastoral landscape of the poem personifies the death of the 19th century (‘The Century’s corpse outleant’) and Winter and Frost are also personified and symbolize Nature’s death.

“Krapp’s Last Tape” by Samuel Beckett falls into the category of theatre of the absurd. The cate... more “Krapp’s Last Tape” by Samuel Beckett falls into the category of theatre of the absurd. The category arises after World War II and is a reaction to the absurdity of war and violence and it questions the meaning of life and death itself. It is a tragicomedy with roots in vanguard movements, such as surrealism and existentialist philosophy. Beckett’s one act play consists of one actor, Krapp, a light, a table and a tape recorder. It is a minimalist stage which accents the importance of each element, its symbolism and the psychological dialogue that the main character has with himself through his tape recordings.

In José Ortega y Gasset’s book La deshumanisación del arte published in 1925, Gasset describes ar... more In José Ortega y Gasset’s book La deshumanisación del arte published in 1925, Gasset describes art and literature in terms that are undoubtedly identifiable in The Good Soldier. Ortega y Gasset postulates that the world we perceive is not constructed by a material and spiritual duality. Instead, we define ourselves and our surroundings through our own perspective.

Research on The House of Mirth has mostly focused on a socio-psychological and feminist point of ... more Research on The House of Mirth has mostly focused on a socio-psychological and feminist point of view. In this paper I will examine Wharton’s novel in terms of literary Darwinism, a field that combines socio-ideological studies as well as science, namely instinct. It has easily been proven that Edith Wharton borrows from Charles Darwin and his theories on heredity, morality, and natural selection which all contribute to Lily Bart’s indecisiveness that drives the plot and eventually leads to her demise.