Here is a review of Natalie Diaz' collection at MUZZLE. Though you will NOT use first person in your Research Essay, and though the review is not 'perfect,' you can still learn a lot about your subject from reading a few of these such reviews
- Pay attention to how a reviewer discusses theme and imagery on a sentence level
- Pay attention to how a reviewer summarizes a text
- Pay attention to how a reviewer integrates quotes into their own claims (as we have discussed) and how he or she mechanically cites poem line and stanza breaks.
Warnings
- Reviews often give the short end of any one poem. The purpose for reviews is to be more generic, and though they often concern themselves with a writer's themes they often ignore an in-depth look at that theme.
- Instead, reviewers spend more time on craft and on making a decision on whether the book is great or not. Your job is to not get lost in the "greatness" or lack thereof of the work. Your job is to focus your research more on unpacking the subject matter's actual social statement.
- For instance, the reviewer does not go in-depth in her statements such as: "Image driven poems like “Cloud Watching” (“Betsy Ross needled hot stars to Mr. Washington’s bedspread— / they weren’t hers to give. So, when the cavalry came, / we ate their horses. Then, unfortunately, our bellies were filled / with bullet holes”) and “Dome Riddle” sit well alongside the more narrative pieces. The poems about the speaker’s family range from the myth- and fantasy-laced title poem to the brutally direct and unornamented “Why I Hate Raisins.” Your Research essay would want to address what makes those images powerful--what do they comment on. Your job would be to discuss what the myth-like quality of Diaz' poetry is being used for.
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