We were given three famous people and I did some research for each of them.
Philip Larkin - A poet, novelist and librarian, who wrote about is childhood growing up in Coventry which was heavily bombed during World War 2. Larkin focused on intense personal emotion but strictly avoided sentimentality or self-pity. He was deeply anti social and had a great lover and published critic for American Jazz.
Howard Hughes - was and American businessman, producer, director etc widely known for being one of the most financially successful individuals in the world. He had a passion for flying and nearly killed himself many times testing out planes. He is credited with many aviation innovations, such as the first retractable landing gear, and is also remembered for the H-4 Hercules, which the press nicknamed the Spruce Goose.
Maya Angelou - a poet, activist, author, civil writes activist known for her famous poem 'caged' and her autobiographical series. In her poems she writes about mainly things she experienced growing up. Being raped at the age of 7 made her stop speaking for 5 years, in those years she read every book under the sun.
I decided to do just some intial secondary internet research just so I could decide on which one I want to properly focus on and start doing some primary research. Both Hughes and Angelou seem like such great characters and there seems to be so much information on them, they both seem to have done so much in their lives so it is between them two. After reading a bit more and knowing I have a friend with books Angelou has written, I decided to go with her. I also want to know more about black culture in those days and could potentially inspire me to read more about black history because it is something I would like to know more about.
Philip Larkin - A poet, novelist and librarian, who wrote about is childhood growing up in Coventry which was heavily bombed during World War 2. Larkin focused on intense personal emotion but strictly avoided sentimentality or self-pity. He was deeply anti social and had a great lover and published critic for American Jazz.
Howard Hughes - was and American businessman, producer, director etc widely known for being one of the most financially successful individuals in the world. He had a passion for flying and nearly killed himself many times testing out planes. He is credited with many aviation innovations, such as the first retractable landing gear, and is also remembered for the H-4 Hercules, which the press nicknamed the Spruce Goose.
Maya Angelou - a poet, activist, author, civil writes activist known for her famous poem 'caged' and her autobiographical series. In her poems she writes about mainly things she experienced growing up. Being raped at the age of 7 made her stop speaking for 5 years, in those years she read every book under the sun.
I decided to do just some intial secondary internet research just so I could decide on which one I want to properly focus on and start doing some primary research. Both Hughes and Angelou seem like such great characters and there seems to be so much information on them, they both seem to have done so much in their lives so it is between them two. After reading a bit more and knowing I have a friend with books Angelou has written, I decided to go with her. I also want to know more about black culture in those days and could potentially inspire me to read more about black history because it is something I would like to know more about.
I was beginning to research her, there seemed to be so much information on her and she appeared to be such an incredible woman who has accomplished so much - someone people really looked up to. Compared with my other two people, I thought she was the most fitted to this synecdoche project and feel I can really analyse her traumatic childhood and really get inside her head by watching documentaries and reading books.
I first decided to do some initial research on the internet, to get some idea of who she was and what she did in her life. She was a poet, singer, dancer and writer, activist etc. It was clear that she became such an inspirational person after experiencing so much hurt and torture in her childhood.
I watched a documentary about her on BBC iPlayer and it was just so touching. It documented every single detail of her life growing up through the eyes of herself with real life footage of her talking just before she died. What I found remarkable about her is when she reads her poems to an audience, the way in which she performs them are so poignant as she gets completely lost in what she is saying and the emotion completely takes over her creating so much empathy. Another thing I found incredibly interesting is the fact she refused to open her mouth for 5 years because she thought, speaking out about a secret she felt she wasn't allowed to tell, killed her stepfather.
No comments:
Post a Comment