Ben King
Lauren Holt
2 Bard
15 May 2020
My Artist Statement
For my project, I decided to find the significance and comparisons between early literature as well as modern literature. I chose this idea because I felt that it could relate back to what we have done this year within Bard, as it consists of different eras of literature that define today’s literary history. This idea is significant as within our history and what we learn about literature, influential literary pieces help produce variety and trends that we see within various literary pieces, whether they be from 200 years ago or two years ago. I felt that covering this would allow me to expand the knowledge that I’ve received from Bard class prior to this project, as well as give me insight as to what goes in and comes out of literature, and how it can produce valuable shifts in the literary scene that we can observe today.
To convey my project clearly, I chose to do an artifact to creatively express the ideas and motives behind my project and topic. I am utilizing a poster board, with comparisons between early literature as well as modern literature to be visible. I split these two literary eras into two sections on the poster board, with examples representing each of these different types to give an idea of what was produced within these eras. This is important to do, as within these literary pieces is a lot of evidence on how much change and influence has been utilized throughout the history of literature and literary pieces as a whole. I felt that by giving examples of more well-known and affluential literary pieces, that more change and trends can be visible and distinguishable, as these pieces hold more trends that have been followed by many more writers, poets, and within various types of literature.
For my project, there were many ideas taken into account, such as the examples used to convey the idea behind my project. I wanted to get more notable and famous literary pieces to represent the eras of literature, as these will hold more significant and noticeable trends to show the true comparisons between the different variations and tendencies of the eras of literature in question. For my examples of early literature, I chose to utilize Hamlet by William Shakespeare as well as The Odyssey by Homer, as these are very impactful pieces within history. Along with this, these are more familiar pieces to me as I have studied and read both of these examples, giving me more of an idea of what they hold and provide to society in terms of the literary scene and the trends they brought with them. These will also give better ideas of how much change occurred from the points in history when they were created or written compared to the other examples I chose for modern literature. For my examples of modern literature, I decided to go with Moby Dick by Herman Melville, as well as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. While I am not as familiar with Moby Dick, I am familiar with The Great Gatsby. Let alone my familiarity with these literary works, I felt that these two pieces were great examples for modern literature as they are influential as well as notable and familiar pieces, with both being commonly taught in schools, as well as being common household literature. These aspects allow for these pieces and their literary trends to gain a greater area of understanding and notoriety, as they’re full of influential literary aspects and are impactful to the greater literary scene due to their large audience and recognizable trends that many are familiar with.
Within my project, I wanted to give an idea of how literature changed over time, and I felt that the best way to initially compare these two eras was to separate them into column-esque layouts. This includes one column on the posterboard containing the examples for the era of early literature, and another column on the opposite end of the board to show the examples I have chosen to represent the era of modern literature. By doing this, I feel that it is easier for me to compare and contrast the products of these literary pieces, as I can separate the examples based on their place in the historical timeline, as well as call back to the trends and similarities they might share with each other. The importance of the trends within these literary pieces as well as the significance of comparing these two eras stems from how authors, poets, and writers overall utilize these pieces and their trends to create their own pieces. While this can result in many different interpretations and various pieces utilizing trends in different ways, the idea of these pieces giving way to even more artifacts within the history of literature is what I try to focus on. This is not exclusively what I look for, as I also attempt to search for how literature from different eras can interpret and explain a story in different ways, and how these unique interpretations can lead to trends that we see all the way up to today’s literary timeline. Along with this, these unique interpretations allow for bardic works, as they lineup with our definition of a bardic piece, which tends to be a piece of work that utilizes literature or artistic piece to convey a unique idea or plot creatively. This is important as it ties back to what we learn in class, allowing for the idea of bardic tendencies to coincide with the idea behind my project.
Overall, my project and the idea behind my project attempt to compare how different or similar the era of early literature might be against the era of modern literature. I felt that this was something to cover, as it gives great depth and insight as to what might have been considered and utilized in terms of writing literature within these two eras of writing. Not only this, but how other writers and literature could have benefited from the products of these different periods in history. By comparing these two eras, trends and commonalities can become evident, as while the examples I chose might be very different, they still share one trait overall: their abilities to influence. This is by far the most important aspect of the literature I have chosen to compare, as it what backs my whole project up, with the examples themselves standing out within society, and allowing for inspiration towards newer literature as a result.
Lauren Holt
2 Bard
15 May 2020
My Artist Statement
For my project, I decided to find the significance and comparisons between early literature as well as modern literature. I chose this idea because I felt that it could relate back to what we have done this year within Bard, as it consists of different eras of literature that define today’s literary history. This idea is significant as within our history and what we learn about literature, influential literary pieces help produce variety and trends that we see within various literary pieces, whether they be from 200 years ago or two years ago. I felt that covering this would allow me to expand the knowledge that I’ve received from Bard class prior to this project, as well as give me insight as to what goes in and comes out of literature, and how it can produce valuable shifts in the literary scene that we can observe today.
To convey my project clearly, I chose to do an artifact to creatively express the ideas and motives behind my project and topic. I am utilizing a poster board, with comparisons between early literature as well as modern literature to be visible. I split these two literary eras into two sections on the poster board, with examples representing each of these different types to give an idea of what was produced within these eras. This is important to do, as within these literary pieces is a lot of evidence on how much change and influence has been utilized throughout the history of literature and literary pieces as a whole. I felt that by giving examples of more well-known and affluential literary pieces, that more change and trends can be visible and distinguishable, as these pieces hold more trends that have been followed by many more writers, poets, and within various types of literature.
For my project, there were many ideas taken into account, such as the examples used to convey the idea behind my project. I wanted to get more notable and famous literary pieces to represent the eras of literature, as these will hold more significant and noticeable trends to show the true comparisons between the different variations and tendencies of the eras of literature in question. For my examples of early literature, I chose to utilize Hamlet by William Shakespeare as well as The Odyssey by Homer, as these are very impactful pieces within history. Along with this, these are more familiar pieces to me as I have studied and read both of these examples, giving me more of an idea of what they hold and provide to society in terms of the literary scene and the trends they brought with them. These will also give better ideas of how much change occurred from the points in history when they were created or written compared to the other examples I chose for modern literature. For my examples of modern literature, I decided to go with Moby Dick by Herman Melville, as well as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. While I am not as familiar with Moby Dick, I am familiar with The Great Gatsby. Let alone my familiarity with these literary works, I felt that these two pieces were great examples for modern literature as they are influential as well as notable and familiar pieces, with both being commonly taught in schools, as well as being common household literature. These aspects allow for these pieces and their literary trends to gain a greater area of understanding and notoriety, as they’re full of influential literary aspects and are impactful to the greater literary scene due to their large audience and recognizable trends that many are familiar with.
Within my project, I wanted to give an idea of how literature changed over time, and I felt that the best way to initially compare these two eras was to separate them into column-esque layouts. This includes one column on the posterboard containing the examples for the era of early literature, and another column on the opposite end of the board to show the examples I have chosen to represent the era of modern literature. By doing this, I feel that it is easier for me to compare and contrast the products of these literary pieces, as I can separate the examples based on their place in the historical timeline, as well as call back to the trends and similarities they might share with each other. The importance of the trends within these literary pieces as well as the significance of comparing these two eras stems from how authors, poets, and writers overall utilize these pieces and their trends to create their own pieces. While this can result in many different interpretations and various pieces utilizing trends in different ways, the idea of these pieces giving way to even more artifacts within the history of literature is what I try to focus on. This is not exclusively what I look for, as I also attempt to search for how literature from different eras can interpret and explain a story in different ways, and how these unique interpretations can lead to trends that we see all the way up to today’s literary timeline. Along with this, these unique interpretations allow for bardic works, as they lineup with our definition of a bardic piece, which tends to be a piece of work that utilizes literature or artistic piece to convey a unique idea or plot creatively. This is important as it ties back to what we learn in class, allowing for the idea of bardic tendencies to coincide with the idea behind my project.
Overall, my project and the idea behind my project attempt to compare how different or similar the era of early literature might be against the era of modern literature. I felt that this was something to cover, as it gives great depth and insight as to what might have been considered and utilized in terms of writing literature within these two eras of writing. Not only this, but how other writers and literature could have benefited from the products of these different periods in history. By comparing these two eras, trends and commonalities can become evident, as while the examples I chose might be very different, they still share one trait overall: their abilities to influence. This is by far the most important aspect of the literature I have chosen to compare, as it what backs my whole project up, with the examples themselves standing out within society, and allowing for inspiration towards newer literature as a result.