Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Ardam EN297: Experimental Women's Writing By: Grace Meikle (Gertrude…

- - - - In Whereas, Long Soldier responds to President Obama's signing and delivery of the Congressional Resolution of Apology to Native Americans. She condemns him for his lack of reading to tribal leaders, and how this shows an absence of actual apology. While incorporating the language of the document, Long Soldiers includes her feelings and stories in her poems, too. She displays that there is a divide between Americans and Native Americans, and these racial politics is different than those between Americans and African-Americans
- - - - In Citizen, Rankine delves into the connection between the everyday micro-aggressions and highly publicized acts of violence against African-Americans. In her book, Rankine collects reports about unfair calls that penalized tennis player Serena Williams, the African-American victims of Hurricane Katrina, and those who lost their lives to white police officers racially profiling innocents. Rankine shows that any act of racism, as small and insignificant as we think it is, is racism, period.
- - - - Mullen, Harryette. "Poetry and Identity", The Cracks between What We Are and What We Are Supposed to Be Essays and Interviews. University Alabama Press, 2012.
        
        In "Poetry and Identity", Mullen concludes that poets of ethnicity are placed in minority poetry rather than avant-garde poetry even though they are experimental writers.
- - - - Philip, Marlene Nourbese. Zong!. Wesleyan University Press, 2011.
        
        "There is no telling this story; it must be told" (Philip 189)
        
        After learning about the Zong massacre, Philip became horrified with what happened and what the court's decision was. As a result, she wrote Zong! to demonstrate the disregard for black people through words and lineation. Philip incorporates text from the Gregson v. Gilbert case, as well as gives possible names to the 150 people aboard the Zong who were murdered. Philip includes different languages in her poems, which were words that could have possibly been head by the slaves aboard the Zong. In her performance of the poems, Philip focuses on the delivery of the speech; she is not monotonous so the focus is not only on the words but the emotion it brings.
      - Found Language
        
        In Zong!, Philip uses words found in the court document Gregson v. Gilbert. In Whereas, Long Soldier includes language found in the Congressional Resolution of Apology to Native Americans, especially the word "whereas". In Voyage of the Sable Venus, Lewis uses language found in art labels from museums around the world. By using found language, it allows the author to elaborate on their ideas, as well as expose more of the document the author is using.
      - Race
        
        Each book presents racism through different time periods in society. Melanctha misrepresents African-Americans, basing them off of stereotypes Stein has heard. She even characterizes the people as more loud, obnoxious, and unassembled the darker their skin tone gets. In Trimmings, Mullen points out how Stein's Tender Buttons is filled with primarily white women. As a result, Mullen includes black women in her response to Stein. In Zong!, Philip discusses the history of a British captain and crew who threw 150 slaves overboard to salvage a profit. When brought to court for insurance money, the court ruled in favor of those who threw the slaves overboard; because they saw the slaves as property. In Whereas, Long Soldier elaborates on the long history of racism between the United States and Native Americans, and now this racism has continued into the 21st century. In Voyage of the Sable Venus, Lewis talks about the portrayal of women throughout all of history in art, and how their portrayal in art has led to the their portrayal I museums. In Citizen, Rankine proves that racism against African-Americans has continued into the modern day, and how frequently it occurs.
      - Documentary
- - - - Voyage of the Sable Venus was written in response to the painting "The Birth of Venus" and the etching "Voyage of the Sable Venus from Angola to the West Indies". The poem is an epic on the history of black women globally over the centuries since women were documented in art. Lewis uses text from museums, creating an institutional critique that holds museums accountable. While Lewis uses the constraint based writing, she uses enjambment --changing of punctuation --and splitting of lines to present the objectification of women. The book won the National Book Award.
- - - - In Humanimal, Bhanu Kapil travels to India with a documentary team to learn more information about the two girls, Amala and Kamala, who were found being raised by wolves during the 1920s. The story is told through an alteration between Kamala's, Kapil's, and Kapil's father's perspectives. It investigates violence in civilization, and calls to question what makes someone human.
    - - In Humanimal, India is under British authority. This explains why Reverend Joseph is a Christian missionary who is trying to force Kamala into an acceptable societal role. In Whereas, the British colonized North America. When they couldn't force the Native Americans to accept their rule, they found ways to either kill them or relocate them for the benefit of only the British.
    - - In Melanctha, Melanctha cannot integrate into society permanently. While she does have friends for a short period of time, Melanctha never has a solid, ground-point. In Humanimal after being raised by wolves for a majority of their lives, Amala and Kamala cannot reenter society. Amala passes away soon after being captured, but for years after Kamala continues to act barbaric and uncivilized.
- - - - Three Lives was started in 1905 and published in 1909. Originally, "Melanctha" was titled QED, and Stein began writing it in 1903. Stein tased QED off of her real life romance with May Booksaver during medical school. Booksaver was Helen in QED, and she became Melanctha in "Melanctha". Stein was Adele in QED, and she became Jeff Campbell in "Melanctha". The book was originally a queer relationship between two white women, but Stein changed it to a straight relationship between African-Americans.
    - - In the three books, women are portrayed as independent humans instead of the damsel in distress. They break the standard societal role placed on women, and expand on who women are.
  - - - Tender Buttons was written in 1912 and published in 1914. It is a series of poems about mundane objects where lineation does not matter. In French "Tender Buttons" is " "les boutons tendres", which means "nipples". It is representation within the queer domestic sphere. Stein and Toklas has a private language shared between the two, and it has been suggested that Stein wrote Tender Buttons as love poems for Toklas.
    - - In the poems, the poets use sentence fragments, improper grammar, lineation to break apart their poem.
  - - - After Pablo Picasso painted a portrait of Gertrude Stein, Stein wrote a series of portraits pf Pablo Picasso. In this version from 1924, she comments on Picasso's large ego; and how it can lead to his downfall. Stein throws out the idea of realism and uses multiple perspectives in her poem. She uses simple words; however her arrangement and repetitive nature make it difficult to understand what she means.
    - - All the poems use repetition, however, they use repetition in different ways. In "If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Pablo Picasso", Stein repeats words. In Melanctha, Melanctha and Joseph Campbell have the same conversation throughout the entire book. In Whereas, Long Soldier has certain words in italics. In the sentence after, she then repeats this phrase and why she put them in italics. In Citizen, Rankine repeats entire paragraphs or loosely repeats phrases. By using repetition, it puts emphasis on certain words and the idea the poet is trying to convey.