I am writing a paper on Alfred Corn's poem "Sugar Cane." Paper Writing was once something I could do, but apparently is no longer my cup of tea. My register isn't formal enough. So... this blog will be my platform to take apart this poem, so that I can put it back together in the form of a well organized term paper.
This paper is an offshoot from a course called "The Mediality of Sugar" which was taught in the Spring Semester of 2015 at the University of Bern by Prof. Nadja Gernalzick. I am still working out the thesis, with the hint that I should keep thinking about the angle of "overcoming binary oppositions through inflections produced by intertextuality." My starting point was this proposal.
What's Black & White & Read All Over? Reading "Sugar" in Alfred Corn's "Sugar Cane"
It has been proposed that food has become a medium, a technology of communication, something raw, which, through its modification and use is imbued with information and meanings. Poems too are a technology of language with layers of meaning which allow us to speak directly and indirectly about intricate topics. I would like to discuss the use of sugar in Alfred Corn's poem "Sugar Cane," and its discursive properties.
Alfred Corn's "Sugar Cane," is a dense intertextual piece beginning with an epigraph of Phillis Wheatley's poem, "On Being Brought to America," concluding with a quote from Jean Toomer's Cane, and including biblical allusions. The multi-faceted role of sugar in the daily lives of Americans is illustrated by Corn in "Sugar Cane." He combines seemingly straight forward descriptions of domestic life and the sugar industry with blatant as well as subtle allusions, cultural references, and social commentary. Sugar goes beyond being a plant or even a food. Sugar is emotional, it is lexical, and it is hierarchical. Sugar is a noun, a verb, an adjective. Sugar goes from being love to being depression. It is black or it is white. Sugar is a metaphor and then becomes more than a metaphor.
Alfred Corn's "Sugar Cane" partakes in cultural and social discourses of religion, art, gender, age, race, history, ethics, and economy. I would like to address the discursive qualities of sugar in Corn's "Sugar Cane," with respect to these aforementioned elements. "Sugar Cane" takes a critical perspective acknowledging its participation in the creation of the same narratives it deconstructs. By examining the poetic elements and imagery in Alfred Corn's "Sugar Cane," I hope to support the argument that sugar is medium which can be "read."
