TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Camille Paglia is a culture critic and professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. A founding contributor for Salon.com, she publishes articles in dozens of magazines and newspapers worldwide, and her most recent book is Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars (2012). This essay on Joni Mitchell comes from her book, Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World’s Best Poems (2005). Mitchell is the only songwriter among this group of the world’s best poets; Paglia defends her choice of the singer, and through her analysis of the song “Woodstock,” reveals the complexity of Mitchell’s writing. The song lyrics are reprinted before the essay.

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Reading the Genre

Question

1. Paglia closely reads every line and word of the song “Woodstock.” How does this reading allow her to suggest that the song is telling one particular story? Do you think there could be other meanings, or do you think Paglia got it right? (See “Examine the text closely” and Chapter 20, “Smart Reading”.)

Question

2. Is Paglia’s reading shaped by the fact that a woman wrote this song? How important is it in literary analysis to consider a text’s author? Explain your answer.

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. Paglia writes about the different recorded performances of the song. In what ways does the song’s meaning change when the song is performed by different bands, with different instrumentation, or in different venues?

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4. How does Paglia describe the social context in which the song was written? What might change if the song were written and performed today? (See “Focus on social connections”).

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5. WRITING: Read lyrics written by one of your favorite artists (song lyrics are readily available online). Do a close, line-by-line and word-by-word analysis of the song. Using this close reading, what assertions can you make about the subject of the song? Support these claims by finding out more about who the author is, how and where the song has been performed, and what social context the song was written in. (See Chapter 38, “Finding Print and Online Sources”.)

Question

6. WRITING: Watch some footage, on YouTube or DVD, of one of your favorite bands performing live, and write an analysis that focuses not on the lyrics or the music but on the performance itself. Consider, for example, the stage set, the lighting, the band members’ movements, and their interaction with the crowd.

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