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1. Describe the critical approach and what it means (briefly).
2. Explain a general use of this approach to the anthology as a whole (briefly).
3. Identify specific poems that it is particularly relevant to, perhaps with a couple of words of explanation.

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Each person needs to choose one tile from each category.
1. Add your name to the tile so that there are no doubles (E.g. Regret - Kate)
2. Follow the instructions on the tile.

Please upload your responses in a separate document for each tile, otherwise this thing will be huge.

There is no minimum word limit, but this will be graded. Also, it is a revision activity. The more detail you include, the better your revision.

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1. Identify poems that deal with this theme and describe how the theme is present in the poems.
2. Identify relevant quotes - ideally at least one from each poem and give brief notes about why it is significant.
3. Make a statement about how this theme is treated across the anthology.

The more detail the better!

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How is race explored?
What elements of mixedness or mixed-race readings are present in the poems?
What other elements of identity are present? E.g. LGBT identities.

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Which poems contain a tone of anger or resentment? What about?
Which poems have subject matter where the speaker has suffered something that they or others are angry over?
How does Jackie Kay communicate emotions related to anger or resentment?

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What kinds of relationships are present in the poems?
Are these different kinds of relationships presented differently?
What emotions, motifs, or ideas are connected with these relationships?
1.     Family relationships--grandmother & granddaughter, sisters, mothers & daughters (e.g. My Grandmother)

2.     Lovers/wife and husband (e.g. False memory)

3.     Friends (e.g. Brendon Gallacher)

4.     Special—maid & mistress(Gambia)

They are presented differently.

Similarity—1. Jackie can create authentic voices, surreptitiously shifts audience

‘s perspectives and let them generate empathy.

2. Juxtaposition of imagery and experiences, fact and fiction, not actual autobiographical work

3. Emotional and effective, intensity, built by untraditional structure

1.     Family relationships & Friends

About--Closely connect to speaker’s childhood; usually childhood trauma/tragic in Jackie’s poems; growing up and new understanding(may recover), but ‘the past keeps calling the children back’, ‘innocence is corrupted by abuse’; conflicts between ideology, discrimination, breaking of trust, LGBTQ and black people(Jackie is a homosexual black Scottish, adopted child), identity, ‘mixed’, isolation and connection, sense of belonging

Methods--nursery rhyme, repeating, turning point, first person perspectives, short sentences with enjambment, unsettled rhyme, breaking in unexpected places

2.     Lovers

About—Bitter and sweet; breaking relationship; changes and problems

Methods—extended metaphor, pathetic fallacy, unstable structure, focus on tone and mood

3.     Special

About—Child slavery; abuse and cruelty

Methods—imagery, first person perspective, pathetic fallacy, enjambment

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What types of abuse are portrayed in the poems?
Who are the abusers? Who are the victims?
What emotions are associated with abuse in the poems? From the speaker? From the poet? From the reader?

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Where are women represented in the poems?
What kinds of relationships do women have with themselves and others?
How are their voices constructed in the poems?

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1. Define the technical feature, what it is etc.
2. Make a statement overall about how Jackie Kay uses this technical feature.
3. Identify how it is used in specific poems, potentially by using quotations.

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Tile 1: Place, Location, Setting-Felicia

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Tile 1: Place, Location, Setting-Felicia

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What places or locations appear in the poems?
How do they interact with the ideas of the poems?
How are they constructed in the language of the poem?

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What types of voices are constructed?
How does Kay make them different from each other and from herself?
Why does Kay choose particular voices?

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Tile 3: Circular Structure, Dramatic Monologue--Mandy

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Tile 3: Circular Structure, Dramatic Monologue--Mandy

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How do some poems seem to bring their ideas back from the beginning to the end? Why?
How do some poems seem to mimic structures that are more like a character performing their thoughts to an audience?
1.     Jackie uses circular structure to bring the ideas from the beginning to the end, making the poems seem more complete and helping readers to focus on the topics.

Continuous, highlight the thing never ends, some past cannot pass

Childhood still—uses nursery rhyme

2.     Emotional, effective, create authentic voices, shifts audience ‘s perspectives and let them generate empathy

Express internal thought, complete and accurate, not revealed through dialogues and others words

Divorce—uses first person perspective, dictions chose like a child, conversational

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Tile 4: Nursery Rhymes, Rhythm, Natural Imagery

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Tile 4: Nursery Rhymes, Rhythm, Natural Imagery

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(This one's a bit of a jumble - you don't need to treat these all equally.)
Where do nursery rhymes appear in the poems? Why?
How does rhythm affect the audience's perception of some poems?
How is nature used in describing the themes of Kay's poems?

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Tile 5: Extended Metaphor, Figurative Language, Conceit-Jenny

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Tile 5: Extended Metaphor, Figurative Language, Conceit-Jenny

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Where are metaphors and similes prominent in the poems? How do they add to the meaning?
What conceits are used and why?
How are microcosms constructed?

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Extended Metaphor, Figurative Language, Conceit

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Tile 6: Direct Address, Positioning of the Reader-William

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Tile 6: Direct Address, Positioning of the Reader-William

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How is the word "you" used throughout the poems? Why?
How are audiences positioned in relation to the speaker?

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Tile 1: Autobiographical / Contextual-Felicia

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Tile 1: Autobiographical / Contextual-Felicia

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What features of Jackie Kay's life are relevant to her poems?
What other major features of context are relevant, either to general poems or specific ones?

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How are women presented in Kay's poems? How are men?
What aspects of gender inequality are portrayed?

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Kathryn Ailes states that Kay doesn't "meekly use traditional forms, but rather scratch[es] at language to reveal its structures" (in the back of the book).

How does Kay use non-traditional poetry forms to convey her ideas?

You could also choose a different aspect of Ailes' criticism to focus on, for example her approach to "the past, childhood, and love as existential states for which we feel nostalgia"

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Are the relationships in the poems heterosexual? What sense do we have that they might not be?
How is heteronormativity (the idea that heterosexuality is the norm) criticised?
1.     Mostly homosexual(LGBTQ poems)

Others reactions, discouraged, against and rejection; talking about AIDS(often relates with homosexual), drug queen, death and leaving(caused by homophobia).—a lot of negative things that people will not connect to heterosexuality

How to criticise--Jackie uses authentic voices to express the pain and suffering a homosexual person experiences, their surroundings(often families) reject to understand and accept their identity. They even will feel guilt to their parents just because their sexuality. The speaker(homosexual) in the poem feels like an isolated island, criticism and rejection around prevent them from expressing real themselves. These are all caused by the idea called heteronormativity. Readers can generate empathy and support the minority.

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How does Kay present victims in her poems?
How are the audience guided to react to victims? Is this the norm or does it challenge something?

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Susan Tranter says that Kay "often choos[es] to let the voices of her characters speak without authorial comment" (at the front of the book), which leaves open opportunities for readers to respond directly.

How do readers respond to the voices she creates? Is this a deliberately chosen tactic?

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My feeling is that the poems won't be repeated, but the topics might come back with slightly different wording. There are only so many themes present...

Poems:
Rubble
Pork Pies
Away from You
He Told Us He Wanted a Black Coffin
The Right Season
Even the Trees
Keeping Orchids

Questions about:
Family relationships
Children
Mothers
Family background (they're using this to talk about race)
Voices
Experience of loss
Personas (voices)

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Tile 6: Power, Institutions, Men Dorothy

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Tile 6: Power, Institutions, Men Dorothy

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Who holds power in Jackie Kay's poems?
What attitudes to power do the different speakers convey? What about the poet's attitudes?
How do people/institutions use and abuse power?