Where readers, writers, and stories meet.
This weekend only, download the Kindle version of Loosely Collected: A Book of Poems FOR FREE for your favorite mother (including yourself!) This offer is good May 7 – 11, 2015.
Continue reading “Mother’s Day Special: Free download of “Loosely Collected””
And finally, the third and final part of my how to fall in love with a reader Q&A series: Continue reading “How to fall in love with a reader: Part Three”
In her graphic novel, Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi examines the pedagogical issue of “othering” and creates closeness between her western audience and its perceived enemy – the Iranian people – by speaking directly to and carefully instructing the reader on Iran and its people. She explicitly teaches the reader about the Iranian revolution and how she and Iranians like her are very much like us here in the West.
The history of Iran that Satrapi provides in the introduction creates a frame for her story in which the reader must consider the fact that the fundamentalists who now rule Iran were created by the west. She also strives to strip away the “otherness” and show us that we are, in many ways, more alike than we are different. Satrapi uses her text to show her western audience that she and other educated Iranians like her are more like everyday westerners than they are like the fundamentalist Iranians who are so vilified by the west.
Throughout Persepolis, the character of Marji often speaks directly to the western reader. There is no question that Satrapi uses her text to teach to a western audience. For example, in the scene on pages 114-115, Marji walks purposefully down a flight of stairs toward her audience. She may as well be an actor on a stage, pausing the show to step down to audience-level and explain her country’s descent into war. Such a move would not be necessary if she were writing for an Iranian audience. Continue reading “Closing the gap between east and west in “Persepolis””
The following is my third course autobiography for the course I am taking on women’s writing. I just have to write one more of these and then a 20-page final paper, and my homework will be done for the semester! In this piece, I wrote about how I would use this text to create a framework for a creative nonfiction essay assignment. I think this would also make an excellent writing prompt!
In Plaintext, Nancy Mairs explores how individuals embody the labels that are placed on them by society. In her essay, “On Being a Cripple,” Mairs chooses to define herself as a “cripple” regardless of the fact that others may wince at the word. She says, “Perhaps I want them to wince. I want them to see me as a tough customer, one to whom the fates/gods/viruses have not been kind, but who can face the brutal truth of her existence squarely. As a cripple, I swagger” (9). She challenges the politically correct euphemisms that others use and would have her use to describe herself. In many ways, she refuses to meet society’s expectations of her as a cripple, even seeking to change the meaning of the word. I would like to teach this text in a writing course where I could ask students to examine their own labels, how they embody their labels, and how societal expectations based on these labels impact the individual, as well as how the individual can impact society by either meeting or shattering those expectations. Continue reading “An analysis of “Plaintext” by Nancy Mairs”
This week’s Annotated Bibliography entry analyzes an article by Tony Kushner who discusses how the marginalization of Holocaust survivors kept many of them from telling their individual stories until several decades after the end of WWII. You may read the full article here.
Kushner, Tony. “Holocaust Testimony, Ethics, and the Problem of Representation.” Poetics Today 27.2 (2006): 275-295. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
This article examines how Holocaust stories were widely ignored in the years immediately following the war and how these stories have recently become of interest to society. By the end of the 20th century, several organizations, having recognized the importance of these stories, had begun to collect the testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Continue reading “Annotated Bib: “Holocaust Testimony, Ethics, and the Problem of Representation.””
The first article I reviewed for my series on the annotated bibliography was a painful read. However, I very much enjoyed the article that I analyzed for today’s post. So much so, in fact, I had a little extra fun creating memes from quotes that I borrowed from the text!
Peary, Alexandria. “Eliza Leslie’s 1854 “The Behaviour Book” and the Conduct of Women’s Writing.” Rhetoric Review 31.3 (2012): 219-35.JSTOR. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
In this article, Alexandria Peary analyzes how 19th century author Eliza Leslie encouraged the development of women’s writing via her 1854 etiquette text, The Behaviour Book. Within this text, Leslie not only instructs would-be writers on how to conduct themselves in their everyday lives (i.e. “how to request writing supplies from a servant” (220)), but she also informs non-writers of her time that female writers should be treated “with due consideration” (221). Continue reading “Annotated Bib: Analysis of Eliza Leslie’s 1854 “The Behaviour Book””
Have you ever had to write an annotated bibliography? I have, once, and I hated it! Well, guess what I get to do for the Studies in Women’s Writing course I am taking this semester. You guessed it: an annotated bibliography! This assignment requires that I read and analyze a minimum of ten scholarly secondary sources on the subject of “women’s writing.” The annotated bib will be almost as long as my final paper!
After all these years of blogging, it seems like a waste of time to me to put so much effort into writing something that will result in nothing more than a grade. As with much of my other school writing, I am adapting this assignment to generate content for my blog. Over the coming weeks, I will be posting my individual annotated bibliography entries as blog posts.
So, without further ado, I present to you the very first entry in my annotated bibliography!
Griffin Crowder, Diane. “Amazons and Mothers? Monique Wittig, Helène Cixous and Theories of Women’s Writing.” Contemporary Literature L’Écriture Féminine 24.2 (1983): 117-44. JSTOR. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/103007438
This article explores the modern feminist notion that the oppression of women is a changeable social construct that does not depend on the fact that women are born with the potential to bear children. The article discusses the women’s writing theories of French feminists Monique Wittig and Helene Cixous. While “Cixous views motherhood as a primary trait of women” (132), Wittig views the tendency of women to identify primarily with the role of mother as oppressive. Continue reading “The Annotated Bib: Amazons and Mothers?”
The following is my second course autobiography that I wrote for the course I am taking this semester. I would appreciate your feedback. I am having some difficulty incorporating the required “elements of pedagogy” without making it sound forced.
Coming of Age in Mississippi and Herculine Barbin (Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth Century French Hermaphrodite) tell the stories of two individuals whose lives are greatly impacted by the bodies in which they were born. While Anne Moody’s life is influenced by the color of her skin, Herculine Barbin’s is shaped by the presence of “abnormal” genitalia that make it impossible to determine her “true sex” at birth. One of the elements I would ask students to analyze if I were teaching these two texts is the differences the two authors faced as one of them suffers her trials alone while the other’s story takes place within the context of a greater movement. Continue reading “An analysis of Coming of Age in Mississippi and Herculine Barbin”
Hey everyone,
I’m looking for friends to add on GoodReads so you can help me figure out what books I want to read next. That sounds completely self-serving, right? OK, so friend me on GoodReads so I can help you figure out what you want to read next! Either way works for me!
I like fantasy that’s not too science fiction-y (that makes total sense, right?) If you have some suggestions for me, please add me on GoodReads and recommend away! Continue reading “Are you on GoodReads?”
It’s finally here! My new book, Papers: A Master Collection on the Art of Writing is now available for purchase on Kindle for only 99 cents!
There is so much content packed into this one book! In addition to all of the academic papers that I wrote while pursuing my master of arts in English with a concentration in professional writing, you also get several original short stories, poems, and a behind-the-scenes peek into my as-yet-unnamed fantasy novel in progress.
Challenge: Upon reading my creative thesis, which is contained in the pages of this text, help me come up with a title for my novel! If I decide to use your suggested title, I will send you a free signed copy of the print edition of Papers: A Master Collection on the Art of Writing as soon as it becomes available!
I am currently in the process of formatting this book for print and should have it available within the next few weeks. In the meantime, get your Kindle copy today! Thank you for supporting my writing journey! Continue reading “Now available on Kindle! Papers: A Master Collection on the Art of Writing”
Write on the World 