First Writing Assignment (Due Friday, October 10)

4) First Writing Assignment: For this assignment, I would like you to draft a 1-2 page (double-spaced) "response" to the Ferlinghetti readings. There are a few ways in which this can be done:
A) Pick a poem from San Francisco Poems and discuss what sort of image the poem presents of San Francisco. Rob outlined some of the dominant themes of San Francisco as image in his lectures (i.e. as "Mongrel space", "imperial city", etc.). In your response, you can describe what depiction of San Francisco you see in a particular poem.

B) You can do something similar to option A but, instead of concentrating on a single poem, you can look at a set of poems or the book as a whole. What are the various images of San Francisco presented in the set of poems or the book as a whole? Are there images of the city that contradict, or otherwise complicate, eachother?

C) You may also approach this general question (What is the image of San Francisco presented by Ferlinghetti's poems?) in other ways. The basic requirement is that you critically engage with the specific poems (avoid being overly general, and make sure you address the actual poems and don't just vaguely refer to them) and provide some kind of "reading" of the poems.

In these responses (and in all of your written work for this course) try to avoid uncritical, opinion driven responses. If you find the poems lousy or if you disagree with the image that Ferlinghetti is presenting of the city (for example, you think that Ferlinghetti is giving the city too much credit for it's professed progressiveness or exceptionalism) don't just rail on him or his work. Try to address WHY this problematic exists; don't just state the problematic.