Saturday, February 13, 2010

Allusions - pages 400 - 443

Try to incorporate the analysis of (some of) these allusions into your interpretation of the selected part in order to enrich / deepen your interpretation:

1. Rembrandt: Hendrickje Bathing (Howard + Kiki, p. 442-3) Relate this painting to the novel's ending. What does it suggest about Howard's and Kiki's relationship?
2. Hendrickje Stoffels (p. 442-3)

Allusions - pages 369 - 399

Try to incorporate the analysis of (some of) these allusions into your interpretation of the selected part in order to enrich / deepen your interpretation:

1. Rembrandt: The Staalmeesters (p. 383-4)

Allusions - pages 264 - 318

Try to incorporate the analysis of (some of) these allusions into your interpretation of the selected part in order to enrich / deepen your interpretation:

1. Edward Hopper: Road in Maine (Kiki, p. 266, 268)
2.E.M. Forster: A Room with a View (Harold, p. 298) - Zadie Smith's favourite writer; On Beauty is based on his novel Howards End
3.
Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita (Howard + Victoria, p. 315)

Allusions - pages 208 - 263

Try to incorporate the analysis of (some of) these allusions into your interpretation of the selected part in order to enrich / deepen your interpretation:

1. "To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet" (Zora, p. 209) - taken from T.S. Eliot's poem
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
2. Rembrandt: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (p. 250)
3.Rembrandt: Seated Nude (p. 251)

Allusions - pages 162-208

Try to incorporate the analysis of (some of) these allusions into your interpretation of the selected part in order to enrich / deepen your interpretation:

1. "For the longest time I wanted to be Malcolm X's private assistant." (Kiki to Carlene, p. 172)
2. Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen (p. 173-4)


3. Maitresse Erzulie (p. 174-5) Discuss the symbolical meaning of the painting. Relate Carlene' s words to Kiki's identity problem.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Allusions - pages 106- 161

Try to incorporate the analysis of (some of) these allusions into your interpretation of the selected part in order to enrich / deepen your interpretation:

1. "... she' s so amazing, looks like Nefertiti." (Claire about Carlene, p. 123)

2.the anatomy lesson: Elaine Scarry (p.127) - the title of Smith's novel is derived from Scarry's essay 'On Beauty and being just'

3. Rembrandt: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (p. 127, 144) Discuss the relation between the painting and the title of this part of the book.
4. poem On Beauty (p. 153), originally wirtten by Nick Laird, the husband of Zadie Smith

Allusions - pages 60 - 104

Try to incorporate the analysis of (some of) these allusions into your interpretation of the selected part in order to enrich / deepen your interpretation:

1. Mozart's Requiem (p. 60) - Comment on Kiki's response to the music and its symbolical meaning.
- English translation of the lyrics


2. Rubens: Fours Studies of a Male Head (Howard to Carl, p. 77)

Allusions - pages 3-60

Try to incorporate the analysis of (some of) these allusions into your interpretation of the selected part in order to enrich / deepen your interpretation:

1. Song of Solomon (Jerome, p.7) - full text
analysis

2. "I'm just another black man caught up in the mix, tryna make a dollah outta fifteen cents" (Levi, p. 24) - allusion to 2Pac I Get Around


3. Rembrandt: Self -Portrait, 1629 Munich (p. 28)












4. Rembrandt - Self -Portrait with Lace Collar, 1629 The Hague












5. "I'm the Aunt Jemima on the cookie boxes of their childhoods, the pair of thick ankles Tom and Jerry played around." (Kiki, p. 51) - What does this statement suggest about Kiki's sense of self / her identity?
















6. Rembrandt: The Shipbuilder and His Wife (p. 54)