I enjoyed our discussion of Woman Warrior today. I'm happy that we opened many possible avenues for further analysis; as I said you can consider any of those questions as a potential essay topic.
Reminder: Please write your group posts from today's questions below.
Next Week's Presentations: Jane & Rea, Peggy
Next Week's Reading:
- Adams, “Remember the Ladies” letter + Norton biography on 頁300-01
- Fern, “Male Criticism” + Fresh Leaves Review + biography (頁799-803)
- Fuller, “The Great Lawsuit” + biography (頁736-47, but skip the long paragraph about Zinzendorf at the bottom of 頁743 and the section on Goethe that runs from the middle of 頁746 to the top of 頁747)
- Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (章26: “Death”) + Norton biography (頁764-67)
- Dickinson #207, #260, #348, #620, #764, #788 + biography (starts on 頁1197)
The Adams reading is here (or here for view of the original manuscript) and the Stowe reading is here. But I asked the TA to make some photocopies of these, so they might be available by tomorrow.
Bonus: This article about a "mixed ethnicity" contestant on a Chinese TV singing competition is interesting in light of our discussions about identity in Woman Warrior.
146. (Joy) Should the unpublished personal letters of someone (e.g. Adams) who can't spell properly be considered "literature"? Why or why not? The other thing you should do is make a short outline of the letter to indicate the sequence of topics Adams discusses.
147. (Ken) Why does Fern focus both the "Male Criticism" essay and the false review of Fern Leaves on ad hominem attacks? (First on the New York Times reviewer, and then on herself.) Also, what do you suppose she means by a "woman's book" or "lady book," considering that she has also indicated that neither the subject matter of a book or even the name of the author are reliable indicators of gender?
148. (Lucille) Why does Fuller insist on sexual celibacy for the 'new woman'? How does she use Emersonian vocabulary to argue this point? How does she use 'cultural tourism'?
149. (Tady) Compare the feminine power of Stowe's Little Eva to the types of feminine power discussed in Fuller's "Radical Dualism."
Q. (Teresa) Ask a question or make a comment about Dickinson poem #207, "I taste a liquor never brewed."
Q. (Tracy) Ask a question or make a comment about Dickinson poem #260, "I'm nobody! Who are you?"
Q. (Vincent) Ask a question or make a comment about Dickinson poem #348, "I would not paint - a picture."
Q. (Viola) Ask a question or make a comment about Dickinson poem #620, "Much Madness is divinest Sense."
Q. (Winnie) Ask a question or make a comment about Dickinson poem #764, "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun."
Q. (Zoe) Ask a question or make a comment about Dickinson poem #788, "Publication - is the auction."
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Here's a little additional discussion about Asian's nationality in 20th-century America
ReplyDeleteFort Minor - Kenji
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ckvmc_486U
Although this is a "narrative" rap song, I think the controversy of the Japanese-American identity is pretty obvious during WWII in the lyrics. Notice at 2:35 Fort Minor raps," Prisoners of war in their own damn country, what for?" I think the country in his words or in his grandfather's mind was something difficult to define:
Is it Japan, or is it America??
oh, by the way
ReplyDeleteif it's too fast, click on the "更多資訊 More Info" at the right column, it contains the full lyrics.
This is Sharon, Clara, and Jenny answering Q.C
ReplyDeleteWe compared the representations of gender in Woman Warrior, Life Among the Piutes (by Winnemucca), and The Soft-Hearted Sioux (by Zitkala Sa). The writers are women. Kinston wrote stories of her female family members in a female voice, while Winnemucca wrote her tribe’s experience in a voice of chief’s daughter (princess), and Zitkala Sa wrote a story of a dilemma that an Indian faced in a male voice. For the status of women in society is not as strong as men, they wrote their autobiographic as a story, not essay or other kinds of political speech. Stories are softer and in that way they might appeal more female readers. Yet, in 19th century, if Winnemucca and Zitkala Sa directly wrote only about Indian women, they would fail to express their sorrow and tribal pain because readers were not interested in women so much as in 20th century. A tribe’s common dilemma and sorrow would be the best topic to arouse attention toward the Indians. On the contrast, in 20th century, Kingston tried to be a woman warrior by a pen to fight for women and also for Chinese American.
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ReplyDeleteThis is the answer for Question R from Iris, Lucile, Rea and Qian Yu.
ReplyDeleteCompare “At the Western Palace” with “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”, though both of these two parts reveal some negative descriptions of marriage, we find that actually the author has positive view toward marriage.
In “At the Western Palace”, the indifference of Moon’s husband shows the coolness of marriage. This negative description may reveal the negative view of marriage in Kinston’s mind. However, in “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”, the speaker who can be seen as the author looks forward to marriage. To be specific, actually the speaker looks forward to an “American” or modern marriage which has more freedom. She wants to go to college, and believes that she can find a better marriage there. Though she refuses to accept the marriage which her mother wishes, she still expects one with different style.
In fact, what Kingston stands against is the traditional Chinese style marriage, which is conservative, limited, and unequal to women. Obviously, Moon’s marriage is the classic representative of traditional Chinese marriage. Women always play obedient roles in marriage. They cannot have their own voice. This kind of marriage is what Kingston stand against. However, Kingston indeed has positive view of marriage. What she looks forward is the marriage which gives women more freedom.
This is the group of Caleigh, Ken, Ted, Esther answering question O.
ReplyDeleteAlthough we think the idea of using this ancient Chinese allusion as the ending of this book is extraordinarily outstanding, which summarizes and concentrates all the feelings of being a second generation emigrant; we think the character, 蔡文姬, isn’t the reflection of Maxine Hong Kingston herself. As a matter of fact, Tsai is more likely to be the representation of Kingston’s mother.
It is true that for some extent Kingston is “the woman warrior,” for she has to fight against numerous external forces which conflict with her; however, on the other hand, her mother is also a woman warrior, since she is dedicated to preserve Chinese cultures for her children (does many Chinese traditional rituals in front of her children though doesn’t explain reasons and teaches her children what will Chinese think when encountering what situation) who lack of cultural identity toward their own motherland. If we compare the behavior of Tsai and Kingston’s mother, it’s easier to find the commonality between them: both of them are forced to leave their country and to live among the “barbarians;” their children are all born in the foreign nation and have no affection toward their homeland as their mothers’; they themselves are eager to go back to the place where they’ve been forced to leave, while their children can never really figure out the reason.
Furthermore, through the whole book, we can find that Kingston has a tendency to use stories to present the phenomena and situations she sees, hears, and feels, no matter she agrees or disagrees about them. Therefore, the ending story of The Woman Warrior can be understood as a refutation toward her own mother. This is not only because she says “the beginning is hers, the ending, mine” but because the narrative method is more like a child talks back to his/ her parents. We think maybe in Kingston’s thought, her mother’s thought of going back China is unnecessary and ridiculous; however, as the junior generation, she is not supposed to talk back directly. She therefore uses this story of Tsai, whose position with her children is the same as Kingston’s mother and Kingston, to oppose her mother. Hence, we think the ending of this book is neither a reconciliation nor a ongoing conflict, for what Kingston tries to present through the story is her mother’s image instead of herself.
This Ken answering the profound and sophisticated Q.147...
ReplyDeleteI think the reason why Fern focuses on the ad hominem (人身攻擊) is because of her identity as a woman, and she humorously applies this ad hominem attack in a double-folded way. (Using the ad hominem attack from male toward female to fight back.) First, As she mention repetitively in her writings, the identity of a female is stereotyped as gentle, timid and lovely; however, the very way of her thinking and writing is subverting the stereotype, and Fern knows that well. As one of the most active female writer at that time period, she stands out and tries her best to fight against the male regime which treats women's writing as nothing or "beneath criticism." In Fern's writing, she behaves as an eloquent representative to form a strong sense of group justification only for women, and it is just like the indigeous writing and black American's writing that we had learned in the last semester. Secondly, I assume that Fern thinks what really matters is the real "identity of the author." Also, I think she seems to resist the idea of "biological determination" which means lower quality in various aspects belongs to female or black as she mentioned that the subject matter or the name of the author can not be the determinant of gender. In Fern's case, she is recognized as a female writer at first rather being discovered post mortem, and because of this special factor, she becomes a easy target for critics. Combining both the feeling of a representative for women and the problem of being a female author together, I think that is the reason why Fern would regard the critics as ad hominem attacks.
In order to repent my lame answer, I choose an interesting Avatar II spoof clip to dedicate to our Emperor since my lord seems to love blue people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dIOw2sffHI
This is Sherry answering question Q assigned to Jane, Peggy and me.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Kingston’s book, we concluded that she may view death as the result of imposed blow or tragedy since both of the dead female characters in the book died after receiving serious blow from others. Also, we believe that Kingston associate death with weakness since Moon Orchid is a person without strong character, and suicides are often viewed as a sign of weakness in ancient China. Through the speaker’s detailed imagination on the suicide of the unseen aunt and the decisions that Brave Orchid and her children made after Moon Orchid’s death, we concluded that death does not mean an end to Kingston. In Kingston’s view, deaths turn people into “ghosts,” and allow them to haunt around (which could be viewed as a different form of existence) and continue imposing influence on the living.
As for the connection between nationality, gender and death, we set eyes on the fact that both of the two dead characters in the book are Chinese females who do not possess a complete marriage (the baby excluded here since its sexuality is uncertain). It seems that women who fail to play her own role well or hold the affection of her husband in traditional Chinese marriages are especially susceptible to death in the book. Maybe such plot indicates that death has much to do with the roles that individuals of different genders are expected to play in their own nation or culture.
Some comments about "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun" from Winnie…
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this poem for the first time, I assumed that this is a love poem, in which the poet makes herself a loaded gun, and her lover, the owner. At the beginning of the poem, the love of the narrator is passive (waiting to be “identified” and “carried away”) while it soon becomes powerful and aggressive in the later part where the narrator is united with the owner. In addition, with the references to Mount Vesuvius and Eider Ducks, the poet seems to describe the love as devastating (to the narrator rather than the “Master”) and somehow scary. This is very different from what people usually expect to see in a love poem, and the comparison of “gun” and “owner” is also very unique.
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ReplyDeleteThis is Teresa making a comment about Dickinson poem #207.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this poem, it made me think of an ancient Chinese poet, Yuan-ming Tao(陶淵明). Yuan-ming Tao had written a series of poems titled “Drinking Alcohol”(飲酒詩二十首並序). However, the contents of these poems are not al about how great alcohols are, but more about the natural beauty and scene of rural life. In Dickinson poem #207, she used many words related to nature such as air, Dew, Blue, Bee, Foxglove, Butterflies, and Sun. That is the reason why I think of Yuan-ming Tao, even though obviously the only common point is they both add the word “alcohol” in their poems. The only thing I am curious about in this poem # 214 is why “Landlords” and “drams” are emphasized with “”.
This is Tracy to ask question about Dickinson’s poem.
ReplyDeletePlease demonstrate the reason why Dickinson called herself "nobody" and then seek for her reader’s affirmative about the idea of "nobody."
This is Vincent's question about Dickinson's poem. I wonder whether the narrator of the poem is Dickinson herself. I feel the narrator seems to promote the spiritual perception to the nature while degrade the power of the art. I feel confused why a poet wants to deliver these kinds of messages(when she's using the power of language).
ReplyDeleteThis is the group of Teresa, Emma, Letitia, and Tady. We are answering Q.M. The “barbarians” that mentioned in the book, mostly used by her mother, is more like “胡” or “番邦” in Chinese, which means uncivilized foreigners. However, the meaning of “savage” from the earlier American literary works is more close to “野蠻人” or “原始人”, which stressed that the Indians are uncivilized and may be wild like animals, and live in a primitive condition. “胡” or “番邦” in Chinese means people who do not belong to the Han people, and Taiwanese people used to call the aboriginal people “番”, which is viewed very rude nowadays because the word suggests that aborigines are inferior and uncivilized for us. In ancient time, “胡” or “番邦” reveals the psychology of the Han people that foreigners owns different ideologies or thoughts and should be alerted of their possible invasion. Their behaviors are questionable and people should always keep an eye on them. However, the words “野蠻人” or “原始人” only refers to people who are primitive, sometimes also suggest that they are inferior people. According to our discussion, we think that the key difference of “胡”、“番邦” and “野蠻人”、“原始人” is the notion of “nationality”. That is why her mother always call the Americans “barbarians”.
ReplyDeleteZoe is here to post her comment and many questions within the comment...
ReplyDelete**My discovery**
As I understand, this poem deals with Dickinson’s ideas which is connect to publication. It is widely known that Dickinson did not publish many of her works and this poem gives us a hint about what she thinks of publication.
Technically, many metaphor and ideology techniques are used in the poem which makes it obscure and ambiguous in the actual meaning, giving me a wondrous time drowning in questions. For one, the theme and use of “snow” appears commonly in Dickenson’s poem, but what does it stand for in this particular piece of work? For another, Dickinson has a favor aiming at capitalization which exposes the reflection and depth in the meaning. For instance, capitalizing “M” of the word “man” in the second line of the poem may indicate that this “Mind of Man” is not just the thoughts that belong to male or poet but as the intellectual thinking of the general human being. Dickinson has made this poem grammatically irregular and rather rapid as we read along. What is her purpose in doing so? May this be so that she expresses instant mood and description like the impressionist? A more factual way, according to impressionist, to express the instance that should be nearer to reality to what had happened than to scribble too much description.
Overall, whether she speaks in the view of herself as the poet or in general view of all poets remains uncertain. The two "him" of the third stanza may refer to God and the poet or they may refer to the poet in two inspections — as an inspired person and as a poet. I suggest she speaks in her point of view to deposit this poem as resentment and a way to explanation toward herself and her “de-publishing”. Or was her action a way to act against consumerism and popularization? From the last two stanzas, we can clearly identify that she points out that words of poets are as human spirit and is even more precious than the beauty of nature or the words of God and that reducing his words to a commercial level would be a sin. Words of a poet are priceless?
**My questions**
1. Why frequent use of “snow”
2. What’s the function of capitalizing?
3. Why make the poem grammatically irregular and rapid sounding?
4. Could she be an impressionist?
5. Is the poem an explanation toward her “de-publishing”?
6. Can this poem be interpreted a poem against consumerism and popularization?
**Reference:**
1. Guthrie, James R. (James Robert). Emily Dickinson's vision: illness and identity in her poetry, Gainesville, University Press of Florida, c1998. P.139-P.141.
2. Marcus, Mordecai. Emily Dickinson Selected Poems: Notes, Lincoln, Neb John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (US), 1982. P.39-P.41
3. Martin, Wendy. Cambridge Introduction to Emily Dickinson, The. Cambridge Introduction to Literature.. Cambridge University Press, 8 March 2007.
4. 丁丁, 英詩欣賞, http://tingtingenglish.blogspot.com/2007/08/blog-post_9623.html
PS.from Zoe...
ReplyDeleteI think Dickinson is quite aware of her stituation as a female poet in publication at the time, and the #709 poem is actually simply grumbling "it's not fair!". Besides, I think she should be responsible for her own autism. (Am I being too idiotic?)
This is Joy, Meg, Sydney and Ting, and we are going to answer (N.)about the silence and its adherent power. Silence, most of the time, is seen as incapability to express oneself, namely, deprivation of the power to tell the stories. However, in the last story of The Woman Warrior, the silent girl embodies the reverse power. Her silence sometimes prevails the narrator's generally-acknowledged authority to interpret the story, which is demonstrated by the narrator's failed persuasion into speaking.
ReplyDeleteBesides, silence, no talking or unheard, is usually considered to be passive. To the little girl, however, she makes the decision to be silent. Even facing the disagreement from others, she somehow fights for her stand: no talking in schools. Her persistence is therefore an active action.
Given her silence as an active projection, we wonder: is her silence motivated by a clear goal or determination? The answer may be negative. Her silence may result in her deep uncertainty about her identity in the insecure environments, both English and Chinese schools. To be Americanized or to be Chinese, to be her fellow classmates with similar background or to be the Chinese women from the last generation, these may be the dilemma for the silent girl, who is afraid of choosing sides by the languages or the volume of her speech.
this is Joy again. Even with false spelling once in a while, letters are still literature, for the purpose of writing, the writers' indication and the readers' perception are not necessarily influenced by the wrong-spelled wording(excluded from the cases where the spelling is unrecognizable or misunderstood.)
ReplyDeleteThis is Tady answering Q149. Little Eva in chapter 26 reveals that how black and white could live with peace and love. In the death scene, Eva is a white little girl, which is a contrast to Uncle Tom, who is an older and black man. She is like a little angel in this scene, because she is kind to all the peoples surrounding her. Her feminine quality is not stressed in the chapter. However, in Fuller's "Radical Dualism”, she stressed that women could own their power through sexual celibacy. In my interpretation, she thinks that only if one day men and women have the same rights that they could live in harmony and joy together. Before that day comes, women should restrict themselves. It makes me think of Lysistrata.
ReplyDeleteTady, I'm sorry I missed this message before class. You can see your description of the scene is very similar to mine. I also think the comparison to Lysistrata is excellent... you will note that Abigail Adams alludes in a similar direction.
ReplyDelete